There are myriad ways to prepare BBQ pork ribs and I’ve tried most of them. Some like to boil the ribs for about an hour before drying and coating them with BBQ sauce and putting them in the oven or on the BBQ. This makes for somewhat drier (much of the fat has been boiled out) but also more tender ribs. Some like to do the ribs in the oven, covered with aluminum foil on a low heat (250-300 degrees) for 2 hours before “finishing” them uncovered for 45 minutes so that the BBQ sauce caramelizes. Others just slap them on the direct heat of the BBQ and go for the burn – those little simultaneously sweet and bitter black bits – that result from the burning sugar in the BBQ sauce. It’s all good.

But, personally, I like the method introduced to me by our inveterate New York correspondent and master photographer, Mr. Dario. The rib racks are coated with BBQ sauce and placed in the BBQ on indirect heat (two burners on and one off) but stacked on top of each other in two or three layers! Every ten minutes, the ribs at the bottom are moved to the top and so on, creating a constant rotation of ribs from top to bottom. The rationale (and it really works) of all this is that the ribs are constantly being basted by the ones above them. With the indirect heat, the sugars in the BBQ sauce slowly caramelize to a gorgeous dark brown. I usually also add more BBQ sauce to each layer as I rotate them. And if you still want the black bits, just put the ribs on direct heat for the last 2 minutes.