Dutch Oven Barbecue Pork Spare Ribs

3 to 4 slabs of pork spare ribs
vegetable oil
black pepper
1 pint barbecue sauce
2 cups water, juice or broth, (for steaming/simmering)

Prepare charcoal grill for ash white hot coals and maximum grill height for slow browning.

While coals are burning down, split slab ribs into individual rib pieces and swab with cooking oil. Pepper liberally and then brown on both sides. Do not pre-boil ribs. (If you insist, need to cut cooking time, afford the loss of some flavor, etc. go ahead and boil them first.)

Prepare deep 12-inch Dutch oven by placing an inverted pie pan or trivet into oven bottom. This prevents ribs on the bottom from sticking and burning. You may line Dutch oven with aluminum foil to ease clean up chores. (I don't. I like the added flavor from cooking directly in the old iron Dutch oven) Add briquettes to the fire as necessary.

Place Dutch oven on the charcoal grill and add the browned ribs. When the pot is half full of ribs I add BBQ sauce (or add water to prevent drying out while simmering) to those on the bottom only. Continue loading the oven with the browned ribs. The steaming sauce flavors the bottom ribs thoroughly and the top ribs somewhat less.

Slow cook/simmer ribs covered, about 2-3 hours or until meat begins to fall off bone.