Father’s Day Ribs Fit for a King
Who doesn’t love barbecued pork ribs? I just love pork in any form. My mother made ribs for us on several occasions, but she used an entirely different technique. Mom cut the ribs into 2-3 rib portions, boiled the ribs until they were barely tender, cooked them for a while longer in a sauce of ketchup and vinegar, and baked them for a bit before serving. Mom said this was her father’s favorite way to prepare ribs. She put a “garbage bowl” in the center of the table where we would discard rib bones devoid of meat, gristle, everything. We loved ribs. If we’d figured out a way to eat the bones, we would have done that too with another slathering of her very simple sauce.
Through the years, I’ve experimented with a variety of porksicle cooking methods. Regardless of the technique, I had empty plates and lots of bones. But during a visit last summer, I decided to give the ribs a dry rub gently baked in the oven and then sauced. The recipe was a special treat in celebration of my daughter’s family’s visit to Montana. Brock, my son-in-law raved about them, so I knew I was onto something good. I tried to finish the ribs on the grill, but they were so tender, falling off the bone, that I decided to bake them off in the oven.