Year of the Pig

INGREDIENTS:
1 rack of spareribs, cut St. Louis Style
1 little can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
a jar of clover honey from upstate ny
1 jar of chipotle mustard
some bourbon
a six-pack of stout beer
some tomato paste
brown sugar
chili powder
garlic powder
paprika
onion powder
salt & pepper to taste.

1. Clean your ribs – remove external fat and that funny little membrane that you see on the outside. To do that, grab as much as you can with your thumb and index finger of your left hand, and then use a short serrated knife to cut underneath the membrane while pulling the membrane back with your left hand. You should feel like you’re skinning an animal. ARGH!

2. Put your ribs in a wide pot, large enough to hold the ribs in one layer, maybe two. I like to use my Le Cruset pots, ‘cause they hold their heat really well.

3. Pour in your stout beer, enough to cover the ribs by an inch.

4. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a slow, bubbly, simmer. Bloop….blooop.

5. Simmer for an hour or so, until the meat has pulled back from the rib ends about ¾ of an inch.

6. Remove the ribs from the beer, and place on a tray

MEANWHILE, prepare your sauce

1. Take a big squirt of your chipotle mustard sauce and put it in a medium size mixing bowl. If you don’t have chipotle mustard, use brown mustard.

2. Add half of your honey jar. Perhaps ¾ to 1 cups worth

3. Chop up 2 of the chipotle peppers really fine, and then add those, along with some of the adobo sauce. BE CAREFUL – HOT!

4. Add a few tablespoons of tomato paste, a couple shakes of pepper, salt, and what ever other dried flavorings you think will taste good.

5. Stir it with a fork, add some bourbon, drink some bourbon, add some stout, drink some stout., stir.

6. Put it down and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. Drink your beer.

7. Adjust flavorings to taste.

MEANWHILE, prepare your grill

You’re just re-warming the ribs and searing the outside, so you don’t want it too hot so that the ribs burn, but you want it hot enough so that you’re not waiting around forever to eat. Interpret that how you want.

Lather sauce on both sides of ribs – and deposit on grill. Grill for ten to a maximum of fifteen minutes, making sure to turn them to get those purty grill marks.

Enjoy!

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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.

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).

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.

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.

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R.U.B.: Righteous Urban Barbeque!

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.

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.

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What’s for dinner? Ribs, of course!

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!

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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!

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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So far in the recipes I have tried, I feel that I have really neglected proper cutting and trimming of ribs. I mean, I have gotten ribs from butchers and the supermarket and it is notable that they are very different products, but I don’t really know how to tell what is a good cut. I think that some of the recipes I have tried that I have written off as tough could have been helped with ribs that were trimmed better. Certainly more aggressively trimmed ribs, like St. Louis Cut ribs, will probably appeal more to people, but sometimes it seems a shame to waste all that extra meat. Anyway, I thought this was a nice little posting about trimming up Spare ribs. I will keep this in mind for next time.

http://www.poubelle.com/butterpig/archives/000169.html

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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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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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