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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Food Finally - SPARERIBS with a Wet Rub Glaze

After a week of letting my Cajun Brothers cook for me, I wasn't sure if I still remembered how... So, for my first cook after my vacation, I trod on familiar territory.

I have already blogged about cooking spareribs. You can click HERE for that post. If you need to check the basics, go ahead and take a look at that post for the nuts and bolts of smoking spareribs. For those, I used a spicy dry rub. For these, I wanted to use a combination of Chinese 5 Spice rub and a wet rub of jelly...

Here's what I did...

I had just put my wife's delicate taste buds through the ringer with a week of Cajun food. She had to carefully read each menu to make sure that she got just the right combination of spice without the painful heat she does not care for. As my last tribute to JACKIEtober, I agreed to sweeten these up a bit.

So, after doing a bit of trimming of the fat, removing that membrane from the bottom of the ribs, I added just a light coating of the Chinese 5-spice rub I got from Steven Raichen's Book, HOW TO GRILL. He taught me how to make my own, but a store bought batch can do in a pinch. I selected this rub because it has no salt added. I generally avoid salt, and never add salt at the table. I did notice that after a week of eating out, my salt level was feeling pretty high. I vigorously rubbed the rub into the meat (it's called rub, not sprinkle). Especially when applying a wet rub (jelly in this case, usually a mustard base), you want to get the seasonings into the meat so that when you do start adding the jelly it does not lift the rub off.

I added some jalapeno peach jelly to each side of the ribs. While there is some jalapeno kick, the peach sweet balances the taste nicely (hey, you didn;t really think I was going to make candy ribs did you). The jelly does not need to be rubbed in as vigorously. Just get a nice thin even coating. About any brand of quality marmalade will do, never tried Welch's grape, that combination does not appeal to me, but I have heard of others using that. I really like the peach or raspberry flavoring.

Onto the smoker...

If you look closely, you can see that I used my double stack rack for these. This way, they laid flat. Spareribs take up a LOT of room in the smoker. It is possible to use a rib rack and stand them straight, but then you need to trim the rack to the rib bones and cook the "bonus" meat section separate.

Low and slow... 225 degrees for about 5 hours. I checked temps, and they needed about another hour or two. While the smoker was open, I applied a final layer of jelly on the ribs to act as a glaze. The original layer of jelly had already soaked onto the meat and/or dried out. I wanted to add a layer of moisture (and it will glaze up pretty)!

2 hours later (7 hours total)... cooked, moist and tender!

see... Glazed up pretty!

Spareribs, unlike babyback ribs provides not only the meat around the ribs, but also some "spare" meat that is perfect to trim off and use for other things...

Like this meal I made the next night... Just a little cut up onion, a little red and green pepper, a little garlic and some of the "spare" rib meat diced up and a quickie stir fry. I still have enough "spare" rib meat left to make grilled pizzas on Friday night.

Said it before, say it again... Spareribs need a press agent like babybacks must have. You get all the great taste that you associate with babybacks, plus that extra bit of meat can be used for leftovers. I paid $1.19 a pound for these (on sale). I never see babybacks for less than $2.99, and usually much more.

I am cheap, but I eat like a king... And oh yeah... Just as good as they look, the combination of the dry rub and the jelly really made these stand out!

22 comments:

  1. Those are some might fine, finger-lickin' ribs!

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  2. Wonderful! But don't say FINALLY- I have thoroughly enjoyed your other posts as well.

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  3. Those ribs are looking really good from here!

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  4. Love it! I've been craving ribs for ages but for some reason none of the stores around me have had any.

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  5. The ribs look fabulous, and I love the leftover idea! I've never considered eating leftover ribs any way but ... leftover ribs. Thanks!

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  6. Ok, I am coming over and stealing those leftovers. You don't need them.

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  7. Yum! Those ribs look fantabulous! I'll be right over and I'll bring the Killian's red :-)

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  8. I love the ribs...and I love the L/O's even more ! You and your grill Dave... are like Batman and Robin : ) ....!

    PS : You have recieved an award at my place, please drop by when you have a moment. Thanks.

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  9. I love spare ribs.. wish you could come and cook for me:).... they look great! Thanks!

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  10. Dude, you're not supposed to share our spare rib secrets. That's why they DON'T have a PR person. Let everyone else pay more for babyback ribs, the spare ribs are for us :)

    Yes spare ribs are the best. Love them, they are my favorite.

    Was the 225f temp your great level temperature or is the thermometer mounted higher?

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  11. The glaze looks amazing. You do it really pro. Sent you an email re: dumplings :)

    Ju

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  12. Drooling over these ribs! They look awesome! Glad you had a good trip.

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  13. This is seriously drool-inducing, and I don't even like ribs that much! I cannot wait to see the grilled pizzas!

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  14. This looks so soooo good. My first rib attempt was this summer and it was baby back. I'm thinking spare ribs might be my next adventure.

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  15. These have such a gorgeous color. Great idea to use the rub and jelly! My husband would be crazy for these!

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  16. Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Now Dave is back! Those look fantastic and I loved that you used the left overs for completely different meals! In my house I would be lucky to have left overs... Still cooking for 4 adults sometimes 5 or 6 and 3 kids! I know! someday I'll that that Damn empty nest! hahahaha...
    And yes, Bloody Mary's the day after is always appreciated and I make a mean homemade one!
    Happy Halloween
    ~Rainey~

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  17. Oh my gosh...I want to get super messy eatin' a big ol' plate of these!! They sound killer!

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  18. I'll have to try some spare ribs in the oven..I usually use baby backs in my smoker grill, as I can get more of them in there!

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  19. One word: WOW! Both the ribs and stir-fry look incredibly tasty. Now you've got me craving ribs!

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  20. Yummy! It all looks fantastic! You do such a great job creating new dishes with your leftovers. I'm with you on spare ribs. They're dirt cheap but still delicious.

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  21. man, those leftovers look as good as the original spareribs.

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