Year of the Pig

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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