Year of the Pig

After a victorious double-header Bocce victory at Floyd I meandered down the block on Atlantic Avenue to try some ribs from Waterfront Ale House. I had been there once before and remembered enjoying the food, the great selection of beers and the generally good feeling of the bar. This time I got take out so we could go back to Floyd, and I carried a giant bag of food back down the block. The ribs are what we are interested in here, of course, and even more so because the menu calls them “AWARD WINNING.” Looking at the Waterfront’s website I see that the cooks there have competed in a number of regional BBQ competitions and done well. Good for them! However, on this occasion, the ribs were decent but nothing to write home about, ’specially not for 25 smackers. We got a full rack of St. Louis Cut Spare Ribs, and they did hit the spot as I was craving some ribs, but the sauce was nothing special, and the ribs themselves were a little dry and not terribly tender. They did have a nice flavor and some of the ribs were better than others. I imagine they could be better on other nights. I am just guessing, but maybe some of the ribs were older and reheated, its not like I expect them to be made to order, but maybe some had just gotten too dried out. There was definitely an inconsistency to the ribs, some of the groups were better than others. Anyway, I still like that place, and the ribs did hit the spot, evidenced by the fact that I ate 6 of them (thank you piggy). That’s 30 1/2 ribs, and counting. I will be back there to try some of their other BBQ.

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A long awaited BBQ joint just opened up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by the owners of another great bar for beer lovers, the Spuyten Duyvil. The new place is called Fette Sau, meaning “Fat Pig,” in German, and the description sounds great! I can’t wait to try it out.

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I heated up the leftover ribs from Squidocto’s visit the other day for lunch. I let them warm up nice and slow for about an hour on 250. I think that slow cooking actually helped the ribs. I think they were improved some from the other day. That’s 24 1/2 ribs. Thanks to the Piggie.

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I hate to disappoint people, especially my loyal reader(s). After I read Squidocto’s comment yesterday morning, I realized that my plans for the day had changed. I needed to cook some ribs. I was on Staten Island, driving back to Jersey City from Mandolin Brothers, when I realized this, and I thought, “Well, I am on Staten Island. I outta look for a butcher!” I started scanning the store fronts as I drove and a couple traffic lights later, I spotted Bruno’s Pork Store on Forest Avenue. That seemed like good luck so I swung left through oncoming traffic and parked in front of the store. The place was filled with Italian grocery staples, prepared foods and deli items, and of course, a meat counter. The guy behind the counter seemed friendly enough, chatting up a crane operator with a super NY/NJ accent who was getting some lunch. I waited and when the butcher asked me if he could help me, I replied, “Whatcha got in the way of Ribs?” He looked confused and said “What?” to which I clearly replied, “What Kind Of Ribs Do You Have?” That, he understood, and he pulled out a rack of spare ribs, which looked impressively huge.

The ribs were $3.39/lb, and the rack was about 4 lbs. He wrapped them up and I drove them home.

I had a recipe in mind, from the 60’s Time Life “American Cooking: New England,” called Maple Barbecue Spareribs.

I looked at the giant slab of ribs and thought of my inspiration for cooking them, and so I called up Squidocto, inviting to come over and sample them with me.

A few hours later, the Ribs were cut up, and coated with mustard.

I put them in the broiler for 5 minutes on each side. Squido knocked on the window and I let him in. After a very formal handshake, we followed the recipe, coating the ribs with the Maple Syrup sauce and putting them in the oven at 350 and basting them every 15 min or so.

After an hour, they needed a little more time to brown up and we gave them another 20 minutes or so, finishing them for a couple of minutes in the broiler again. By this time we were both starving. But that is good timing.

I excitedly bit into the first big ass rib. I liked the sauce pretty well, although it lacked a certian “umph.” It was sweet and tangy, and I thought it has a nice unexplained citrusy flavor (that Matt did not detect). I thought the crispy parts of the rib were delicious, but overall we were both very disappointed. We blamed the ribs themselves, thinking that they were just overly fatty. I was hungry and proceeded to plow through 5 big ribs, liberally discarding the fattier parts.

