For these pumpkin butter ribs we take a slab of pork spare ribs, trim them out to be St. Louis style ribs and then season the slab. The ribs are smoked on a kamado grill before being dropped into a foil boat with pumpkin butter and regular butter and smoked some more. The foil boat ribs simmer in the slurry of butter and pumpkin butter while still drawing in smoke due to the open-top foil boat. They leave the foil and smoke a bit longer to firm up the bark and then are served, with the pumpkin butter slurry poured over the top.

Foil Boat Ribs or Pumpkin Butter Ribs — GrillinFools Images ©

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Pumpkin Butter Ribs? Really? I know, I know. Enough with the pumpkin flavors. Everything is pumpkin spiced. Coffee, beer, muffins, scones, even some tortilla chips. I’m not kidding on that last one. They aren’t all bad. OK, I have a problem. I admit it. If you don’t want to be sucked into the pumpkin fad, go with apple butter. Or peach butter, or whatever sweet/fruit butter you find at the local farmers market which is where I found the pumpkin butter. Or simply go with barbecue sauce. But if you want a pumpkin ribs recipe, I’m here for you.

How about Pumpkin Spice Ribs where I actually marinate the ribs in a pumpkin spice latte?

An Alternate to the 3 2 1 Method

Also, this is an alternative to the 3-2-1 method that is so popular with many BBQ enthusiasts. The 3-2-1 method means 3 hours in the smoke, 2 hours in foil (or butcher paper) to steam in some sort of added liquid, and 1 hour back in the smoke. The 3-2-1 ribs method is not my favorite. Ribs should not steam for 2 hours. A better method is more like 1.5-.75-.5 method but that does not sound nearly as good as 3-2-1 method. Just because the name sounds great doesn’t mean the method is great.

Pumpkin Butter Ribs Ingredients:

1 slab of St. Louis style spare ribs (substitute baby back ribs if you are so inclined)
Salt to taste
Your favorite sweet BBQ rub (we used Fergolicious Sweet Luv)
1/2 stick of salted butter
4 ounces pumpkin butter (or whatever fruit/gourd butter you prefer)
Aluminum foil

Indeed, this is a fairly simple pumpkin rib recipe.

The only twist to this recipe is that instead of slathering each rack of ribs in sweetness and wrapping in foil, we line a foil boat with sweetness and set our ribs on top.

Let’s get to this one.

Pumpkin Butter Ribs Prep

Begin by skinning the spare ribs. Remove the membrane off the bone side of the ribs (paper towels are your friends here).

Then season the ribs with salt and seasoning, bone side up:

Always Start Bone Side Up

Why bone side up? Because the curve of the bone. Once these ribs are flipped over to season the meat side.

This will keep the underside of the slab from touching the cutting board. If the meat were to touch the cutting board, the seasoning would stick to the board and require a reapplication.

Then flip over and repeat on the meat side:

Let’s back up a little. What does it mean these are St. Louis style ribs? St. Louis style ribs are just spare ribs trimmed up into a nice pretty rectangle. These are pretty much a staple on the competition circuit because each rack of ribs cook more evenly and consistently. I normally prefer baby back ribs, but these were considerably cheaper at my local grocer so I went with the ribs named after my hometown.

How to Cook Pork Spare Ribs

Now it’s time to crank up my kamado grill. I placed coals on one side of the divider on the bottom of that ceramic cooker, stoked up the fire to an internal temp of about 275F and chucked a couple chunks of white oak onto the coals. I added the slab of ribs to the side of the kamado with no coals and closed the lid.

For some reason I didn’t get a shot of the ribs hitting the grill for the first time despite dad and I both taking pics on a cell phone and DSLR.

But here are the ribs about an hour in:

Bones are starting to peek out at the end there.

At about the 2 hour mark (not three hours like the 3-2-1 method), it’s time to make foil boat ribs, which means we need a foil boat.

OK, maybe barge is a better descriptor.

