This is a brand new feature on Tasty Chicago. Each month, I will highlight a homemade meal by one of the top cooks in this country, my wife. She makes a darn good rib (I don’t prepare food by the way, even manly stuff like barbecued ribs, more on that later).
Check out that bone on the lower left, that just fell off this half slab as I transferred it from tray to plate. You can probably tell that I am not one to pass up the charred flesh of an omnivorous domesticated hoofed mammal, especially with a spicy red sauce of some sort. Throw in fall-off-the-bone friendliness as exhibited above, and I’m in hog heaven, suuuuwwwweeeeeeee.
I had this plate of ribs (that’s her mac and cheese on the side also) during the Bears/Saints playoff game last weekend. It actually takes my wife about 48 hours to make the ribs. This session started on Friday night when she tore the thin membrane from the underside of the ribs, put a dry rub on, wrapped them in cellophane, and put them in the ‘fridge overnight. On Saturday afternoon, she took them out of the cellophane and popped them in a cooking bag with about a cup or so of water and spices. She sealed the bag, put a few slits in it, then cooked it for around 2.5 to 3 hours at maybe 300 degrees. Then she sauced them and wrapped them again for another night in the ‘fridge. On Sunday, at about the end of the first quarter, she sauced them up again, then put them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees, and they were ready by halftime.
The sauce is different every time. She combines a few different store-bought sauces with various spices. I don’t know, they’re just always good. I’m talkin’ really good.
This recipe was actually inspired by my brother, so there you go Jim, here’s to giving you some credit. And to D-man, you inspired the “charred flesh” comment in para 2, thanks for that.
Kind of inspires me to cook…well…maybe not. I mean, I’m a writer, not a cooker.
WOW – not since Cain and Abel have I seen such a wrong to a brother as to steal his long-researched and generously-shared secrets for ribs, ribs succulent enough for public display (offering a nod only for inspiration) . . . at least Cain did the deed himself – you . . . you enlist your wife to commit the actual crime!?! Maybe you could retitle your blog “The Family Man”? Or “Eat Your Ribs Out (Brother)” Or “She Did it – it Was Her”.So you peel the membrane off first?
Point taken on the wrong I have done my bro…I’m a bad man. And yeah, you gotta peel that membrane off first, but I’m not sure why. Maybe my brother Jim knows, he made up the recipe, after all.
You asked for a post so here is mine…I didn’t get too far along this most excellent blog site, in fact I am not yet past the “Hogan Knows Best” reference…Given my relative ignorance of modern day TV, I thought this was in reference to one of my fav all time TV shows, “Hogan’s Hero’s” as a mere child growing up in, as you know fully well, the mighty fine “Father Knows Best”-country Geneva, IL ….Then after clicking on it, I finally realized that life has moved on, and that certainly Colonel Hogan does not know best, given that a) he was a perv, and b) he is dead.Now I need to get back to the site. I am getting hungry….
Ahh, memories. I also was a big fan of Colonel Hogan, I loved it when he pushed that little hidden wooden button on the bad and the mattress popped up to reveal the perfect hiding place from the evil Colonel Klink. Little did I know it was a metaphor for the dungeon of debauchery that was his real life.