The Argentine Method: How to Cook Baby Back Ribs the Way Fire Intended Filed under: Fire & Smoke | A recipe three hours in the making, and worth every minute

I want to tell you about the day I stopped fighting my ribs and started listening to them. 

For years I did what every backyard cook does — I’d pull the membrane, trim the fat, wrap them in foil, babysit the temperature, and convince myself I was being precise. The ribs were fine. Sometimes better than fine. But they were never those ribs. You know the ones. The kind that make people go quiet for a moment before they say anything. 

Then I learned how they cook ribs in Argentina, and everything changed. 

A DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHY 

Argentine asado isn’t a cooking technique so much as a belief system. The belief is roughly this: fire is patient, meat is honest, and your job is mostly to stay out of the way. There are no foil tents. No spritzing with apple juice every 45 minutes. No probing the meat every time you get anxious, which for most of us is every eight minutes. 

If you spend any time watching Al Frugoni’s YouTube channel — and if you cook over fire, you should — you’ll notice he comes back to the same reminder at the start of nearly every cook. When it comes to open fire cooking, he says, there are three simple rules: 

 AL FRUGONI’S THREE RULES OF OPEN FIRE COOKING 1. Patience. 2. Patience. 3. Patience. — Al Frugoni, via his YouTube channel 

 Keep those three rules in your back pocket for the next three hours. You’ll need them. 

“Leave the membrane on. Leave the fat on. The fire knows what it’s doing.” 

I know. I know. Every rib recipe you’ve ever read tells you to peel that membrane off first thing. And if you’re cooking fast and hot, that’s reasonable advice. But when you’re cooking low and slow over embers, that membrane does something useful — it seals moisture in from below while the bones slowly conduct heat upward through the meat. You’re essentially using the architecture of the rib itself as a cooking tool. 

THE HOUR YOU SPEND BEFORE YOU COOK 

Start your fire an hour before you plan to put a single thing on the grate. I realize that sounds like a lot, but this is the part most people rush, and rushing it is how you end up with ribs cooked over flames instead of embers — which is how you end up with ribs that are charred on the outside and confused on the inside. 

You want embers. Dense, glowing, steady embers. The kind that radiate heat rather than throw it. Keep feeding wood to the fire as it burns — you’ll need enough to sustain a solid two hours of cooking, so don’t be stingy with the pile. 

How do you know when the heat is right? Here’s the test, and it sounds more dangerous than it is: hold your hand at grate height. If you can hold it there for 6 to 8 seconds before your instincts take over and you pull away, you’re in the zone. Less than 6 seconds and it’s too hot. More than 8 and you’re going to be there all day. This is your benchmark. You’ll come back to it every time you add embers. 

BONE SIDE DOWN. TRUST THE BONES. 

Pat the ribs dry. Season with salt and pepper — good salt, fresh pepper, don’t be shy. Then place them on the grate bone side down, and leave them there. About 75% of the entire cook happens in this position. 

This is where Frugoni’s rules earn their keep. The temptation to flip, to peek, to poke is real. Resist it. The bones are doing the work. They’re drawing heat up from below and distributing it slowly and evenly through the meat. It’s essentially a built-in heat diffuser, and it’s been there the whole time. 

After about an hour and a half, reach over and press gently on the top of the rack. If the surface is warm to the touch, the heat has traveled all the way through. That’s your signal. The ribs are ready to flip. 

THE FINAL HALF HOUR (AND THE GLAZE) 

Flip meat side down and give it another 30 minutes. When the internal temperature reads around 200°F, you’re close. Flip back to bone side down, apply your BBQ sauce or glaze over the meat, then flip glaze side down for the finish. 

This is the part where you do not walk away. Two to four minutes over live fire with sugar involved is an exercise in attention. The difference between beautifully caramelized and “well, I guess we’re scraping that off” is about 90 seconds. Watch it. The color change happens fast, and when the glaze sets with that dark, slightly tacky surface — that’s when you pull them.

WHAT YOU’LL HAVE 

Cut between the bones, plate them up, and take a moment before you eat. The meat won’t fall off the bone in the way that overcooked ribs do. It’ll pull cleanly, with some resistance — which is how it’s supposed to be. Beneath that caramelized crust is meat that stayed moist for the entire cook, protected by fat and membrane and the patient geometry of the bones. 

Serve with chimichurri if you have it, grilled bread if you want it, and something cold to drink. The full recipe is below. 

