Baby Back Ribs

Baby Back Ribs 

The real way to make ribs  is slow cooking at low temperature (between 200-250) in a covered barbecue, but if you don't have professional equipment or you don't have all day to babysit your ribs, these methods are much easier and still very good.

To cook ribs in a steam oven:

1. season ribs with a dry rub of choice and place on steam oven pan or large oven safe platter.

2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or preferably overnight

3. Remove from the fridge and place ribs, meat side up, onto the solid pan lined with parchment paper

4. place the solid pan into the steam oven on rack position 2

5. Set for Convection Steam Mode at 265

6. Check for doneness after 1 hour and 15 minutes. If ribs are not done yet, check for doneness every 15 minutes until tender

7. When done, remove ribs from oven, slather with barbecue sauce and finish with a few minutes on the barbecue or in the oven on broil to carmelize and set sauce.  Watch carefully so as not to burn.

Another easy method for ribs, cut ribs into sections, just  brown  on the stove-top and put them in the crockpot on low for 7 hours with either a bottled barbeque sauce or the barbeque (not brine) sauce ingredients listed below. After 7 hours, finish ribs by broiling in oven or searing on the barbecue for a few minutes. Flavor will be better if ribs are either brined or covered in spice rub and allowed to sit overnight.

   Cut ribs into sections, place in crockpot, cover with marinade and brine overnight in refrigerator. The next morning, turn the crockpot on low and cook for approx. 7 hours. Be careful not to overcook as eventually meat will come completely off the bone. Remove ribs from the crockpot onto a large cookie sheet. Brush generously with barbecue sauce and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side,  until ribs looked glazed and are beginning to char.

Brine/Marinade

3 C. water or pineapple juice, (if you don't like pineapple, don't use the juice because you will taste it, apple juice would be an alternative)

1 1/2 C. brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp dry mustard or 1 T. dijon mustard

1/3 C. ketchup

1/3 C. red wine vinegar

1 1/2 T. Lemon juice

2 T. soy sauce

1 T. garlic salt

2 tsp. ground ginger

4 cloves pressed garlic

to cover 3-7 pounds baby back ribs. It is important that the ribs are submerged in the liquid to brine properly overnight in the fridge. An alternative to a brine is a rub, which uses salt and spices to work similarly to a brine. A brine will penetrate the meat and add more flavor than a rub.

science behind marinades, rubs, and brines

The action of salt in a brine or marinade is like the action of salt in the body, retaining water. Brining  makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking and by allowing the cells to hold on to the water while they are cooked. The brine surrounding the muscle fiber cell has a use higher concentration of salt than the fluid within the cells. This leads salt ions to enter the cell via diffusion. The high salt concentration immediately begins to do its work on the protein complexes within the muscle fiber. The end result is the muscle fibers draw in and retain a substantial amount of water by both osmosis and capillary action. The meat’s weight can increase by 10% or more, allowing for greater moisture in the food after cooking. The flavors of the brine are carried into the meat along with the salt, so ribs have flavor all the way to the bone, not just the outside next to the sauce.  Sometimes I see marinade recipes that do not call for any type of salt. I will add salt, because I know without the salt, (soy sauce counts as salt ) the flavor of most of the other ingredients will just be thrown away.

Barbeque Sauce (or use a bottled sauce you like)

 1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves chopped or pressed garlic

1 C. ketchup

1 T. dijon mustard

1 T. red wine or cider vinegar

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 canned chipotle chile in adobo, chopped , or red pepper flakes, pulverized in spice blender to taste

1 T. sweet, smoked paprika

2 T. packed dark brown sugar (or use regular brown sugar and add extra molasses)

1 T. honey

1 T. molasses

1 tsp cumin (optional)

kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Heat enough oil to cover bottom of saucepan (*non-reactive).  Add onion and then garlic. Cook til softened and just beginning to brown. Add the ketchup and 1/3 C. water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook til well blended and thick.  Use a hand blender to puree onion and garlic into the sauce. 

* non-reactive vs reactive

Ceramics and stainless steel are considered non-reactive. While these don't conduct heat very well and tend to have 'hot spots,' they won't interfere with the chemical structure of the food in such a way that changes the look or edibility of our food. Their other big advantage is that once they're hot, they stay hot for quite some time!

Aluminum, copper, iron, and steel (not 'stainless') are all reactive. They conduct heat very efficiently, and therefore, do a great job of cooking our food evenly. However, these metals are reactive with acidic and alkaline foods. If you're cooking with ingredients like tomatoes or lemon juice, your food can take on a metallic flavor, especially if the cooking time is very long. Light colored foods, like eggs, can develop gray streaks.

Foods will also pick up chemical elements from reactive cookware, causing us to ingest metals like copper and iron. Our bodies process iron relatively easily, so using iron cookware regularly isn't a problem. Our bodies have a harder time eliminating copper. When copper cookware is used to occasionally, the small amount we ingest isn't enough to harm us, but you definitely don't want to use copper for every day use.

To get the best of both worlds, manufactures try to find ways to combine elements. Adding a layer of copper to the bottom of a stainless steel pan or coating iron with enamel helps to heat the pan evenly while still protecting food from direct contact with the reactive metal. Unfortunately, these kinds of cookware can be expensive.