You may recall that I had to postpone the Rib Throwdown, not because I had nothing to wear, but because of a major deck construction project. Well the deck is now party worthy so it was time to fire up the grill and have a rib feed. We invited about 25 or 30 taste testers and The Big Guy and I had our own Throwdown of sorts.
He did his thang to his ribs and I got dressed up in something cute and covered Bon Appetit's July cover recipe, which billed their ribs as "Amazing," and the "Best-Ever Barbecued Ribs."
(Editors note here: If I am praising or complimenting BA's recipe I will refer to them as "my ribs." If I am criticizing or saying something other than complimentary about them I will refer to them as "BA's ribs." Got it? Good.)
The day before the BBQ I made BA's rub of dry mustard, paprika, cayenne and salt and pepper and then gave them a good old massage. It was simple and uneventful. Per the recipe I baked them for almost three hours then put them to bed in the refrigerator for the night. I should add that I did sample them and I thought my rub was pretty tasty.
The next day Big gave his ribs a good mopping with sauce and then (because the wind was blowing and kept jacking with the grill temp) he baked them in the oven for a couple of hours. I took a chill pill because I was waaaaayyyyy ahead of the rib game.
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| My Ribs. Ummmm, I mean Bon Appetit's ribs. Nothing to write home about, I know. |
I then stuck to Bon Appetit's recipe and made their sauce, which was thin and runny. Tempted as I was to doctor it up I stuck with the recipe, as would any good recipe critiquer worth her sea salt, even though I was having a personal problem with the soupy sauce. At any rate Big and I both finished our ribs on the grill. His for about 2 hours and mine for about 1 hour. Here are the results.
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| Big's Ribs, looking all hot an saucy. |
The Lowdown on the Throwdown:
Yes I was wearing a cute outfit, but that had no effect on the fact that my ribs were more falling-off-the-bone tender than The Big Guy's ribs, however...HOWEVER I did like Big's saucy ribs better than Bon Appeitit's dry rubbed ribs. BA's cover picture had sauce on theirs so I sauced mine up, specifically for the photo shoot. See picture above.
The official taste testers were divided in a 60-40 split, in favor of Bigs. I'll note here that according to my unbiased poll, the male constituency that I personally interviewed voted for MY ribs. Did it hurt that I was wearing something cute and maybe showing some cleve? No. Anyhow the consensus was that MY ribs were leaner, more moist looking and tender feeling, and the guys liked them better.
Personally I voted for The Big Guy's ribs. They had a more meaty feel and a much more macho flavor than Bon Appetit's shitty (*wink*) ribs.
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| The Big Guy's Ribs.
Next round we are cooking some chickens...again. Heaven help me!
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