Proud daughter of a meat scientist

My dad and I with the first plate of ribs that he and I made this summer.

Being a meat scientist's daughter has its perks.

It means that I will never have to eat any meat that is less than satisfactory. My dad is a master at grilling steaks. My dad enjoys grilling and working with meat. He volunteers to do much of the cooking related to meat, and he never uses the same recipe twice, but all of it still tastes amazing. When we don't have an ingredient in the house, he'll substitute another one in, or he'll just experiment around until he thinks it will taste good. Savor each dish that my dad cooks, because it will only taste that way once.

My mother has told me that for 23 years, whenever people have come for dinner, the one thing that everyone remembers most is my dad's cooking.

I could never be a vegetarian. Not in this house anyway. I would be forever judged by my dad's meat scientist colleges, and I don't think I could live a week without meat -- especially if my dad is cooking.

Being a meat scientist's daughter also means that you have heard all of the arguments about pink slime, organic food, or any other controversies that pop up in the agriculture industry.

This usually leaves me stuck in the middle of two conflicting arguments. At Uni, many people think that organic food is the best and that our food system is horrible. My dad comes from the other side of the perspective, and he knows all the arguments that are against completely organic food, and also argues that pink slime and other controversies are not as scary as what the media makes them out to be. Even though I've sat through many annoying rants about the agriculture industry, I am glad that my dad is a meat scientist. I get to eat some delicious barbecue, and sometimes my dad will teach me the best ways to grill meat.

This summer my dad taught me how to make ribs. His ribs are one of my favorite meat dishes, and so I was excited to learn how to make amazing ribs just like dad. Now, whenever I eat these ribs I will think back on that summer day when he taught me the best ways to cut the meat, prepare the rub, and grill the ribs. Maybe one day my ribs will be as good as dad's.

Barbecue Ribs

(adapted from "Barbecued Ribs" in The Best Recipe by Cooks Illustrated)

Ingredients for the dry rub:

• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika 
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground black paper

Ingredients for ribs:

• 6 pounds of country style ribs
• 3/4 cup of the dry rub for barbecue
• 2 cups of hickory wood chips
• Aluminum foil
• Brown paper grocery bag

Notes: 

• When cooking and handling meat, always wash your hands after touching raw meat and thoroughly clean all the surfaces that have come in contact with the raw meat.
• For this recipe I am using a gas grill. If you want to find the instructions for using a charcoal grill you can find them in "The Best Recipe" cookbook by Cook's Illustrated.

1. Make the dry rub by mixing all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.

2. Take the meat, and put it on a cutting board. Butterfly cut the meat. This means cut the meat down the middle, but not completely through, then fold the sides out so that it looks almost like a butterfly (it doesn't look just like a butterfly, but enough so that they call it butterfly cutting.). 

Cutting the meat like this will allow more spices to cover the meat, and it will be more flavorful in the end.

3. Rub the spices into the meat. Cover the meat with these spices and rub them in enough so that they won't fall off the meat if you pick it up, but don't add too much rub or the rib will taste grainy and the texture will be weird. 

4. Cover the ribs with plastic wrap and let them sit for one hour.

5. While the ribs are sitting, soak the wood chips in a bowl of water for an hour.

6. After an hour, preheat the grill by turning all the burners on high. Put the wood chips in a special box for wood chips, and place the chips in a corner of the grill. Preheat the grill until the wood chips are smoking heavily Don't be scared. They aren't on fire -- they were soaked in water, remember? If you follow the instructions you should not suffer any fire bombs or explosions (unless something is seriously wrong with the grill itself, in which case I would advise you NOT to grill ribs or anything else.).

7.  Turn off the back burners and leave the front burners on medium heat so that the grill is between 275 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit while cooking. Place the meat as far away from the flames as possible, towards the back of the grill. Cook the meat for about 2 hours, turning the ribs once every 30 minutes. 

8. Take the ribs off the grill and wrap in aluminum foil. Put the wrapped ribs in a brown grocery bag and allow it to sit at room temperature for one hour. Wrapping the ribs in foil and then putting them in a grocery bag make ribs more tender and juicy since the moisture from the ribs is kept contained by the aluminum foil.