Otay...I happen to be an avid BBQer. Here is how you can make them yourself:
Get a bullet style water smoker. (Great for beginners and cheap)
Something like this: http://www.barbecue-smoker-grill.com/smgrch.html or this: http://www.shopperschoice.com/item_name_Meco-5023I-Black-Charcoal-Water-Smoker_path_3-51-2110-2129-2167_item_4711.html
This one is the Cadillac of this style, but some people actually use them for competition cooking:
Get an electronic oven thermometer (One with the probe on a braided metal cord - wrap the cord in foil or it will get ruined. Have the probe at the level of the meat. Stick it in under the lid.)
Keep the BBQ temp at 225 ish (10 or 15 degrees higher or lower is fine) Add charcoal as needed. Keep water in the water pan. Adjust the vents to increase/decrease air flow and control the level of fire, and the temps. Top vents cool when open, bottom vents increase burn, and thus temps.
Night before pull the white membrane from the bone side with a pair of clean pliers. (Spare ribs only please - baby backs have 1/3 the flavor of spare ribs. Trust me on this. Most of that beautiful juiciness and superb mouth feel you get is from the connective tissues that break down during the low temp slow BBQ. Baby backs lack the connective tissues, and just don’t compare in flavor either.) Apply your rub. Leave in fridge overnight to allow the rub to penetrate.
(this isnt a bad rub:
* 4 tablespoons brown or turbanado sugar (since you BBQ low, the sugar never burns and is ok)
* 2 tablespoons ground paprika
* 1 tablespoon white sugar
* 1 tablespoon garlic salt
* 1 tablespoon celery salt
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
* 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
* 1 teaspoon curry powder )
Making the ribs takes 6 hours. The steps are always 3 hrs 2 hrs and 1 hr. 3 over smoke, 2 in foil to get the melt in your mouth qualities and let the collagen fully liquefy, and one back over smoke to firm the meat back up a tad and allow it to shrink back from the bones.
When you make the fire, light a couple of quarts of charcoal off on the side, pack the smoker with unlit charcoal (less 2 quarts room) and then pour the lit charcoal on top of the unlit. This gives you a nice slow fire that doesn’t often need tending. Add wood for flavor. Add the wood so as to get a light white smoke coming from the smoker... no more. Make sure it is well seasoned wood or you will get a nasty creosote taste on everything. Hickory chunks are available here at walmarts, etc. and works nicely, but I prefer fruit woods for pork. I get a quarter rick of apple wood from a local orchard every year.
Dont soak the wood. Let it burn. You want good and pretty complete combustion, not incomplete.
If you make your ribs like this you wont need or want BBQ sauce. They will be to die/cry for.
Just remeber 3hr on smoke, 2hr in tightly wrapped foil, and 1hr back over smoke. (I add half an apple juice concentrate can in the foil, but it isn’t needed. Also, make sure you foil the inside of your water bowl or it will be a pain in the neck to clean.
Don’t use Mesquite... you can use it when grilling, but if you try and smoke with it it is too strong. It will bitter the meat and be nasty.
ps. Throw a whole layer of taters prepped as if you are going to bake them, and fill that bottom rack. You have no idea how good smoked potato salad is, or eating them like bakers. Nuke them a bit and make mash is another option.
I do look at the smokers whenever I go to Home Depot and fantasize about how it would look on my deck. I have to go this weekend and maybe they will be marked down because it is end of the season. I can't even imagine being able to figure out the thermometer!
Your recipe sounds so delicious I may have to try it. My kids would be forever in your debt because my ribs are always dry.
Thanks