Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Comments

Year of the Pig

The Ribulator, Entry #21: In Memory of Ribs

One Patriotic Slab

Question: Other than remembering all of our brave military folks of past and present, what is better to do on Memorial Day than barbecue?
Answer: Nothing.

It was going to be my first day home all day for a couple weeks, so it seemed like a good idea to smoke some ribs. That morning, I got out the electric smoker while Alissa prepared the ribs and pulled off the boneside membrane.

Removing that membrande

She is getting good at that! We again used the mustard slather I had saved from a couple weeks ago (see the Barons Special Sauce from The Ribulator, Entry #17) and coated the ribs liberally with it using a brush. Then I sprinkled the ribs generously on both sides with the spicy Baron’s Cajun Rub (see the recipe in The Ribulator, Entry#18) since last time I made ribs, we all thought the rub could use a little more kick. The smoker was going and I dropped the ribs into the rib rack, again over a bowlful of beans–Pinto and black beans mixed with onion, the rest of the mustard slather, some ketchup and BBQ sauce. I pretty much left them alone for 3 hours, and then took a look, flipped the ribs over in the rack and let them go for another couple hours.

Smokin

After about 5 hours, they looked pretty done, but I basted them a couple times with some leftover Memphis Basting Sauce (see recipe in The Ribulator, Entry #17) and let them go for another hour. Then, at the end I gave the ribs a light brushing with some left over BBQ sauce, and let that set up for about 15 or 20 minutes. Then, I took the ribs off the smoker and let them rest on the cutting board for about 10 or 15 minutes before slicing them up and taking them in the back yard for dinner.

Rib RestSpicy yummy ribsReady to MunchVanna White Presents … Ribs

These ribs were damn good. They were not as smokey as I would ultimately like, but were full of flavor and the rub added a nice assertive kick. I didn’t think that they were that spicy, but by neighbor Pete, who tried a couple, thought they were quite hot. I liked the light BBQ sauce that was only barely present but added a juicy outside and a little sweetness to combat the cajun spice. Overall, very good, I was happy. I had 4. And 2 more for lunch the next day, making my count 80 for the Year of the Pig. Thank you pigs, one and all.

The Ribulator, Entry #20: Marconi Beach BBQ & the Squealing Pig

Marconi Beach BBQ

This was a great weekend for pigs and fun. It was Memorial Day weekend, and the M Shanghai String Band headed up to Cape Cod, for some fun, sun, music, and even ribs. We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up camp at Maurice’s campground, which was perfectly pleasant and also the most expensive campground I have ever stayed in, at $80-92 per night (for 2 adjacent tent sites). Oh well, this is Cape Cod, right? If you don’t got money get lost!

Anyway, some of us left the campsite and headed to the nearest beach to check out the surf and skip some rocks, and just down the road my nostrils were greated with the unmistakably delicious smell of hickory smoke. My stomach rumbled as my head turned to the sight of a nice looking smoker right there on the side of the road, a column of rich smoke rolling down the road from Russ and Marie’s Marconi Beach BBQ Restaurant. Marconi Beach, by the way, is the site of one of Guglielmo Marconi’s wireless radio stations. I was excited and knew that BBQ joint was gonna be on my list of tourist attractions while there on Cape Cod.

Great looking smoker

The next day, several of us showed up hungry for some Barbecue. Squidocto, Glendon and myself split a full rack of ribs, and I can promise you I was excited after seeing that great looking smoker and smelling that hickory smoke up and down the road. The food arrived on a nice lookin platter, served with small sides of BBQ beans, cole slaw, grilled bread and a baked sweet potato with maple cinnamon butter.

I have to say as soon as the ribs were in front of me, the disappointment was already setting in. They were completely slathered and dripping in sauce. Sometimes I am ok with that, but I wasn’t expecting it here. Then I took my first bite, and was disappointed again by the taste and texture. The ribs themselves were quite bland, the sauce sweet and overpowering. The membrane on the boneside of the ribs was still intact, and although it wasn’t that tough, it looked bad and could have led to some of the blandness by preventing the smoke from penetrating into the ribs. The ribs were overly tender and falling off the bone like they had been boiled, however they did show a smoke ring, but had very little smoke flavor. Lastly, one more criticism was that at least half of the rack were “shiners,” meaning that there was no meat on the bottom of the bone. Not a great cut of ribs. As you can tell I was disappointed. Sometimes its just not smart to expect too much, and set yourself up for such disappointment. That said, I like ribs and it was still a nice lunch. I had 3, making my Year of the Pig count 74.

