Friday, July 29, 2005

Ribs



I'm not so good with ribs. Indeed, I have never cooked them before. Per has been begging me to try it for a long time, so I finally gave in. They came out ok I guess, but I really would like some more ideas for next time. This time, I used a simple barbecue sauce that comes from a very secret family recipe that my American friends mom passed on to me. I'm not going to post it, but I'm sure it's very similar to lots of other things - it's ketchup-based with brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, a bit of mustard and water, nothing terribly exciting there. But it's really tasty. Anyway, so I marinated the ribs in this, and baked them in the oven for a long time at a low temperature. Per loved them, but I was not so thrilled.

What are YOUR favorite ways to cook ribs? Please do share - I have two more large slabs of ribs in the freezer!

Oh - I've been tagged for two memes! Exciting! I'll post some answers soon, promise!


Little Habanero sure enjoyed the ribs though!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hallo Anne,
greetings from Germany. First of all, I love to read your blog!
For BBQ and ribs look at: Molly O`Neill "New York Cookbook". She collected over 5 years recepies all over the city. You find a little story with every recepie in the book. It´s greet to read (and to cook).

Nina

Anonymous said...

Love your blog. About the ribs, try a marinade with lime, that can be soo tasty it's unbelivable. That plus some honey is great (obviously you'll need some other ingredients aswell, my uncle used to have some orangemarmelade in his). You are probably more skilled in the fine art of barbecue than I am though so I'll let you figure out the rest. please tell how the rest of the ribs turn out.

Farmgirl Susan said...

Hi Anne,
That dinner plate looks scrumptious! Oh, asparagus! And your kitty is adorable. Just one question: are they pork ribs? Because (I know your cats will beg to differ, but it's true) cats shouldn't have pork. Their little capillaries are something like 14 times smaller than ours, and the pork fat just won't go through them. How's that for a technical explanation? : ) Don't mean to sound preachy--just looking out for the kitties!

P.S. We love to cook pork ribs on the outside gas grill. Smother with homemade BBQ sauce (similar to what you described) during the last bit of cooking. Yummmm!

Anonymous said...

I've never cooked ribs inside. I always smoke them outside on the grill. I use a dry rub that I think is very tasty. Let me know if you would like the recipe.

Scott
http://scotthutcheson.typepad.com

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne,

First of all--Nina! New York Cookbook! One of my all-time favorite 'basics' cookbook! I find that whatever you're looking for, from a zillion different cultures, you'll find a tried-and-true homely recipe for it. Try the recipe for meatballs, which has become my standard!

As to ribs, my mom always used to bring them to the boil, turn off the heat, and let them sit for a good while (an hour or two?) in the water, covered, then drain them, and put into a roasting pan on a rack. She'd then crush a huge amount of garlic, smear it heavily all over them, and pack brown sugar all over them. Lastly, finish with quite a few hearty shakes of soy sauce, and bake them long and slow (turn occasionally) till the ingredients melt into a sticky dark brown delicious glaze....I bet you could do it without the initial simmering phase, but it certainly makes them tender (no matter what sauce I'm using, even bottled BBQ, I always start them off that way--old Southern US thing, I've been told!).

Anne said...

Thank you guys, those are some great tips! Scott - I would love that rub recipe! I don't have a BBQ, but my dad has one and maybe I can try it there sometime.

Farmgirl - thanks for bringing this up!! Nero didn't actually eat any, but I *do* give my cats scraps of meat when I clean pork tenderloins. I had no idea that pork was worse than other meat though! Interesting! I have to look up more info on that! Thank you - from one cat lover to another :)

Frida said...

I wonder what the thing is with guys and ribs... E is crazy about them. But I like them as well, and yours really look great. You can also try with mustard and honey (and maybe a bit of garlic) if you want to use something else than bbq-sauce.