We take a couple slabs of spare ribs, fat trimmed and membrane removed, and carve them into two bone, party ribs. We then slathered the ribs in a home made sweet mollasses and stout beer BBQ sauce. Rather than single bone ribs, we do pairs which still increases the bark to meat ratio over a full slab, but also allows for more smoke penetration before the sweet smoky party ribs are ready to serve.

Sweet Smoky Party Ribs
What are Party Ribs?
Pork ribs, either baby backs or spares, carved into one-bone or two-bone portions and smoked individually on the grill.
Why Party Ribs?
When a full slab is smoked and carved into individual ribs, the sides of the ribs have no bark, seasoning or sauce on them. When carving into party ribs, there is bark all the way around. The downside is they don’t cook as long as a full slab and thus don’t take on as much smoke, but this is a rather minor difference.
Party ribs have become something of a trend on social media, at least in terms of the grilling and BBQ world. I was intrigued when I first saw them thinking they wouldn’t take much time at all to cook. I normally grill my ribs at around 300F and cook baby backs for 2-2.5 hours and spares 2.5-3 hours. Well, party ribs still take 90-105 minutes. So just short of 2 hours. These double party ribs took 2.5 hours at 275F.
I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Grandma’s® Molasses for partnering with us on this recipe. I’ve had more fun with this ingredient than just about anything else. It marries so well with barbecue. Sweet and smoky! What’s not to love?
This is our second foray into the party ribs game. I did these traditional party ribs not that long ago. Dad put his own twist on party ribs with hot honey soon after. Both of those were the traditional single rib portion.
If you want to go with the more traditional full slab method, but want to take the above and beyond, I give you blowtorch ribs.
Although, if you are tight on space on your grill, may I suggest rolling the ribs to make more room?
And finally, how about checking out our foil boat ribs.
Alright, back to the recipe at hand. These sweet smoky party ribs!
Sweet Smoky Party Ribs Ingredients
- 2 slabs of untrimmed spare ribs
- Salt
- Your favorite BBQ seasoning
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- Sesame seeds for garnish
BBQ Sauce
- 1/4 cup Grandma’s® Molasses**
- 1 1/4 cups ketchup
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice (substitute apple cider)
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- 1 tsp ancho chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 6-8 ounces of stout beer
**Grandma’s® Molasses partnered with us on this recipe which is ideal for this recipe because the molasses is sweet and smoky and that’s exactly what I’m going for here. Hence the title: Sweet Smoky Party Ribs.
Pre the Ribs
Begin the process by prepping the ribs
First, remove the membranes off the backs and trim any globs of fat off either side of the slabs:

Skinning Ribs

Paper Towels are your Friend
The membrane on the back of ribs is indeed really, really slippery. Indeed, paper towels help a ton to get a good grip.
That being said, you can do it sans towel:

No Paper Towel
If there is any excess globs of fat, remove that and then flop them over to the bone side (where the membrane was that I just pulled off) and trim away that little flap of meat which is called the Inside Skirt of the ribs:

Inside Skirt
The inside skirt may be my favorite part of the pig.
We like to cook them up while the ribs are smoking and have a snack along the way that we like to call, “Nibblers.” You can see this cut of pork cooked properly and coming off the grill in this video:
Then carve the ribs into two bone pairs:

Spares carved into Party Ribs
Once the ribs are cut into pairs of bones, season with salt and your favorite BBQ Rub:

Salting the Ribs

Seasoning the Ribs with a BBQ Rub
Flip the party ribs over and then salt and season on the other side.’
Further, dab the sides of the ribs in any excess seasoning on the cutting board:

Ribs with the Sides Seasoned
How to Grill Party Ribs
Skin the membrane off the back of the ribs and trim off any excess globs of fat. Carve the ribs into single bone or double bone portions. Season with salt and your favorite BBQ seasoning. Place in a smoker at 275F and close the lid. Once the ribs reach 190F or higher, sauce the ribs (if you want sauce) and smoke for another five minutes and sauce again. Repeat this a couple more times till the sauce has thickened up. Finally, remove from the grill and serve.
Now for the step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions:
Place the seasoned party ribs on a 275F smoker. In this case, I’m using my pellet smoker:

Ribs about to hit the Grill

Party Ribs on the Grill
While the ribs are smoking, let’s make that BBQ Sauce
Home Made BBQ Sauce
Pretty much all BBQ sauce is ketchup based. The trick is, getting as far from that base as you can to make something unique. Thus we bring in the molasses and stout beer to make that journey from boring to extraordinary.
Then, combine in a sauce pan the Grandma’s® Molasses, stout beer, brown sugar, ketchup, mustard powder, mustard seeds, apple cider vinegar, ancho chili powder, granulated garlic, black pepper, Andria’s steak sauce and pineapple juice:

Ketchup going into a homemade BBQ Sauce

Grandma’s® Molasses going into a homemade BBQ Sauce

Adding pineapple juice to homemade BBQ Sauce

Finally, the stout beer is added to the homemade BBQ Sauce
Place the sauce pan on the stove and bring to a boil before dropping down to a simmer, then allow to cook down 1/4 to 1/2.

