Back in November, whole pork spareribs were on sale at my local grocer and I bought two slabs. After a brief hunt for recipes, I'd landed on Alton Brown's baby-back recipe and prepared my ribs Alton Brown's way. I trimmed the spareribs so they'd be a St. Louis style cut (skirt, membrane, and riblets removed).
The first time I cooked up some ribs in the oven (before I began blogging, I think), I threw all of that lovely meatyness away. (Kick me in the face right now, I deserve it.) The last time, I threw all of those extra parts in a gallon Ziploc and stowed them in the freezer for the day I'd come across a recipe specifically for those extra pieces.
Well, I never found that recipe. So I decided to utilize my latest and greatest cookbook, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. While the original recipe was for spareribs, I used the trimmed pieces I'd been hoarding in my freezer.
Slow Oven-"Grilled" Riblets with Chris's Great Rub and Fast Barbecue Sauce
How to Cook Everything, Mark Bittman
Dry Rub:
1/2 tbsp salt1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp paprika
4 lb riblets and skirts
Fast Barbecue Sauce:
2 c ketchup
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 c water
1/2 c rice vinegar
1/2 c minced onion
1 tsp minced garlic
salt
fresh-ground pepper
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Mix the rub spices together.
Place rib pieces in a roasting pan in one layer. Rub spices all over pork pieces, front and back or top and bottom.
Bake, pouring off accumulated fat every 30 minutes or so, for about 2 hours, or until the riblets are cooked.
Meanwhile, combine all barbecue sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring, about 10 minutes. Taste; adjust seasonings as necessary.
I tasted it on some cooked pork skirt and it was simply delicious.
When ready to eat, brush pork with barbecue sauce and roast the riblets at 500°F for about 10 minutes or under the broiler 10 minutes until nicely browned.
These sparerib leftover pieces, the skirts and riblets, were easy to prepare and oh, just so very tasty. As a matter of fact, Rodney and I liked these even better than how the original spareribs were prepared! I didn't want to believe it, but it's true, Alton Brown has been shown up. In the future, if I have spareribs, I'll be doing this recipe rather than AB's.
Cost? Well, let me say that it's inexpensive. I'm not even sure how to count the cost. Dinner tonight and remainders for leftovers were made from pork that I'd normally throw away (insane, I know). Each and every spice for the rub and BBQ sauce were those I have anyway, so didn't go out of my way to buy.
These look great! Better than AB sounds promising. Can these be cut up in clean appetizer pieces? One bone in each serving or would they fall apart? I'd love to hear from you because ribs a mystery that I'd love to solve. I was wanting to use side ribs for the recipe. Any advice would be welcome!
ReplyDeleteI think you could pull that off, but it might be a little difficult to get uniform pieces. Riblets, while delicious, might not be as easy to section into 1-piece sections as a slab of ribs. Not necessarily because they'd fall apart, but because the bones aren't as clearly defined. I wish my memory was better!
ReplyDeleteJust an FYI, if you want to do some more reading on the Bittman vs Alton Brown ribs (there's plenty of trials) click on the "ribs" link under labels in the right side-bar. You might consider doing both!!
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck with your rib(lets)!!