How to Grill Ribs

Ribs are among the most popular type of food that is made on the grill year in and year out. Usually preferred when barbecued, ribs inspire a lot more different approaches than other types of meat do on the grill. Just about everyone grills hamburgers the same way, but when it comes to ribs, people start to develop their own style of preparing them.

That’s all well and good, but it is always a smart idea to start with the basic fundamentals, so that you can have a good foundation to build upon in the future. Then, you can start to experiment and try different things, if you want to go for a more distinctive taste and flavor. Here is a set of instructions for grilling ribs that will help you to prepare some tasty food for your guests the next time you have a barbecue.

Take Your Time

The first thing to know about grilling ribs is that it is very different from grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, or even steaks. That is, ribs take time. The phrase “low and slow” is often used by those who enjoy grilling ribs, and with good reason: the keys to your success will be a low amount of heat and a slow pace.

Of course, this is not always a bad thing. For the person(s) manning the grill, preparing ribs is a much more relaxed procedure than making hamburgers and hot dogs for a dozen people. The guests will also have time to hang out and mingle, since the food will take a while to prepare. Of course, the preparation doesn’t begin when the grill is turned on, but much earlier.

Preparing Your Ribs

One of the most-often used methods of getting ribs ready for the grill starts with marinating them the night before. This is, of course, for people who are not going the barbecue ribs route. So if you want to try something different, you can develop your own marinade or try one that someone else came up with.

Time to Grill

When you do fire up the grill, you don’t literally want to “fire” up the grill. You want a low amount of heat- not enough to make flames in a coal grill. At this temperature, you will want to check the ribs about every half hour, while watching for signs of doneness, which includes being able to pull the meat away from the bone without much effort. This should take a couple of hours of grilling on each side. Many recommend grilling the ribs away from the heat source on the other side of the grill, as well. This works well if you’re grilling items that need higher heat on the same grill as ribs.

If you did decide to go with barbecue ribs, you will want to apply the sauce as the ribs are coming off of the grill. Otherwise, the sauce can cause the ribs to burn a little bit, which you definitely don’t want.

Then, you’re done! You’ve successfully prepared some tasty grilled ribs to sit down and enjoy.

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