After lunch we headed to Provincetown, which is a beautiful little New England beach town. We played an afternoon set on the local radio station, WOMR, and then headed to the venue we were playing in that night which interestingly was called THE SQUEALING PIG, or THE PIG for short. I thought that was a good sign. We got a free meal there, and I ordered the “Hog Burger” which was described as “Thick-Cut Smoked Bacon, served with Gorgonzola Cheese and Chipoltle Mayo.” I thought that sounded pretty great, but when it came it was just a beef patty with one sad shrunken piece of weenie bacon. Certainly no hog burger. Again with the disappointment. I forgave them quickly though, cause playing the PIG that night was a great. The show was a blast and we couldn’t have asked for a better night. The staff was great to us, and the audience even better. I can’t wait to go back to the Provincetown PIG. Thanks to all that made it happen!

The Ribulator, Entry #19: RUB again. And again.

Delicious Rib!

I read a review last week from someone’s blog about Northeastern barbecue joints. He went a little ga-ga in his review of the Manhattan restaurant RUB, (see the Ribulator, Entry #15) and as I left work that night, I thought, I am pretty damn lucky to walk by this place everyday on my way home from work. So, I called in a takeout order for some smoked chicken and burnt ends of brisket, which I know (sorry) is not pork. It was so good, that the very next night, I decided to get some takeout ribs, and again I was not disappointed, they are so damn fine. That’s all I have to say.

One delicious Rib

Those were 4 superb ribs. That makes the current ribulation 71.

(They went great with Fiddleheads too. Get ‘em while you can!)

The Ribulator, Entry #18: A Wonderful Weekend for Pigs, pt. 2

Corin makes a pig face

I had bought a 1/2 a pork picnic at the supermarket and I decided to smoke that and make pulled pork for dinner on Sunday. I had invited over Corin (Crushinator) and Renee and Matt (our own Squidocto) for a relaxing Sunday evening dinner in the back yard and also found out that my housemate Kat and her friend Matt were planning to make a bunch of food too, including some ribs that they had made before and told me about. Sounded promising!

Neither Alissa nor I had ever cooked a Pork Picnic before, and the night before we had trimmed off the thick layer of skin. Wow that pig skin is a pain. This was a half picnic, weighing in at about 3 pounds. I figured I would just smoke it like a Boston Butt, and it would be fine. I read that it was less fatty than a Boston Butt, so I planned to baste it frequently. We used the same Mustard Slather from the day before, and put together a new rub from the Paul Kirk Book, called the “The Baron’s Cajun Rub” (see below for recipe) because we wanted something a little spicier. We tossed it on the smoker around 10 am. I let the rub set in for a few hours, and then started basting the picnic every 30-45 minutes, with the Memphis Basting Sauce from the previous post.

Meanwhile, Kat and Matt prepared their Ribs (see Ribs-a-la-Kat):

MattKat

To make a long story short, I smoked that picnic for a good 7 hours and it did not appear to have gotten tender yet. I got out the left over ribs from the day before and heated them up so that we would have dinner, and just let the Picnic smoke on, thinking that my smoker was just too low of a temperature (around 200) and that it was gonna take a long time. We had a fine dinner with swiss chard, bbq beans, coleslaw, corn and ribs. And soon after, Kat and Matt were down with the 2nd course, finishing off their Stout-boiled ribs on the grill and then grilling up some seriously delicious red bell peppers stuffed with hominy and jack cheese and avacado. Nice job Matt! As for the ribs, I thought they were very good. Very tender, but not of the falling off the bone stew meat variety. The sauce was tangy and spicy. It was a good method, definitely worth experimenting with, although I must add, smoking is definitely my favorite way to go so far.

As for the picnic, we continued to smoke it and baste it. It ended up being quite dried out. We still pulled the meat apart and mixed it with the a BBQ sauce from the Paul Kirk book and a little apple sauce. It ended up being good for lunches during the week, but definitely not worth showing off to your friends.

Anyway, another 4 ribs brought me up to 67 ribs. Thanks to all the piggies, near and far!

**The Baron’s Cajun Rub
1/4 cup Cayenne Pepper
1/4 Sweet Hungarian Paprika
2 Tbs Chili Seasoning
2 Tbs Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp White Pepper
1 Tsp Dry Mustard (I used Coleman’s)
1 Tsp Ground Thyme
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Onion Powder
1/2 Tsp Rubbed Sage

The Ribulator, Entry #17: A Wonderful Weekend for Pigs, pt. 1

Ribs!

