I asked my favorite sister Anne recently, “What dish says ‘home’ to you?” It’s evidently not a question you should ask my family, because I got a string of emails from her with various ideas. One those was ribs.
“Fair enough,” I thought. I remember going to 3 Kings (or was 4 Aces? Some card related theme) in Hoagland for a celebration for Anne’s graduation from Purdue. We sat and ordered and Dad[1] said to Mom, “Look at these kids, we’ve done all right. They all ordered ribs and french fries.”
We do love our ribs. Here’s my favorite way of making them.
Ingredients
Ribs. Baby back or spare or St Louis. Whatever you like. A half rack per person.
Rub. My favorite recipe follows.
Sauce. My favorite recipe follows.
Procedure
Rub the ribs with the rub. Rub generously on all sides.
Wrap the ribs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 0 to 4 hours (depending on how well you planned.)
Heat your oven to 300 degrees.
Wrap the ribs in foil, sealing tightly, and bake[2] on a sheet in your oven for 2 – 3 hours.
Remove from the oven and crank the heat to 425, or turn on the broiler.
Slather the meat side of the ribs with the sauce.
Put in the oven and cook until caramelized as much as you like it.
Eat. Slather with additional sauce if you like.
French fries are the perfect accompaniment.
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 teaspoons cayenne
1 teaspoon garlic power.
This ain’t rocket science, mix, match, substitute to your heart’s content.
This is Memphis-style. Tomatoey and hot.
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon celery salt.
Stir all this together in a sauce pan and simmer for 15-30 minutes.
This ain’t rocket science either. Use what you have and what you like. Although I do suggest going and buying liquid smoke if you don’t have it.
In any case, this is ridiculously better than anything you can buy at the store and well worth the effort to make.
1. Lordy, what I wouldn’t give for just a few minutes with my Dad as he was then.
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