Cooking For Engineers

[Michael Chu]

[Lasse]

First, a bit of background: A few years back I served the Chinese-style ribs when I was watching an ice hockey game friends. Then last year one of them returned the favor, but he had altered the recipe a bit. Primary differences were 1) a dry rub being applied to the ribs and 2) the use of coffee grounds. Those were the best ribs I've ever had; especially the sauce was unbelievably good. Unfortunately he didn't keep notes or remember what went into the rub, so I set out to replicate his recipe.

So, yesterday, armed with two racks of baby back ribs and one well-stocked spice rack, I set to work. The dry rub was as follows (SI measurements; 0.5 dl is about 3.5 tablespoons):

1.5 dl brown sugar
0.5 dl coffee grounds
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
1.5 tsp black pepper
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1.5 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
0.5 tsp cumin

Makes about 2.5 dl (or 1 cup). I used half of this on the ribs, and stored the rest for the future. The ribs went to the fridge for the next day.

The next day I proceeded along the lines of the Chinese rib recipe above: I used the remainder of the rub instead of sugar, equal amount of sherry and half as much soy sauce (as it was already sufficiently salty and spicy).

After the meat was almost done, I took the ribs out, filtered the sauce (to get rid of coffee grinds) into a kettle, and put the meat back in with more heat. I added a bit of flour to the sauce to thicken it and reduced it for about 5-10 minutes until it was syrupy. Then I glazed the meat with it and put them back in for another 5 minutes.

The sauce came out perfectly. The coffee aromas blend with the sweet and spicy elements.

I heartily recommend this to everyone

[jf7fsu]

Just used the oven baked OJ recipe and it came out great. I added a a dry rub to the ribs and it added a nice flavor to the meat. Next time I will add a little liquid smoke as well. Try it!

[guest]

I always grill my dry rubbed ribs wrapped in foil on low heat for about an hour and a half wrapped in foil, then remove the foil and hit em with high heat and bbq sauce for about 30 minutes, 15 on each side.

Tonight, because I don't feel like getting the propane tank filled, I will try an oven baked method instead. I think I will go with a brown sugar and usual dry rub mixture (usually don't use much sugar). I like the previous posters method of putting skillet with water in the oven to get some steam action, I like that -- its pretty much my reason for wrapping them in foil on the grill and also to not burn them. I'll let you guys know how the cooking goes, it will be a little experiment in rib cooking for me.

And I will ask the pig how he likes it as I rip the meat off his bones! Weee weeeee little piggy!

[Pookie]

I made ribs yesterday, and used the recipe from this posting, but I made a mistake and mixed all the ingrediants from both recipes together. They came out great! I cooked them in oven for 4 1/2 hours on 225 degrees then put them on grill for 10 minutes. I used the mixture on chicken too.

[Guest]

I have a 10 lb rack of regular (not baby back) pork ribs. I would like to bake them in the oven then finish them on the grill. I read the comments and am confused as to what is the proper temperature to cook them at and how long to cook them in the oven. Any advice?

[Dilbert]

I like the slow oven bake followed by a hot finish myself....

thing about ribs is, they are roughly same thickness - so a 10 lb slab cooks in about the same time as a 6 lb slab.

I do mine seasoned & wrapped in foil at 325'F for min three hours - that's a single layer timing, no stacking/piling up, etc.

you can go hotter, shortens time a bit - but the nice part of the foiled in oven low & slow method is the timing becomes less critical. you can easily hold them another hour - if longer is needed, turn off the heat & just leave them "rest" in the oven. the longer the time the more tender it will get - and it can get to "falling off the bone stage" - which some folk do not like so depends on how you like yours.

dry them off & grill / broil to finish

[Isabo]

Love this site, really enjoyed reading everyone's comments and variations, adaptations and versions of oven ribs.

My ribs are in the oven at this moment, 250F for about 2.5 hours, no spices or sauce. I will baste in BBQ sauce flipping ribs every minute for 10 minutes. I use Diana's BBQ sauce, any flavour. I used foil to cover my cookie sheet to prevent horrible messes, with parchment paper (not wax) so the ribs won't stick to the foil.

