MAKE IT NOW: Nick’s recipe for South Dakota Corncob-Smoked Ribs appears in the June/July 2012 issue of Cook’s Country.
Growing up in Middle America, I’ve grilled, smoked, and barbecued everything from chickens perched on beer cans to briskets marinated in root beer—with countless burgers, steaks, and chops in between. Needless to say I thought I had seen, or at least heard, of everything Midwestern grilling or barbecuing had to offer. But I was surprised when I came I across a group of people in southeastern South Dakota who were putting a unique spin on traditional barbecue: cooking with corncobs.
Being a native South Dakotan, I was admittedly a little embarrassed when my boss asked me if I had heard of this, but I couldn’t give her an affirming answer (I’d never heard of such a thing; to be honest, I was a bit skeptical). But skepticism gave way to excitement. Here was an opportunity to put a fellow South Dakotan pit master on the map—let’s face it, if South Dakota isn’t the last place you associate with barbecue, it’s pretty darn close. I felt like I needed to do them the justice they deserved and find out everything there was to know about corncob cookery. As it turns out, there’s a history and tradition as charming and rich as a perfectly cooked slab of baby backs.
During the 1800s, as early settlers pushed west, they eventually landed on the eastern edge of the Great Plains. While the rolling hill of prairie grass offered fertile soil for crops and ample grazing ground for cattle, they lacked an important resource for survival: trees. Necessity being the mother of invention—or in this case, survival—homesteaders heated their homes with whatever they could get their hands on. “Buffalo chips” were the most available and easiest heat source to gather. While they were functional and plentiful, Buffalo chips were anything but ideal to cook with or to heat a small home.
Eventually, as corn became the crop of choice, the leftover cobs were a far better alternative for heating and, more importantly, cooking. Soon, the people developed a taste for the nutty, sweet aroma and flavor the cobs imparted in their food. As time moved on, cobs were replaced with other more efficient methods of heating and cooking, but a few cob diehards—the aptly named “Norway Rib Eaters”—kept the tradition smoldering.
Enter Hector “Heck” Harnois (pictured at right), one of the founding members of the Norway Rib Eaters and jack-of-all-trades if there ever were one. During the early 1900s, Heck worked on a “thrashing” team that thrashed wheat from Kansas into parts of South Dakota.
Eventually he put down roots in Vermillion, a small town in southeastern South Dakota, but not before he acquired a secret barbecue sauce recipe from a carnival worker in Missouri. Heck passed the recipe down (on his deathbed, no less) to his daughter-in-law, Maryln Harnois, the only living person who knows the exact recipe and keeps it in a safety deposit box downtown. If anyone in the family needs sauce, they call her up; she’ll whip up a batch on commission (her brother Larry just paid $50 for two gallons). But the sauce—and the story—are well worth it; when Heck passed down his recipe, he stipulated that any profits Maryln made on the sauce would go to his wife so she would have a little extra money after he was gone.
The Rib Eaters were a group of guys that loved barbecue, and by the ‘40s they were putting on rib feeds using Heck’s sauce and barbecue techniques for the community. The first feed served a modest fifty people, but as time went on their popularity grew. At a later feed, the Rib Eaters cooked up and served 1000 pounds of ribs on makeshift grills made of army cots, corrugated steel, and mountains of cobs. Larry Mart—Heck’s protégé, grandson, and fellow Rib Eater—served up a ton (literally 2000 pounds of ribs) in one feed. Heck passed down his barbecuing techniques through his family, a tradition that now spans five generations and is alive and well.
Now, the weekend after Labor Day, Vermillion hosts a barbecuing competition. The Harnois/Mart family is still very much involved. Larry is 75-years-old now and still has barbecue sauce coursing through his veins; the community donates 100 pounds of ribs and Larry cooks them over corncobs for everyone to enjoy as they walk around the competition. Jody Harnois, Larry’s nephew (the son of Maryln the sauce maker), organizes the barbecue competition, cooks over cobs, and competes as well.
