A couple of summers ago, I went camping on the banks of Lake Powell with a couple dozen young men in our church youth group.  We spent a few days waterskiing, fishing, and baking in the July heat.

One of the meals that was planned was country-style pork spareribs.  The plan was to cook them in Dutch ovens.  I found out that they were planning on an hour or so of cooking time.

That's the day I decided to just hang out at camp and read.  I took those fatty, tough spareribs, seasoned them with some salt and pepper, browned them really well on all sides, and then put them in the ovens with a generous amount of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, and let them cook low and slow for about 5 hours.

These guys still all talk about those fall-apart ribs we had on the shore of Lake Powell.  One of them, a transplant from Austin, TX, said they were the best ribs he's had outside of Texas.

If they had eaten those ribs after an hour of cooking, they wouldn't have been memorable--just another piece of meat that likely would have required a knife to cut through.  By exercising a bit of patience, I was able to give them fall-apart tender ribs that they still go on and on about nearly three years later.

Darren is right.  Patience really REALLY pays off in Dutch oven cooking, ESPECIALLY when cooking large or inexpensive (or both) cuts of meat.

I'll probably post something about "no peeking" later, but that's something I've become good at.

Incidentally, The other meal they still talk about?  My Dutch oven lasagna.