Dry vs. Sauced Ribs

It's May, it’s grilling season and how barbecue is seasoned and sauced matters in the south, and it varies from city to city. Warning. This episode will make you hungry. If you're ready, I'll meet you at the table

I'm Lainie. And I'm Laura Beth, and we are Steel Magnolias the strength of steel with the grace of a magnolia. We are here to have uplifting conversations about life in the south. And we've got plenty of room at our table. So pull up a chair

Welcome back to the Steel Magnolias podcast. You've been warned that this episode might make you hungry. And so we're going to dive deep into dry rub versus wet or sauced ribs.  And you know we chose this because there is a very large celebration of all things barbecue in our home state of Tennessee in Memphis, Tennessee. It is Memphis in May. And Memphis is very known for dry rub ribs. Which we're going to talk about later today in this episode, but you know, I was astonished. There are over 100 Barbecue restaurants in Memphis, Tennessee. Wow. I can't even wrap my mind around that over 100 So they just usually put 101 Plus when they mentioned that it has been named the barbecue pork capital of the world.  I didn't want you to think I just said port as it is on the Mississippi,Pork capital. And according to Memphis travel.com Since Memphis is a port town. That is why barbecue cooks in the city have enjoyed an even wider variety of ingredients to slab on plus even having access to molasses that was shipped up that mighty Mississippi, which is big in Memphis barbecue. So that kind of became the Memphis style warm spices balanced by sweet and tomatoey sauce. So, you know, I just kind of wanted to touch on Memphis to begin with again, since it's Memphis in May. They are going to be celebrating all month long with all different expressions of that. And slabs of Memphis best ribs generally do come rubbed with dry spices. Each joint kind of has their own combination, sometimes secretive, that we won't even have ourselves to disclose. But Rendezvous might be one of the ones you've heard of barbecue restaurants. Charlie Marcos is Oh, sorry. Yes, Charlie Vargos’s Rendezvous, excuse me, is one of the oldest and most famous advocates of the dry rub and the restaurants rub knots to its founders Greek heritage. There it is. Again, that was great. We alked about Greek heritage is that Greek influence in Birmingham, Alabama on several restaurants there and here it is, again, right here in Memphis, Tennessee. So each Memphis barbecue joint concocts its own sauces as well. And just wanted to mention that the 2021 winner went to Myron Mixon he's from Georgia. He is a four time world champion. Wow. And he has a cooking school. How fun so if you're in anywhere near that area, you might want to check this out. Registration is open for next year. Okay, so 2023 So obviously, he's good. Y'all got to plan ahead. I'll put a link in our show notes. But Jack's Old South cooking school. That's what it's called, will be held at his home in Unadilla, Georgia. That's south of Macon. directly west of Savannah. Okay, if that helps you at all with your Georgia geography. It starts with a meet and greet dinner on Friday night class starts at 9am on Saturday with whole hog. Oh my gosh, this would be so fun. You'll move on to beef and pork ribs, chicken, beef brisket, pork butts and whole pork shoulder. The class ends on Sunday at three o'clock. And the school is for the novice, the enthusiast, the trained chef as well as the barbecue competitor. Recipes are the same, the difference being who you'll be feeding. Wow, I just thought that was so cool. I don't know if he's going to come out and or how much it costs.  I don't know how small it is- it's at his home.Would be cool if it is pretty intimate where you could ask a lot of questions. Yeah, that would be awesome. I kind of get a feel that there is some interaction. I mean, there's a meet and greet that it kind of starts with so he's wanting to at least engage with everyone, at least at some point, but I'm kind of curious to see if Myron Mixon comes out the 2022 champion too.   They do all different categories at this event with awards in each category.They even have a Green Award, which is awarded to the team that collected the most recyclables Oh, that's hilarious. You know, they've got turkey, smoked, tomato sauce, mustard sauce, best t shirt. There are some funny barbecue T shirts. Do you remember mom got Philip an apron that said, Do you mind if I smoke? which he still wears.  