WOW. I feel that I have a lot to report on from this weekend, as there was a lot of Pig action. Let me start by mentioning that for the past couple weeks I have been reading Paul Kirk’s book “Championship Barbecue” which I got shortly after my review of his restaurant, R.U.B. (see the Ribulator, Entry #15). It’s a pretty great book with a lot of good information about barbecue, and a ton of recipes. It will make you dream about delicious smoked meat. Last week, I had busted out the smoker to try some of his suggestions for chicken and I was not disappointed, but this weekend it was time to smoke the real deal: RIBS.

***A BASIC WORD ABOUT MY SMOKER: First off, I have THIS SMOKER which is an electric “bullet” or “water” smoker. I think that review is pretty accurate. This smoker is ok, but definitely not awesome, so I wouldn’t run out and buy it. I may have to try some of the modifications that guy suggests, or just go for a Weber Smokey Mountain. That said, the advantage of this smoker is that it is damn easy and low maintenance. Turn it on and it basically keeps a constant temperature, and you can walk away and not worry about it. It certainly has its limitations, including the fact that it seems barely able to get up to the temperature it needs to be at. Also, I don’t think that it generates quite as much smoke as a a charcoal smoker would, but that said, it does a pretty nice job and is a good way to get started smoking. For those of you that don’t know, the electric “bullet” or “water” smoker is basically a little cylindrical tower that looks a little like R2-D2. Inside, it has a heating element in the bottom, around which you put your wood chips or chunks. This provides the heat and the smoke. Above that is a water pan, which helps to stabilze the temperature, and keeps the smoker moist. Above that are 2 18-inch racks, where the smokables go.

Anywho, I got up early on Saturday morning and got out the ribs I had bought the day before from the local supermarket. The ribs looked pretty good to me, trimmed St. Louis Style. Alissa and I did our best to remove the membrane from the bone side of the rack. It definitely takes a little skill and is annoying, but it’s a must. Once done, I followed a basic technique from the Paul Kirk book, coating the rack in a Mustard Slather (recipe below) and then sprinkling them with a basic leftover rub I had from last summer. After that, it was into the smoker. I put the ribs on the top rack, and under them I put a big bowl of pinto and kidney beans (mixed with onion, garlic, bell pepper, leftover mustard slather, and ketchup) to catch all the porky drippings. I put a mix of hickory, apple and oak chips in the smoker pan, and let it smoke.

Ribs on the Smoker!

It seemed like that temperature stayed around 210 or so, and I smoked it for a total of about 5 1/2 hours. For the last half of that time I basted the ribs with the “Memphis Basting Sauce” (see below).

Basting!

We took the ribs out and I thought they were pretty damn good. They were tender and tasty. This is definitely on the track to my ideal cooking method for ribs. I mean, you just can’t beat smoking.

Yum, Smoked RibsDone!

I think the rub could have been set a little more, and maybe been a little more assertive, but the actual meat was nice and tender, smokey and flavorful. We ate some for dinner–I had 4, bringing me up to 63 ribs–and wrapped the rest, about a half rack, in the plastic wrap and put them in the fridge. I would like to add the that beans were delicious. I think that smoking under pork is about the best way known to man to cook beans.

But that is just about half the story cause there was more to come on Sunday…stay tuned for part 2.

RECIPES
The Baron’s Special Sauce (aka Mustard Slather):
1 Generous Cup firmly packed light brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
1 12-ounce can beer, flat
1 32-ounce jar prepared yellow mustard
2 tablespoons Louisianna hot sauce

Memphis Basting Sauce
3 cups water
1 1/2 Cups red wine vinegar
3/4 cup Heinz 57 (I substituted KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce)
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
1/4 prepared yellow mustard
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon Seasoned Salt
2 Teaspoons Liquid Smoke (optional)
***Combine and simmer over medium heat for 15 min. Use Baste warm.

The Ribulator, Entry #16: Soul Flavors

Soul Flavors

Last night Mike and I went to a new place right around the block that just opened this week, called “Soul Flavors.” I have been a little excited to try this place since I first saw its awning go up and peeked at the menu, since I have been known to like some soul flavor.

