Memphis Dry Rub Ribs

Memphis — the BBQ capital of Tennessee and the city that hosts the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest — is defined by two rib traditions: dry rub (ribs coated in a spice mixture and smoked without sauce, the crust of caramelised spice becoming the flavour) and wet (ribs basted and finished with a sweet, tomato-based sauce). The dry rub tradition is the more technically interesting and the one that distinguished Memphis from every other BBQ city: the rub's composition, its application, and the bark it forms during the 4-6 hour smoke are the pitmaster's signature. The Rendezvous (Charlie Vergos, since 1948) established the dry rib as a Memphis icon. The Black pitmasters of the Beale Street and Orange Mound neighbourhoods — including the Payne family, the Tillman family, and the cooks of Cozy Corner — developed and refined the technique in the same segregated tradition as every other regional BBQ style.

Pork spare ribs (or St. Louis cut — spare ribs with the rib tips trimmed for a uniform rectangle) coated thickly in a dry spice rub and smoked over charcoal and hickory (Memphis uses hickory as its signature wood, unlike Texas's post oak or Carolina's oak mix) at 110-125°C for 4-6 hours until the spice crust has formed a dark, deeply caramelised bark and the meat has pulled back from the bone tips by approximately 1cm. The ribs should be tender enough that the meat pulls cleanly from the bone with a tug but doesn't fall off on its own — the "pull test." Falling-off-the-bone ribs are overcooked in Memphis.

Dry ribs on butcher paper. Coleslaw. Baked beans. White bread. Cold beer. If sauce is present, it's on the side — a sweet, tomato-based Memphis sauce that is thinner and tangier than Kansas City style.