Brown Paper Bag Ribs
This brown paper bag rib recipe is more of a technique then a recipe. It’s super easy and can be adjusted to your preferred rib cooking style, whether it be the oven, BBQ or smoker. What this isn’t, is a slow cooked rib recipe. I use the brown paper bag technique when I am cooking the ribs fast with a super high heat. And, while I do love fall of the bone now and then, I prefer my ribs to have a good layer of crispy bark on them. And you don’t need a smoker or BBQ to achieve this, it’s absolutely doable in your oven.
Equipment
- Brown paper bags (new)
Ingredients
- USA style pork ribs
- BBQ sauce of your choice
Instructions
- Remove ribs from fridge 1 hour before starting your cook.
- Preheat oven to 250°C fan forced.
- Portion the racks from the bony side of the rack (see notes).
- Generously salt and pepper the meaty side.
- Place ribs upside down on a broiler pan with low sides. Make sure you keep space between the portions of ribs. You may need more than one pan (rotate the pans through the cook).
- Roast for 15 minutes or until the bottom side of the ribs starts to crisp up and turn golden brown.
- Remove the pan or pans from the oven and turn the ribs over and return to the oven. Swap oven shelves at this point if using more than one pan.
- Roast for another 10-15 minutes until the ribs start to get crisp edges and are a dark golden brown.
- Remove ribs from oven and baste both sides generously with the BBQ sauce of your choice.
- Return ribs to the oven cook for another 5-7 minutes until the BBQ sauce gets glossy and starts to char. Remember to rotate the pans.
- Get out your paper bags and leave them opened up on the kitchen bench.
- Remove ribs from oven and baste them a final time with the BBQ sauce.
- Using tongs, gently place ribs in the paper bags. Do not crowd them.
- Leaving the bags expanded and full of air, tightly roll down the top of the bag a couple of times to seal in the ribs.
- Let the ribs steam and rest for 10-15 minutes and then serve.
Just before you cook with abandon…
How many ribs per person? I have purposely left the amount of ribs out of this recipe and noting the servings as ‘flexible.’ Trying to nail a serving size of ribs is nigh impossible. In my house, I have known my son to polish off two full racks of ribs. And on the other end of the spectrum, some young women appear to have a limit of six ribs in total. I lie somewhere in between depending on the control I am trying to exhibit at the table. I’ve probably polished off two racks of baby back ribs in my day but I’ve certainly gone back for more after one rack! So have a think about the appetites coming to your table and work it out from there.
How do I prepare a rack of ribs? There’s really not much to it for this brown paper bag rib recipe. You don’t want to be marinading the ribs before you cook them but a dry rub in advance is fine. The most contentious aspect of my technique is that I do not remove the membrane that covers the underside (bony side) of the ribs. Butchers and BBQ experts make it look easy, as they pull the membrane away in one piece. This has never worked for me. If you are a gluten for punishment, you can try and remove the membrane. I have been trying for 40 years and rarely get all the membrane off. And funnily enough my family quite enjoys the extra crunch of the membrane with this method of cooking. I also portion my ribs into three bone pieces with meat on either side of the bone. You can keep the racks whole if you choose. The ribs will come out slightly juicer but will not be as crispy. Cut from the bony side so you can easily find the gap between the bones. And, if you are like me and are a “well done fries girl” you can cut the racks into individual ribs. The ribs turn out super crispy and are extremely morish.
Why a brown paper bag? Well it’s environmentally friendly isn’t it! And yes, never plastic, in this case. You want the bag to absorb the grease from the ribs as it's steaming them. And you also want to be able to put the bag in a low oven. It can be held at 100°C for about an hour. Make sure your bags are new / not used. Pick a couple extra up when you buy the ribs.
Can I swap in different types of ribs? This brown paper bag rib recipe uses USA pork ribs, also known as baby back ribs, but the technique works just as well with pork spareribs (called St Louis ribs in the USA) and lamb riblets. I would not recommend using beef short ribs as they really need a long slow cook to get a tender result.
Why roast ribs at a high temperature? If you are roasting the ribs in your oven, you want to preheat it to 250°C fan forced. I roast virtually all my meat on the bone at this temperature, with a few exceptions. This allows the meat to form a crispy outer layer while sealing the moisture inside. And the method works exceptionally well when the joint or cut of meat is quite small and thin, such as with the pork ribs. But when using this method, it is important not to add any sugary sauces or glazes until towards the end of the cook and after the meat comes out of the oven.