Wet & Dry Memphis Barbecue - Is it really that good?

I have only been to Memphis twice in my life and both times for work. While I have always wanted to attend the Memphis in May, World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and Music Festival, a.k.a. Memphis in Mud, the thought of wandering around in the extreme heat, and often rain, with over 100,000 other people, covered in sticky barbecue sauce, just doesn't sound like all that much fun to me.

Rendezvous, Corky's, Commissary, Brother Bob's rub

Yes I would just love to be a part of the annual pilgrimage to the barbecue capitol of the south. If not for the huge crowds of people who are often as sauced as the pork they are eating, I would probably go.

Let's trim and clean these bad boys up

Ever since my brother and his family moved to the Memphis area, I have heard him talk about the barbecue restaurants, or shacks in the area. For as many years as he has been down there, I have asked him to send me samples of barbecue rubs and sauces for what he thinks are the best BBQ places in Memphis.

$1.99 lb. vs. $4.99 lb. Baby Back Ribs

This year he finally came through and brought me three barbecue sauces and three rubs so I could taste them. His three choices were Charles Vergos' Rendezvous Barbecue, Corky's Ribs & BBQ, and Germantown Commissary and BBQ. I decided that I would do a blind tasting of ribs made with these three rubs, plus a fourth rub my brother developed. Since they have dry rubs and wet ribs in Memphis, I would do the same for my blind tasting.

I prepared a mop sauce for basting the ribs using 4 tablespoons of BBQ rub, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup of water, 1 teaspoon liquid smoke, and 4 tablespoons of Bulls Eye, Memphis Style BBQ Sauce. I combined these in a saucepan and brought it to a boil, removed it from the heat until needed.

Dry ribs ready for the oven

Being from Chicago, we actually are use to wet ribs, since dry ribs are not generally an option here. Generally I make baby back ribs. This year I decided to go way outside of my comfort zone and make St. Louis style ribs for the very first time. I chose my wife and son as blind tasters.

Trimming the flap meat

I discovered that even though I bought St. Louis Style Pork Spareribs that were already cut, they still needed some work to prepare. There's a flap of meat on the back side which has to be removed. This flap has a lot of meat and fat on it. Trimming the fat off leaves you with some flap meat that you can test your rubs and sauces on, and also makes a nice snack for the cook. This is the cook's share and a bonus for slaving over the fire.

Use a paper towel or rubber gloves to grip the meat

Once the flap is removed and the good meat harvested, it's time to remove the membrane from the bone side of the ribs. Season the flap meat with your rub before moving on to the ribs.

Mustard on flap meat

The ribs will need to be rinsed and dried with paper towels before moving on. I like to add a layer of yellow mustard to the ribs to hold the barbecue rub. Using a pastry brush, spread a nice layer of the mustard and then a generous dusting of your favorite rub.

Mustard mixed into flap meat

Don't be shy you'll never taste it

Once the ribs are dusted in BBQ rub, cover the ribs with plastic wrap or foil and allow the mustard and rub to get cozy with your ribs. This alone time together will start the process of building a dry crust on the ribs.

Your ribs are ready to get friendly with your oven

For the purpose of this project I opted to use my kitchen oven over the outside grill, so that I had more control over the heat and the test. I set the oven to 325°F. Once the ribs are generously dusted in BBQ rub, place the ribs bone side down on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper, making cleanup easier when finished.

Place the ribs on the center rack of the oven and place your flap meat on the top rack. After 15 minutes, remove the ribs and flap meat from the oven and brush both sides with the mop. Return the ribs and flap meat to the oven. Baste the ribs every 15 minutes to keep them moist. The flap meat should be done in 30-45 minutes. When the meat starts drawing back on the bones (about 3 hours), mop one more time and lightly dust ribs with BBQ rub. Cover with foil and return to oven for 30 more minutes.

Yummy

The ribs are ready to eat now. Serve with cornbread, coleslaw or potato salad, and baked beans. It was time to do our blind tasting.

For this tasting we gave each person two ribs with a rub from each of our four competitors. We also gave each person a cup of sauce from each competitor. One rib was eaten with just the dry rub and  the other with sauce. Since my brother did not have a sauce to go with his rub, we used Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce, Memphis Style.

Four different barbecue sauces

When evaluating the results, we discovered a flaw in the test. When it came to Rendezvous Barbecue Sauce, none of us liked it, because it was way to hot. Upon closer inspection we discovered that the label said "HOT." Since none of the other sauces were hot, this was not a fair comparison. We all felt that the Corky's rub was good and did not mask the actual flavor of the ribs. On the other hand we all selected my brothers "top secret" rub as our favorite.

The choices for sauces are endless

When it came to sauces, to our suprise, the Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce, Memphis Style was our clear choice over the others. Really sauces are as individual as night and day, so pick the one that you like the best. I have to admit that having dry rub ribs made me rethink having any sauce on my ribs in the future. If you've never had a dry rub rib before, give it a try. If you live in the Memphis area, you can get these famous ribs already cooked in your local grocery store.

Here our results:
#1. Rendezvous: None of us really cared for the rub. The sauce was too hot for our taste, hiding the taste of the rib completely. The Rendezvous sauce should be given a second look, trying their regular or mild sauce next time, which might have changed our opinion. 
#2. Corky's: We all liked the rub and found that the rub did not hide the flavor of the ribs. The sauce was good, but not our first choice.
#3. The Germantown Commissary: We all thought that the rub was good. As for the sauce it had a molasses aftertaste, so not our favorite.
#4. Brother Bob's rub was our unanimous winner for the rub, unfortunately he's not giving out the recipe just yet. We had to improvise for the fourth sauce, Bull's Eye, Memphis style BBQ sauce. Believe it or not that it was our sauce winner.
NOTE: This was not a scientific study and really reflects the  opinion of three Yankee's from the Midwest. I would suggest that if ever in Memphis go to these places, listen to amazing blues, and try the ribs (wet and dry) in every place that you can find.
I think that using St. Louis Style Spareribs for this test opened my eyes to a choice of ribs that I never tried before. Yes, they require a little more prep work, but the end result is amazing and less than half the cost of baby backs. 
The actual preparation of the ribs took about a half hour. The cooking took about three hours in a 325°F oven. By adding a little smoke to the mop sauce, most people wouldn't know that they were not cooked on the grill.                

Finally, if you have any comments on our test, the results, a BBQ rub, our BBQ sauce recipe of your own and would like to share them, please leave a comment below, or join this blog above. 
As always, if there is some retro, or comfort food that you would like to see in this blog, leave as much information about it as possible.      

       

© TMelle 2014