Maybe the best ribs yet . . .

Prep - remove the membrane from the underside of each rack. Loosen it on the edge with a blade to get a small "tab" - then pinch the tab with a paper towel to get a good grip - then peal off the membrane. Apply dry rub (see my latest blends below) and piggy back (no pun intended) up to 3 racks together and wrap them in heavy duty foil.

Place the foil pack(s) in the kitchen oven at 185 degrees for a minimum of 6 hours. You can do this on a grill or smoker too, but I like the convenience and temperature control the oven offers. The real secret to ribs isn't the smoking and sauces so much as it is ensuring they will be "fall off the bones tender" for your guests to rave about!

Peek inside the foil during the last 2 hours - the meat should begin to recede back from the ends of the rib bones a little bit as a sign they are ready to transfer to the smoker. Somewhere in that 5th to 6th hour . . . but definately wait them out before making the transfer.

I use a CharGrill Pro Smoker with a warm up rack. Build a hickory chunk fire in the side fire box and let it become a coal bed between hour 5 and 6. This pre-heats the main cooking chamber to about 150 degrees. After transfer, adding additional chucks or chips to maintain the heat level and to produce heavy smoke volume. Remember - smoke is a "spice" or flavoring. I'm convinced this is another "secret of success" most novice BBQ enthusiasts don't understand the first season or two they devote to the quest for perfect ribs. Having said that, I modified my smoking regimen to ensure heavy smoke for about an hour without paying too much attention to maintaining main chamber temps (125 to 175 degrees yesterday). I baste the racks every 20 minutes with a "mopping sauce". The "test" - meat receded back from the edge of the bones and a beautiful shade of red-brown on the racks.

Last step - re-wrap the racks in foil (baste freely with remaining mopping sauce) and put them back in the kitchen oven at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. This step carmelizes the mopping sauce and heats up the racks to make them steam as you present them to your guests.

Dry rub blend (equal parts of each) combine:

Stubb's BBQ Spice Rub for Pork
McCormack's Grill Mates Rub for Pork
McCormack's Pulled Pork Spice for Slow Cooker

Any of the above dry rubs are good by themselves, but this combination is the best I've found so far.

Mopping sauce: (mix in a large bowl)

2 cups Apple Juice
1/4 cup Molasses (full flavored)
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup Honey
1 Bottle Kraft Honey BBQ sauce
To taste Hot pepper sauce

Serve ribs with slaw and french fries. Enjoy!