Hi everybody:

Well, this is my trial by fire. Never tried doing ribs before and now it's
time. The good news is my best friend is a grilling guru and I have some
very good guidance.

Was at Cash and Carry this morning and they had cryovac spare ribs on sale
for $1.47/lb. (!) Been meaning to do ribs for quite some time and figured
that, for that price, now's the time. My general plan is more or less the
same as an Alton Brown show I taped:

Make yourself a good rub from scratch. Rub your pork liberally. Wrap your
racks in HD aluminum foil let things sit overnight. Create a flavorful
braising liquid and pour into your foil-wrapped pig. Do 'em in the oven at
about 250, checking after about three hours to see where you're at.

Here's where I plan to depart from AB's urban formula:

When the ribs are about 90% done, I'm going to move them to my grill and
finish 'em off there on low heat with smoke. BTW, I'm using gas and am
thinking of heating things wide open until there's a good smoke going from
my chips, and *then* putting the ribs on and dropping the heat to low...
low. I'm thinking that I'll get a decent carmelization on the pork with and
a bit of smoke with the initial heat blast while the temperature is dropping
to a reasonable level.

While that's happening, I plan on reducing the braising liquid to a glaze on
the stove or the side burner and brushing it back onto the ribs in the last
ten minutes or so of cooking.

Anyway, that's my plan. I've never done ribs before but I figure it can't be
much different than any other cooking. If you use the best ingredients, pay
attention and care about what you're doing... and don't overcook it, things
generally turn out better than you imagined.

I'll let you know how it goes. BTW, I live two blocks from one of the great
spice houses in the U.S., so I've got that base covered. The rub should be
awesome. We'll see.

Hasta,
Curt Nelson