Ribkin’s rib recipe Ingredients: Ribs, spice rub, spice mop 1 or 2 racks of fresh baby back ribs Spice Rub: 8 tbs paprika (it's also nice, but not necessary, to use Smoked Paprika for half of the amount) 4 tbs garlic powder (it's nice to mix in some that's more granulated with parsely) 4 tbs chili powder (don’t buy the more fruity variety) 3 tbs ground black pepper 3 tbs salt 2 tbs celery seed 4 tsp mustard seed whole 1 tbs dried oregano (preferably whole) 1 tbs thyme 1/2 tsp ground coriander Spice Mop: 1/4 cup salt 1/4 cup pepper 1 tbs oregano (preferably whole) 1 tbs celery seed 1 tbs paprika 1 tbs chili powder 1 1/2 cups water 1 1/2 cups distilled vinegar PREPARING Night before: Pry the membrane from the bony side of the rack and discard. Dust/sprinkle both sides evenly with Dry Rub. Don't spread thickly--use as little as a heaping tablespoon each side, honestly. Wrap in foil and refrigerate overnight. Next day, cut the ribs into half-racks (they fit better over the smoker's water pan that way). Let the ribs sit at room temperature for an hour before cooking. Mix about 2/3 mesquite with 1/3 hickory chips. Too much hickory and the ribs come out tasting like ham, which flavor (and way-too-pinkly familiar smell) many people prize, I don’t know why. Soak the chips in a pot of cold water for at least half an hour. Prepare a cylinder or two of soaked wood chips rolled in heavy-duty aluminum foil, open at both ends. COOKING The following methods and hourly intervals apply to a charcoal smoker that keeps the heat around 250. If you're using a gas grill, just keep the ribs on the highest possible rack, and keep only half the jets on, and cut the total cooking time into half, which makes each hour more like a half-hour. You can tell the ribs are about done when the meat has shrunk away a quarter to half an inch from the tips of the bones. First Hour: When the coals are gray, let ribs smoke covered for an hour, with the cylinder of wood chips sitting right on top of the coals, along with a full pan of tap water that should be topped off every hour. Second Hour: Add one more cylinder and a fistful or more of lump cowboy charcoal (I get from Trader Joe's), which keeps the heat from dropping too low and adds a taste of oak. Third Hour: Paint each half rack with the Spice Mop, wrap in foil, and continue cooking covered. At the end of third hour, or when meat starts to shrink off the bone, remove from foil and transfer to a charcoal or gas fire, lowest rack, medium-high flame. Paint with spice mop as you grill for about a minute and a half each side, till the meat just starts to bubble. Seal the cooked ribs in a foil and store in a paper shopping bag at room temperature for maybe 45 minutes before eating (they’re continuing to cook slowly), then open the bag. The smell should resurrect some sort of prelapsarian nook of Earth that’s just between heavenly and animal reward, each realm’s best argument compressed in a breath of eternity and musk. Remove and cut into individual ribs whether it’s time to eat or not. If the guests are late, microwaving individual ribs wrapped loosely in paper towels will not hurt, and may even call forth a coveted grimy sizzle. Reheating on the grill works too, but only if it’s for less than a minute. Serve BBQ sauce, COLD, for that synasthetic Dreamsicle contrast, and only on the side. Unless it’s in the middle of the meat, don’t worry about seeing pink--that's the smoke ring (but you probably know that). For an extra day or two, wear the jacket you cooked in to access a haze of fulfillment. Martha Sherrill comments: I am obsessed with ribs. Favorite food. There were lots of good bbq joints in DC and I miss them, but nobody does ribs as well as my mom. She has always roasted them, kind of over-roasted them, and the results seem more predictably perfect than using the grill. I started to wonder if I could roast them, and then grill them at the end . . . something like that. But this last year I found a Cooks Illustrated method for baking them -- it takes an entire afternoon -- that produces the greatest ribs known to man, or at least known to me. Even my anti-cooks-illustrated friends (and there do seem to be a lot of anti-cooks people out there) like them. There used to a be take-out ribs/shredded pork window in St Mary's County, MD -- about an hour from the city -- and there would sometimes be a 30 minute wait in line. The ribs were incredible. After going there twice, I could never find the window again. It was like looking for Brigadoon.