A little later Kat got home and we reheated a couple ribs for her to try. I made her nervous, watching as she gnawed a couple ribs. I anxiously awaited her opinion, which was that the sauce was fine, but that the cooking method was bad. She thought that a slower and lower temperature would have benefited them, breaking down the fat and making them more tender. I think that is a good possibilty, but its hard to know whether it was the cooking method or the ribs themselves that were responsible for the disappointing ribs. The ribs were huge and they did seem to have a lot more fat and gristle than a lot of the other ribs I have tried. I think that I need to learn more about selecting ribs and the way they are trimmed and cut.

One way or another I was disappointed. The ribs were unsatisfying despite that fact that I ate 5 of them. They just didn’t sit well and that is sad for such a nice looking rack of ribs. Anyway, that makes for 23 1/2 ribs, and I still thank the Piggy. Sorry we did not do justice to your ribs!

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This is a good short list of some heritage breeds of Pigs. Let’s hear it for the RED WATTLE!

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After a day of XC Skiing on only a bagel and some trail mix, I came home and took the last of Ravi’s saved ribs out of the fridge. I scraped the congealed fat off the top of the container and reduced the sauce down a little more and whisked in 3 or 4 tablespoons of flour til it was nice and thick. I served it over some medium grain rice with leftover collards and salad. Then I was comatose and unwilling to move my legs, so I watched the latest Netflix movie, Chasing Amy. That’s 18 1/2 ribs.

I thank you Piggies, one and all!

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Ravi invited us over to his place in Hoboken cause he wanted to watch the Univeristy of Virginia play in the ACC Tournament. I was more interested in Ribs than basketball, so I agreed to come over and cook while the game was on. I looked for a Rib recipe that I wanted to try and picked this one from Kat’s “Silver Spoon Cookbook.” Here it is:


I went over to Hoboken and went to a local butcher at Park and 10th Street called Truglios. That was a great place. I walked in and the Butcher dude greeted me pleasantly and asked if it was warming up outside. I said it was cold, but hey, it’s winter. I asked about Spare Ribs, and he pulled out a nice slab, big and meaty. He cleaved it into hefty 2 rib segments on a well worn block and wrapped it up. For $2.99/lb these Ribs were far superior to the supermarket selection. I was excited.

At Ravi’s, I unpacked the ribs, and admired them.

Diverging from the recipe, I used about 3 lbs of Ribs, and 3 chopped cloves of garlic. I browned the onions and added the Ribs and wine. I let this simmer and the Ribs took on a great purple color.

I let them simmer on what I thought was a very low setting, but I have never really braised ribs like this before. I simmered them for probably 45 min and the wine was not really evaporating like the recipe said, so I went ahead and added the rest of the ingredients. I simmered for another hour. By this time the game was over (Virginia, unfortunately lost) and the ribs were cooked. OVER cooked.

The sauce was delicious, but the ribs were shrunken and tough–I guess I cooked them on too high of a heat. I was not happy about ruining such gorgeous ribs, but was prepared to write this mistake off to the Year of the Pig until Ravi had the brilliant idea of whipping out the pressure cooker. And so he did!

We gave the ribs and all the sauce about 25 minutes in the Pressure Cooker and Rav showed me how it worked, as I have never used one. The good news is that the trick worked like a charm and averted disaster. The ribs turned out falling off the bone and delicious, just like I have hoped for.

The bones were even tender. You could bite the end right off and suck the marrow right out. I thank Ravi for his most excellent save, even if his team lost. We dished them up and I enjoyed them thoroughly.

Here are some pictures of the master rib saver in action. Thanks a ton Ravi, and great job.

PS–It was late. We skipped the Polenta, but for future reference, that would have been great with the sauce.

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See the post above, “Ravi Saves the Ribs” for more details. I had 4 of these delicious meaty spare ribs, cause 2 was not enough. That’s 17 1/2 Ribs, in this Year of the Pig. Thanks to you again, Piggie.

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After that last post I got to thinking about Pigs and Fat. In fact, I googled it…and I found <this recipe> for Fruit and Pig Fat Roses. I do not see myself trying this recipe, but I hope to God someone else does.

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Got bless pigs and fat.
<http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/03/a-renaissance-of-pork.html>

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