I'm having guests over for baby back ribs tonight, and am looking at recipes on line. I hadn't really perused them before, but there seem to be as many ways to do it as there are recipes. Some say cook on the grill, a few minutes on a side, some say on the grill for an hour and a half, some say braise in the oven first, some say dry rub, some say marinate, for a few hours or overnight.

It's almost like it's hard to do it wrong, but I'm going crazy trying to figure out which way to do it. On the Fourth, I slow cooked some in the oven for hours in a marinade, then grilled them, but the meat was falling off the bone, so while they tasted great, they were hard to handle on the grill. And those were back ribs, but not baby back. Any suggestions?

Your description of the Fourth-of-July ribs is making my mouth water . . . What's a little falling off the bone at a time like this? ")

I've never gone wrong with any of Alton Brown's recipes from Good Eats. He recommends marinating in a brine for atleast a day before slow grilling. Just be sure to rinse it off after the brine.

How you grill depends on whether you want to smoke (classical barbeque) or grill it. If you want that smokey pink ring then hours at low heat under smoke is the only way. If you don't have time for that then marinating for a very long time, quickly boiling to cook through, and then a final grill to get the good grilled outer coating is about the only way....

The barbeque places around here cook their ribs for about 6 hours on a very larger but hot smoker....

Grilling on wood planks is very popular these days, and it solves the "meat falling off into the grill" problem.

Of course, then you have to decide on the type of plank. Cedar and alder planks are the most popular, but there's also cherry, walnut, oak, hickory, maple, pecan...

Michael has the answer, great ribs, good taste, jut enough adhesion of meat-to-bone to get 'em up to your teeth.

I've not tried his ribs recipe but in general Alton Brown rocks!

Cecil,
"Feasting on Asphalt" is my new favorite show on any network. Makes me want to go buy a motorcycle....

MM, yeah I've been loving that show too. Too bad it was only a four parter. And I have a motorcycle, sorta. It is a 1966 Honda that I'm months away from having restored so I can ride.

You should give us an update to let us know how it turned out.