Total time: about 3 hours. One hour to build the fire, two hours to cook. Plan accordingly — and start the fire before you think you need to.

Argentine Baby Back Ribs — Open Fire

Asado-style low & slow over wood embers  •  Serves 4  •  ~3 hours (1 hr fire prep + 2 hrs cooking)

Ingredients

Amount	Ingredient
2 racks	Baby back ribs — membrane on, excess fat left intact
To taste	Kosher salt & freshly cracked black pepper
Pat dry	Paper towels (for drying the ribs)
Glaze / Finish
½ cup	BBQ sauce or glaze of choice
—	Hardwood (oak, cherry, or hickory) — enough for 3+ hours of burning

Instructions

1	Prep the Ribs  Do not remove the back membrane — it holds moisture during the long cook. Do not trim excess fat. Pat both racks completely dry with paper towels. Season generously all over with salt and pepper.
2	Build the Fire  Start a hardwood fire in your grill or open pit. Let it burn down for about 1 hour until you have a solid bed of glowing embers. Keep feeding fresh wood throughout — you need enough fuel to sustain 2 full hours of cooking.
3	Set the Heat  Shovel enough embers beneath the grate to create steady, even heat. To calibrate: hold your hand at grate height — you should be able to hold it there 6–8 seconds before it becomes too hot. This is your target throughout the cook.
4	Cook Bone Side Down (~1½ hrs)  Place ribs bone side down. 75% of total cook time is bone side down. The bones conduct heat upward through the meat. Replenish embers every 20–30 min to maintain the 6–8 second hand test. After ~1½ hours, touch the top of the rack — when it feels warm, the heat has worked all the way through.
5	Flip & Finish Meat Side Down (~30 min)  Flip the racks meat side down and cook another 30 minutes. Check internal temperature — target is around 200°F (93°C) for tender, pull-apart meat.
6	Glaze  Flip back to bone side down. Apply BBQ sauce or glaze liberally over the meat side. Flip glaze-side down and cook 2–4 minutes until caramelized and set. WATCH CLOSELY — sugar-heavy sauces burn fast. Don’t walk away.
7	Rest, Cut & Serve  Remove from the fire, rest 5 minutes, then slice between bones. These will be the most moist ribs you’ve ever had.

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

Nutrient	Per Serving (approx.)
Calories	580 kcal
Protein	42 g
Carbohydrates	12 g
Fat	38 g
Fiber	0 g
Sugar	9 g
Sodium	740 mg

Tips & Notes

Note	Detail
Total time	~3 hours: 1 hour to build and burn down the fire, 2 hours of active cooking. Plan accordingly — start your fire early.
Why keep the membrane?	The back membrane seals in juices from below during the long bone-side-down cook. Removing it is a shortcut that costs moisture.
Wood choice	Oak is classic Argentine asado. Cherry or hickory add sweeter smoke. Avoid softwoods like pine — they produce bitter, resinous smoke.
Glaze sugar warning	The more sugar in your sauce, the faster it burns. Watch the grate constantly during the final caramelization step — 2 minutes can be the difference between perfect and charred.
Serving ideas	Serve alongside chimichurri, grilled bread, and a simple green salad. Cold Argentine Malbec or a cold Quilmes beer pairs perfectly.
Substitutions	St. Louis spare ribs work with the same method — add 20–30 minutes total cook time due to thickness. A dry rub (smoked paprika, garlic powder, cumin) can replace or supplement salt & pepper.

 

Boston Butt or Front Shoulder Roast? Either Way Spells Excellent Barbecue

Two weeks ago I developed a craving for barbecue pork sandwiches and it took me until today to finally take care of that craving.  There are several reasons for waiting until today to satisfy my craving, mainly because I need a full day and not just a full day but a full day with sunshine.  Low and slow is the cry when smoking a pork shoulder.  The smoker starts early in the morning and doesn't stop until early evening.  That is the way it goes to make delicious, moist, fall off the bone barbecue pork.

Years ago, when I first started making barbecue, the first barbecue I mastered was making barbecue pork, probably because it  is he easiest and most forgiving of all barbecue cooking.  The hardest part of making barbecue pork is maintaining the temperature in the smoker.  The recipe couldn't be easier, start with a boston butt roast or front shoulder roast.  Although, I'm not sure why it's called a boston butt when it comes from the front shoulder.  For this particular 'cue I found a 9 pound shoulder roast at the local market.  