Anyway, so yeah, that is just setting the table as to the reason why we wanted to do this right now for now. Let's zoom out. Okay. And first just talk about a really broad scope of ribs. Yeah, it's confusing, isn't it? I think it's can be very confusing, because I still kind of think of my meat as coming on that Styrofoam in the Grocery Store. And not literally thinking of Cartlidge, Membranes, as a body part. Yes. So in another total side note, but as a massage therapist, I'm always fascinated by the body. And if we were to go down onto all fours, for instance, okay, you know, on your hands and knees. Yeah. Our musculature is so similar to animals like your dog, your horse. Yeah. All of that. And it that's just fascinating to me. Yeah. So when I'm looking at a picture as I am right now, of a pig. And you know, there's the spine at the back. Yeah. And the ribs going down, same as we would be if we were on our all fours/ tabletop position, for those of you that are used to a Pilates or yoga class. Exactly. Yeah. It's just interesting to see where the different cuts are, you know, like, because I don't always think of meat as that. I don't either. So let's just look at first of all, I guess any animal that has ribs, you could cook those ribs. I mean, you could have lamb ribs. We're not talking about that today. But for the most part, we're talking pork and beef. Yes. In fact, I just focused on pork. Okay. Yeah. But beef ribs are wonderful, too. I just was kind of focusing more on the southern styles, which is often heavily pork. Yes. So another part that is, I don't know how to say like, there's different cuts of ribs. Right. And there's different ways to prepare rib. So let's just start with cuts. Okay, so you have baby back ribs. Most people have heard of that term. I thought you're gonna say most people have heard the Chili's commercial. Back, baby. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think they've used that in probably a decade. But we all remember it. In fact, yes. I was thinking of it this morning. So baby back ribs are high. Okay. Again, if you're looking at, yeah, drawing of a pig, they're high up to the close to the spine. Whereas St. Louis cut ribs are further down. Right. And then spare ribs are even further down. Okay, I did not know that about spare ribs for sure. No, baby back ribs are sometimes called loin back or just back ribs. Okay, if you've ever heard those terms, that's all baby back. Okay. When we talk about Memphis style ribs, they are baby back ribs. Okay. Okay, that's good to know. Memphis equals baby back. Okay, pork spare ribs. Again, lower down on the pig. Those are quite large ribs and can extend all the way to the front of the animal and they kind of go there. They're quite fatty. Okay, which gives them a lot of flavor. Yeah, a lot of times people think of fat content equals bad but I often think fat content equals flavor. Yeah. And a lot of that's going to cook off.  And so, spare ribs are great for smoking because you're gonna go low and slow. The St. Louis style ribs are cut are actually from the same part of the rib cages spare ribs. But it's the preparation and technique used to prepare them that makes them special. Okay. They're also quite fatty, but so flavorful. And then there's country Style Pork ribs. So country style ribs are found toward the upper shoulder end of the loin.  They have the highest meat to bone ratio. And you really need a knife and fork to eat country style ribs. So they're not falling off the bone for sure. Like the opposite. Okay. So there's more meat, but this is also a great smoker choice. Or you can cook these in the oven or even in a crock pot. But those are the main four style, cuts of ribs. Okay. Very helpful. Anything else You want to talk about Or do we dive into preparation? No, I think that's very helpful. So summarize that for us one more time. So okay, so you've got baby back ribs. pork spare ribs, St. Louis style ribs. And then country Style Pork ribs. Okay, there's your four basic cuts. Okay. Now, dry versus sauced or wet. Okay. So a dry. If you if you were on your first date, and ribs is the food you may want to go Memphis style because they're obviously not gonna be as messy. With all the sauce. Yeah. Surely there's very few people out there that had do that. On a first date. Yeah, surely that would be so nerve racking for me. Okay, so the dry rub. Again, there's lots of different ways people make this but basically, it's a lot of paprika. Yeah, and this is just spices. This is just salt/ pepper. This is a dry versus a liquid marinade. That's what this all boils down to. Right? Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Sorry. Well, just you know, it could be lots of different things but garlic powder, mild chili powder, celery seeds, brown sugar, cumin, dry mustard. All Spice. I mean, you would see lots of different coriander things that people might put in their rub. Yeah, but the rub really makes a nice. I don't I wouldn't go so far as to say bark like I was gonna say the flavor really gets in there and it's gonna make it crispy on it's gonna. Yeah, create a crust would be probably too strong. too strong a word. But yes, it's gonna give it a little bit crispy or have an outer layer versus the wet. And I thought this was funny. Depending on the place. There's sometimes is sauce served with it. Some people don't want any sauce. Some people want a sauce on the side. Yeah. Or, you know, I always like to try something without a sauce first, just to see what