I’m not a big fan of ribs, especially pork ribs, but my family loves them. Personally I prefer to eat fish and veggies, but that’s beside the point.
The other day I decided to try my hand and pork spare ribs. Since my hubby (the grill master) was at work, I opted to cook them indoors. Apparently they came out pretty good. I think the fact that the meat was tender and just about falling off of the bones was a big plus.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
- Pork spare ribs
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Hot red pepper flakes
- Onion
- Garlic powder
- Bar B Q sauce
- Alcohol du jour (wine, beer, brandy)
- Orange juiceCayenne pepper
The Two-Part Cooking Process
Cooking Pork Spare Ribs: Part 1 – The Boiling Process
Because the spare ribs came in long slabs, I cut the ribs at every other knuckle (or bone, not sure what its called). In other words, if you picked up the spare ribs you got two ribs per helping.
I filled a large pot with water and seasoned the water. I used salt, onions, garlic powder, black pepper red pepper flakes and a hint of cayenne pepper. Taste the seasoned water before you add your pork spare ribs. You want the water to taste good on its own.
Once the water is seasoned well enough, toss in the ribs and cook, and cook and cook. Did I mention…cook? It takes a while for the ribs to get tender. I know the ribs are done when I stick a fork in them and the fork goes through the ribs easily. As a matter of fact, take the ribs out of the water 3 seconds before the meat is ready to fall off the bone (you get my drift, you want really tender ribs).
Preparing the Bar B Q Sauce for the Spare Ribs
This step is optional. If you have a Bar B Q Sauce that you like, then use it. If you want to ‘doctor it up’ as my mom would say, then here’s where you prepare your Bar B Q sauce.
We had Bar-B-Q Sauce on hand, but it wasn’t spicy enough. So, I poured the sauce into a bowl and added ingredients until I was happy. The ingredients included (but not limited to) orange juice (we were out of lemons), wine, beer or brandy (pick your choice or use them all), cayenne pepper, Tabasco, hot pepper flakes, a little maple syrup, pepper and a hint of salt.
The good thing about this step is that you can keep playing around with the sauce until it tastes just right (remember to wash off the spoon between tastings).
Cooking Pork Spare Ribs: Part 2 – The Oven
Now that the ribs are cooked, take them out of the boiling water and put them in a roasting pan. If you cook three slabs like I usually do, you’ll need more than one pan.
Once you have the spare ribs in the pan, pour the Bar-B-Q sauce over the ribs. No, I d
idn’t say lightly and delicately brush them on, I said pour it over the ribs. Eating ribs is a messy job. You want to give your family/guests a good reason to lick their fingers.
Once the ribs are adequately covered in Bar B Q sauce, cover the pans with aluminum foil and stick them in the oven. Personally, I like the slow methodical cooking method. It allows all of the flavors to get warm and fuzzy with each other. I heat the oven to 350 degrees and let the ribs cook for another 45 minutes to an hour.
After you take them out of the oven, they’re ready to eat.
A trick I learned: Only let your family chow down on one pan of ribs and hide the other pan in the refrigerator somewhere. While your family is enjoying tray # 1, tray #2 is gaining additional flavor. Take the ribs out the next day, warm them in the oven and viola! Well seasoned, tender pork spare ribs that your family will love.
