Interesting thank you for such a comprehensive piece.

As we enter barbecuing season here there is always great discussion about what to do with the meat. I like mine simple and will add Tabasco as a dipping sauce afterwards. DH likes complex and deep flavors and uses a dry rub of spices and herbs.

We are going to the in-laws for DN's birthday and it will be a barbecue. I will ask for mine to be salt and peppered. Everyone else will ask for barbecue sauce. SIL puts the sauces on halfway through and extra sauce afterwards. She seldom marinades the meat. My DH will add extra hot stuff afterwards as well.

Happy barbecuing everyone no matter how you like it.

Surely, if you don't want to mask / enhance the flavour ot the pork ribs, then you wouldn't flavour it with a rub. Sauces and rubs both alter the flavour.

My grilling is not successful, not matter what I use, LOL. I'm too impatient, so I always walk away, thinking I'll do something and come right back. The end result is food that's not done on the inside, but charcoal on the outside, somehow SOMETHING always catches on fire or causes a flare up or something that "shouldn't" happen, but it does.

So, I don't like to grill and Elery hasn't even uncovered it this year, it's been unusually cold and has rained more days than not. We finally got into the 70s in the past couple of days, but between the cold and the rain, it just doesn't seem like "grilling weather". We're refinishing some furniture, so the garage is full of that, can't put the grill in there. I don't think we even have fuel for the gas grill or the charcoal one, so that's something I should add to my list of things to do.

I was thinking it would be nice to have some BBQ'd ribs, though.

Annie

That's an advantage of sous vide cooking the meat first. Mine would be like yours, Annie lol

It's pretty simple around here--rubs rule. My family doesn't like the messiness of sauce on ribs, so it's served on the side only. I agree with a true dry rub--drying the meat and using only the finely ground spices (no oil). I have ribs in the fridge now that I will dry and rub later today, but will leave overnight and grill tomorrow.

Over my years of BBQing, I've simplified my rib rub. Dry rub of salt, fresh ground black pepper, fresh ground allspice, and cumin. Five hours (or so) on the smoke and no sauce.

Here we BBQ year round and never use sauce. We never use cumin, preferring ground coriander and ginger.

Ricky, I've been rereading since you first posted, trying to assimilate the arcana. In non-barbecue, I've tried both dry rubs and oil/spice rubs and am glad to have you validate my feelings there, that the oil is useless. I do use oil and sugar in the suntan lotion for steam roasting chicken, but that's a really different thing to smoking/barbecuing.

I've eaten good barbecue many times. I mean the real kind which experts think is good too. The only good barbecue brisket I've had was in Texas, but that could be as much lack of finding the good stuff elsewhere as total Texas dominance. :) It really was that good and really didn't want sauce.

For ribs, however, whether pork, beef or lamb, my favorite part is the caramelized sauce on the backs of the bones. :) The perfect barbecue I posted about had really good sauce on the side. It did really enhance the flavor of the meats without covering it up. It introduced a bright note. It was all excellent, but the bones weren't worth gnawing on. You can't add sauce at the table for that.

In general, I think I like sauce. Not drenched, dripping, sticky, goopy, but the extra layer of spice and tang that it brings when it's cooked on at the end.

I can't imagine eating grilled chicken without bbq sauce. Love Head Country's hot & spicy. And yes, it contains HFCS. It's the only thing I buy that does and I don't eat bbq'd chicken enough to give it a second thought.

I grill, or smoke, all year. I have grilled in my down coat from Land's End holding an umbrella. I use dry rubs, no rubs, wet sauce, butter, olive oil, pineapple/brown sugar, and honey mustard. Beef, chicken, pork, venison, turkey, seafood, and freshwater bass. I don't do lamb, because lamb is usually not available in North Alabama or if it is, around Easter, it is outrageously expensive.

I had MUCH rather cook outside than inside. (Less mess)

I am generally not a huge fan of BBQ sauces, and I think that's in large part because I find most commercial sauces to lack in flavor. They're either just sweet or just sour, but lack all the other flavor notes and the complexity that I so enjoy in food.

So for most of my other cooking (grilling, frying, roasting, ...), I usually use my own spice rubs and I am usually very happy with the results.

I grew up in a country that doesn't even know about low-and-slow BBQ as opposed to high-heat grilling. So, I always thought that those store-bought sauces were my only option. Turns out, and you guys probably already knew that, it's actually really easy to make your own BBQ sauce. And then you can add whatever flavor profile that you like. So, now I know how to make BBQ instead of just how to grill. Woohoo.

I have made Kenji's sous vide ribs a couple of times now. And I have to say that I really enjoy glazing the ribs with BBQ sauce in the last step of the recipe. Since some of the spice rub is added to the BBQ sauce, there now is the complexity that I was looking for. And making your own base for the sauce allows me to tweak quantities so that they are more towards my liking. As always, I usually don't measure, but use the recipe as a basic guideline. Worked great for this recipe, too.

I am not a BBQ expert by a long shot, but I feel that Kenji's recipe resulted in better ribs than I have ever had anywhere in the US. But then, I am on the West Coast and I don't actually live in BBQ country. So, what do I know :-)

Sauced proteins have been around for eons. I do like a few bites without but always have some type of homemade sauce on the side. To dip or drizzle. Not tossed in sweet goo. Smoking whole chickens and sous vide ribs today. Made two quarts of bbq sauce last night. I will mop last bit of time on the grill.

I've lived in NewOrleans, Austin and Memphis and have family in SCarolina... was never not offered their own bbq sauce. Almost always off to the side help-yourself. Big kettle on a hob. Sometimes two versions. Tangy/wet/spicy and a sweeter one. Choice of hot sauces. Like a good dog or burger. I like it the way I like it but always offer choices for guests.

An excellent pit-master friend always finds a young volunteer to serve/pass around un-sauced grill treats, bits and pieces, (similar to burnt tips), on a quarter sheet pan 15-20 minutes before he starts to pile up the serving platter. He feels the same way about over-sauced and glazed.

Annie - I love grilled meats but same as you - end up dead on the outside and still walking around on the inside. Here's what I've found: Cook the meat first to almost done - roasted in the oven, crock pot, instant pot, steamed in a skillet, whatever. Sprinkle with rub when cool enough, or slather with sauce, or just oil it. Then, and only then, put it on the grill for the flavor of the char.