I figured the Rib, Rods, and Rock ’N Roll Barbecue Competition was a great opportunity to get a firsthand look at a different way to cook ribs. So I booked a flight to Minneapolis, rented a car, and drove to Vermillion—the Barbecue Capital of South Dakota. Here are some pictures and notes from my trip.
Downtown Vermillion
Larry's Rig ▼
A shot of downtown Vermillion in the morning before the competition gets in full swing.
Larry's Rig
What 100 pounds of ribs looks like ▼
This is a shot of Larry’s homemade barbecue rig, 8 bushels of cobs, and a really long shovel they use to load the burning corn cobs into the cooker. Larry's setup is designed to cook a hundred pounds of ribs at a time over corn cobs.
What 100 pounds of ribs looks like
Prepped Meat ▼
A hundred pounds of ribs ready to be cooked, but first they need to be rubbed down with Larry’s secret rub.
Cob Ignition
cobs loaded ▼
It's time to get the cobs ready. Larry’s grandson/helper lights the cobs on fire and waits until they are burned down to embers and glowing red.
cobs loaded
cooking the ribs ▼
Once burned down, the cobs are loaded into the bottom of the cooker and spread into an even layer. The ribs are almost ready to get cookin'.
cooking the ribs
checking for perfection ▼
The ribs are sauced with the family’s secret sauce, the lids are shut, and cooking begins. This process of burning down cobs and basting the ribs continues every 45 minutes or so. Once the cobs are just about burned out in the bottom, Larry lights another bushel; when they are ready, they're loaded into the bottom of the cooker again.
checking for perfection
ribs, ready to eat ▼
After the ribs cook for three and a half hours, Larry begins checking them for doneness. Once deemed thoroughly cooked, he flips them to caramelize the sauce on the meat.
ribs, ready to eat
The ribs are slightly smoky; the cobs impart a sweet, nutty aroma and flavor. The rub is salty, the sauce is sweet, and both are tailored to this kind of cooking medium. Implementing corn cobs is definitely a different, yet tasty way to cook ribs.
About the Author: Nick Iverson
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This South Dakota boy (grew up in Custer) would like to know how they ignite the cobs? Are they so dry they don’t need some sort of accelerant?
What a fun historical article. I would have never considered corn cobs as a source of fuel. It sure makes sense as there surely would be lots of them available to burn. The pictures of the ribs made me drool! Thanks, Nick for a good read.
Good question Darwin, the cobs are dry; from last years harvest in fact. But they use lighter fluid to get everything started and let they cobs burn down to embers.
I may have to try this on a smaller scale. I barbeque a lot with bourbon because of the flavors and would assume that this would be a similar flavor thus allowing me to keep more of my bourbon for drinking and not cooking with.
Great article btw, look forward to reading more.
Nick,
Great article! I grew up in SD, but had not heard of this technique, either. My grandma used to cook with a cob-burning stove, but never did ribs. Even when grandpa bought a “newfangled” electric stove, grandma continued to use the old cob-burner. Your article demonstrates that good BBQ can be made regardless of the heat source, with a lot depending on the rub and/or the sauce. Keep it coming!
Thanks for the nice article Nick. Cob cooked ribs are a fast fading tradition which most folks will never know they missed. Some of the best ribs I ever ate were cooked on old bedsprings over cobs. Grandpa Heck and later, my Uncle Larry, Paul Bliss and others, fed thousands of people this way. Of course, Heck’s sauce was key to much of the success. I hope you managed to take a quart home with you…
Hi everyone, here’s Nick’s SD corncob smoked ribs recipe! http://www.cookscountry.com/recipes/South-Dakota-Corncob-Smoked-Ribs/37184/?Extcode=N00PTN000
Nick,
I’m from South Dakota, and my friends and I have been using this cooking method for years while on camping trips. The smell from the cobs is the best part. Really makes for camping, fronth shoulder leans, and good smelling greenway food!