is the flavor? That seems unfair to go ahead and try it with an exterior sort of component. I know. Right off the bat. I'm like that with pretty much everything. Like let me just see what it takes like without. Yeah, and I even want to taste the sauce separate too. That's why don't salt things immediately. Yeah, like maybe it's going to need some salt. But maybe it's not at first without that. But a lot of the sauces like you mentioned that you're going to see in Memphis are going to frequently include molasses. And you could even probably put the dry rubs that you just described that many ingredients. You could kind of even put them into dry rubs into categories like you could have a sweet dry rub, a spicy dry rub. You can have every kind of an Asian flair you could have like lots of oregano or herb induced or infused. So so many directions you could go and I'm you know, obviously we love to think of homemade being the way to go. But I found that there's actually from grilling Dad, that's a website source. I found some really good storebought options out there to their top pick from grillingdad.com was Cow town because they said they produced the quality and flavor. They're blended in the US. They just loved that cow town are contest winners, They’re gluten free, they have a great per ounce price. So you're not having to spend a lot of money on a big rack of ribs. But some other brands they mentioned were killer hogs, Trager, Lambert’s, Meat church. So there's some really good storebought options. I guess out there too.

When you just mentioned Trager. I was thinking we could do a whole episode on different kinds of smokers. True because there's such variety and styles of smokers. The Trager. One of the things I hear that's so wonderful about the Trager is it's like a pellet style. And so you buy these pellets, but it keeps it going really well. So unlike charcoal that you're always having to tend, it really keeps it going. That’d be a good starter probably for a lot of people, I would think yeah, if you're learn because that's one thing. I have an off brand of the green egg. And I'm not sure if it's sealed as well as the green egg because I have a hard time keeping it going for hours at a time. But it could also be user error as I am not a pitmaster. Just to add a little more confusion into this topic. Some people have heard of Kansas City ribs. And that's just a subset of St. Louis ribs. So if somebody's saying oh, I've heard of Kansas City ribs where does that fall? It does fall in the St. Louis ribs style in the Kansas City style dry rub would be a two to one ratio of brown sugar to paprika. So I didn't know that.  Just imagine lots of brown sugar in it to not just paprika but to all of those other spices. Yeah, like the garlic is going to be heavy on the brown sugar side. Okay, so that's dry rub. Now talking a little bit more about sauce ribs or wet rubs St. Louis style. Again, we're talking about in the preparation the cooking any of this can be sauced after cooked but a a true wet rib is going to contain a lot of the same seasonings that we just mentioned in the dry rub but with more of a liquid base, like a vinegar and olive oil sometimes beer even it's used and I think often in that St. Louis style it's like a thin tomatoey based or  ketchup based. But not quite a marinade more like a paste because it needs to stay on the meat to cook you definitely don't want it to just roll off so the juices and the acids in this wet rub are going to help break the meat right down the meats, preparing it to absorb the flavor. There's a lot of opinions out there so some of y'all are already rolling your eyes because you're like dry rubs better than this wet you know. So the meat will soak in the mixture for several hours and chicken and pork in particular can benefit actually from Wet rubs because they do tend to dry out. So even if you're in the dry rub camp, you got to acknowledge the fact that meats that dry out quickly sometimes can benefit from a wet rub in fact some recipes even will have you kind of mopping this stuff on as it's cooking. Continue to go in every hour, hour and a half and mop a little more of your sauce.  She really does mean mop like literally like a mop; not like this other like oh there's a Pampered Chef sort of, NO like a mop. I love the videos I've seen of some of the true pitmasters cooking whole hog. oh my gosh like a Rodney Scott. They literally have a cotton mop yeah huge mop. That they're literally mopping this whole animal carcass. Which seems so disgusting because all of us you know if you have one of those mops like we're talking about not like a Swiffer like an actual cotton old school mop. Well this has not been used on any dirty floors or anything.  well that's what I'm saying though I'll think of think of it in dirty water. Yes, we think of how hard it is to clean those nasty mops which is why the miracle mop even came to be Yeah. Anyway, it is truly interesting to watch the preparation.  I got Philip a little tiny mop at moonlight BBQ in Owensboro, Kentucky. They have great things if you're ever in the area stop there.  So they have wonderful barbecue.  But they also have sauces and they have a little bitty mop you can buy for, you know, mopping just a small piece of meat. And we didn't mention this, but we did an entire episode on Southern Barbecue sauces and I'll link to that in our show notes. Since we're literally just talking about the preparation today. If you want to know a lot about sauces, I'll link to that.