Soul Less

We got there kind of late, around 9pm, and the place was full, although it has a very small seating area. We had to wait a little while for the table and we got to sit on the side and observe a little as we sipped our B.Y.O.Beer. They had renovated the entire place, which used to be a cozy little Moroccan restaurant. It was nice see some of the stuff they did, like opening the space and taking out the drop ceiling, but for a place called Soul Flavors, it is pretty Soul-less. Granted it is a small and tough space to work with, but the place has a Home Depot floor and some bad smooth jazz music playing. The walls are bare and stark and the tables although do not feel inviting.

The staff, however, was very friendly, obviously excited about their new place and ready to show it off, which is nice and refreshing. Before long, we were seat and handed menus, which I have to say has many dishes that made me think twice, but my decision was made before I came in the door, I would have the “Orange Ginger Glazed Slow Cooked Pork Ribs.” We place our order, Mike ordered the Melange “A” Salad, and we also ordered a side of Cornbread and Mac and Cheese.

Soul Flavored Ribs

The food eventually arrived and everything was on its own little square plate. If we had ordered one more small side there would have been no room on the table for any more square plates! They set down the baby back ribs, which were stacked three on top of three, and looked very tempting decorated with the orange and ginger glaze. I was excited about the ribs, and so was the server who let me know that they were delicious. I would say that many people would agree, and don’t get me wrong, they were good, but I would probably not go back there for them. Yes, they were very tender, you could pull the bone right out of them, and sometimes that is nice. However, the rib meat itself was very bland, maybe they were boiled to get them tender like that. I have read that boiling ribs can leach out a lot of flavor. On the top of the ribs was a charred outside, that looked like the sauce that was on them had burned, maybe when reheating. Again, it tasted like char, with no real flavor. On top of all of that the ribs were drizzled with a syrupy sweet orange glaze. It was sweet, and a lot of people would like that, but I think it didn’t offer much for my taste buds.

As for the rest, the Mac and Cheese was creamy and tastey, with a layer of crisped melted cheddar, which was good. The cornbread was Yankee style, somewhere in the spectrum between Southern cornbread and yellow cake. Mike was very happy with his salad, which did look good. We also ordered the Bread Pudding for dessert, which was very sweet, but quite delicious.

All in all I was not that impressed with the place, but as it is right around the corner from my house, and did have a lot of other very interesting sounding choices on the menu, I am sure I will be back to sample more. I will probably not order the ribs again, but I certainly wish the place good luck getting off the ground!

As for Ribs, I ate all 6, no problem. That is 59 ribs in the Year of the Pig. Thanks to the Piggies!

The Ribulator, Entry #15: 3 G33KS Eat @R.U.B.

R.U.B.: Righteous Urban Barbeque!

Geeking out at R.U.B

Yes, one geek offered to take another geek to lunch, and where did that geek wanna go? You got it…to R.U.B., for some Ribs. We invited a third geek, and so it was that the three geeks, ended up at a table for three, with three orders of ribs, three sides, and till about three o’clock before I had to be back to work.

all those ribs!Baby BacksLong End Spare Ribs

But that was plenty of time for the mission at hand, and BloggyMcBlogBlog, the Crushinator and myself ordered up a platter each of Rub’s “Long End” and “Short End” Spare Ribs as well as an order of their Baby Back Ribs. To accompany all that piggy goodness, we ordered Hush Puppies (I think those are fried in Lard, btw), Greens, and their damn fine Beans.

I have eaten at R.U.B. a number of times and have had their Brisket, Pulled Pork and I usually get their smoked chicken, which I highly recommend. This is the first time I have had their ribs, and they did not disappoint!

The restaurant opened a couple of years ago, and the co-owner Paul Kirk, the self-proclaimed “Baron of Barbeque” is a well know Pitmaster with many BBQ books, and even a BBQ school. It is a no frills looking place with a menu boasting a great selection of smoked meats and even a $250 bottle of Dom Perignon to take advantage of those high falutin’ Manhattan types. The meats are served on wax paper on metal pans, and garnished with wonder bread and pickle chips.

As for the ribs today, I would say, I enjoyed them awfully well. Definitely worth the time and money for anyone who likes some excellent smoked ribs. The meats were warm, not hot, and are smoked daily. They are not covered in sauce, but R.U.B. on the side sauces are good if you care to drown your food in them. The ribs were deliciously smoky, the meat firm and tender. As crispy and dry, and at the same time juicy and succulant. These are ribs that I like. Yum!

As for the various cuts of Ribs, it seemed like the overall table favorite was the “Long End” Spare Ribs, which were the meatiest ones. I, however, cannot really say that I preferred one over the others, they were all excellent.