For the rub I chose the same rub I used a week ago on the barbecue beef ribs and why not, it's a good all around rub.  Below is the recipe but you can also get the original from the Food Network web site and many others.

Magic Dust:

• 1/2 cup paprika
• 1/4 cup kosher salt, finely ground
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup powdered mustard
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1/4 cup ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup granulated garlic
• 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper

As I stated above, this is an all day smoke so I loaded up the charcoal holder to the top.  Also, I chose cherry wood for today's smoking wood choice.  I put a few chunks in at the beginning of the smoking process and add more about half way through.  This gives the pork enough smoke flavor to know it came from a smoker but no so much that it taste like a burnt piece of wood.  

Once the charcoal and wood are ready it's time to load the pork on the grate.  And sit back and wait and wait and wait.

Four hours later and it's time to check what we have and to insert the digital thermometer.  It's already at 145 degrees F. but from previous experience I know it gets there fast.  It seems to take forever to go that last 30 degrees F or so.  I am ultimately looking for 195 degrees F final cooking temperature.  

 Six hours later and the roast is over 185 degrees F.  I decided to take it off at this time because I know it will raise a few degrees as it rest and also because it was getting late and I wanted to eat.  

 After the pork has rested it's time to "pull" the pork.  I prefer the two fork method over cutting the pork up with a knife.  Also, a good indicator to tell if the pork is done, the bone should come out clean as in the case.  Although, I think the roast could have used a little more time in the smoker.

 My favorite way to enjoy a barbecue pork sandwich?  How abut a simple white bun with creamy cole slaw.

 It don't get much better than that.  And I got leftovers for two nights.  Yippie Kay Yay.

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato, Not Just for Sandwiches Anymore

"Nothing burps better than bacon." - Dutch Dooley.

I couldn't agree more with Dutch and I think there is nothing better in this world than a good slab of bacon.  Bacon should have its own food group and I think Emeril was right, it would make a car bumper taste good.  And speaking of tasting good why is it that everything that taste good isn't good for you?  I haven't quite figured that one out yet.

My favorite sandwich since I was knee high to a grasshopper is the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.  I love the smokey flavor of the bacon along with the crunch from crispy bacon that's just been cooked and for some reason it just seems to go with a big, cold slice of tomato and crispy piece of lettuce.  I don't know who invented the BLT sandwich but they sure hit a winner.  

Lately, I've been into making pizza, all kinds of pizza.  Since it can be hard to find good pizza these days, more and more I make my own.  Making pizza isn't difficult, the pizza dough is probably the toughest part and even that isn't too tough.  And once the pizza dough is ready it's as easy as piling on your favorite toppings.  Today my toppings are bacon, lettuce and tomato for a BLT pizza.

There are several recipes available on the net for BLT recipes but the BLT pizza recipe I chose is the one my daughter posted a few months back for our weekly family dinner recipes.  I made some slight tweaks, after all recipes are only guidelines, to the original recipe but the outcome is the same.  I used asiago cheese instead of mozzarella and mixed greens for the lettuce, all because it's what I had in the frig that needed to be used up.  

A few weeks back a guy told me if you are going to be a true pizza pie maker make sure you use a pizza peel.  It's a good thing I happen to have own one but I'm not sure it helps to make a better pizza.  

My choice of cooking vessels, especially this time of year, is my trusty grill.  Since I prefer the traditional style pizza I try to have a grill temperature around 400 degrees.  I think the lower temperatures helps to cook the crust throughout before the outside crust burns.   When I make a thin crust pizza I try to get the grill as hot as possible.  The grill also gives a flavor that can't be matched in a conventional oven.  

As you can see from the photo below I also used whatever tomatoes we had available.  

I really do use the pizza peel.

 Now that's good grub and remember what Dutch said, "Nothing burps better than bacon."

Bourbon, Sriracha Sauce and Barley Malt, What do These Things Have in Common?

So the new toy for the grill showed up at my door (the rotisserie attachment for those of you too lazy to check out my previous post) from Amazon a few days ago and the first decision to be made was what to cook? Yes, yes, we must figure out what to cook first.

For some reason my brain got on a pork roast track and wouldn't let go.  My fingers even typed out Rotisserie Pork Roast Recipes on my keyboard while on the internet before I realized what I was doing.  My grand plan was to cook barbecue chicken first, after all I got this need to have little sis tell me I finally matched Grandma Williams barbecue chicken, but like I said my brain kept saying PORK ROAST, PORK ROAST, PORK ROAST!!!!  OK, OK I get it, let's see what Google brought me on my search.  Well, well, the second search link Bourbon Rotisserie Pork Roast sounds interesting and simple ingredients.  

