Making fantastic ribs isn’t all that complicated. The purists will say you only need two components: a great cut of meat and the right cooking method. The meat is usually pork (either spareribs or baby backs) but I’ve heard glowing reviews about beef ribs as well. For this dish, as well as others where meat is the central ingredient, I recommend visiting a good butcher; nothing will ruin ribs faster than starting out cheap. My personal favorite butcher’s shop, Marconda’s Meats, is a little far away, but well worth the trip. In the future I may also try Manhattan Meats.

How do you prepare your newly purchased prize beauty for consumption? First, pat in a spice rub. You can use whatever combination suits you best, but I like to go with salt, pepper, cayenne powder, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, paprika, cumin, and maybe a little ancho chili powder or chipotle powder.

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I’ve seen a wide swath of “BBQ sauces"—everything from thin vinegar basting mops to thick soy-based Asian mixtures. But when I think of BBQ sauce, and what most people think of when you say BBQ sauce, is a combination of the holy trinity: vinegar, tomato, and molasses. BBQ sauce of this category isn’t intended to penetrate the meat, and it should never be used to baste meat exposed directly to heat for long periods of time (unless you like eating carbon). The sugar content, however, makes the sauce a prime candidate for caramelization. Caramelization is the process whereby finger-licking good BBQ sauce gets stuck to your meat. Sticky sauce may be messy, but it’s preferable to having the sauce slide off entirely while you’re trying to eat a hunky rack of ribs.

So what’s the recipe for BBQ sauce? Well, the answer is there is no single recipe, even if we narrow down our options to those that include The Three Main Ingredients. Some people like it tangy (more vinegar). Some people like it sweet. Some people like it hot. Some people like it smoky and with a tasty bite of booze. Depending on what you like, you’ll have to adjust the amount of sweet, tangy, hot, smoky, and bitter components in your recipe.

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