I am a competition bbq cook. Boiling or cooking ribs in a crock pot robs your ribs of flavor. Boiling removes fat and fat is flavor. Falling off the bone ribs are overcooked. As a matter of fact you will loose points in competition for falling of the bone ribs. Ribs cooked to perfection require a simple bite, the meat should come off the bone with minimal effort, leaving the rest of the meat on the bone. Perfectly cooked and well seasoned meat wins contests and taste wonderful. Perfectly cooked ribs takes some skill and all too often people use falling off the bone as an excuse for overcooking the ribs.
I won't give away all of our competition secrets but I will share a recipe that will give you the best home cooked ribs you have ever tasted. They start like this:
Go to Sams Club and buy your ribs there. Butchers tend to trim too much fat and that fat flavors your meat. For home I would recommend Baby Back Ribs. For competition we buy full spares and trim them ourselves to St. Louis cut. This is redious, but again we are competing for money.
Once you obtain your ribs, there is a silvery membrane on the bottom side that should be removed. Remove it with a paper towel and a dinner knife. Get under the membrane with the dinner knife, grab it with the paper towel and try to peal it off in one piece. If you can't take it off in one piece, peel the rest off the best you can.
Once you are done getting the membrane off it is time to season the ribs. Get a jar of plain yellow mustard, no Grey Poupon, just some plain everyday yellow mustard. This is the glue that will adhere the rub to the ribs. Pat the ribs dry with a paper towel and smear mustard all over both sides of the ribs. The mustard also has vinegar in it which will help tenderize the ribs. You will never taste the mustard and no one will ever know you used it. Once the ribs are slathered with mustard, sprinkle your dry rub on the front, back and the sides of the ribs. Put a good coating of rub on the ribs. The rub I recommend for ribs is Obie-Cue's Sweet if you don't like spicy or Obie-Cue's Heat and Sweet for a little bite.
Once they are rubbed they are ready for smoke. In competition we use a $5000 Lang offset smoker, but in our back yard is a $300 Weber Smokey Mountain. It will smoke every bit as well as our Lang Trailer Cooker and we regularly practice on our Weber Smokey Mountain, trying new flavors. Remember it's the cook not the cooker. Set your cooker to cook at 275 degrees using chuncks of hickory. About 5 chuncks of hickory will do the trick because we do not want to over smoke the ribs. Keeping the pit at 275 degrees is key. Learn your pit, whether it's an expensive competition cooker or a backyard Weber Smokey Mountain, learn how to control your temperatures. It's all part of being a pitmaster.
The ribs will cook for about 5 hours total. About 4 hours into the cook, it's time to add some flavor. I hope you haven't opened the cooker until now. Remember if your looking you are not cooking. Ok, now I recommend liberally sprinkling some brown sugar over the top of the ribs. For those more adventurous try a good honey but don't over do it.
About 30 minutes after you put your layer of sweet on the ribs, it's time to start checking the ribs for doneness. The ribs are done when you grab one end of the rack and they bend 90 degrees downward at about the middle. This is the no thermometer way of checking for doneness that competition have used for years. When they are done, we usually sprinkle on a little San Antonio Red Chile Powder (available from Pendry's) and sauce. Sauce is a personal preference. Some like it hot, some like it tangy, some like it sweet and if you are like me I just sprinkle more rub on them and forgo the sauce. It's up to you on the type of sauce you like if any. We like Blues Hog and Head Country. I am sure you have your own brand or like to make your own.
I have left out a few competition secrets but this will give you some of the best ribs you have ever eaten. Remember to layer those flavors: rub, sweet, a little heat then sauce. The most critical thing is pit control. Learn how to control your pit temperatures and you can create great ribs with this formula. Best of luck.