• 1 5-6 pound boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Rub:
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• Mop:
• 1 cup bourbon
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 small onion, pureed
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup corn syrup (preferably dark)
• 2 tablespoons brown mustard

Also, see that first ingredient listed under the mop recipe?  Bourbon?  That one got stuck in my brain too.  Now I got two things rattling around in my head, pork roast and bourbon, that's an awful lot for me to process at one time.  I decide to kill two birds with one stone and make this recipe I found, the barbecue chicken will have to wait for another day.

I'll admit, I didn't use the recipe above but I made one up along the same lines:

• 1 5-6 pound boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Rub:
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons whole black pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• Mop:
• 1 cup bourbon
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sriracha chili sauce
• 1/4 cup barley malt
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard

I don't know why I like cooking with bourbon because I can't stand the taste.  I guess it's just like wine, again, I don't like the taste of it, no matter how expensive, but I like cooking with it.  Also, lately I've had sriracha sauce in the frig and I've substituted it for ketchup in different sauces and marinades.  I like the flavor and little bit of heat it brings.  The barley malt is from a pizza dough recipe (more on that in a later post) I've been making so I have been substituting that for sugar or honey in some recipes.  I roasted the pork roast for around 1-1/2 hours over my grill that started at 450 degrees and settled on 350 degrees after a 1/2 hour or so.  The mop was applied every 15 minutes after the initial 45 minutes of roasting.

Ahhh, the sweet, succulent taste of pork.  It's hard to beat a good pork roast and even harder to beat when spun on a rotisserie.  I think I'll keep this new toy and look for more rotisserie recipes. So to answer the question Bourbon, Sriracha Sauce and Barley Malt, what do these things have in common?  Why, obviously, pork roast and rotisseries.

Fire Up the Grill!!!!

FIRE UP THE GRILL!!!!!!!  It feels good to be able to say that again.  I haven't been able to do that for over a year now ever since I left Wisconsin.  The wife and I have been living in an a condo, well really a two story apartment, where grilling wasn't allowed.  We decided to live there for a year so we could scout the neighborhoods here in Rockville and decide where we wanted to live.  Needless to say, the scouting is done, we're moved and thanks to my mother my grille is here in Rockville with us.  But this post isn't about my trusty Weber grill, this post is about my new Weber Smoky Mountain smoker. 

A couple of years ago Weber redesigned their smoker and decided to build it in a 22-1/2" model, the same as their every popular charcoal grill. Since I first saw the smoker online I knew someday I would have one.

This wasn't the maiden voyage for the smoker today, last week I tried a new way (at least for me) to cook a steak, which I will share in the near future, and I cooked a cranberry glazed turkey breast, which really needs to be a post for another day too.  You can see from the photo above this baby has the ability to hold a lot of charcoal for those really long smoking days.  As soon as I can find a delicious looking beef brisket recipe and a good beef brisket I am going to find out how long the charcoal will last in this baby.

But today's meal isn't about beef brisket or turkey breast, no sir, today we are talking about the number one food group, baby back ribs.  As most of you know, that take the time to actually read this blog, on my bucket list is to enter a barbecue contest and to win it.  The ribs have been a work in progress for the past 5 years with two steps forward and one back, or so it seems at times. 

Trying to hide behind the ribs are some baked beans.  The wife and I got the idea for these beans from reading the ingredient list on the back of baked beans we use to buy at a meat market in Wisconsin.  Cooking them on the smoker is from a bbq show I once watched on The Food Network.  Once everything is on the grate it is time to sit back and watch the smoke do its job........

......and watch the temperature so it stays between 225 and 250 degrees.  The extra temperature probe you see today is being used to watch the temperature on the lower rack to see how different it is from the upper thermometer.  By the way just as a note do not trust the upper thermometer as I found out when I checked the upper thermometer against my digital it was about 15 degrees off.

Two hours later it's time to pull the lid and see what we got.  Oh boy, it sure does smell good and starting to look pretty darn good too.  While the lid is off this would be a good time to mop a little sauce on the ribs. 

45 minutes later I repeat the process all over.

