Barbecue sauce by halves

It's a glorious Spring day today.  After being surprised by snow a couple of weeks ago, 10C with the odd peek of sun is most welcome.  It wasn't that I was surprised that we got snow in mid-March; this is Southern Ontario after all.  It was how long it stuck around that surprised me.  There are still a few small patches of it in the yard!

Now that (I've declared) Spring is here, my thoughts turn naturally to... grilling and barbecue.  Of course.  Not that we don't use the grill in the winter, but now we start using it way more often.  It's right off the kitchen, just outside the back door, for maximum convenience.  And what has fired my flame kissed cooking fever today?  Burgers?  Not this time.  Steak?  Always, but not today.  Today it's ribs.  I found some on sale yesterday.  Big, meaty side ribs.  I bought two racks, had them split in two between the bones, seasoned them with an all purpose rub that I had made a while back for another pork application and popped them into the fridge overnight.

The rub is a simple blend of Kosher salt, brown sugar and various spices.  For pork I almost always use allspice.  Then there's garlic, onion, smoked paprika, a little ancho powder, fresh ground black pepper, dry mustard and cumin.  And maybe chili powder.  I forget.  It's balanced, flavourful, but not too complex or spicy (Little Mister doesn't care for spicy food yet).  I don't know that I ever make it the same way twice, as I tend to not really measure.

What I did measure was the ingredients for the sauce.  I took a look at a book by barbecue guru Steven Raichlen and found a simple ketchup based recipe for a Jack Daniel's sauce.  I don't have any J.D right now, but I do have dark rum.  So I used that, substituted molasses for the dark brown sugar, omitted the Worcestershire sauce (because I'm out of it), and of course, added allspice and a few other things to echo the flavours in the rub.  And the halves of this blog title?  Take a look at the recipe... 

1/2 C dark rum

1/2 C cider vinegar

1/2 C ketchup

1/2 C molasses

1/2 T dried onion flakes

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t granulated garlic

1/2 t liquid smoke (optional)

salt to taste

Combine everything in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by... you guessed it - HALF.  It will keep for a few months in the fridge.

It's not bad.  If I had the time and ingredients I would have maybe tried something a bit more complex, but for a simple sauce I quite like it.  It's not too sweet, not too tangy and not overwhelmingly tomatoey either (is that a word?)  It's not as spicy as I'd like, but again, deferring to the palates of the children it's just fine.  I think I'll be playing with it as the year goes on, changing the alcohol or the sweetener (whiskey maple maybe, or a nice strong beer and local honey) and the spices.  I love how versatile barbecue sauces are.  A little change here, a tweak there and suddenly you've got a whole new creation.

Rib fix

Okay, again I'll apologize from the outset that I am not a photo food blogger. There are no pictures of the ribs we enjoyed so much last night. Only fond memories in blog form.

I've been craving ribs since the weather turned nice. Even went to a "pasta and rib place" nearby. They really should not claim to be a rib place at all. They burned them. Though they burned the onion rings too, so really I shouldn't have expected much.

After that disappointment I knew what I had to do. Buy my own ribs. Though that in itself proved to be a little frustrating. First, there were ice crystals on the meat. They explained that they are shipped to them on ice and that their cooler sometimes goes below zero. But that the ribs weren't frozen. Um, yeah, they were. So I didn't buy more to freeze for later.

And maybe I need to learn butcher-speak, but when the woman behind the counter asked if I wanted the long racks cut in half I expected them to be cut down so that they would fit better on a grill. Instead they left the length and cut them to create ridiculously narrow racks of tiny ribs. I've never seen that done. Maybe it would work for appetizers? I don't know. So I had to endure their lecture on "cut in half" versus "cut across" before they would cut two new racks in a way that actually made some sense to me. Note to self, maybe look at going elsewhere for ribs.

Anyway, after all that I set about making a good rub for them. I have a book by Steven Raichlen that is all about rubs, bastes, sauces and such. Since I was also going to be smoking a couple of rump roasts for later use, I chose a rub with no sugar in it, opting to mop the ribs with a mix of a Lambic beer with cherry and some cola for sweetness. I let them sit for a few hours and soaked a mix of maple and apple woods.

I have a gas grill, not a smoker. So I use the indirect heat method with a smoker box that I bought. It's a metal box with holes in the lid that sits right on the bottom of the barbecue. I use two parts wet wood chips to one part dry. Once they got smoking I put the ribs on. I don't think the heat was high enough, though. Even with mopping they dried out a bit. Re-reading Mr. Raichlen's notes it seems that a slightly higher temp (up to 325F) for a bit less time would produce a better result. Duely noted for the next time.

Since we weren't going to have them that night I went ahead and wrapped them in foil and popped them into the fridge. I love that about ribs. They can be smoked ahead of time and reheated later.

I made a barbecue sauce (thanks again to Mr. Raichlen for the inspiration) from cola, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, a little steak sauce, honey, molasses, garlic and onion powders and some allspice. The recipe called for liquid smoke, but I have none. So I used some smoked paprika. Hot smoked paprika. It made for a delicious sauce that was too spicy for the kids. Bummer. I cut it with some store bought stuff that is pretty good in a pinch (President's Choice Smokin' Stampede Chipotle Beer, I believe it's called) and all was fine. The ribs glazed up beautifully and we tucked in to a meal that served to both satisfy my craving and whet my appetite for more. I will definitely work on improving this recipe as the summer goes on!