Best for: A big, beefy centerpiece with a diplomatic pedigree — salt, pepper, smoke, and time.
The record says Lyndon Johnson made barbecue into foreign policy. His first state dinner as president wasn’t in a Washington dining room: on December 29, 1963, at his Texas ranch, he served barbecue to West Germany’s Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, cooked by Walter Jetton, the Fort Worth caterer who became his personal pitmaster. The press coined a phrase for it — “barbecue diplomacy” — and Johnson, a man who understood that relaxed men talk honestly, kept right on serving it.
Our grilled take is Jetton’s Texas in a rack: beef plate ribs with the two-seasoning rub the Hill Country swears by, cooked low over oak in spirit and mopped the old way.
Grill: Indirect low heat (about 275°F), oak or hickory smoke. Equipment: Smoker or grill set for indirect cooking, spray bottle or mop, instant-read thermometer. Course: Main dish.
Ingredients
Rest: 30 minutes Total: 5 hours 50 minutes
The ribs
- 2 racks beef plate ribs (about 5 pounds total)
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard, as a binder (optional)
The mop
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
Rub with the Texas two. If using, smear the thinnest film of mustard over the ribs as a binder. Season heavily and evenly with the salt and coarse pepper — plate ribs want a bold hand — and let them stand while the smoker heats.
Set them in the smoke. Lay the racks bone side down at about 275°F with clean oak or hickory smoke, and close the lid. Leave them untouched for the first 2 hours while the crust sets.
Mop to keep them shining. Stir the mop together and baste or spritz the ribs every 45 minutes after hour two. You are not saucing them; you are keeping the surface supple so the smoke keeps landing.
Cook to tenderness, not time. The ribs are done when a probe slides between the bones with almost no resistance and the meat jiggles like set custard — about 5 hours, the internal temperature riding well past 145°F to tenderness around 200°F.
Rest before the summit. Rest the racks 30 minutes, tented. Plate ribs are rich beyond reason; the rest lets the fat settle back through the meat.
Slice between the bones. Carve into single-bone portions — each one a steak on a handle — and serve with pickles and white bread, the way the ranch table would have it.
Grilling tip: Plate ribs shrink dramatically as the fat renders — buy them bigger than looks reasonable. Diplomacy and appetites both run large around a rack of these.
