11 March 2018
Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2018
I have enjoyed barbecued ribs on occasion in Chinese restaurants, though not recently. I think of them as being small and lacquered with a slightly sweet, smoky sauce. This recipe from a recent edition of the Cook's Illustrated magazine promised something similar. It was worth a try.
You hardly need a knife to prepare this dish. The meat is cooked in two stages: first braised in a flavorful liquid then roasted. Two racks of St. Louis style pork spareribs (almost 7 pounds) were cut into individual ribs. Fresh ginger and garlic was chopped in the food processor and added to a Dutch oven. To this was added honey, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, water,dry sherry, five-spice powder, red food coloring, and black pepper. The ribs were added, covered, and cooked for 75 minutes on the stove top. After braising, the ribs were removed from the Dutch oven and the liquid was strained and much of the fat was removed using a fat separator. The liquid was returned to the Dutch oven and boiled to thicken it. Half of the ribs were placed on a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet, glazed with the reduced liquid, and roasted for 7 minutes in a 425° oven. The second half of the ribs was roasted the same way. Advertised in the magazine as a two-hour preparation, it took me three hours to complete.
The freshly-cooked ribs were chewy, not as tender as traditional Western ribs. The sauce was dominated by the flavor imparted from the five spice powder and not as sweet as the rib sauces we are used to. The best ribs were those with the most glaze. The ribs were better when served as leftovers. We reheated them in a skillet with some of the glaze and served with steamed rice flavored with the glaze. The meat was more tender and the flavors in the glaze were better blended and balanced than in the original. I will probably stick with a more traditional Western cooking method and sauce for ribs in the future, but this was a worthwhile experiment.
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