Instructions: Q. I think my little brother is nuts! He says you must parboil spare ribs before you roast or grill them. Is he kidding? I never heard of this before. I will admit his spare ribs always are fantastic, but, if you parboil them, wont they turn tough?

A. Well, your brothers certainly not from the South, is he? And were guessing he fires up one of those little ol gas grills to cook those ribs, doesnt he?

Youve pretty much stepped into the heart of the barbecue debate. Traditional barbecue involves slow cooking meat over the indirect or very low heat of a fire until it falls apart and melts in your mouth - no matter how long that takes Thats why people make pilgrimages to Kansas City and Memphis. In fact, youll find a whole lot of people who will tell you that thats what barbecue is, and any other method or anything involving a shortcut is not barbecue.

So there are many people whod swear your brother is not serving barbecue, but parboiled ribs that briefly touched a girlie-man gas grill. But your brother is also right - just not for the reason you think.

Ribs and all tough cuts of meat have a lot of strong tissue that holds the muscle together and binds it to the bone. It has a lot of flavor, but this connective tissue is only softened by long, gentle cooking. This can be accomplished several ways. One is to keep the grill stoked and barbecue the meat for hours. Par-boiling for two or three hours is a method many people use, after which they add some sauce, grill for 10 minutes and call it barbecue. (You parboil until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. If you go much beyond that, it will dry out and lose all flavor.)

But Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison, authors of Born to Grill and many dozens of other smoking/grilling/barbecuing books, say parboiling leaves too much of the meats flavor in the water. If you dont have the time, patience or equipment to barbecue ribs properly, they say, marinate the meat or apply a dry rub, wrap it in foil, bake it for an hour or so at 300 F (150 C) in the oven, then refrigerate it for several more hours. Finally grill it over medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes, turning occasionally, and slathering with sauce (they dont actually use the word slathering) in the last five minutes.

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