Country Style Pork Ribs

Talk about finger-lickin’good, these ribs go beyond that!  I licked the spoon, the spatula, and my fingers.  Before the first bite of these succulent pieces of pork rib reach your tummy, you’ll be reaching for another bite.  Guaranteed!

The time spent on these ribs takes place at the beginning–the morning, or evening before you’re planning to serve them.  At that time you will need to season and brown the meat, and sauté onions.  Then layer it all up in your slow cooker and forget about it (if you can, with all that tantalizing aroma), until dinner time rolls around.  Be sure you have a can of beer–any kind–on hand because this is the basis of the sauce.  WOW, talk about good!  Note to self:  have more beer on hand to sip while eating these fantastic ribs.

Ribs with onion sauce served over rice.

This recipe is on a clipping from an old newspaper, probably the Hartford Courant,  but I don’t have a date.  The clipping has notes written all over it about how good the ribs are, and also how I modified it.  The original recipe called for slow cooking the ribs, then taking them outside to your grill and charring them a little before indulging, but I found them to be so falling-apart tender that I was afraid they would fall through the grates and I would lose them.  Maybe if you put a sheet of foil on the grates first, it would work, but I just could not wait to dig into them, so I skipped this step.  As you read on, I’ll explain what I did.

COUNTRY STYLE PORK RIBS

Yield:   4 – 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 8  country-style pork ribs  (Choose ones with lots of meat on them)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons paprika (I used 1 T. regular and 1 T. smoked paprika.)
• 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 large onions, sliced, to make 3 – 4 cups
• 1 bottle or can of beer ( I used Budweiser)
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions:

1.  In a very large bowl or zip-top bag, mix together the seasonings, i.e., salt through black pepper.

All the lovely spices! They smell wonderful.

2.  Add the ribs, shake around  to coat well.  If there is seasoning left, save it,

3.  Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet on medium-high.  Add the oil and swirl to coat.  Put a couple of ribs at a time in the pan and sear on all sides.  Do not crowd the pan.

Beautifully browned ribs.

Do this in batches till they are all browned, adding a little more oil if necessary between batches.  Place on a large platter and set aside.

Set ribs aside while you sauté the onions.

4.  Into the drippings left in the pan, add the sliced onions.  Stir to coat all the onions.  I added the remaining seasonings to the onions at this point, letting them get all golden and softened as I sautéed them.

Getting the onions golden and softened.

5.  Place onions in the bottom of slow-cooker, layer ribs on top of onions.  Carefully pour beer over the top, taking care not to wash that nice sear and layer of seasoning off the ribs.   Cover and cook on low for 8 – 10 hours.

Layer them up in the slow cooker. Pour beer over the top.

6.  Optional step:  When done, remove ribs, and place on a preheated grill.  Grill them until slightly charred.  Brush on your favorite BBQ sauce if desired.

7.  Turn the heat of the slow cooker to HIGH.   With a small whisk, mix the cornstarch and water together.  Pour into the juices in the cooker and cook briefly to thicken. You can also pour the juices into a saucepan and make the onion sauce on the stovetop.  Serve with the ribs.  This is a nicely flavored onion sauce to pour over rice along side the ribs.

Ribs and onion sauce.

SOURCE:   old newspaper clipping,  Hartford Courant,  ? date.