Trigg Rib Shigg

[Boshizzle]

Johnny Trigg allowed the "BBQ Pitmasters" filming cameras to capture some of his process and recipe for cooking award winning ribs. I studied the footage of Trigg from the show to pick up as many tips as I could. Here is what I discovered.

BTW – I don’t think that this is really shigging. Shigging is the act of entering one’s cook site with the intent to steal their processes. This is just a summary of the info Johnny Trigg shared on the show .

According to Trigg, the first thing to know about BBQ is that it is redneck cooking.

When it comes to ribs, spares have more meat and make a better presentation. The meat is very important. Trigg looks for ribs with a lot of fat. Lean ribs are tough and flavorless. There is a lot of marbling in the ribs he chooses. He cooks St. Louis cut ribs. He removes the membrane and trims the back of the ribs really close to the bone.





Trigg uses a mystery rub he keeps in a brown unlabeled dispenser. BTW - He uses Lawry's seasoning salt on Pork butts. He also mentioned that he doesn't make his own rubs. He buys them nowdays premixed. He didn't specify which ones.



He also uses coarsely ground black pepper.





Trigg cooks the ribs meat side up at around 275 degrees. He sprays ribs with apple juice during the cooking process.

He never specified the amount of time he cooks them before foiling them but it’s probably between 2 and 3 hours.





Trigg foils his ribs. He makes a mixture containing at least the following: honey, brown sugar, Tiger Sauce, onion powder, and Squeeze Parkay.

First, he puts the ingredients on the foil.









Here, you can see the Tiger Sauce in the background.



Here is the honey, handful of brown sugar, onion powder, Parkay, and Tiger Sauce mixture.



Trigg places the ribs in the mixture meat side down.



He then puts the same ingredients on the back of the ribs.

Here is the Squeeze Parkay going on.





More brown sugar.



More honey.



Onion powder.





He wraps in foil, presumably two layers.



Puts the ribs back in the smoker meat side down.



Once the ribs have cooked in the foil long enough (presumably just before desired tenderness), he adds a glaze. You can see the saucepan in the pic. The only thing Trigg was cooking this day was ribs.



Here, Paul, who claims to cook "Trigg Ribs" adds a glaze to his ribs. Who knows what's in the glaze. Dripping from the foil mixed with some sauce?



Before Paul was trained by Trigg, this is what he says he was told Trigg uses for his glaze.



Here is Paul, after being trained by Trigg, doctoring up the glaze.



When they have reached the desired tenderness, he takes them in to be sliced. Trigg uses a toothpick to test for tenderness.



He uses an electric knife to cut them.



He presents them on a bed of lettuce.



What Trigg didn’t share was his skill. If you try this and don’t have the same results Trigg has had, don’t be surprised.

[2level2]

Nice write-up.

[Speed]

I cooked some spares last night for the super bowl using pretty much this exact same method only I used Rib Tickler for the rub and didnt use any onion powder in the "mixture". They turned out real nice, a little sweet for me but everyone else loved them. I also reduced the liquid that was in the foil and glazed the ribs with it...could have added to the sweetness but they sure were pretty!!!!

[topchef]

Thanks for sharing that.

[hcj3rd]

So I guess Johnny doesn't glaze or sauce his ribs once he foils them? Anybody use Tiger sauce before. If so how much would you use?

[Boshizzle]

I added an update. Trigg does glaze his ribs.

[Rich Parker]

I cooked some spares last night for the super bowl using pretty much this exact same method only I used Rib Tickler for the rub and didnt use any onion powder in the "mixture". They turned out real nice, a little sweet for me but everyone else loved them. I also reduced the liquid that was in the foil and glazed the ribs with it...could have added to the sweetness but they sure were pretty!!!!

I was listening to an interview on BBQ-Central with Johnny Trigg and he said he has been using the same rib recipe since the early 90's and that included the Rib Tickler.

[Speed]

I was listening to an interview on BBQ-Central with Johnny Trigg and he said he has been using the same rib recipe since the early 90's and that included the Rib Tickler.

Thats funny. I used it because I recognized the label on one of the containers on Pual's rig after Johnny had showed him what to do to the ribs (Pitmasters on TLC). The rub is really sweet too but its nice!

[Boshizzle]

I added a couple of pics with some info on the glaze.

Looking at the pics, I'd guess that there is about a 1/2" wide drizzle of TS along the length of the rib rack.

[Speed]

looks to me like there are two different kinds of spices in that bbq sauce/glaze mixture. Kinda looks like paprika and cayanne maybe???? I doubt its that simple but just going off the colors.