Ribs...And Easy Coleslaw..

Or... The Chicken Picatta will be next week, because we all had a longing for barbecue.

I have a confession, Dear Reader. I've been subjected to bad barbecue most of my life. Yes, yes, sad and (unfortunately) true, my family can't cook barbecue. I can, though, and so can Bro, who's the cook behind today's Recipe Tuesday. Warning on format: Bro doesn't cook with recipes, no measurements, no real 'recipe', a very devil-may-care philosophy towards cooking. So today's post is going to be more of a jumping off point, full of tips and hints and links, and show what he did and tell how I would do things, plus the easiest coleslaw in the world. Let's make us some barbecue, shall we?

Now, the barbecue I was raised with, and why I say I've been subjected to bad barbecue: My dad, to barbecue a chicken, for instance, would slather the meat with an over-the-counter barbecue sauce, maybe add a 1/2 beer to it, throw it on a hot grill and proceed to baste it with the sauce every 15 minutes or so until the meat itself was cooked. Only problem is that the chicken never absorbed the sauce, and indeed the sauce charred itself all the way to burnt way before the meat was done. The sugars in sauce cook before the meat is done and only end up burning. If you do chicken this way, STOP. Place the (preferably brined) chicken on the grill, let it cook all the way through, then throw sauce onto it for about 15 minutes. My mother would make a type of pulled pork in that she'd start a pork roast simmering in water and onions in the crock pot for hours, adding sauce about an hour into cooking. Simmer it down, pull it apart, voila... Pork barbecue suitable for sandwiches. Unfortunately, all you taste is the sauce, not the meat.

I'm talking barbecue today, Dear Reader. Marinades and rubs are designed to do what barbecue is all about... Add flavor to meat, slow cooked to break down collagens, make it fall off the bone in goodness that gets into your fingernails and makes your mouth happy. That's what barbecue is to me, that's what barbecue should be. And no... We didn't pull out the grill, just used the oven.


Bro started with a rack of spareribs and a marinade. His marinade was molasses, apple juice, a shot of key lime juice and a splash of red wine vinegar. If he had an injector, he would have injected it. Now, for the actions behind the marinade: Molasses and apple juice are sweet. The key lime and the red wine vinegar are acidic. Bathe your ribs in this for at least an hour, up to overnight, and you're on your way to flavoring the pork, getting the proteins malleable, ready for more flavor.

After the bath, he packed on a rub. You can go to Alton for any one of his rub recipes (pulled pork, baby-back ribs-- I really recommend the ribs), you can hit google for any rub recipes, you can go to your favorite chef site for any recipes, you can use a pre-done rub from the store. Or you can do what Bro did and make a rub using pretty much whatever is on hand. Remember, he took care of the sweet component with the marinade, so the dry rub can be as spicy as you like.

Bro's rub ingredients:
chili powder
cloves
garlic powder
cumin
pepper
mustard
nutmeg
tumeric
paprika
Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
McCormick Carribean Jerk Seasoning.

Lots of spice, and with the exception of the nutmeg, very little sweet. But that's ok. To get the blend you want, you can either go with a wet method (brining, marinade) and just cook it from that and then sauce the whole thing (if you use an over-the-counter sauce, go ahead and jazz it up how you like to highlight flavors you like), you can use a dry method, which is dry rub the whole thing and go from there, or you can use a combination of the two.

After letting the meat marinate for a couple hours, he then packed the rub on. And when I say pack it on, I mean he PACKED IT ON. This is the beauty of a dry rub. You can coat the meat with it the way it needs to be coated. Please notice the dish he used to marinate in. After removing the meat from the marinade, he reserved the marinade and then layered the rub over the entire section of rib. After rubbing, he returned the meat to the dish of marinade ('fat' side down, bone side up), then popped it into a 300 degree oven for about 4 hours, uncovered. He then dropped the temperature to 200 and let it cook another hour. NOW, the benefit of this low, slow cooking is that the collagens in the meat give up their hold on the proteins and they release all their juiciness into the meat. That's the key to fall-off-the-bone tenderness. How much collagen can you release into the meat? Collagen is tough stuff, Dear Reader. It hangs on. The meat can be done cooking before it's released, which is why ribs usually end up tasting 'dry'. Not enough collagen released=bad thing. SO... To acheive collagen release, use a low, slow cooking. But you do need some liquid in there to help it along. This is why he popped it back into the marinade after applying the rub. After 6 hours or so of cooking time at these low temperatures, the meat really did fall off the bone. Pictures don't do it justice, Dear Reader. That wasn't 'char', per se, it was the rub and how dark it had gotten. But it wasn't burnt. And it was good.

<-fresh from oven....



falling off the bone->

And yes, that's my coleslaw you see there on the plate with it. Bro cannot, apparently make coleslaw. Coleslaw is easy. Cut (don't shred) the cabbage (we used 1/2 of a head) THINLY. Add to that about 1/4 of 1 onion chopped very fine, then squeezed so there is almost no moisture left in it. Add 3 carrots, shredded and squeezed so they're dry. Then add 1 can of crushed pineapple, squeezed dry (reserve the juice!). Mix all that together, see how wet it is. Add about 1/2 cup mayonnaise, a dash of lemon juice, about 1 teaspoon of dried dill, a tablespoon or 2 of the reserved juice for additional flavor and liquidity, salt and pepper to taste. Be sure not to get it too wet, so go really easy on the liquids. Mix after every add-in, and remember... for a slaw to combine nicely, it has to be a bit on the dry side. It's EASY, and thanks go to my mom for teaching me how to make it.

Now... What I would do different... First, I'd take down what I put in the rub. Seriously. I like consistency in what I cook, especially if it comes out good. This came out GOOD, and I can guarantee you he will never be able to recreate it EXACTLY because he didn't put down what he put into it. I like Alton's 8:3:1:1 rub recipe. It works. And there you also have how I'd cook them. Yes, do the marinade. Get that moisture into the slab before you even look at the rub. I'd add in some salt and a bit of garlic to the marinade, along with some thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. Make more of a brine out of it. Soak the ribs as long as possible before applying the rub. I'd rub it about the same. Pack it on. Add it in. Make sure all nooks and crannies have been THOROUGHLY COVERED. Here's where he and I would depart in the cooking methodology, and where I'd let Alton guide through. I would have made a foil packet with the ribs, thrown in maybe one cup of the remaining marinade, place it on a cookie sheet, throw it into a 250 degree oven for 6-8 hours. Let the rib's own juices act as the braising liquid. Next barbecue will be mine, Dear Reader, and you know me... I'll give you a full recipe then. Until then, play with it. Read the recipes, watch the shows, hit your local barbecue place and see if the cook will give you a few tips. Talk to people you know that do barbecue. It's a fun subject, and you can spend YEARS perfecting recipes.

Do not be afraid to use a pre-made seasoning blend, if it has the flavors in it you want. Do not be afraid to use spices and experiment. If you have orange juice, use it! Ketchup or honey? Use it! It's food, not rocket science, although you may be a rocket scientist (insert one wink here, Dear Reader)... It's food. It should taste good. If that means that you experiment with 3 different rubs on 3 different pieces of meat on the same night, do it! Hit the store, pick up a rack of ribs and cut it into 3 pieces. Do one 'wet' (marinade and sauce only), one dry (rub only) and one wet+dry (marinade, rub). Or 3 different rubs, or pre-cook the ribs and then play with sauces. Experiment. Have FUN. Play with your food, Dear Reader! Let loose your inner cook!

Happy short week, Dear Reader.