Yeah. And there's even one of the things that you see in the Carolinas is a lot more of a mustard and vinegar versus tomato and vinegar or  tomato based sauces. They do this with ribs as well. Yep. Where they'll sauce is more of a mustard base. Yeah, a golden sauce style. Yeah, yeah. So you know, whether you're dry or wet, both can come out. Wonderful. Yes. The, you know, letter is not necessarily better than moisture on the surface, it needs to evaporate before a sear can start to develop. So I think soaking in hopefully Yeah, soaking into the meat. I think personally, if you like a sauce, meat, do a dry rub. And then add sauce. And after. I love it like that, because dousing them in liquid beforehand, doesn't necessarily work for every kind of meat and will dry rub naturally being dry, is going to put you on a faster track to that sort of carmelized exterior.  You are making me hungry.  Well, one of the things that's really fun about summer gatherings, to me is even just the casualness to a lot of things where people's clothing is, you know, you're in shorts and T shirts. And how fun to do a gathering where you're making ribs, you just put paper towels out on the table. Yeah. Reminds me of the same idea of like throwing out the newspaper and doing a crawfish boil or something like that, where it's just casual and yummy. And you know, everybody's just knows, okay, we're gonna be using paper towels. It draws you in, we aren’t trying to be kosher with our linen today. Yeah. And there's great conversation that comes out of that too. So because you do naturally want to be near the goodness, the good smells that are good. Like we were even talking before we can even the funny interactions of it getting on you a little bit and ya know, you want to eat this if you're in a sundress or something. But if it's a casual gathering, this might be a fun thing to cook and serve. And I know in our local grocery stores, they will often be smoking ribs on holidays. That's what I was gonna say outside. Yes. So like Memorial Day, Fourth of July. You know, you're just think you're running to go get a couple of things at the grocery store. And that smell draws you in. It hits you and you're like…yum.  Our mom's done that before where she's come home and been like they were smoking ribs and I just couldn't help myself. I bought a half rack. That is so awesome. Yes. So there's that option too. Don't don't feel the pressure you have to smoke these yourself. Well, thank you for bringing this topic to the table, good summer subject. It's very, very seasonal. Very onpoint for what's happening now in the south. And we're hoping to make a trip to Memphis soon. So maybe we can try some yummy/dry rub. Yeah. I do think rendezvous is mostly at this point in time, overrun with tourist, like it's just so known as the tourist spot. So maybe we can find the other 99 that are available. We have 99 other choices, though. I've eaten at rendezvous and it was excellent. So I have to Yeah, that's very good. But I'd be willing to try the other places because I can tell there's probably not a lot of ones where you can go wrong. All right. Well, follow us on Instagram if you haven't already at Steel magnolias podcast because our Memphis trip that will be down the road. We'll be documenting lots of things there as well. Things that go beyond what we have time to discuss here on the podcast. Thank you to our Patreon supporters that give us monthly donations. We are so grateful for you. And if you'd like to learn more about how you can join that community and get perks from us every month, including bonus content, check out patreon.com/steelmagnolias and with that, I'll say Lainie, Peace be with you. And also with y’all!