"Last Meal Ribs", that is what my girlfriend called the ribs I fixed yesterday by following your recipe. For her "last meal" on this planet she made me promise to fix [your recipe]. For my first attempt at cooking BBQ ribs, they came out perfect!
Doug and Trudy Calvin, Palm Springs, CA
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Just when my wife had convinced me to get rid of [my smoker] I found your site. What a blessing. I bought 3 racks of ribs followed directions and guess what? These rib were some of the best I have had and needless to say I was estatic. The smoker now can stand proud in my yard. I am back in the saddle again! Thank you so much, a real FUN learning experience.
Dennis Carreonde, Seal Beach, CA
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My father-in-law loves ribs, but I had never attempted them on my Weber Genesis gas grill because I didn't think they would taste like real pit-cooked ribs - that is until I tried them the "Meathead" way. I followed your directions for setting up the grill and for cooking (by the way the pictures were very helpful), and I mixed up a batch of "Magic Dust". I'd also cooked up some chicken breasts that had been "dusted" for my mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who don't like ribs. The ribs were an amazing success. The crowd proclaimed them the best ribs they'd ever had, and even my mother-in-law, all 4'11" of her, ate four big ribs and passed on the chicken. Towards the end of the meal we all raised a beer and proclaimed "God bless Meathead, best damn ribs ever!!"
pcroll1, Fredericksburg, VA
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I took a big risk over Labor Day weekend and invited my whole family over for ribs. They came out fantastic. EVERYONE loved them. My father, who's a king of the grill, declared my ribs better than his. This website has been a real inspiration. My next project is brisket, and after that, a full hog. Thank you!!!!!
Ernest, Edwards Air Force Base, CA
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The instructions are perfect and I made sure I followed them exactly, reading each method until I knew which one was right for me. People was saying "oh man!!" or "my God!!" or good "God these are the BEST ribs I have ever sunk my teeth into!" Thanks so much for your simple and to the point instructions.
Sharon, Greeneville, TN
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Damn! Guests didn't want to stop eating, although full already. Your website truly and simply rocks, and is definitely part of the 0.01% really useful sites out there. Now my girlfriend will have to eat ribs the upcoming weeks while we eat ourselves through the different recipes!
Pasi Bauer, Uppsala, Sweden
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I have always wanted to make great ribs. It has been a life quest and my ribs have always been great if you like shoe leather. I came across your site and bingo, I am a rib stud!
Chuck Kotler, Avon, CT
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| FREE: SMOKE SIGNALS ELETTER
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ABOUT SMOKE SIGNALS
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 Smoke Signals is the occasional free email newsletter from AmazingRibs.com and me, Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn. It is designed to let you know
what's new on the website and in the world of outdoor cooking.
Do me a favor, willya? Send me feedback: Especially if you think an article or recipe is
confusing, if you know a better way, or if I made a mistake. My Daddy
taught me that "praise is cheap, criticism priceless." And if you like my website, please click here to forward a copy of this to a friend.
Remember: No rules in the bedroom or the kitchen!
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THE ULTIMATE SMOKED TURKEY
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This is no ordinary turkey preparation, pilgrims. Follow these steps and you will never have a dry, stringy, cardboardy, boring bird. In fact, most of the people at the table will tell you it is the best turkey they've ever tasted. In addition, you'll have an incredible gravy, and a soup stock that you can use later for killer onion soup.
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CLASSIC BREAD, BUTTER, & SAGE STUFFING
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Here's a very traditional stuffing recipe adapted from a recipe by my student and teacher, David Rosengarten. He was a student in my wine classes at Cornell, and I call him my teacher becuase he later became a famous chef, one of the first hosts of FoodTV, author of several cookbooks, and I have learned immensely by listening to him and reading his work.
He travels the world, reports on his culinary adventures, and creates amazing, complex recipes for his Rosengarten Report. I was shocked when I saw him publish this recipe because it is so simple and easy. But great chefs like Rosengarten don't mess with a classic like Bread, Butter, & Sage Stuffing.
But I do. I've added a nifty option: Cook it in muffin pans so everyone has their own muffin-like serving with more crunchy stuff.
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DRUNKEN CRANBERRIES
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This warm, rich variation on traditional cranberry sauce is both sweet and savory, always a great combination. And don't worry, you can serve it to the kids. Most of the alcohol evaporates in the cooking. Skip the canned stuff and make this.
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SOUSED APPLE SLICES
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Here's a great alternative to applesauce. It looks different from any other apple sauce you've ever tasted, and, my oh my, it tastes different, too. Rich, buttery and mellow. It beats the snot outta the bottled stuff.
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WARM FRENCH POTATO SALAD
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This may be the world's easiest potato salad, but it also may be the world's best. Served warm, it is a sure-fire hit. Before you get cranking, read my article on the Zen of Potatoes.
