Mohunken & Memphis Dry Rub Ribs

Early in my trials of smoking ribs I have favored dry rubbed ribs over the ones slathered with BBQ sauce. Most smoker cooks slather the ribs with mustard for the glue to hold the rub, rub in the rub, wrap, & in the fridge overnight. I found my favorite was to wet down the ribs with just enough red wine vinegar to make them damp, add the rub, wrap in saran wrap, & in the fridge overnight. I don’t usually rub in the rub, just sprinkle on heavily. My favorite rub has been Penzey’s Galena Street Chicken & Rib Rub. It’s not heavy on salt, just good flavor. I have usually done them at 225 deg for 3 to 4 hours.

After joining pelletheads forum about 2 years ago I have looked at many methods, rubs, & sauces for ribs. One that stood out was Savannah Smokers Mohunken Rib Rub; many members used the recipe & liked it. Like many cooks; when you have a recipe you like you hate to change. I finally decided to try Savannah’s rub. I also found a recipe at Saveur.com for Memphis Dry Ribs that I wanted to try. I decided I would do up two slabs of baby back ribs to try both rubs. I knew how mine tasted & could compare the two to mine.

I have been getting good baby back ribs from Sam’s Club, 3 slabs in a kyropac. My wife said I am going to Sam’s & will get them for you. I said make sure you get them in the kyropac, buy the cheapest since they will be the smallest by weight. She came home with one slab on Styrofoam wrapped with saran wrap. Oh well decided to just cut them in half so I could still try the two rubs. They are good ribs from a local butcher that does Sam’s fresh meats.

This evening I removed the membrane, & cut the slab in half, slathered up one half with mustard & rubbed in Savannah’s Mohunken rub. The other half I rubbed in the Memphis dry rub, the recipe did not call for any glue, just the rub. Tomorrow night will be smokin time & I will update with photos & my thoughts.

Two Rubs Mixed

Two textures

My Kyropac Ribs :)

Mohunken Ribs

Memphis Dry Ribs

Wrapped to Marinate Overnight

Update after smoking ribs
I smoked my Mohunken & Memphis dry ribs today. I mixed 2 Tbs. Memphis dry rub & 1 Tbs. kosher salt in ¾ cup apple juice for mop sauce. I could not put 4 Tbs. salt in per the recipe & wish I had left out the 1 Tbs. and I am a salt lover. I had some plain apple juice for the Mohunken ribs if they needed it.

I put them on, meat side up, at 225 deg. I mopped the Memphis ribs after ½ hour. After that I mopped both every hour. At the 1 hour mark I turned them meat side down for the next hour, then meat side up for the last two hours. Total cook time was 4 hours and I went to 300 deg for the last half hour to finish.

I did our favorite baked potatoes with an aluminum heat rod inserted, in the oven at 350 deg. for 1 ½ hours. They come out crispy like potato skins. Large potatoes need 2 hours.
I nuked some asparagus I had drizzled with olive oil & salt and pepper for 8 min. Topped with some Philly cooking cream, tomato basil flavor. The ribs sat foil covered while cooking the asparagus.

We both liked the SS Mohunken ribs the best. I did cut the white sugar and the black & cayenne pepper in half from Savannah’s recipe. I also did not cover with orange slices for the overnight marinade like Savannah usually does. If you try the Memphis dry recipe I would recommend mopping with just plain apple juice. I also put too much rub on them, I used most of the recipe & it was really for two slabs, so just use half on one slab.

Sorry Savannah, I did not like your rub as well as my usual Penzey’s Galena Street Rub.
To be fare though it may shine more when paired with a good sauce. This was not the best rack of back ribs I have had so didn’t compliment either rub. I held 225 deg pretty close through the cook and this would translate to about 245 deg at grill level on my Traeger.

After overnight marinade

At 3 hours

Ready for a rest

Sliced

My Plate

Smokin Don