Maple Barbecue Ribs
Long time readers of my recipes and reviews know that I'm a fan of spicy-sweet barbecue. Very few, if any, of my past creations venture into the purely sweet category, so when I decided to do a recipe in that vein, it went against my instincts. In crafting a primarily sweet smoked rib, I didn't want to give up the complexity that makes barbecue so good though, so I built up multiple layers of sweetness to make these maple barbecue ribs continue to deliver on that hallmark depth of flavor.
The sauce recipe isn't overly complex and doesn't stray far from standards, but I made sure the everything in the somewhat minimal ingredient list all counted in the final flavor. In the sugar department, sautéed onions, ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider, molasses, and maple syrup all came together to create both a unified, but also complex, sweetness. While this recipe is labeled "maple barbecue," and the maple flavor is well accounted for, it's also not over-the-top since I find that maple can quickly become overly distracting if used in too high of a ratio. To add depth to that base sweetness, I used garlic, vinegar, mustard, and Worcestershire. Then I couldn't help but add a little heat as a needed contrast with light amounts of back pepper and chipotle powder.
If I'm using a sweet sauce on my ribs, my inclination would normally be to pair it up with a spicy rub to get that spicy-sweet flavor I'm often after in the end. I resisted that urge though and, just like with the sauce, put together a sweet rub that relied on mainly the standard players, like paprika and brown sugar with garlic, onion, cumin, and mustard powders. Here too, I added in black and chipotle pepper for the slightest touch of heat, mainly for contrast.
Once the rub was done, I trimmed up four racks of St Louis-style cut ribs and applied the rub on each in a generous manner. At this point the ribs can go straight to the smoker, but I was going to start cooking them early the next morning for an afternoon event, so I wrapped these racks up in foil and placed them in the fridge overnight.
The next morning I got my smoker up and running at 225°F and placed the ribs in. I usually start checking on how they're cooking about three hours in because it's around then that the rub can sometimes start to darken, and to avoid it from blackening, I'll spray the ribs with apple juice or cider to help preserve the more ideal mahogany color. On this particular day though, that step wasn't needed as the ribs never overly darkened in the five hours they took to be done.
I test doneness by lifting the ribs from one end and judging how they bend—they should have a slight bend, but not fall apart when doing this. Once they've reached that ideal state is when I apply the sauce. If I have a grill going, I like to take the ribs there for sauce application because the high heat will set the sauce quickly and create extra caramelization that you can't get with a low temperature smoker. If I don't have a grill fired up though, I just sauce them on the smoker and let them sit another 30 minutes or so for the sauce to bake down effectively.
These ribs were cooked pretty perfectly in the end, coming out juicy and tender with a light smoke ring around the edge of the meat. What I was more interested in though was whether they would leave me satisfied being mainly sweet, with the absence of the heat that usually makes me rave about something. To my surprise, I was quite taken with these ribs. Yeah, I did feel the missing spiciness, but that didn't inhibit my ability to enjoy these fully. The primary reason for that was because these still delivered on barbecue complexity with the layers of sweetness and supporting players all coming through—they definitely were not one-note sugary ribs. The maple syrup helped a lot here and had a good representation without being overpowering. I imagine that some folks who try out this recipe may find the maple flavor not forward enough, but that's by design to craft a sweet rib that fulfills on the complex barbecue promise, and these certainly succeeded in that.
