This recipe has an interesting story behind it. The magic rub recipe came from a Truth Aquatics dive boat trip to the Channel Islands. The cooks told us that it was the easiest rub because it was just 4 ingredients. Equal parts salt, pepper, brown sugar, and chili powder. It was our second time making this that we made a mistake at the store buying a bulk package of chili powder that turned out to be not chili powder but powdered chili (cayenne). Needless to say that batch of ribs turned out to be a bit hotter than we cared for. Since I mixed up a large batch of this rub I needed to tame what was left which led us to our current mix.
For the rub it does not matter what you use to measure with as it is all based on ratios. A good start would be to use 1/4 cup as your measure.
2 parts salt
2 parts brown sugar
1 part cayenne ( can be switched to 1/2 part cayenne + 1/2 part paprika if you want less heat)
1 part cumin
1 part black pepper
1 part garlic powder
Rinse the ribs and lay them in pan. I use a large disposable aluminum chaffing dish pan which is good for 3 racks. Apply a liberal amount of rub ( I use 1/3 of a cup per rack ) on both sides of the ribs. Lay them flat meat side up in the pan. I slow cook them in the oven for 6 hours at 225. After this amount of time the meat will come off the bone with a gentile tug. If you put them in the pan meat side down they will be soaking in their own fat during the cooking cycle. This will cause the meat to fall of the bones and you will have a tough time keeping the rack together. After the time in the oven I set the ribs to the side until we are ready to serve. 1/2 an hour before we are ready for them we reheat them on the grill for 10 minutes or so before saucing them and 10 minutes after saucing. When they come up they will be piping hot with good caramelization. The cayenne gives a little bit of a sleeper kick but I have had people with aversions to spicy food come back for more.