I often see people talk about grilling ribs, but it doesn't make much sense to me. Ribs have a lot of connective tissue...

I don't like slow-cooked ribs because they're soft/mushy. To me, 'fall off the bone' is not a good thing. It's far more pleasurable nibbling on the gristly bits and ripping the meat from the bone with my teeth.
Many people slow-cook then grill. I don't like that, either.
Now, I dunno what I do differently, but my ribs come out tender but not 'fall off the bone' soft/mushy. I guess it's al dente? idklol
I just spice and season, slap on the barbecue grill, let it cook, flip, cook the other side, remove, chop the ribs individually, re-spice and cook a final time. Then serve.

First time I had ribs cooked that way, I was absolutely disgusted. I shouldn't need a bowl and spoon to eat some goddamn ribs.

>the barbecue grill
What did he mean by this?

i roast them in the oven
then put them in the fridge to turn hard again
then grill them

OP might not be an American. In the US, cooking over a grate on a BBQ is grilling, whereas grilling and griddling are used to meat broiling and such overseas. Irregardless, cooking ribs is a science.

Facts:
The right way to cook ribs and other bone-in pork is low and slow. You want the collagen to come out of the bones, and yes, some of the fat to render and keep that meat moist and sticky good. Rib bones should give when twisted or while eating, but you will never have mushy meat. If you HIGH HEAT boil or grill pork over high heat, it does seize up that protein and not allow the goodness of bone-in food happen, the whole point of making ribs rather than a pork loin roast.
Most meat absorbs smoke when cool and raw, so finishing on a grill can add some smoky flavor to the rub or sauce, but you won't get pink smoke ring in meat that is already well done protein. It simply doesn't absorb much.
Boiling ribs does break down some connective tissue but it removes collagen and flavor at the same time as overcooks the meat itself. Bad news, but a popular method.
Ideally, you are an experienced BBQ cook who is cooking larger quantities, and you have a indirect and even heat source for low heat and lots of time on your hands, have a fucking clue when to stop the smoke, and stack the ribs so they baste each other. The good cook would initially dry rub so that smoke can penetrate the meat and sugars in sauces don't burn on the grate. And unlike OP's pic they would know to take off that membrane on the underside so that it gets flavor and the ribs don't curl up.
Second best to that ^^ method is if you are only cooking 2 racks of ribs, to stack them on top of each other, tightly wrap in foil and cook moistly in the oven on 225 or so, for 2-4 hours until a rib can twist. Finish on the grill with lots of smoke and a bit of sauce to caramelize.

As in the outside grill, not the oven grill (IE "the broiler" in Amerispeak).

Grills are grills, barbecue pits are barbecue pits. They are not the same thing.

>Irregardless

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander_grill#Salamander

Oops. I meant en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander_grill#Overhead_grilling

yes, honestly, it serves next to no purpose.
sure it looks prettier but doesn't really add much

>searing doesn't add much
u wot

weak bait son

>tender but not 'fall off the bone' soft/mushy
That's how they're supposed to be. When they're overcooked to the point of being mushy, it's not as bad as a dry steak or chicken breast, but it's not ideal. You can boil ribs without making them mushy, it just depends on how long you cook them. You should be checking them every 30 minutes or so after the first 2 hours to see when they're done, but usually people let them go for 4+ hours until they're mushy.

searing a meat doesn't add much to the flavour.
you would know that if you had EVER tasted unseared meat.
sure it adds texture but flavour, not so much

Good to know I do them right, then.
>2 hours
I was gonna say that I've never cooked ribs that long, but then I realised that since I kind of cook them twice, it actually does amount to slightly over 2 hours or so per rack.

Lemme take this opportunity to ask: any brand of storebought barbecue sauce sold in the US that isn't sweet as all fuck? I goddamn hate how disgustingly sugary the ones I've tried are.
I do make my own, usually, so I don't need recipe suggestions. Just want some recs for not-so-sweet storebought barbecue sauce. As it stands, since the ones I've tried tend to be too sweet for me, I mix them 1:1 with cane vinegar and reduce back down.

Just don't buy BBQ sauce. They're all shit

>any brand of storebought barbecue sauce sold in the US that isn't sweet as all fuck?
Stubb's BBQ sauce, it tastes like tomato sauce with spices instead of sweet smoke. Has 1/3 to 1/2 less sugar than other BBQ sauces. I even use it instead of ketchup because it doesn't have smoke flavoring, and it's closer to what a traditional ketchup tastes like because of the spices.

Don't grill ribs, smoke them.

Stubbs is the best find anywhere bbq sauce.

But the reality is bbq sauce ruins the taste of ribs.

What you want is a good rub. And then if you really want to go the extra mile , make a fruit based glaze. Glazed ribs are out of this world amazing but the prep to make the glaze is a pain in the dick.

Glaze is how you make ribs unreal.

>But people who boil them usually just throw the water away
I can't imagine what kind of idiot does that. You just add some veggies and aromatics and you have instant stock.

Texas State Fair Rib Cookoff handbook defines a perfectly cooked rib as one that requires "a small tug" to get the meat off, no more, no less.

I cook them in the pressure cooker, nothing else added. love it

>boiling meat
Unless you're using scraps to make stock, this is simply unacceptable. Even when you cook meat in a soup or a stew, you're simmering it and not boiling it.

>Europeans unironically discussing boiling meat like it's a good idea
I though boiled meat was a joke to make fun of the Irish

>he doesn't like pastrami

Nah, the best ribs are either slowly smoked, or slowly roasted or braised in the oven.

pastrami is smoked and steamed

>he likes pastrami

Euro in Ameriland here.
I've never seen anyone boil meat meant for the barbecue back home, but I see it all the time here in the states, both home cooks and TV "chefs."

Thanks. I've see it at the supermarket but never tried it because the only guy I know who buys it has horrible tastes in just about everything else. Guess even a dumbfuck like him can be right from time to time.

But I wanna.

Where I'm from, we 'baptise' meat in stuff. I mentioned one baptism recipe for chicken (also pork) cooked on the barbecue grill on here in another thread some months back and another poster chimed in and said that what we do is basically the same as Americans who glaze their barbecue, just with different ingredients.

Pork back ribs are great grilled. It's the best way to eat them imo. Seasoned with a little seasoning salt and grilled for 15-20 minutes. Don't forget to pull off the membrane on the bone side of the ribs before cooking.

Other rib types are better cooked slowly though.

the last two times my wife made ribs she put them in the slow cooker and I didn't see any liquid in it

they were fall off the bone tasty, my friends

must be a recipe like that on the GOOGLE

>ribs should be boiled for 90% of the cooking time
Wrong. Omg this is the saddest thing I've seen on this board. These are ribs, not meat fries.

>I can't imagine what kind of idiot does that.
We're already talking about people boiling ribs. This is more idiotic than throwing away stock.

>Ribs have a lot of connective tissue
You're not supposed to eat the gristle?

Indirect grilling cooks low and slow enough to properly tenderize a rack of ribs. Some places do indirect grilling of shortribs and such and it turns out nicely. It's also not a bad idea to finish ribs cooked by slow roasting or braising on a very hot grill to put a little extra color on the outside or to help with glazing them if you're into that.

>20 minute ribs

kill yourself