Pork SpareRibs

I had never really given any thought about making pork spare ribs.  My Mom used to boil the ribs before my Dad grilled them and they were good, don’t get me wrong.  But boiling ribs just never appealed to me as something I might want to do.

But then I came upon a recipe from a magazine called Cuisine that I used to subscribe to.  They baked the ribs in the oven before grilling.  Now that appealed to me.

The ribs are great with My Mom’s Coleslaw, garlic bread and corn.  And lots of napkins!

Ribs (adapted from Cuisine magazine)

2, Pork Spare Ribs, each under 3 lbs., preferably

2 tablespoon Kosher salt

3/4 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

BBQ sauce of your choice (I use  Stubbs but any brand that you like is fine or make your own:  tons of recipes out there)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Combine salt and spices in a small bowl.  Place ribs on a large rimmed baking sheet.  On the back of the ribs will be a flap of meat/fat.  Cut that off with a sharp knife.  Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the spice mix onto the back of each spare rib and rub the spices in with your fingers.  Turn ribs over and repeat with the rest of the spice mix.  Cover the the ribs with heavy duty aluminum foil and seal around the edges of the rimmed baking sheet.  Place in oven and bake for 2 hours.

About 30 minutes before the ribs are done, preheat your grill and clean very thoroughly.  After 2 hours, the meat should be pulling away from the bones.  If they are under 3 lbs. or just 3 lbs. this should take the 2 hours.  If they are bigger, then they might need another 15 minutes or so.

Remove ribs from oven, uncover and carefully place the ribs onto a large cutting board.  Spread BBQ sauce on the one side (either with a brush or spoon, whatever you have) and bring them out to the grilling area, along with your barbecue sauce and large metal tongs.   Reduce the heat on the grill to one notch above low.  Place the ribs directly on the grill, BBQ sauce side down.  After 6 minutes, put  barbecue sauce on the top side, and very, very carefully take your tongs and work underneath the ribs to release from grill.  Turn over carefully.  And grill for another 6 minutes.  Again, work the tongs underneath the ribs to release from grill and then remove spare ribs from grill onto cutting board.   Cut ribs individually or in sections and serve.

Pork Spare Ribs (these are 2.8 lbs. and 2.7 lbs. respectively):

The flap of meat/fat that needs to be removed:

The flap removed:

Salt and spices:

Side one sprinkled and rubbed with salt and spices:

Side two sprinkled and rubbed with salt and spices:

Pan covered tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil:

Ribs after 2 hours of baking, meat has pulled away from bone:

Ribs ready to go on grill (my son doesn’t like Stubbs, so I put the Kraft on the other rack.):

Grill burner setting:

First side on grill:

BBQ sauce on :

Flipped over and charred nicely (grill another 6 minutes):

Ready to cut up:

Delicious!