Also a word about the sides. The greens were fine, but nothing to choke your chicken about. The hush puppies, well they are lard fried cornbread balls. Fine again, but not my favorite. The beans, however, are rich and dark, and smoky as HECK, with big chunks of their Burnt Ends. Delicious!

I am proud to say that I was able to enjoy 8 of these ribs today, and thanks to BloggyMcBlogBlog for picking up the bill. That’s 53 Year of the Pig Ribs. I would have just eaten 7, but I couldn’t just leave that last rib there all rejected and alone, and who wants to waste a styrofoam box on one rib. By the way, that reminds me of my one criticism of R.U.B.: I know they are going for a “low rent” feel with the pie pans and white bread and all, but I still don’t get off on a restaurant serving all their sit-down customers in styrofoam and plastic and paper. I just get sick of trash, that’s all. Sorry about being preachy. I will stop now.

The Ribulator, Entry #14: White Star Ribs

What’s for dinner? Ribs, of course!

White Star Bar

After playing on WFMU, the “Freeform Station on the Nation!” a few of us went over to the WHITE STAR BAR in Jersey City for dinner. The White Star is a great little bar with a nice mellow vibe, music you can actually talk over (I am old and hard of hearing) and much better than average bar food, including great burgers and ribs! Squidocto was all for splitting some ribs, God bless him, so we ordered a rack of Baby Back Ribs, with a couple pitchers of Magic Hat #9. I haven’t been terribly impressed with the restaurant ribs I have had recently, so my expectations were low, but I must say these were delicious. They came out served on a big platter of shoestring fries, and accompanied by some mac-n-cheese (actually penne-n-cheese). It was a nice looking rack of baby back ribs, coated (not too thickly) in a decent BBQ sauce, nicely blackened around the edges. They were ribs of the totally-falling-off-the-bone variety, and that were a pleasure. We all sampled and discussed and everyone agreed on their delicious-atude. I was prodded to interview the cook for the this here blog, but I failed to do so. Sorry loyal reader(s). I have failed you this time.

These ribs certainly set a bar to aim for. If they had any fault, they may have been a little TOO falling-off-the-bone-tender, but that is not a terrible fault. It’s definitely nice to have tender ribs, but it’s also good to have a little of that gnawing off the bone to go along with it. After a few ribs, Squidocto also thought that maybe they weren’t the most flavorful ribs, but he also enjoyed them very much. Anyway, I would totally recommend them, and I will be going back there again. I will also be looking for a way to duplicate this recipe…stay tuned for that.

5 more delicious ribs down, for a total of 45. It’s so easy! Thank Ye PIGGY!

Ribulator: Entry #13, M Shanghai Spare Ribs

M Shanghai Bistro & Den

One of my all time favorite Chinese Restaurants has to be the M SHANGHAI BISTRO & DEN, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s always a fun and delicious place to go, and the owner, May, is a real sweetheart. I have spent a lot of time here, since the band I play with started here, plays here regularly, and is in fact named after the restaurant (see THE M SHANGHAI STRING BAND). I have been a regular patron here for years and years, and yet there are many things on the menu I have still not tried, including their Ribs.

Yesterday, after rehearsing our band sat down for dinner at one of M Shanghai’s big communal family style tables, and Squidocto and I decided to split an order of Ribs. The menu called them back ribs, but I believe they were spare ribs. Six ribs were served, covered with a sweet and savory gravy. The ribs were soft and tender, I am assuming they were boiled or braised, quite tasty, but probably not my favorite rib dish on the planet.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the food at M Shanghai, it is great! Recommended staple dishes at M Shanghai are the Awesome Beef and Scallions, Garlic Eggplant, Lo Mein, Mu Shu Pork, Tic Tac Toe Chicken, Duck, and DO NOT miss the Spicy Won Tons, Shumai, or Steamed Juicy Pork Buns! PORK BUNS!

As for a little ribulation, that’s gonna be 3 more ribs, for a total of 40 in the Year of the Pig. Thanks Piggies!

The Ribulator, Entry #12: Can Google be right about Spare Ribs?

I am feeling lucky!

The #1 hit returned from a quick Googlin’ of “GREAT SPARE RIBS” was http://mcraigweaver.com/ribs.htm. I took a look at this site by Craig McWeaver, a man who has many hobbies (see HERE) and obviously a great love of ribs.

Craig!

