BBQ Pork Ribs

Method

1. prep10 min
   membrane peeled off the bone side — the skipped step
   a butter knife slipped under the silvery membrane at one end, gripped with a paper towel, and peeled off in one sheet — the step every source begs for and every disappointing rack skipped: the membrane blocks the rub, blocks the smoke-adjacent flavors, and chews like packing tape
2. cure30 min
   rubbed all over, 30 minutes to overnight
   brown sugar + paprika + garlic + onion + salt + pepper + cayenne massaged into both sides — the dry-brine logic of the roast turkey at rib scale; overnight uncovered deepens everything
3. bake150 min
   275°F, wrapped tight in foil, meat-side down
   each rack sealed in its foil packet — the wrap is the oven's answer to the smoker's humidity: the ribs braise in their own rendered fat and rub-syrup until the collagen surrenders; 2½ hours for bite-through, 3 for fall-off, and the packet juice is liquid gold for the sauce
4. glaze25 min
   unwrapped, sauced, 425°F — two coats
   racks unwrapped onto the sheet, painted with the catalog's bbq sauce loosened with a spoonful of packet juice, back into a hot oven — a second coat at the halfway mark — until the sauce sets to a tacky lacquer with charred edges; the broiler's last two minutes are the smoker's bark, translated
5. rest10 min
   tented, then cut BETWEEN the bones
   ten minutes, then a sharp knife straight down between bones, bone-side up so the gaps show — served with more sauce and the vinegar slaw, whose acid is not a side but the other half of the plate's chemistry