I will let y'all know how they turn out

[ribbit]

spray roosting pan with cooking spray ,then cut ribs into 4 to 5 rib pieces . make chickhen stove top dressing according to directions on box but dont simmer on stove ,after mixing all the stove top dressing place in the middle of roaster cover with all the ribs.salt and pepper ribs cover with lid and bake at 350 for45 mins to 1hr .

[neeki]

the foil is definitely a must...once i forgot, and the pan was a pain to clean because the barbeque sauce had charred and crusted on the bottom. i take the foil off for the last half hour to create a crust

[Tbilisi]

I'm an American in Tbilisi, Georgia married to a native Georgian. Being Georgia and lacking certain conveniences available in the West, we've had to improvise on the basic recipe. Here's our spin:
1. Hire a driver and drive to a local village outside of the city. Browse several roadside vendors with freshly butchered pork and select your ribs. Since it's just before New Years Day (a huge deal here) there are literally dozens of local farmers selling freshly butchered organic pork. In our case, we bought about 10 kgs, roughly half of a medium sized pig, from the back leg to just before the front legs. We learned from the farmer that the pig had been fed only natural corn and was slaughtered only hours before we arrived.
2. When we got back home, I removed the rear leg from the ribs, and cut enough ribs from what remained to fit in our oven pan, removed the skin, trimmed the excess fat and rib meat, reserving for future use.
3. Since we don't have nice prepared barbeque sauces or rubs here, I had to improvise from the original in the article. Here's our BBQ sauce/rub recipe:
- ~1 cup of orange juice
- 300mg of Ketchup
- ~20 cloves of fresh garlic crushed
- ~2-3 tbps of Paprika
- Salt to taste
- Crushed red and black pepper to taste

Combine the ingredients and adjust as necessary to your preference. The exact amounts will depend on your personal taste. In Georgia, they tend to prefer very spicy foods so we tend to go heavy on the Red pepper.

4. Slit the outer (meaty part) of the ribs and sprinkle both sides with salt and black pepper
5. Brush/slather the BBQ sauce mixture over the ribs and put the reminder in the bottom of the roaster pan.
6. Cover the pan/ribs with aluminum foil and cook in oven at 275F for ~ 4 hours.
7. Remove foil to caramelize for the final 20-30 mins
8. Remove from the oven and enjoy. Amazing! Thanks for the recipe.

[Guest]

I made the simple recipe with the BBQ Sauce and Orange Juice and the ribs were delicious! Only I rub the ribs the nite before with Adobo which is a meat rub and a few garlic gloves. I let the ribs marinade over night in the refrigerator. Then in the morning I took them out put them into my oven roaster at 350 degrees. I combined and lightly whisk the BBQ Sauce and 1/2 cup of Orange Juice poured it over the ribs. I let them cook for about 4 1/2 hrs. basting and turning them about every 45 minutes until they were almost falling off the bone! We had them with yellow rice with Gandules and some potato salad yum, yum, they were a big hit at my house!

[sunny 1]

Thanks for the info. The Ribs fell apart and adding orange juice to the sauce was quite good

[Guest]

fava beans, dumbass.

[Mattro]

This is the first time I've ever made ribs and this easy/easily modifiable recipe was perfect. I instinctively added about 2.5-3 oz of Wild Turkey 101 to the sauce and oj dip and felt the heat and added smoke from the bourbon did a good job evening out the prevailing sweetness of the mixture.

As an early post on the thread suggested, I also placed lemon slices over each rib, adding fresh fennel and basil pretty much just to make it look better in the baking dish.

After about 3 and a half hours, removing the ribs from the dip and broiling them for about eight minutes on each side imported the all-important char layer that locks in the juice while carry-over heat does its job on the inside.

Haven't read most of the posts on this thread, so this probably isn't adding anything to the discussion that hasn't been said already, but all this is really just to say 'THANKS!"