Tasty Rib marinade

[eleny]

I came across a long lost marinade recipe and have some St. Louis style ribs marinating in the fridge right now.

Many years ago back in NYC, we used to go to a hole in the wall take out rib place in Brooklyn. People would line up down the block on summer weekend nights outside Tasty Rib House. Then I found a marinade recipe in the New York Daily News that reminded me of the TRH flavor. That was over 30 years ago. I thought I lost the recipe but found it the other day. Just a simple recipe with everyday ingredients. Figured to share it here.

Rib Marinade

1/3 cup vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
Juice of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon tabasco sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce

Combine and pour over ribs, marinate overnight and bbq. I bake them first in a slow oven and then finish them on the grill.

I also use this marinade with pork chops, too. Brown the cops first, then cook them slow in a cast iron dutch oven with the marinade till the meat falls off the bone. Serve chopped for hot bbq sandwiches. That reminds me of bbq sandwiches we used to get at a stand in Virginia. Their sign only read "BBQ EAT".

[NMDemDist2]

1. yum! that is a nice one with readily available ingredients. wonder what

would happen if you "accidentally" slipped a couple drops of liquid smoke in there......


:evilgrin:

[eleny]

2. I was thinking of that when I prepared it today!

We great minds run in a pack!

I was thinking that since I have a gas grill, I could maybe add a few drops of the smoke and use it for the swabbing when I grill. If I do that, I could even just use my stove broiler and brown them up in a flash.

[Tab]

3. Another way to do it

I can't speak to the marinade itself (though it sounds fine), but I went on a quest to figure out how to make great babyback ribs (I can't personally eat the beef ribs, I just like the babybacks).

Although I also finish off on the grill, instead of slow cooking them in the oven, I preheat the oven to about 350 (I have a convection, so times/temps are a little different). I take a large pan (like a turkey pan), put some metal cooling racks on it, then rub each of the ribs (I myself cut them into chunks of 3 to 4 ribs each, to make it easier, but it's not required). For a rub I found Cugino's Margarlica:


which works just great. I lay them on the racks, pour a large can of Foster's beer in the bottom, and cover/seal the thing with aluminum foil, put it in the oven and steam them for about 90 minutes (put in more beer if you think it'll run out - you don't want it to dry up).

Then I take them out, let them rest a little bit, then coat them with an apple-based barbecue sauce and grill just enough to let the sauce set and maybe char slightly, then take them off.

The steaming lets them cook while remaining moist, it doesn't take a lot of prep time, and the result is yum.

- Tab

[eleny]

4. That sounds great...

I cut today's pork ribs into pieces, too. Maybe two to three ribs for each cut. Then put them in plastic bag to marinate. I like the idea of doing it all at once. Sometines you just can't wait a day for ribs. I've never had an apple based bbq sauce. So I'll be checking labels next time I shop. Our grocery carries so many kinds, I'm sure I'll find some or get a recipe. Should be a snap.

I see that the rub and apple bbq sauces are available here http://www.simontonscheese.com/List.asp?cat=25

[Tab]

5. I originally had a great apple bbq sauce

Eleny,

I originally had a great apple bbq sauce - it was in a kind of quasi-mainstream package; I can't think of the company off the top of my head, but it suddenly disappeared from the shelves.

In the meantime I'm using Charlie Beigg's Maine Apple Sauce, though some of the other ones you linked to sound interesting. I like apple because it gives it a different flavor, but perfectly yum on the ribs.

But steaming, either in beer or just water, I guess, really does the trick. I can buy some rub, sauce, and ribs at 4 p.m., 2 hours later I can be putting the ribs on the grill, and 15 mins later, eating them.

And they're so frickin' good.

[eleny]

6. The ribs are in the oven

Rain is threatening today, so I'm going to do it your way - sort of. I lined the pan with heavy foil and slipped in two round cooling grates. Flooded the bottom with a bottle of beer and placed the ribs on the grates. Covered with foil tightly and the oven is set for 350. The marinade is reserved for swabbing later.

I used to have a convection oven. I think sticking with 350 will work fine for a regular oven. Here at high altitude I didn't make adjustments for covered meats like these ribs. So it should be fine.

I'll let you know how the beer affected the flavor. I've never used it this way so I should tell the difference!

We're

[Tab]

7. One warning...

you said "Flooded the bottom with a bottle of beer".

The beer adds a little, and water is probably fine, but the warning is that I said a can of Foster's. If you're not familiar, Foster's is an Australian beer, but the key thing is that it comes in an oilcan-sized can, probably 28 oz. or so. If you just tossed in a regular bottle of beer, that's probably not enough, and you'll run dry, and that's not good.

- Tab

[eleny]

8. I didn't have a problem

I use a regular bottle of beer. In fact, I used the baster to take out the beer juices so the meat would brown more quickly at the end. The meat was very tender with the bones popping out of a few sections. I had to use my tongs to lift them so they would stay together. Very nice!

The thing is - I was kind of disappointed with my marinade and used some regular bbq sauce from the jar for dipping on the side. I guess that tastes can change over the years. But the tenderness of the meat saved the day. Thanks for the beer tip.

[Tab]

9. I haven't done this with beef ribs, just pork

if you were doing pork ribs, though, in my experience pork doesn't always take to marinades all that well.

I'm not sure I'd marinade at all - just let the natural flavor of the meat come out. If you wanted to focus your attention on something custom, you could try to make your own rub and/or barbecue sauce to apply. I've never experimented with making my own bbq sauce - always figured there was plenty on the market and once I started, I'd be working on perfecting it forever. But a custom rub would be more down my alley, but you'll probably get more of an effect from the sauce than the rub - the rub is more subtle since you do it before the steaming, the sauce is applied at the end and is more obvious and influential.

[eleny]

10. My marinade ingredients are pretty much bbq sauce ingredients

Just add a lot more ketchup for thickening. Then some of this and that and try to stop. Like you said, it's hard not to keep on perfecting. I want to make my own apple bbq sauce. You've got me thinking about that. I'll use sugarless apple sauce as an ingredient.

I'm surprised that pork doesn't take well to marinating. I figure it helped the ribs to get to the falling off the bone stage more quickly. But maybe that's the vinegar and everything yields to that.

[Tab]

11. I don't want to say it conclusively

and it's just from what I've tried, but marinating pork doesn't seem to take too well, in my experience, and you don't usually see a lot of recipes for it either.

I'm not sure why, just maybe it's the nature of the meat. I could probably read McGee to find out why, but the chemistry behind it makes my head hurt.

Don't let me dissuade you from trying, though - we need people to push the envelope - but I suspect you'd get further concentrating your efforts on a sauce rather than a marinade.

I love apple-based barbecue sauce for stuff like this - I don't know that it works as well for chicken, but it seems perfect for ribs. That said, I don't know (haven't looked into it) how to start putting an apple-based sauce together. You think by concentrating applesauce? Sounds like a start. Couldn't say.

Don't know about sugarless, though - you may want "no sugar added", which is fine, but all sugars removed? I think that might detract. Hopefully you just mean "natural" with "no sugar added". Otherwise you might not get the effect you want.

[eleny]

12. yes, "no sugar added" apple sauce

and there might be apple flavoring out there........ just googled and there are some interesting apple flavoring products available. http://www.google.com/search?q=apple+flavoring&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

this one looks promising. i've never used concentrated apple flavor like this. "Restore fresh apple flavor when making cobbler, pies, or for flavoring jelly or apple butter. A nice addition to mint sauces."
http://www.spicesetc.com/ShowView/product/546/6