A man after my own heart! I read his recipe for what Google says are the greatest spare ribs on the Internet. Simple and basic. The summary of Craig’s ribs recipe is:

Cover raw ribs with sauce.
Use rib-rack to cook ribs standing up.
Cook in smoker or oven at 225°F for 4½ to 5 hours
Add more sauce just before serving.

I thought, maybe Google (and Mr. McWeaver) is right. Seems like most of the recipes I have tried so far have been “fast” cooking recipes, so it’s about time to do the right thing, and cook some ribs nice and slow at 200+ degrees.

So, the next question was, what ribs? I remember my housemate Kelcey had told me about a good butcher shop in Jersey City, up by the Courthouse. I drove up there, and on a block full of great old store fronts, many advertising bail bonds, I found Maloney’s “For Meats” Market.

Maloney’s and Bail BondsMaloney’s MarketA Meat lover at Maloney’s

I immediately liked the look of the place, and it has obviously been there for many years. Inside, it was bustling with meat shoppers, most of whom were regulars who the butchers knew by name, trading jibes back and forth. One customer did not appreciate being hailed as “Pauli,” which I guess was not his name. I asked for half a rack of spare ribs, $2.19/lb. The butcher took out a rack and quickly started cleaving them into individual ribs out of habit, but gave me a nice intact rack when I clarified what I wanted. I thought it was a little odd that you had to pay for the meat at a little plexiglass booth in the back, pushing your money through little hole like a late night gas station purchase. The woman working in the both was not overly friendly and she stamped my paper receipt with an official looking ink-stamp, marking it “PAID.” I wondered if there were ever a time when the cashier actually needed that plexiglass protection from meat shoppers. That seems unlikely, especially in a room full of hefty butchers wielding cleavers.

Next I drove off to the local supermarked and picked up a additional half rack of the standard supermarket ribs, $3.19/lb, for the sake of comparison.

I brought the ribs home and slapped both racks on the cutting board to compare the cuts.

Shoprite Ribs

The Shoprite ribs had the skirt/diaphram attached but had the most of the brisket bone and cartilage cut out with a small stip of rib meat from the other side of the brisket still attached at the top of the rack. I cut the strip and the skirt off.

Mahoney’s Cut

The Maloney’s ribs were less trimmed, containing all of the brisket, but no skirt. Following some of the tips from my previous post about trimming ribs, I also cut off some of the bottom of “california” from both racks, and tried my best to pull off most of the membrane on the bone side of both racks, and some of the bigger chunks of fat. Getting all of that skin off will take a little practice.

Look at those Racks

Then I coated the both racks with left over sauce from this recipe (http://pig.spacebarcowboy.com/2007/02/20/maybe-that-sauce-is-pretty-good/) and popped them in the oven on a rack in my crappy roasting pan, using a thermometer to monitor the oven temperature, making sure it stayed under 225.

After that it was pretty hands off. They sat cooking in the oven for about 3 hours and then I flipped them over and re-coated them with sauce. I let them cook that way for 45 min or an hour and the turned them back over and coated them with sauce again. At about 5 hours I took a look, cut one rack in half, and decided they should cook a little more, and I turned them over and put them back in the oven. All and all I let them cook for about 5 3/4 hours.

So, the big question: Are these the greatest spare ribs on the Internet? They sure look good!

Internet RibsInternet Ribs

I took the ribs up to Kelcey and Mike’s place–she had made some kale and cornbread and salad to go with the ribs. I was ready for some chow! I enjoyed these ribs very much. The were very flavorful, however the sauce may have been on a little thick, but it was still good. I thought the Maloney ribs, which were thicker and meatier, were cooked a little better than the Shoprite ribs, which were a little drier. Nevertheless, I think I preferred the cut of the Shoprite ribs, call me a wimp. On both of them, I think it would have made a difference to have done a better job removing the bone-side skin.

As for if these are the best ribs on the internet…they were enitirely respectable, but I don’t think so. Sorry Google. At least, it’s not that easy. These ribs were respectable as they were, but this is a method that is quite general in its commendable simplicity. It definitely has room to benefit from some experimentation and adjustment according to your personal taste, and that is a fine thing. I think this method will be revisited, as it is a simple, reputable method…long and slow. This method is definitely a good proving ground for sauces. I also think that the trimming of the ribs is essential, and something to keep learning. Anyway, again, I very much enjoyed these ribs, enough to put away six and a half of them. I believe that adds up to a delicious 37 ribs in the Year of the Pig. I thank you Pigs, sincerely.

It’s fun playing with ribs

« Previous PageNext Page »

© Year of the Pig God bless all the little piggies.