ribs without any dry rub ?

sfent,
since you said sweet, I like to use tomato sauce, white vinegar, molasses, clear corn syrup, honey, and brown sugar, to this you can add your favorite spices, such as cayenne, garlic, onion and what ever suits your taste buds.. I hope this may give you some starting ideas. baste or mop the ribs two or three time during the last hour of cooking.

Many, many tons of good barbecue has been cooked and sold using only salt and pepper as a "rub". Most prefer Kosher salt and coarse cracked black pepper. It's mighty hard to beat as a starting point.

I use a rub most of the time when I do ribs, because I like that little "crust" on the outside, but I've also done them with just a little salt and pepper and they are very tasty.

Pork is one of the more flavorful meats out there, and I do enjoy the ribs with just the smokey flavor sometimes. Probably would be good also with just a sprinkling of garlic powder.

Experiment...it's what BBQ is all about.

Good luck... Ken

SmoKen,

I'm going to have to call you out on this one

I don't think pork has much flavor at all.

Everyone I know agrees, that's why we rub, marinade, inject till we're silly. Think of pork loin, pork chops. Pretty bland --- UNTIL you add the flavors. Creating a good rub on the outside.

Now, having said that, a good rib with good smoke has a special flavor, but it's the flavor of the smoke that's giving it the taste.

SFENT.

You might think about a good mop during your smoke. It's one way that you can add some flavors that you control without overpowering it. The SE US has lots of places that sell ribs that are basically salt/pepper and mopped, sauce on the side.

If you go for wet ribs, like it was suggested, keep it towards the end. If you do it too early or too long, some of the sugars in the sauce might blacken too much.

Smokin'

' course the upside of all these tumbled ribs is they have a nice salted ham flavor and a little smoke kinda gives that smoked ham experience.

Well Smokin' I guess it's a matter of personal taste, and a regional thing.

I certainly do understand, and appreciate what you're saying. However, pork loin and chops are leaner cuts,such as chicken breast and eye of the round, and both very bland.

But I feel when you're talking about a piece of meat with substantial fat content, pork is by far the better tasting "naked" meat. Where I come from many people will roast a pork shoulder in the oven with just salt and pepper, and the platter will be empty when the meal is over.

Again...it's a matter of personal taste. I do like variety myself. But anyway you decide to do it, rub, salt & pepper, mop...let's face it, we do love pig meat.

Don't ya just love the diversity on this forum.

SmoKen

Oh I agree, the problem is that the producers of pork have made it so lean, there's no flavor from the fat.

Look at baby backs. They cut them so lean, and now everyone things they're so great, but there use to be a day when they were meatier, but they're just cutting them down to no fat, no loin on the bones.

Smokin' is right on there.

I was table captain a couple months ago,where we had a lot of MIM teams.

I opened the box to find custom butchered ,short length, very meaty babybacks across the top layer and two rib segments cut to boneless across the bottom
layer.

There was so much meat that I took them to the rep to see.

They almost looked like short ribs.

It had been a long time since we had seen ribs look like that.

I agree with you guys. One of the main reasons I stopped buying baby backs...that and the price.

Now I just go with the pork ribs. Everyone seems to enjoy them more.

SmoKen

sfent: Due to a strict restriction on salt intake, I have smoked all my meats in a Smokette "naked" for about two years now. I have been quite pleased with the results. For some time, I tried making different rubs and never found one I really liked and finally went to just rinsing in cool water and putting it in the smoker. After all, aren't we really after a moist and tender piece of meat with a good smoke flavor?
Also, this allows guests to add the sauce or spice of their choice at the table.