San Luis Obispo: Old County Deli Dry Rub Beef Ribs.

This recipe is very important to me. As a kid younger than 6 years old, my parents would get these special beef ribs from the farmers market and a special local deli in an area called San Luis Obispo in the area I was born in Central California. I would return every once in a while and camp on the way up from college in Orange County. While not entirely known for it, San Luis Obispo is a hot bed for Oak pit BBQ and has been ingrained in me since I was a kid. I've taken a friend or two a couple of times, and made it an adventure. Luckily once I took a friend and Cordon Blu chef, Jonathan Damron. Much later it was my great desire to take my wife and share with her my tradition.... However when we had arrive they had closed and gone out of business years since.

Making the SLO Old County Deli Beef Ribs has become one of my life's ambitions. Last weekend I fulfilled this item on my list.

Time to make: a while! Start the night before, slow roast for 3-5 hours.
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

Materials:

• Brine Solution  (The Zen of Brines)
• 5 gallon bucket
• Salt
• Dry Rub (A little on Dry Rubs)
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper
• Porterhouse Roast
• Onion Powder
• Barbecue
• Hickory Woodchips
• Kensington Charcoal and Hickory flakes.
• Drippings pan
• Barbecue with air vents in the bottom.
• Tin Foil.
• Meat
• 1-2 half racks (about 6 ribs a piece)

Directions:

• Night before:  

• Make a brine solution. Take 1 quart hot water, and 2/3rds a cup of the salt to it. Dump into bucket. Add 2 quarts cold water. Continue until the ribs are completely covered in the bucket. I use a 5 gallon bucket which means around 5 times. Yes.. that means you need to have around 4 cups of salt.
• Early Afternoon: about 4 hours before you want to be ready for dinner.

• Start the coals. 
• Put the Hickory Woodships in a tub of water to soak for about 15 minutes.
• After they've soaked, wrap them in the tinfoil, creating a pouch for them. 
• Put the soaked woodchips inside, and close the pouches.
• Cut small slots in the what you want to be the 'top' of the pouches
  
• Take the ribs out of the Brine, put them on a large platter and season both sides with the spices. Go a bit heavy on the Poterhouse Roast, Medium on the Pepper and Onion Powder, and a bit lite on the salt considering the ribs have been soaking in it.  In the end however it's ALWAYS to YOUR TASTE.
• The coals should be going ,and hopefully have had a little time to cool. Put the Tinfoil pouches in the coals, place dripping pan over the coals. 
• This is important: Placing the dripping pan over the coals causes the ribs to only be cooked by INDIRECT heat. Direct heat will cook them too fast and cause them to be tough. You want these guys to roast for several hours and be nice and tender. The brine will also help to that end.
• But the grill back on over the dripping pan, and place the ribs on the grill.
  
• The goal is to keep the grill between 180 and 275 degrees. You'll have to check them about every 15 minutes. The ribs will begin to pull away from the tips of the bone as they are nearing ready. Start with fat side down, to get the coals at their hottest point to sear the fat juices into the meat and flip after maybe the first 1/2 hour. 
• Make sure to close the lid, to keep the smoke coming from the wood chips in and getting to the meat.
• After at least 3 hours
• The ribs should be ultra tender, and easily pull away from the bone, and be separated by a knife from the rack. The spices should be visibly cooking into the meat. 
  

Enjoy and Eat! Mildly messy, but not as bad as a wet rub. We like to add cobs of corn to the grill and baste them in butter and garlic salt.