Onion and Cola Smoked Spare Ribs
With a base of onions, garlic and cheap cola, you can infuse spare ribs with lots of flavor while allowing the steam from the onions and cola to keep the ribs nice and moist while they smoke.
Servings 3 -4
Ingredients
- 1 rack of spare ribs
- Apple cider vinegar
- 1 2-liter bottle Cola enough for both pans; you may not need it all
- 4 medium yellow onions 2 onions per pan
- 16-20 cloves of garlic 8–10 cloves per pan
- Jeff's original rub
- Jeff's original barbecue sauce
Instructions
Prepare Ribs For Smoking
- Rinse ribs under cool water
- Remove any large areas of fat on meaty side of ribs
- Flip the ribs over and remove the membrane from the bone side
- Wet the ribs with apple cider vinegar
- Apply a generous coat of Jeff's original rub to the bone side
- Turn the ribs over and apply the vinegar and rub to the meaty side
- Cut the rack of ribs in half
- Slice two onions into ¼ inch slices and separate the rings
- Use a half-size foil steam pan, roughly 12 × 10 inches, and arrange the rings from 2 onions with 8–10 garlic cloves to make a bed for half the rack.
- Pour in enough cola to come partway up the onion bed, leaving the tops above the liquid so the ribs rest on the onions instead of floating in cola.
- Lay one of the rib halves on top of the onions and garlic
- Prepare a second pan the same way for the other half rack, using the remaining 2 onions, 8–10 garlic cloves and enough cola to reach the same level.
- Set up smoker to cook at about 250°F (121°C)
- Place the pan(s) of ribs onto the smoker grates
- Cook for 5-6 hours or until they ribs are as tender as you like them or about 195°F (91°C).
Notes
For a delayed meal, use the rib planning and holding guide rather than leaving the ribs on cooking heat. The brat and boudin instructions in the article are a separate, shorter 225°F cook; this card’s 250°F schedule is for the ribs.