Serves 4-6
My husband is hooked on barbecue and can spend all day doing this. His spare ribs with Sorgh & Hoop's Creole spice paste are a real crowd pleaser. The "low & slow" Cowboy barbecue means the classic 3-2-1 method: 3 hours of smoking, 2 hours of steaming and then another 1 hour of slow grilling. So it takes him about 5-6 hours to do this, but it is really worth it. You do need a good somewhat larger kettle or kamado barbecue for this, and a good temperature gauge.
No time, or no trendy barbecue? No worries! I also tell you how to do it a lot faster by preparing them in the oven first.
Plan
Spare ribs
- 1.5 kilo of thick spare ribs. Ask your butcher to remove the membrane on the hollow side for you
- 90 grams of Creole spice paste
- 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
Mop sause:
sauce to rub the ribs with during grilling.
- 90 grams of Creole spice paste
- 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is nice if you have it
- Half a cup of water
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Barbecue
- 200 ml of apple juice
- Wood chips
- Temperature gauge (if not already on your barbecue)
Prep
Do this the night before so the flavors of the Creole seasoning paste can soak into the meat well.
If the butcher hasn't already done it, remove the skin from the spare ribs. Check YouTube on how to do that (it's really not that hard).
- Add the sweet soy sauce to the Creole spice paste to liquefy it a bit more.
- Massage the meat well into the marinade, and place covered in the refrigerator. Put them in a bag to keep all the meat in good contact with the marinade
- Make the mop sauce by mixing all the ingredients together. It seems like a lot of liquid, but you're going to use it all
If you don't want to do the Low & Slow Cowboy Barbecue, skip the next part and move to "Quick Lazy Barbecue"
Pleasure
Low & Slow Cowboy Barbecue
This is where you need to put your barbecue skills to good use! After all, the barbecue needs to stay at 110 degrees for about five hours.
- Light your barbecue and put the wood chips in the right place. Distribute them over the coals so that they take turns smoking.
- Place the spare ribs hollow side down on the barbecue, i.e. on the bones, in a place where there is no direct heat. Close the barbecue.
- Every 45 minutes, pat the spare ribs well with the mop sauce. You should not brush the sauce over the meat, but dab it on!
- After 3 hours, remove the spare ribs from the barbecue.
- Put each piece of ribs separately in thick aluminum foil. Make sure it closes with the fold at the top so the juice can't run out. Before closing, add the apple juice.
- Put the ribs wrapped back on the barbecue away from the heat. Close the barbecue and let steam for 2 hours
- Carefully unwrap the spare ribs (hot! hot!). Be careful with the hot liquid contained in the foil.
Quick Lazy Barbecue
Do this instead of the low & slow cowboy barbecue. If you have chosen to do that, however: skip this part and move to the finale!
Cut the ribs into pieces of 4
- Put the marinated ribs in a baking dish with the mop sauce.
- Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and set at 200 degrees for 2 hours.
- Turn them over at the halfway point and make sure they are well coated in the sauce.
- Remove the ribs from the dish
Finale
- Grill the spare ribs off on the open barbecue. Do not do this on coals that are too hot, or they will burn. Periodically put some more mop sauce on the spare ribs. This will give them a nice shiny coating.
Pssst...
- You can vary with the 3-2-1 times to suit your taste. For example, steaming for only 1.5 hours to keep more bite in the meat. Or do not grill slowly for 1 hour, but grill directly over the hot coal in 5 minutes alternating to get a nice crust.
- Make a nice sauce by seasoning leftover mop sauce and herb paste with sweet and salty soy sauce and tomato ketchup and possibly smoked chili pepper or paprika.
- Put some sweet potato with the ribs in the oven , take them out and make a puree with cream butter, little garlic, pepper and salt.