Rib tips last night from Hickory’s. Little char, too chewy, precious little evidence of smoke. Sauce OK but one-dimensional (dimension: tang). Sunk in the triangle between steakhouse ribs, grilled meat, and actual barbecue.
Steakhouse ribs are a staple in Chicago. They are nearly always baby-back ribs. Not flavorful, but easy to get, as high-rise pig farms in Denmark export tons.
Steakhouse ribs are parboiled, coated in sauce, and finished in a broiler. Ideally, the sauce is carmelized onto the meat. The ribs may also see some smoke at some point.
I don’t eat steakhouse ribs that often. Twin Anchors, for example, is well-regarded, but I found their ribs to be bland and their sauce to be laden with corn syrup and what tasted like fake smoke.
Carson’s, however, has credible steakhouse ribs that have contented me on occasions when the drive to Lem’s was too much.
The best actual barbecue in Chicago is Lem’s, handily.
Lem’s sauce is marvelous and to my taste. It is tomato-based (ketchup) but vinegary, made of regular kitchen ingredients (no liquid smoke).
I prefer ‘mixed,’ which is equal parts of the ‘mild’ and ‘hot’ sauces. You can get ‘mixed’ on whatever meat you buy there. You can only buy one or the other by the gallon. We get ‘mild’ in jugs.
Small ends and tips: normally transcendent, always at least very good. The pinnacle achievement at Lem’s is an astounding hot link.
Indescribably coarse, the link splits down the middle when cooked, yielding a panoply of touchstone pork flavors. Seared skin, unctuous fat, moist leg and rib meat, gristle. A wonder among the wonders of pig.
Lem’s uses an aquarium smoker over what is in essence a hardwood campfire. Quite high heat. The meat is moved around a fair amount to vary the amount of heat it gets. Most barbecue, of course, is cooked slowly at low heat, but Lem’s has proven out a high-heat barbecuing concept that works.
The meat is kept in the smoker until ordered. On ordering, it is cut up as appropriate. Slabs are dunked in sauce. Tips and links are brushed with sauce, using what appears to be a regular nylon-bristle paint brush. Base layer in the cardboard boats is white bread. Fries next, then meat.
The smoker, prep area, and cashier are in one room. The room is half-full of wood smoke. The line is on the other side of thick plexiglass. Money goes through a slot, and the meat goes through a little door.