BBQ Ribs

Recently, I decided that I needed to figure out how to barbeque ribs.

Now, some "purists" (usually folks who don't have to do the cooking) will hold forth that true barbeque only happens when the meat is cooked on a grill - preferably fired with charcoal. For the rest of us, i.e., those who like to eat their meat with a knife and fork, rather than a hammer and chisel, there are modern electric ovens.

Everyone knows my Honey is addicted to the Food Network, so I get a dose of it fairly frequently, whether I want it or not. Not too long ago, she was watching Good Eats!™, and the host, Alton Brown, was cooking baby back ribs.

The process, while convoluted, looked interesting, so I tried it myself. The meat turned out well, but preparing the final glaze by reducing the braising liquid was way too time-consuming, and the final product didn't quite fit my preconceptions of how barbeque should taste.

You've heard of standing rib roast, I assume. Well, to me, this seemed like a very savory recumbent rib roast! You can find Mr. Brown's recipé here if you want to try it. After trying it myself, I decided that the most useful information I got was about cooking times, temperatures, and the use of braising as a cooking technique.

Believe me, you want to braise ribs before broiling them. It makes the difference between eating tender meat, and eating overdone shoe leather.

Anyway, like I usually do, I changed things and made a recipé of my own. We had my ribs for dinner today, and I have to say, I'm very happy with the result. Here's the recipé :

Ingredients

Pork ribs (back or baby back)  1 slab (2-3 lb)
Pork stock or broth 1 cup*
Hot sauce 2 tbs
Cider vinegar 2 tbs
Dark brown sugar 2 tbs
Dried minced garlic  1 tsp
Hot, sweet barbeque sauce  1½ cup*
Dry rub for pork - ¼ cup, approximately*

* The items marked with an asterisk may be bought premixed, off the shelf, or you can make them up yourself, ahead of time.

Directions

The first step is in preparing the meat.

If your meat has been frozen, you want to have it completely thawed at least the night before you intend to cook, because that's when you want to apply the rub.

First, you'll need a lot of aluminum foil and a baking sheet. I use one that some people call a jelly-roll pan. Mom called it a cookie sheet. You need one that will fit into your oven, but isn't much smaller than that.

You need to decide how big the pieces of the rack should be. This is largely going to be dictated by the size and shape of your oven and the aforementioned baking sheet. A rack of ribs of the size used in this recipé will usually be divided into two, roughly equal sized, parts.

For each piece of the rib rack, tear off a large enough sheet of foil to completely wrap the piece, with enough left over to close a pouch with a double fold down the middle, and about 3 to 4 inches on each end - and get ready to rub.

Now I have no quarrel with using your great-grandaddy's secret pork barbeque rub recipé. It's simply more work than I want to do. I use Grill Masters' Pork Rub™ instead (available at most large grocers), and have been very happy with the results.

Place each piece of rib rack in the center of it's foil sheet. Whatever rub you use, sprinkle it generously over the meat, and pat or rub it in. Do both sides! When you're done applying the rub, turn the racks meaty side down. Gently fold the foil over the meat, and place the foil packages on the baking sheet. Put the entire thing into the refrigerator overnight. The gives the rub a chance to do it's work, permeating the meat with flavor.

The next day you'll start working again, about 3 to 3½ hours before you intend to serve the meat. The first thing you need to do is retrieve the meat, it's foil pouches, and the baking sheet from the refrigerator, and set it out on a counter to come up to room temperature. The second thing, is to begin pre-heating the oven to 250 degrees.

While preheating the oven, you'll need to prepare the braizing liquid. Opting out of creating a really complex mixture for the braising liquid, I chose to use an amended pork stock, instead.

Canned pork stock can be hard to find, even in a well-stocked grocery. You might have to make up your own. There are many recipés for it, but I chose the easy path, dissolving 1 packet of Goya Ham Flavored Concentrate™ in 1 cup hot water. This yeilds about a cup of stock, which has the flavor of roughly ¼ lb of smoked country ham.

Heat the pork stock in the microwave oven, on high, for one minute. Dissolve 2 tbs dark brown sugar in the hot liquid, and then add 2 tbs each of cider vinegar and hot sauce. Use any hot sauce you like, but I prefer Texas Pete™. Add 1 tsp of dried minced garlic, stir the mixture, and allow to cool. If you're a purist, and want to use fresh, macerated garlic, be my guest. I used what was on hand.

Open the meat pouches, being sure to keep the edges turned up high enough to contain the braising liquid. Stirring occasionaly, to assure uniform consistency, pour equal amounts of the cooled liquid into each pouch. Close and seal each pouch with at least double folds. Put the baking sheet and pouches (with the meat inside) into the 250 degree oven and bake for 2½ hours.

The recipé calls for a hot, sweet, barbeque sauce. The reason for the hot, of course, is the spicyness. The reason for the sweet, is that you'll need the sugar to form a glaze on the final product.

Now, with my health in mind, my Honey has been helping me limit my carbohydrate intake, and she has been incredibly successful. So successful, that she's even found a reasonably good-tasting low-carb barbeque sauce. The problem is that low-carb stuff contains little or no sugar, and for this recipé we need sugar in our barbecue sauce. So I have to add it in. For about 1 cup of Mr. Stubb's Original™ barbeque sauce, about 4 tbs brown sugar is required. It was necessary to nuke the sauce in order to melt and dissolve the sugar.

When the braising is done, remove the baking sheet from the oven, open the pouches, and carefully pour off the hot braising liquid. You may want to save the liquid for use as a soup starter, or flavoring for beans or vegetables. Turn the ribs so that the meaty side is up, and brush on a liberal coating of the barbeque sauce. Put the sheet under a broiler for roughly 3 to 8 minutes, depending on how close your rack is to the broiler. When the sauce starts to caramelize, turn off the heat and remove the sheet from the oven.

Pour the remainder of the barbeque sauce into a large bowl. Divide the rack of ribs into serving-sized portions, and drop them into the bowl. Gently toss until the ribs are uniformly covered with sauce.

Serve with your favorite sides. I like cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans, almost anything.

Serves four people generously.

Enjoy!

Mariner