We created a foil boat/vessel a little larger than the ribs with a 1/2 – 1 inch lip around the edge and dropped in a half stick of butter and the pumpkin butter:

Foil Boat Ribs Back on the Grill

Then we positioned the foil boat ribs onto the side of the kamado grill with no coals and placed the ribs meat side down, right on top of that butter and pumpkin butter:

After about 20 minutes back in the kamado, the bones at the end looked like this:

And the pumpkin slurry is combining nicely:

Bones jumping out of the slab

We rotated the foil boat ribs 180 degrees and when we checked them about 15 minutes later the bones had jumped out of the meat:

You can see how the bottom three are darker for the first half inch or so and then much lighter in color the rest of the length of the bones. This is because the lighter color section hasn’t had a chance to be discolored by the smoke.

In my head, I imagine it sounded like Wolverine extending his claws but I didn’t hear it when it happened because the lid of the kamado was closed.

Farther down the line of bones, they are clean and white from top to bottom:

The bones stuck out that much after only 35 minutes in a foil barge. Thus, I think this is absolute proof that the 3-2-1 method is entirely too long on all three numbers.

Like I always say, the bones know. Don’t watch the clock. And you don’t even need to watch the thermometer. Just watch the bones. When they stick out this much, the ribs are done.

Here’s one more shot of those clean, white bones after I took the ribs out of the foil and set them on the side with no heat as I wanted the butter/pumpkin butter to thicken a bit before I served:

DO NOT throw away the pumpkin butter sauce:

This gooey mess is a flavor bomb waiting to blow:

After another 20-30 minutes in the smoke, the pumpkin butter ribs are ready to serve:

I’m your Sugar Daddy

That shirt seems appropriate indeed!

Finally, slice the ribs and slather that pumpkin butter slurry all over the slab:

I think they came out rather well!

Pumpkin Butter Ribs Recap:

These foil boat ribs ended up right between competition style (tender but still firm forming a clean bite) and fall off the bone (self explanatory). This may be my favorite way to prepare ribs although the perfect balance between competition and fall off the bone is hard to duplicate for every cookout.

The flavor of the ribs are well nuanced with a number of subtleties in the profile. Furthermore, the savory and richness of the regular butter helps to even out the sweetness of the rub and the pumpkin butter sauce. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy them, but my kids mowed down the rest of the slab after I sampled a couple. I also saved quite a bit of time over the 3-2-1 ribs method.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about these pumpkin butter ribs, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

If you have any questions or comments about these foil boat ribs, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

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Pumpkin Butter Ribs

The pumpkin flavors of fall on the grill with these Pumpkin Butter Ribs: These foil boat ribs are seasoned and smoked then slathered with pumpkin butter

Prep Time10

Cook Time5

Total Time5 10

Course: Entree, Finger Food, Ribs

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ, Finger Food, Grilling, Pork, Ribs

Keyword: #Grilled, 3 2 1 Ribs, 3-2-1 Method, Barbecue, Barbecue Ribs, BBQ, BBQ Ribs, Foil Boat Ribs, Foiled Ribs, Grill, Grilling, Indirect Grilling, Kamado, Kamado Grill, Pork Spare Ribs, Primo Grill, Primo Kamado Grill, Pumpkin Butter, Pumpkin Ribs, Pumpkin Spice, Pumpkin Spice Ribs, Ribs, Spare Ribs, St. Louis Style Ribs, Two Zone Grilling

Equipment

aluminum foil

Ingredients

1 slab St. Louis style spare ribs
Salt to taste
your favorite sweet BBQ rub (we used Fergolicious Sweet Luv)
4 tbsp salted butter (½ stick)
4 oz pumpkin butter or whatever fruit butter you prefer

Instructions

Skin the ribs of the membrane from the bone side and season with salt and the rub on both sides (starting with the bone side first)
Prepare the grill for two zone or indirect grilling with coals on one side and the meat on the other
Target temp inside my Primo Ceramic Grill was 275
Place the seasoned ribs on the side with no coals and a couple chunks of white oak on the coals
Close the lid and smoke for about 2 hours and then prepare the foil boat/barge/vessel which is slighter larger than the slab
Place the half stick of butter and pumpkin butter in the foil boat
Set the foil boat on the side of the grill with no heat and set the ribs, meat side down on top of the butter/pumpkin butter slurry
Close the lid and let the ribs go for 40-60 minutes until the bones jut out well over a half inch
Once the bones come out, slice and drizzle the butter/pumpkin butter concoction over the sliced ribs and serve

Video

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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