For your weekend consideration, rib, sticky, meat ribs.
This baby back ribs recipe comes from Rick Rodger’s Comfort Food. In Comfort, Rick specializes in showing you the best of “the middle of the road.” So these are the best in standard baby back ribs. These are not super-hot or spicy, not over the top in any sense. There are, to be sure, a lot of ingredients and a double cooking process, but the result is a rib where you taste the meat. You are not overwhelmed with spices or sauces, though, Lord knows, there is spice and sauce aplenty here.
The other recipes in Comfort Food follow the same policy: give you the comfort food experience you remember from decades ago, and make that experience perfect.
This recipe is a great example of how, by using careful proportions, an army of ingredients just seamlessly blend together. The ribs are tender and meaty, tinkled with spice flavor and just crowned with some caramelized sauce.
The recipe calls for about 5 pounds of ribs. In the picture you see 9 pounds. As a consequence, I doubled everything, in fact tripled the spice blend. These ribs are every bit as good on Day 2 and Day 3.
The cooking time here is short enough that you could make these on a weeknight. But I think baby backs are truly a weekend dish.
You can, of course, change up the ingredients here to meet your own pleasure or imagination. I did not have ketchup in the house, but I had Thai sweet chili sauce. Did it make a difference? A little sweeter, perhaps, a different level of heat. And still very sticky.
Serve with cold potato salad, colder beer, and rolls of paper towel. As I said, sticky ribs. Really finger-sticking, finger licking sticky!
Baby Back Ribs
Yield: serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- Baby back ribs, 2 racks (about 5 pounds total)
- Kosher salt, 2 teaspoons
- Spanish smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon
- Dried oregano, 1 teaspoon
- Dried thyme, 1 teaspoon
- Granulated garlic, ½ teaspoon
- Onion powder, ½ teaspoon
- Freshly ground pepper. ½ teaspoon
- Ketchup-style chili sauce, ½ cup
- Peach or apricot preserves, ½ cup
- Unsulfured dark molasses, 2 tablespoons
- Cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon
- Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon
- Hot pepper sauce, ½ teaspoon
- Canola oil for grilling
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350° F (180°C). Cut each rib rack into 2 or 3 sections. Mix together the salt, paprika, oregano, thyme, granulated garlic, onion powder, and pepper. Sprinkle the mixture on both sides of the ribs and rub it into the meat.
Arrange the ribs, overlapping slightly if necessary, in a large roasting pan. Cover tightly with aluminum foil, place in the oven, and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the ribs, and return to the oven. Continue cooking until the ribs are tender and browned, about 30 minutes more.
Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a small saucepan, stir together the chili sauce, peach preserves, molasses, vinegar, mustard, and hot pepper sauce and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Remove from the heat and set aside.
While the ribs are cooking, prepare a grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-high heat. Lightly oil the cooking grate. Brush both sides of the ribs with the sauce. Place on the grill, cover, and cook, turning once, until shiny and glazed, about 3 minutes per side. (Alternatively, increase the oven temperature to 425°F (220°C). Pour off the fat in the roasting pan, then return the ribs to the pan. Brush the ribs with some of the sauce and cook until the ribs are shiny and glazed, about 5 minutes. Turn, brush with more of the sauce, and cook to glaze the other side, about 5 minutes more.)
Transfer the ribs to a carving board and let stand for 5 minutes. Cut between the bones into individual ribs, heap on a platter, and serve with any remaining sauce.
Source: Comfort Food by Rick Rodgers [Weldon Owen, 2014]
Photo Information: Canon T2i, 18-55mm Macro Lens, f/3.5, 1/30th second, ISO-1250