Flamb Ed’s award-winning ribs

After this weekend’s fundraiser and barbecue competition, where vinegar seemed to win out in a couple of categories, it has been suggested that winning recipes should be posted. Now some people say you should never tell your secrets, but as I am neither a magician or involved in any kind of espionage, I doubt that applies to me.

Rib preparation began on Friday night after picking them up from Joe-be-wan’s – if anyone was watching his house who knows what they might have thought after seeing a stream (well three) of grown men turn up and leave shortly afterwards carrying packages under their arms. We all disappeared into the night thinking of paprika, chilli powder and brown sugar. Rubs were made in secrecy – in fact I made two as I realized halfway through I’d used three times too much onion powder in the first – so a quick trip to the spice house was in order to re-stock on paprika. The second time round all was well (see below for the recipe). The ribs were prepared by removing the membrane, washing and patting dry and then rubbing (with the rub, rather than just a relaxing massage) and wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerating overnight.

Flamb Ed’s award-winning rib rub
¼ cup brown sugar
3 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp pepper (we use peppercorns royale from the spice house)
1 tbsp chilli powder (peace climb)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper

Place all the above in a bowl and mix until combined.

On competition morning, nerves were jangling as the grill was prepared and the wood soaked. The ribs were brought out of the fridge and up to room temperature before putting on the grill. The grill was prepared with a water-filled drip pan on one side and just over a chimney full of unlit ‘barbeque wood flavors’ (available at Sentry) charcoal on the other. Just over half a chimney of lit briquettes was added to the unlit charcoal, and we were off. The temperature came up to about 330°F, a soaked red wine stave (one of Raichlen’s ideas – available at amazon.com) was put on the charcoal to smoke, and the ribs placed over the drip pan. For the next three hours not much changed, the ribs were turned every hour or so, and more staves added when the smoke stopped, although the temperature dropped slowly to about 230-250°F. At a low point of around 230°F I added a few unlit lumps of charcoal to keep the fire going and temperature steady. After another half hour (so three and a half in total) the ribs were painted for the first time (recipe below), then returned to the smoky atmosphere. At this point, we changed from wine staves to a cherry/apple mix for smoking – the tactical reasoning behind this decision was based on the fact that we’d run out of wine staves. Twenty minutes passed, the ribs were painted again, then wrapped in foil and left on the grill.

Flamb Ed’s award winning rib paint

1 can of Guinness
1 tbsp molasses
⅔ cup of ketchup
½ cup brown sugar
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1 shallot, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pepper (as above)

Reduce the Guinness for as long as you can be bothered to wait for it – be careful, it will froth up and attempt to cover your cooker top in a sticky Guinnessy goo early on (trust me on this). Now add the molasses to the liquid followed by the ketchup and sugar and stir until smooth. Meanwhile brown the bacon and shallot in a separate pan, and transfer it (the bacon/shallot rather than the pan) to a blitzer – I’m not sure of the technical term for this piece of kitchen equipment, it’s a small container with a couple of blades at the bottom, when you attach the handle/lid and push the button the blades spin round really fast and blitz everything, hence blitzer – along with some of the liquid from the pan. Now blitz the bacon/shallot/Guinness/molasses/ketchup until as smooth as it can get and then sieve the blitzed mixture back into the remaining liquid in the pan. Add the salt and pepper and simmer until the sauce reaches the consistency you want.

The wrapped ribs were left on the grill (at about 250°F) for about 45 minutes then wrapped in a double layer of paper bags and placed in a cooler; the rest, as they say, is history.

We arrived at the church and found our way by following the sound of Joe-be-wan’s voice – I’m not sure what he was talking about though it was probably related to butter or vinegar – to the kitchen filled with the heady smell of smoke (no nothing was on fire). At this point everyone’s secrets came out as the food was there, just awaiting the judging.

Sauces was the first round, and suddenly four jars (all unlabelled) appeared as if by magic and had some of their contents delicately arranged over the regulation pulled pork – before they were whisked off to the judges table for their deliberations. Whispers of approval were relayed back to the kitchen by well-placed and innocent looking spies. Pulled pork was next up, and four very different versions faced the judges – I overloaded my plate in the hope that quantity (rather than quality) would give me an edge, but alas. Finally ribs, this was the biggie category in the Flamb household; we opened the foil-wrapped package ready for slicing (with, might I add, the biggest and shiniest cleaver) – they were dark and sticky on the outside, with a lovely pink flesh inside. I was pretty pleased, probably my best attempt at ribs so far this season. Once sliced, Mrs Flamb and I removed the paintbrush hairs that were stuck to a couple and plated up the entry. We would have to wait for the results.

After the judging (and the powerpoint presentation) and everybody having had seconds, word went round that there was to be a rib-off with T-bone and I tied for best rib, we presented a third rib for assessment by an honorary judge and made our peace with each other – the best rib would win.

Finally the results of the judging were announced, the air was thick with tension (you could have cut it with one of the plastic butter knives lying around) around the Moist Heat team. Joe-be-wan won best sauce and delighted the attentive audience with a description, he also secured the best pulled pork trophy and collected his prize to rapturous cheers of ‘Fix! Fix!’ However we knew he couldn’t make it a clean sweep because of the rib-off. As you may have guessed from the title of the post, we won best rib J; instead of running up kissing the trophy, pulling my t-shirt over my head and running around the room as though I’d won the world cup, I collected the trophy quietly.

Now I know I’ll try not to rib Joe-be-wan too much about being beaten by a foreigner who had never heard of Southern Barbecue a couple of years ago, but ‘too much’ is a subjective amount...