Here's How Michael Symon Can Tell When Spare Ribs Are Perfectly Cooked

Michael Symon knows his BBQ. We turn to this celebrity chef, restaurateur, and New York Times bestselling author for culinary tips of all sorts, like how to rock the addition of hot honey to frozen pizza, or the best way to clean a cast iron skillet. Symon, however, really thrives when it comes to barbecue. One of his restaurants, Mabel's BBQ, has earned numerous accolades, and he's headlined the Food Network show "Burgers, Brew & 'Que," showcasing his approachable style of cooking outside.

In a clip from "BBQ USA," also on Food Network, Symon showcases his method for grilling spare ribs (which shouldn't be confused with baby rack ribs!), and tells viewers the exact way to know when they are cooked to perfection. Basically, when you bite into spare ribs, your bite mark should be visible, and the meat shouldn't quite fall off the bone, although there should definitely be some slippage. 

In his clip, Symon smokes some spare ribs, also known as the St. Louis cut, in the Kansas style. He prepares his spare ribs by removing the silverskin and lightly massaging the cut with a BBQ rub. Symon then puts them in an offset smoker for four hours, making sure to mist them with a spray bottle of apple cider vinegar and cider vinegar every 20 minutes. His method is well-honed, as you can tell, but he knows he's achieved BBQ rib perfection when he sinks his teeth into the rib and reveals the half-moon crescent left by his teeth. Proving that your ribs are cooked just right couldn't be easier!

At Mabel's BBQ, his award-winning eatery, Michael Symon kicks his pork spare ribs up several notches by treating them exquisitely with a combination of preparation and execution. Before he opened Mabel's, he toured the United States and gleaned tips on rib artistry from some pros that he esteemed among all others. On "Good Morning America," Symon shared some of his hard-won secrets to spare rib glory. First of all: pickle juice. He glazes his smoked ribs in a syrup of pickle juice (sometimes a spicy variety) and brown sugar for tang. Secondly — and this one is really surprising — he doesn't subscribe to the notion that perfectly-cooked ribs are falling off the bone. If they are, he claims, the ribs are actually overdone. This goes back to him saying that the ideal ribs should still have some bite to them and not fall apart on your fork.

Michael Symon is definitely a worthy source when it comes to the topic of spare ribs. It seems as if every BBQ chef, from pro to amateur, thinks they have unlocked every secret to making ribs that impress, but Symon has real cred. We appreciate the fact that he isn't afraid to rock the boat a bit, challenging widely-accepted ideas about doneness and what, exactly, constitutes "perfectly cooked" spare ribs.