A marinade for pork ribs?

Peter Principle

Got a bbq today at someone else's house (so I'll need to travel with the food), I guess I need to marinate these ribs? Someone told me that you should only marinate like a 1/2 hour before you cook. Advice and suggestions appreciated.

When I get my marinade made, what should I put the ribs in? Ziplock bags?

I've got a fairly well stocked kitchen, and it would be nice to just make it with what I've got on hand, but I can freely travel to the grocery store and exchange money for goods and services as need.

It's about 6 lbs of pork ribs, bone in.

matt has a problem

Ziploc bags work well, you can squeeze the air out of them so the marinade is in contact with all the meat. I've never heard the "don't marinate until 30 minutes before" line though, honestly the longer you let it marinate the more flavor gets into the meat. The one thing you want to be careful with though are marinades and sauces with a lot of sugar, most BBQ sauces have loads of brown sugar after all, and sugar likes to burn very quickly on the grill. You want to wait until the last 15-30 minutes or so of cooking to brush the ribs with any kind of sugary sauce, to prevent burning.

As for what to put in the marinade, go nuts. Popular things of course would be a garlic/mustard/vinegar/tomato type marinade, but really any flavor you like, throw it in the bag and let the meat soak it up.

Peter Principle

I should probably point out that I've never made a marinade in my life. Do I use water, and then add ingredients?

matt has a problem

If you just use dry ingredients it would be called a "rub", using wet ingredients or adding water to the dry ingredients makes it a marinade, both are acceptable though.

brain operator

I use this more for chops than ribs, but my personal favourite for pork is pineapple juice, rum and brown sugar. You can marinade way longer than half an hour (the usual option is to leave the meat marinading overnight in the fridge), and I certainly wouldn't give it any less than that.

Scratchy

Probably too late to help you out today but if you're looking for an easy marinade that's pretty good I'd recommend 5 parts soy sauce to 1 part lemon juice with a tablespoon of brown sugar for a single rack of ribs. Chop em and throw em in a freezer bag and ensure they are completely covered.

Great for baby backs but for country ribs you should probably use something else since I consider those more of a "dipping in bbq sauce" kind o rib.

Edit: just wanted to also second that the longer you marinade, the more flavor you get in a rib. When adding something heavy in sugar you generally do it after it's been cooking for a good while and you just want it to glaze over. Like the above poster said it burns very quickly.

Improvolone

The best ribs I ever had were cooked with a glaze made from reduced Cherry Dr. Pepper

Peter Principle

In case anyone's wondering, I put in about yea much garlic powder, a goodly squirt of mustard, several splashes of vinegar, and many shakes of seasoning salt. I added enough water to soluabalize the mess, sealed the ziplock, and shook it up so it was all evenly mixed. I then broke the seal, squished the air out, and re-sealed. They sat for about 4 or 5 hours, and then we bbq'd 'em in the usual fashion. They came out quite good, but probably should have marinaded at least over night.

mts

yea marinading things like ribs the longer the better, plus make sure you poke some wholes for better penetration. i personally like to do a rub on my ribs

use chili powder, salt pepper, brown sugar, cayanne,

then bake at 375 until the bones start showing
finish on indirect heat while basting with bbq sauce

Sir Headless VII

It is possible to over-marinate meat but it happens if you are marinating with something especially acidic or salty (or if the flavor is too strong). If you stick with standard spices or herbs in a liquid without too much salt it will be fine (until of course the meats is no longer fresh).

ASimPerson

I generally apply a rub to my ribs the night before I plan to cook them. I've never heard of using a wet marinade for ribs until this thread.

In general, you need 2 parts brown sugar, 2 parts chili powder, 1 part paprika, and a little salt. Anything you add beyond that is up to you.

Peter Principle

The wet marinade seemed to work well. Would eat again. I think next time I'll use this food syringe someone bought me - called The Cajun Injector - to totally Inject the Wet Flavor. It will be euphalicious.