James Quall
Could not possibly agree with facelight17 more! I from Vermillon (oddly enough, right down the road from some of those pictures!! hahaah!!! where was I that day to meet Nick?!@!!) that the smell is probably better than the taste. Nothing beats walking into town smelling that sweet sweet freshly cooked corn! Great article Nick. Somehow got me CRAVING CORN!!!!!! That’s it, first thing I do when I get my drivers license is driving to get some corn. Correction. I’m going on a corn walk! Thanks again for rekindling my obsession with corn! I’ll have corn in my teeth for months!
My friend willdrew17 sent me this link, and I gave it a read, and agree with both his and facelight17′s comments. OOOOOOO that smell, can’t you smell that smell….the smell that around you!! Now I know what that song is about…CORN!!! Thanks for the article Mr. Nick!! Can’t wait to read the next.
Fascinating article Chef Iverson! I have been enjoying corn cob ribs for years now. My grandad Vincent Hasselhoff grew up with old Larry and has been bribing him for years for their recipes. We cook our own corn cob ribs at home and soak the cobs in a hickory marinade first to give off extra aromas to the meat.
I actually live about half-an-hour south of Vermillion in North Sioux City, SD. We go to the barbque competition every year. One year my cousin got sick so we couldn’t attend. She had cholera. I think the cholera bacteria grew from the flood that happened here a couple years ago. Over 100 million cholera multiply every hour in your GI system. It makes you really sick and people can die. She lives for corn cob ribs and was devistated at missing the competition.
Great article, it’s just that time of year to get this kind of delicious cooking started up again. Good refresher, and can’t wait to get out of the basement and cook, eat and enjoy some good ole upstairs, outdoor corn!
Couple of points to add to Mr. Brodis Hasselhoff.
1. Sioux City, SD is actually more like 45 min south of Vermillion
2. Cholera only multiplies by about 1/2 of your over-exaggerated 100M per hour
3. Everybody knows that ya can’t soak corn in hickory marinade…amateur hour called and wants you back.
Hey JoeyC forgetti and meatballs, Jason Bourne called and said he remembers more stuff than you. Need I remind you that the most famous breakfast ribs created by Jimmy Switzel were infused with hickory brined cobs? If Jimmy Switzel is amateur than wearing bandanas around your jeans is lame. If we can put a man on the moon, we can surely soak cobs in hickory marinade!
Mr. Iverson I really enjoyed your read. When you interviewed Larry, does he know how to brine his cobs? I could teach him. I could teach you too mr. iverson. Can i send you my recipe? What’s your address and phone number? My uncle Clive and me were learned by Jimmy Switzel himself. I can’t wait to build a pit along the majestic banks of the mighty Missouri and smoke me some corn cob ribs!
So, prior to the huge falling out I had with an old friend Jake Johanssen on an argument over a design for a time machine…but that’s neither here nor there (but my idea was way cooler, and the TM was really gonna work, and be like the 2nd sweetest thing ever (behind chicks))…I was able to do some cornin, that is what we call this style of corn cooking, cornin. Some of the comments above are for some reason getting ribs and corn mixed up, so I’d like to clarify the difference between corn and ribs for Mr. Bob Sacamano’s sake .
1. Corn: This would be our friend the yellow veggie, commonly eaten on the cob, but some like it cold right out of the can with a spoon, or their hands.
2. Ribs: Can you say Eve? JK, LOL!! No ribs my friend, are considered a delicacy in some areas of the world, and are indeed a type of meat that ya eat right off dat bone.
Corn and ribs are even eaten in the same meal at times, we call that a hearty meal. Old southern cooking, dirty fingers and BBQ covered face! Don’t you wipe that face until the plate is empty. That’s it, having ribs for lunch today!
Hope that cleared some things up for you Bob.
Thanks Nick!
Great read Nich! Nich, Have you ever considered switching this whole process around? By that I mean using really,really, really dry ribs as fuel to cook corn on the grill. Now that would be some tasty corn!!!!!!!! Meat flavored corn, now that would be mind blowing. I can’t wait to read more about your cooking adventures, Nich. You are a true inspiration to all of us wannabe chefs! One last question, I didn’t see anywhere in your article about what cooking stance works best for cooking these ribs? I’ve been working a lot on my front shoulder lean stance and I almost have it mastered. Look forward to hearing your response Nich!!!!