Oven "Grilled" Bar-B-Que Spareribs a la Mark Bittman

 

It's time for IHCC's Potluck with Mark Bittman. Unfortunately we missed the last 2 weeks due to the move. We are happy to be participating this week with these lovely  Oven "Grilled" Spareribs found in his How to Cook Everything Cookbook on pages 759-761. I must first tell you that when I opened the package of ribs and laid them out, I thought; "Oh my, brontosaurus ribs like on the Flinstones. How in the world will these ever be tender?" 

  OVEN BRAISED! Then I remembered the IHCC Potluck and I found this recipe. Next I must tell you that they were not only tender, they were delicious as well. We were quite surprised. I did finish them off with some Carolina Treet Original Cooking Barbeque Sauce which I bought on a whim since it's made here in North Carolina, and am loving it.

The ingredients for the spice rub are simple; salt, sugar, fresh ground pepper, cumin, mild dried ground chile, and paprila, mixed together in a small bowl and rubbed into 5 pounds of pork spareribs. Do make certain to peel off the membrane across the underside of your ribs to ensure that they will be much more tender and your spice rub gets infused into the meat there as well. This is easily done with a tomato shark or simply use a fork to get it started peeling.. Then using a paper towel to hold on to it, gently peel it back from the ribs.

Baked/braised in the oven at 275 degrees for at least 2 hours. Pouring of excess grease about every half hour to hour. Mine were cooked for a total of three hours to ensure that they would be tender. Then basted in the sauce on 500 degrees for an extra 10-15 minutes.

BUY IT NOW

Oven "Grilled Spareribs
Adapted from Mark Bittmans How to Cook Everything

Ingredients
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons mild ground dried chili powder, (I used half Arbol Chili Powder and half  McCormicks Chili Powder)
1 tablespoon paprika
About 4-5 pounds spareribs

Directions
Mix the salt, sugar, cumin, pepper, chili powder, and paprika together and rub well into the spareribs.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, and place in a roasting pan in one layer. Bake, pouring off accumulated fat every 30 minutes or so, for about 2 hours, or until the ribs are cooked (if you are in a hurry, cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil). When you are ready to eat, roast the ribs at 500 degrees F. for about 10 minutes, or run them under the broiler, watching carefully, until nicely browned.

These were accompanied by brown rice and fresh stewed kale. We did truly enjoy these ribs. Michael was equally impressed with them, and he is usually the rib master by cooking them on the grill.

This is our submission to this weeks IHCC's Potluck. What will you bring?

Carla and Michael