Oh we are so, so close now but you can't hurry perfection.  Another 45 minute wait, that's 3-1/2 hours for anyone trying to keep score, and we can finally open the lid on the smoker for the last time.  Let's get a close look this time, beans........

.....and baby back ribs.

I should note the ribs are finished off over hot coals and some of my "secret" barbecue sauce. 

On the traditional fork scale these ribs rate a 4.75 out of 5 forks.  I can't give them a 5 because they were a little saltier than I like.  I used a commercial seasoning mix, which I really like, but it contains 75% salt.  The good news is I found the recipe online and now I can start adjusting it more to my liking.  I believe this is the last item to complete for baby back rib perfection and entry into a bbq contest.  That will be one more item off my bucket list.

Asian Style Baby Back Ribs

One of my favorite meat groups, baby back ribs.  There was a time I was intimidated by pork ribs, I wasn't sure how to cook them, afraid they would turn out tough (actually happened) and overall just wouldn't measure up to the fine ribs the real barbecuers' cook.  Since then I have come along way with my rib cooking and I think I can cook ribs with the best of them when I have my grill, a real charcoal grill.  At this moment I don't have a grill so I have to make do with the next best thing, my oven.

 I am always looking for different ways to cook ribs so when the wife said there was a baby back rib recipe in her new Taste of Home magazine I was interested.  The photo certainly made the ribs look good as it should, the ingredients were easy to come by and the recipe had an asian flare, always a good thing in my book.  (If you are interested in the original recipe from Taste of Home magazine you can click here and print it.)

Let's get started with this weeks Sunday Dinner Episode with introductions of the cast of supporting characters.  Looks like a fairly normal cast this week of which most of the ingredients can be already found in most pantries.  Like I have said before I don't like looking all over creation for my ingredients.  It's the kiss principle Keep It Simple Stupid. 

Now of course if you are an astute reader you will notice one character has yet to be introduced and that of course is the baby back ribs.  I buy my baby back ribs from Whole Foods, simply put they have the best, always fresh, they aren't injected with anything, and a lot of times the tough skin on the back of the ribs is already removed for you.  Sure you pay a few extra cents per pound but in the end it is worth it.

The first order of business is to make an initial glaze to put on the ribs at the beginning of cooking.  This glaze starts with molasses, never a bad thing.  To be honest it's the molasses that got my attention when I read over the recipe.  The glaze gets brushed on, both sides of course.

Once the ribs are in the oven it's time to make the final glaze for the ribs.  It's pretty simple, toss all the ingredients in a sauce pan and reduce.  This is where I decided to change the recipe more to my liking.  I thought the sauce was a bit "tangy" for what I wanted so I made an executive decision and added 2 tablespoons of molasses and 2 tablespoons of honey.  Yep that did the trick for me, a little sweeter and I like sweet.

One hour later I pulled the ribs out of the oven, yep you read that right 1 hour later.  I'll admit I was a bit skeptical since I have always cooked my ribs the real barbecuers' way, low and slow.  That's the way I learned how to cook ribs but I was willing to try a new method, I was praying I wouldn't ruin them in the mean time too. 

Since I am without a grill at this time I put the ribs under the broiler for the final 10 minutes.  The outcome?  Well I was pleasantly surprised.  Were they as good as cooking them on the grill, no, but they are certainly a good alternative.  With keeping in mind they were cooked in the oven and trying not to compare them with ribs cooked on the grill I rate these a 4 out of 5 forks.  I'll certainly make them again and can't wait to cook them on a grill.  I think the grill will give them a completely different flavor.

Asian-Style Baby Back Ribs

(Adapted from Taste of Home Asian Style Baby Back Ribs)

(Printable Version)

Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds pork baby back ribs
4-1/2 teaspoons molasses
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

GLAZE:
1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons pineapple juice
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons honey
Chopped green onion

Directions

Pat ribs dry. Combine the molasses, garlic salt, onion powder and Worcestershire sauce; spoon over meat. Place ribs on a rack in a small shallow roasting pan. Cover and bake at 350° for 90 minutes or until tender.

In a small saucepan, combine the soy sauce, pineapple juice concentrate, vinegar, hoisin sauce, ketchup, lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, ginger, molasses, honey and garlic. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.

Coat grill rack with cooking spray before starting the grill. Brush ribs with some of the glaze; grill over medium heat for 8-12 minutes or until browned, turning frequently and brushing with additional glaze. Serve remaining glaze on the side.

Garnish with onion.