Homemade BBQ Sauce simmering briskly on the stove
DO NOT let that sauce boil over.
Apple Cider Vinegar Spritz
While the BBQ sauce simmers, combine a cup of water and a cup of apple cider vinegar and give the ribs a spritz:

Spritzing Party Ribs with Water and Apple Cider Vinegar
After 45 minutes on the grill, my now smoky party ribs are coloring up nicely:

Smoky Party Ribs

Close up of a double party rib
And that inside skirt is ready to eat:

Inside Skirt
When are the Ribs Ready?
At 2 hours, some of my ribs are just about ready:

Ribs reading 198F internal

Ribs just about ready to serve

Watch the bones. The bones know when the ribs are done
Time to sauce those ribs:

Ribs ready to sauce
Furthermore, I kicked the party up a notch by saucing these ribs like wings, in a stainless bowl with a toss or two:

Pouring the sauce over the smoky party ribs

Tossing the Ribs

Ribs tossed

Time to toss again

Action shot of tossing ribs
Now, you don’t believe that I tossed those ribs over and over and over again to get the handful of shots we used here, and didn’t drop one or two, do you?
Nope.
Scroll down below the recipe card to see the drop pics or watch the video I will be posting shortly.
Here is what one of those party ribs looked like after tossing:

Tossed and sauced party rib
I placed the sauced ribs back on the grill for about 10 minutes to thicken up the sauce.
I went with two options here. Sauced ribs and simply rubbed ribs that people can dunk in the remaining sauce:

Sauced ribs and rubbed ribs
Serve these ribs with a side of watermelon and finally garnish with some sesame seeds:

Garnishing the Smoky Party Ribs

Sesame Seeds on the Ribs

Sweet Smoky Party Ribs glamour shots

Glamour shot part II
Obligatory bite shot:

Devouring sweet smoky party ribs
And thus here’s how they looked on the inside:

Sliced Party Ribs
Sweet Smoky Party Ribs Recap
I love me some party ribs. And while I’m normally a rub only on my ribs, this sauce was wonderful. Thick, gooey, and well balanced. Most of all, it wasn’t like any sauce on the market that I have tried. And to me, that’s important. I’m always trying to come up with new ways to take my BBQ to the next level. And this sauce does exactly that.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.
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Thank you to Grandma’s® Molasses for partnering with us on this recipe. The more I cook with this molasses the more I like it. You really need to give it a try.
Sweet Smoky Party Ribs Recipe Card
Print
Sweet Smoky Party Ribs
Spare ribs carved into two bone portions and smoked before slathering with a sweet molasses and stout beer glaze, or what we call Sweet Smoky Party Ribs
Course Entree, Main Course, Pork Ribs, Ribs
Cuisine American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ
Keyword Andria's, Andria's Steak Sauce, Andrias Brush-On Steak Sauce, Barbecue Sauce, BBQ, BBQ Rub, BBQ Sauce, BBQ Seasoning, Beer, Double Party Ribs, Grandma's Molasses, Homemade, Homemade BBQ Sauce, Hot Honey Spare Ribs, Molasses, Party Ribs, Party Ribs on the Grill, Pork, Pork Ribs, Smoky, Smoky Party Ribs, Stout, Stout Beer, Sweet, Sweet Smoky Party Ribs
Prep Time 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes
Party Ribs Ingredients
- 2 slabs Spare ribs
- Salt
- Your favorite BBQ rub
- 1 cup Apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup Water
- Sesame seeds for garnish
Sweet Molasses BBQ sauce
- ¼ cup Grandma’s® Molasses
- 1 ¼ cup Ketchup
- 6-8 ounces Stout beer
- ¼ cup Dark brown sugar
- ½ cup Pineapple juice
- 2 tbsp Andria's steak sauce
- 1 tsp Ground mustard
- ½ tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Granulated garlic
- 1 tsp Ancho chili powder
- ½ tsp Ground black pepper
Homemade BBQ Sauce
While the ribs smoke, combine the BBQ sauce ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by 1/4-1/2. When the sauce has reduced, remove from the heat and set aside.
Once the Ribs hit 190F+ place them in a stainless steel bowl and drizzle the sauce over the top. Toss the ribs a couple time until the sauce has coated completely. Place the ribs back on the grill and smoke for another 5-10 minutes to thicken the sauce and then remove from the grill and serve.
I like to leave some of the party ribs sauceless and provide a bowl of the home made BBQ sauce to dunk in. Because some just like to dunk.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
And here we are dropping spare ribs:

Dropping Spares

Plated Ribs
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