RCP: Sticky ribs

This is a dead easy recipe, courtesy of my mate Carol.

1 kg pork ribs (sold here as "American spare ribs"), cut into riblets

Using a chinese spoon (the ones they give you for soup at Chinese restaurants) as a measure :

2 spoons sherry
2 spoons white vinegar
2 spoons dark sweet soy
2 spoons light soy
3 spoons white sugar

1. Rinse the ribs to get any bits of splintered bone off (optional)

2. Put all the ingredients in a large pot and heat over medium heat, until simmering. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally. Cook until ribs are almost done (guess this will depend on how thick your ribs are).

3. Remove lid, increase heat to high, and stir constantly until sauce is completely caramelised and sticky and ribs are coated.

4. Eat. :)

Celia, those look delicious.
I'd like to try my hand at preparing them, but the "Chinese Spoon" measure has me a little confused. Would it be possible to convert that measure into something more familiar?

I'm guessing it's similar to a tablespoon, about 15 mililiters. Would you say that's about right?

John, just measured it for you, and a chinese spoon is 20ml, which is the same as an Australian tablespoon. So converting to US tbsp (15ml) measures, it would be :

2.5 Tbsp each dark soy, light soy, sherry and white vinegar
4 Tbsp white sugar

Keep stirring them at the end, or they'll burn ! :)

Cheers, Celia

I've seen these at Chinese restaurants, but never had a good recipe for them. I'm definitely going to try these out this weekend.

Thanks,

-Paul W.

John, just measured it for you, and a chinese spoon is 20ml, which is the same as an Australian tablespoon. So converting to US tbsp (15ml) measures

There are 3 US teaspoons per tablespoon, so 20ml using a 15ml tablespoon works out to 4 US teaspoons per Chinese spoon.

-Paul W.

"C", I am going to try this recipe using what in the USA is called Country style ribs. There are nothing but pork shoulder cut in strips with a piece of shoulder bone included in each rib, They are WAY more meaty than a spare rib or a baby back, but take wonderfully to a slow cook and low heat. So I will cook them at or around 200F for 4-6 hours basting with Chef Carey's bbq sauce the last 2 hours. Yours look delicious, and If I hadn't just eaten they would drive me to the kitchen in search!

Here's the report from my attempt at this recipe this past weekend:

I ended up buying a 4-pound (roughly 2Kg) rack of spare ribs that had been "Chinese cut" across the bones into three strips. I then chopped between the bones to get a bunch of pieces that can be easily picked up by chopsticks and the meat nibbled off (this is the usual Chinese way to prepare spare ribs).

I think the cut of meat that Celia used is what is generally called in the USA "baby back ribs" rather than "spare ribs". The ribs in the photo look more like baby backs--spare ribs are generally flatter and longer. Also, 1Kg is a reasonable weight for a rack of baby backs, but distinctly light even for a rack of "3 and down" St. Louis-cut spare ribs (which have the end chine bone and brisket flap trimmed off) such as are preferred for barbecue.

So I doubled the recipe. I also lengthened the cooking time to 50 minutes, as at 30 minutes the meat still looked a bit on the tough side. The cooking rendered out meat juices and fat from the ribs, leaving a good bit of liquid to reduce. Turning up the heat reduced it to a fine glaze over the ribs.

So aside from the longer cooking time, which was probably due to my using a different cut of meat, the recipe came out very well as written. It's delicious and the meat is very tender.

This recipe strikes me as mid-way between two traditional Chinese styles of pork ribs: red-cooked and sweet-and-sour. Red-coked ribs would leave all the soy sauce and sherry, and the long braising time, but you'd add minced scallions, garlic, and maybe minced fresh ginger or black beans (or a pinch of 5-spice powder). You'd leave out the vinegar and half the sugar. You wouldn't reduce the sauce at the end of the cooking. Sweet-and-sour ribs would do the braise, but then you'd add a vinegar/sugar mixture at the end as a thickener. Hoisin sauce or tomato ketchup might form part of the braise.

This is a fine base recipe for preparing ribs, easy to prepare and involving no cooking effort other than an occasional stir and the reduction at the end. Next time I'll try it with baby backs. I'll also do some exploring with additional ingredients.

Thanks for posting this.

-Paul W.

Paul, thanks for letting me know ! I'm so happy the recipe worked well for you !

I had a look at our Australian pork website, and they have a .pdf of the different cuts we have here. The ribs we used are on page 8 of their brochure, and referred to as Loin Ribs (American Spare Ribs).

http://www.australianpork.com.au/media/PorkCuts.pdf

Cheers, Celia

Paul's right. What your link shows as American spare ribs are actually what we call baby back ribs.
What we refer to as spare ribs here are shown a few pages away, labeled as a belly rack.

Whatever. If it's pork, it's all good!
I prefer spare ribs (belly rack) because there is quite a bit more meat on them - but they do require longer cooking time to become tender.

We'll be cooking these soon.

Thanks John, that makes it easier when I try and interpret US recipes ! And you're right about the pork - my son commented yesterday..."Mum, I think pig is the animal I eat the most".. :) Such a little carnivore.

I'm reminded of a story about a little girl who was eating venison for the first time. She asked her father what meat it was. He replied, "Did you watch Bambi ?" She nodded. He said, "well, you're eating Bambi". She looked down at her plate with big eyes, looked back at him, took another bite of her venison, and then said..."Daddy...I LIKE Bambi !":D

Paul's right. What your link shows as American spare ribs are actually what we call baby back ribs.
What we refer to as spare ribs here are shown a few pages away, labeled as a belly rack.

Taking a look at the PDF that Celia pointed us to, yes, it's clear that what we in the USA call "spare ribs" are most like the Australian "belly rack" cut. But not quite the same. The "belly rack" and the "spare ribs" photo next to it both have the skin and belly fat layers still on. In the US, this is trimmed off and marketed separately as "pork bellies" (of commodity trading fame) or "fresh bacon" (both with skin on). When smoked and cured, with skin removed, it is the familiar everyday bacon. What's left is the underpart of the "belly rack"--just the rib bones and the meat between them, and the brisket flap on the silver underside. This is the cut that Americans call "spare ribs". If the brisket flap and the chine bone connecting the ribs are removed, the result is called "St. Louis Cut" or "Chinese Cut" spare ribs. That is the preferred cut for US Southern-style barbecued spare ribs. St. Louis cut spare rib racks generally weigh three pounds or less (hence the term "3 and down"). A rack with the chine bone and brisket intact will be 4 pounds or more.

These are a larger and tougher cut than the loin ribs shown as "American spare ribs" on page 8 of the PDF. You can see from the diagram on page 6 of where on the animal they come from why in the USA this cut is called "baby back ribs". Aside from the difference in name, they are the same cut.

It's fascinating how different countries have managed to find different ways of cutting up a pig. And similar names for different things. For example, what on page 11 is called the "banjo shoulder roast" looks more like what is sold over here as a "picnic shoulder" than the "picnic shoulder roast" next to it. What's shown on page 12 as "Scotch (neck/collar butt)" is sold over here as "Boston butt". It, and our version of the "picnic shoulder", either separately or together as a "full pork shoulder", are prime material for Southern-style pulled-pork barbecue.

-Paul W.