A while back, I posted some pictures of tasty ribs and carrot cupcakes that Sean and Travis made. Sean has written up the recipe for a coworker of mine, and my coworker got a kick out of it and said I should post it on my blog. So here is the awesomely delicious, but not-so-precise recipe!
Sean’s rub-a-dub-dub-ribz
Braising Liquid:
I never use exact measurements. Also, it tends to change a little bit every time I make them. Nevertheless, I try to end up with about four cups of the stuff total once everything is added in:
-A fair amount of apple cidar vinegar
-slightly less, but roughly equal parts Worshester(sp), soy sauce, water.
-A drop of liquid smoke.
-A fair amount of Sriracha red pepper sauce, to desired spicyness.
-Fresh ground pepper. I prefer a peppercorn blend with red peppercorns in it.
-A tiny bit of honey.
-For sweetener, I will sweeten to taste with either 1) Coca-cola(not the diet shit), or 2) cheap sweet Riesling wine. I think that I actually used a little of BOTH the time that you came over and had these. If you use riesling, make sure it’s a sweet one and not at all dry.
If you didn’t fuck it up, the vinegar will not be overpowering, and it will be moderately spicy while retaining some sweetness. I’ve used Molasses in the past, but it tends to cause the liquid to burn off/get “gummy” faster, so I switched to the tiny bit of honey + liquid sweeteners.
Rub a dub dub.
I used to make my own rub, but nowadays I just use “Wee Willys” dry rub, I think it’s Formula #1, but it might be #3(you should be able to get it at any grocery store). When I want it to be spicier, I add some Cayanne pepper into the “Wee Willys”.
When I do make my own rub, at its core is a mix of chilli powder, granulated garlic, granulated onion, sweet hungarian paprika, the aforementioned red peppercorn ground pepper, cayanne pepper, dried red pepper flakes, and brown sugar. I also add in smaller amounts of ground cumin, ground coriander, and if I want a more smokey flavor I’ll add some “Original Juan Batch #218 Chipotle Seasoning”(see also: this shit is awesome, you should be able to get it at that Chili pepper store in the Mall of America, if it still exists. Also can get from http://www.originaljuan.com).
Cooking:
Get yourself a broiler pan, you know the kind where you’ve got a top “sheet” with holes in it that sits on top of another pan so that fat can drip down and get caught? Perfect!
Rub the shit out of your meat(huhuhuh) and drop them into the lower part of the pan, just ignore the top part for now. Then pour as much of your braising liquid into the pan as you want, so that the ribs are sitting in a nice pool of the stuff. If you’ve got extra, thats ok since you might want to add more later on if it burns off in the pan.
Heat your oven to 300-325. Cover the ribs-filled-pan with aluminum foil nice and tight and place in the oven. How long you cook them is dependent on preference, but about 1.5-2 hours usually does the trick, depending on how many racks you’ve got going in there.
After they’re braised to preference, remove the pan from the oven. Now you need to shift your oven racks so that they’re closer to the top(hopefully the heating/broiling element of your oven is on the ovens ceiling) so that the ENTIRE broiling pan can fit on there(lower and top piece, plus the ribs sitting on top of that). Transfer your ribs out of the pan, place the top piece onto the lower piece(leave the braising liquid in there), and transfer the ribs on top of that top piece. Turn the oven to Broil, and once it is heated up place the ribs back in, right underneatht he broiling element. It’s likely that your rub is very moist, so if you’d like you can add a little more before broiling, but don’t go overboard. This stage will dry out the rub a good amount.
Usually you only need to broil the ribs for about 5 minutes. You don’t want to burn them, you just want to dry the rub out a bit. Once you’re happy with this, pull them out, apply your favorite BBQ sauce(Famouse Daves Devils Spit FTW!!!) and place back under the broiler for 2 minutes, or until you’re satisfied.
Remove from oven, let rest for 2 minutes or so, and then eat.
Sean really loves rubbing his meat huh? He has even more fun rubbing his meat with his friends!
he rubs his meat so his friends can see how tender and juicy his meat is.
[...] other news, I submitted my ribs and wontons pictures to tastespotting, I am e-famous! I also submitted my bread stairz but forgot [...]
Sub the cola with Dr. Pepper (again, not diet). It gives a very satisfying caramel flavour.
yes! I’ve totally heard that dr. pepper is a great braising liquid. I should have Sean try it out but he will have to buy the single plastic bottles, cuz I ain’t drinkin a case. That stuff is nasty.