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CRUNCHY FRENCH STRING BEANS
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You've heard of French fries, well here are French beans, and they're just as good.
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SMOKED TURKEY SUPPER SALAD
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Leftover smoked turkey, lettuce, blue cheese, walnuts, apple, hardboiled egg, dried cranberries, and a honey vinegar dressing. Yummmmm.
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SAINTLY SWEDISH GLöGG
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 Samuel Johnson, author of the first English dictionary, wrote "Claret is the drink for boys, port for men, but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy." By that definition Swedish glögg, will make us saintly.
Glögg, pronounced glooog, is a high-octane, mulled wine, which is to say it is made with a potpourri of spices and all three of the above: Claret (red wine), port, and brandy, and is served warm.
The aroma of mulling glögg is heavenly, and when it is served steaming hot in a mug after a hard day of skiing or shoveling the sidewalk, the body offers thanks.
My wife and I have been making glögg since 1974 and refining the recipe since then. Here is our tried and true recipe.
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COOL: LAW REQUIRES COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELS
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Starting September 30, food manufacturers and grocers must comply with a new federal law that requires "Country of Origin Labeling," or COOL, on beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fruits, vegetables, and a variety of nuts. This is a good thing.
The law has some problems and loopholes that USDA hopes to fix by the end of the Bush administration. For example, beef raised in China can be shipped live to the US and slaughtered here and be labeled as originating in the US.
Also, processed foods are exempt from COOL, but the definition of processed is controversial. As I interpret reports of the law, frozen peas are covered by the law, but frozen peas mixed with frozen carrots are exempt because they are deemed to be processed. Huh? |
FOND FAREWELLS
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 Bobby Mueller (right), legendary
pitmaster
of Louis Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, TX, died at
age 69 on September 6. He was known to put in 90
hours per week in his cavernous, smoky joint in a dusty town in the
middle of nowhere. But lovers of barbecue came from all over the
country to taste his handiwork. His restaurant won a James Beard Foundation Award, the Oscar for food, in 2006. For pictures of him and his place, click here. For his obit in the Austin American-Statesman, click here.
Gerald Hirsch, one of my mentors in the world of wine, died at 80 on October 12. Gerry was a wine importer and distributor, and he started in the 1950s when nobody drank wine. He was a salesman, but more importantly, he was an educator. I was a customer as the wine buyer for a group of Foremost Liquors stores in the Chicago area. He taught me a ton and supported me and my crazy efforts to make a liquor chain wine conscious. He was a great story teller, and there was nothing about wine he didn't know and wouldn't share. His Chicago Tribune obit is here.
George J. Schaefer died at 64 on October 17. To
me, George was a competitor at first, then a role model, then a
drinking buddy, and then a client. George and his sister Gene ran
Schaefer's Wines, Foods & Spirits in Skokie IL. I first met him in
the early 1970s when I was hired by Foremost and they stationed me in their Skokie store. He was the big
dawg in the midwest's finest wine shoppe, and I was trying to compete
with him. His trademarks were quality wines carefully selected, knowledgeable staff, great
service, and philanthropy. He did a lot of charity work. He also had a great sense of humor. His Griswold Award, named after the Chevy Chase character in the movie Christmas Vacation, was give to his Evanston neighbor with the tackiest Christmas decorations. After I left Foremost we
often dined and tasted together, and two years ago he hired me to
retool his website and add ecommerce. He was a class act.
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| CORRECTION |
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 There were some problems with my spiedies recipe. Spiedies are marvelous marinated and grilled chunks of lamb, beef, or pork.
Much of the recipe got truncated somehow. I blame it on a computer glitch, not the fact that I'm a lousy typist. I've fixed the problem and here's the complete, untruncated recipe. They're great. Try them.
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CAN YOU DIGG IT?
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 DIGG is a really useful website. People tell DIGG about their favorite websites and the top rated DIGG sites are usually pretty cool places. A top-rated site on DIGG gets a lot of traffic. I have recently added a DIGG button to my pages. If you dig my site, DIGG it by clicking on the link near the top of each page, please! |
BLOG: THOUGHT FOR FOOD
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 Dear Santa:
Since Christmas comes soon after the elections, I'm hoping that you'll deliver my gift a little early this year. I only want one thing, but I have a very specific list of features it must have: I want a good president. That means I want a president who...
To read my latest rant, click here.
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VISIT THE AMAZINGRIBS.COM GIFT SHOP
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 Order cool gear from AmazingRibs.com including aprons, hats, shirts, sweatshirts, intimate wear, and other apparel for men, women, kids and pets. I also have beer mugs, posters, clocks, and other tschotschkes.
Select from a number of fun captions: Nice Rack!, Porknography, Hot & Juicy, Suck bones!, Eat me!, Succulent, Got ribs?, Allčz Barbecue, Jeet?, BBQ Goddess, BBQ God, Saucy, iRibs. To see the entire selection at CafePress.com, just click here.
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