Pork Ribs: Rub or Sauce and which one?

[lostclusters]

I am going to try my first pork rib cook soon. Before I got the serious smoke bug I would boil my ribs first, bbq over briquettes, and then glaze on some bullseye bbq sauce. I am looking for some advice. Do you sauce or rub? And which one do you use? I would really like to find a rub that will give me a flavor profile like bullseye bbq sauce. And I got to try Huskee's rub too just to try. I do not think the Memphis Dust is what I am looking for. I tried that on pork butts. It's a good place to start. I tried Black Ops too.

Thanks in advance!

[Frozen Smoke]

Well you've come a long way if you used to boil ribs!! 95% of the time I dry rub only and serve sauce on the side. If you're familiar with Black Ops then you are familiar with Oak Ridge BBQ who's rubs I use. Black Ops is not for pork but for beef you do realize that right? They have several good pork/chicken rubs. I really like their Dominator rib Rub.

As far as sauces I use only 2. Swine Apple and Blues Hog. Both are excellent. The Blues Hog sets up more like a glaze.
Don't think I ever tried the Bullseye sauce so I don't know what kind of a flavor profile that is.

[jfmorris]

Frozen Smoke - I'll reserve the red for the next batch of pulled pork. Actually, I probably have some vacuum sealed pulled pork I could pull from the freezer for dinner tonight... Hmm! I'll order the Championship next time. Gonna try the regular Blues Hog on some ribs this weekend I think...

[Gunderich_1]

lostclusters, I agree with @Frozen Smoke: rub with Sauce on the side. I used to sauce but people liked it better on the side. Meathead's rib rub recipe is the bomb. Can't go wrong with that. You may not want the sauce after that, lol.

[PBCDad]

Side question, has anyone made Meathead's Jazzy Hog sauce? It's his version of Blues Hog, but I haven't tried it or seen any reference to it.

[texastweeter]

Stare with a dry brine and then MMD. Spiral out from there. I like them dry, Mrs. Calhoun will disagree. I now use what I call Texsas red dirt rub, which started as MMD, but is now heavy on black pepper, and chilis and has some cumin in there as well. use hickory for yer smoke. sit back and get worshiped.

[jfmorris]

I make dry rubs some too, but my go to commercial rub for ribs and butts is Bad Byron’s Butt Rub, which Sam’s and Costco sell here, then finish with a sauce. If you like that one sauce already no reason you can’t use it. I’ve got about a half dozen new sauces to try right now.

[DWCowles]

Don’t get Big Bob Gibson’s bbq sauce unless you want ketchup because that’s exactly what it tastes like to me.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I've tried a bunch of different ways, and I keep coming back to dry rub with Meathead's Memphis Dust (Plus!). That's what I call it, I add in some chipotle and some Tony Chachere's. I think I'ma try what texastweeter does and add in some cumin, maybe.

I've done a couple of different ways with sauce, doing Meathead's Last Meal Ribs, which is good, caramelizing the sauce at the end. I use a flamethrower for searing, so it goes awfully quick and easy, also tried the Blasphemy Ribs, the family just seems to like the plain old dry rub better than anything, and I can't honestly disagree with them that much!

Experiment and figure out what you like the best, what your guests like and want and see how it goes!

I will add, though, that most of my guests in the past have THOUGHT they liked sauced ribs, and that was their particular favorite - but in the interim, many of them have told me they never want sauce again, after trying what I've served them! lol

[JCBBQ]

Start out following Meathead's Last Meal Ribs - rub and sauce. Use that as your base recipe. It's fantastic. You will love it so much that that's how you'll cook ribs for the next 4-5 times. Then you'll want to branch out from there.

[Mudkat]

Have you tried the Last Meal Ribs? A great place to start. People eill love 'em. Meathead KC style sauce is very close to Bullseye. Sweet with a wee bit of heat. I think Bullseye adds a little liquid smoke to their sauce so you may want to try that. I add more heat to both the rub and sauce. Either Chipotle or MH American Chile Powder with Chipotle in it.

I dry brine overnight, then rub with MMD to get a nice bark. Mostly I serve sauce on the side but I have sauced before and liked that too.

[lostclusters]

I have not tried Last Meal Ribs rub yet. I sort of forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder.

[lostclusters]

The Last Meal Ribs uses Meatheads Memphis Dust.

[Butchman]

I recently make meatheads rub without the sugar and then added a few spices like chili powder and red pepper flakes and a few others. I cooked a boneless pork shoulder last night that I cut up the best I could into steaks and country style ribs. I then added bbq sauce for the last 30 minutes and the results were fantastic imo. I usually sauce and rub and then some times leave half unsauced. I always apply the rub though. I sauced the entire cook last night btw.

[clb239]

I usually Dry Brine and use MMD...Sometimes I will but some sauce on and put over direct heat to get a char glaze...

The last batch I did I used Killer Hogs The Rub and cooked them on my PBC...No sauce and they tasted great...

The Last Meals Ribs is definitely a good starting point for your first cook...Then start experimenting...

[jgreen]

You mention you tried MMD on a pork butt and were not so sure. I would still try on ribs as I think it is much better on ribs than on butts. If you still don't like, start modifying a little bit at a time till you get the flavor profile you want.

[Troutman]

Dude, it's like belly buttons, everyone has got an opinion on rubs and sauces. Even if you tow the Meathead line seems like folks add this or take away that. Here's what I did a few years back. Divide your ribs into sections of ribs, try a variety of things you seem reasonably sure will fit your taste, then have a taste test. Include your family or friends and do it blind. Not only is it fun, but then you can write a killer post and let us all know the results !! Good luck, I love my ribs !!

[Buck Flicks]

I usually do 2 racks for the wife and myself. One sauced and one not. But they both get MMD with extra brown sugar and whatever spice/herb I'm feeling like that day. Additions have been cumin, chinese 5 spice (little bit goes a long way), dried hatch chile powder, and next time I'm going to use gochugaru.

The sauce is Rudy's honey chipotle. It's the best I've found - great balance between sweet, smoke, and spice. They only have restaurants in TX, OK, KS, NM, AZ, and CO... but I think their sauce might be more widely available.

[EdF]

You're definitely going to want to experiment. But since these are your first ones done BBQ, maybe you want to set a baseline for yourself with just salt and pepper. Put some sauce on the side if needed. From there you know what you're working with and can go in a lot of different directions, as folks have said above. But now you have a reference point that will likely stick with you.

[ColonialDawg]

Lately, I’ve been using Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub and then glazing with a 1:1 mixture of Blues Hog Original and Blues Hog Tennessee Red. Nothing fancy or earth shattering but the flavor profile is excellent and there is always a pile of clean bones at the end of the meal.