Sticky Balsamic Ribs Recipes

STICKY BALSAMIC RIBS

Steps:

• Marinate and roast ribs:
• Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 1 teaspoon salt. Stir together with rosemary, brown sugar, vinegar, cayenne, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Rub evenly all over ribs and transfer to roasting pans. Marinate, chilled, 8 to 24 hours.
• Preheat oven to 425°F with racks in upper and lower thirds.
• Pour 1/2 cup water into each roasting pan and tightly cover pans with foil. Roast ribs, switching position of pans halfway through, until meat is very tender, about 1 3/4 hours. Remove pans from oven and transfer ribs to a platter.
• Make glaze and grill ribs:
• Add 1 cup hot water to each roasting pan and scrape up brown bits. Skim off and discard fat, then transfer liquid to a 10-inch skillet. Add vinegar and brown sugar and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil until reduced to about 1 cup, about 15 minutes.
• Prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium heat for gas); see Grilling Procedure .
• Brush some of glaze onto both sides of racks of ribs. Grill, turning occasionally, until ribs are hot and grill marks appear, about 6 minutes.
• Brush ribs with more glaze and serve remaining glaze on the side.
• What to drink:
• Artezin Mendocino Zinfandel '07 or Château de Chamirey Mercurey Rouge '07

BALSAMIC BABY BACK RIBS RECIPE

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients for the rub in a medium bowl. Mix well.
• Tear off three pieces of foil at least 8 inches longer than the racks of ribs. Place them where you have easy access to them, shiny side facing down.
• Spoon 1/3 of the rub over one rack of ribs and coat thoroughly. Then place the rack meat-side down onto a piece of foil.
• Carefully bring together the long edges of the foil, then roll them together down toward the ribs. Close and roll up the short ends of the foil to seal the ribs for cooking.
• Transfer all the foil-enclosed ribs to the aluminum roasting pan. If you have three racks of ribs, you can stack the third one right on top of the other two.
• Refrigerate and marinate for at least 12 hours.
• Place oven rack in center position, and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Place baking tray with ribs in the oven. Cook at 350 for the first 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 and bake for another 90 minutes.
• After the first 2 hours, rotate the foil packets. Leave the temperature at 300 and cook for another 90 minutes.
• At this point check to be sure the ribs are done: leaving the ribs in the baking tray, carefully open one end of one foil packet. (Be careful the steam is extremely hot.) You should see that the meat has started to pull away from the bone. Gently test with a fork to ensure that they are tender and give easily, but still hold their shape to be able to survive grilling or broiling. Check multiple foil packets in the same way. If they need more time, re-seal the foil and return them to the oven for another 15-30 minutes.
• Carefully pour all the cooking liquid from the ribs into a large saucepan. If desired, skim off fat. Gently place the ribs on a large cookie sheet with the bone side down and set aside. Discard the foil that was used to bake the ribs.
• Add the additional balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and cayenne to the saucepan with cooking liquids. Mix thoroughly over medium heat, and bring the sauce to a gentle boil. Allow it to cook long enough to reduce somewhat and thicken... usually about 15-20 minutes. The result should be somewhere around 1½ cups of sauce.
• Using a basting brush, cover the meat side of ribs with the sauce. Don't worry about the bone side at this point.
• Thoroughly oil grill grates using paper towels and canola or olive oil, then bring grill to 450 degrees.
• Place ribs bone-side down on the grill, cook with lid closed for 3 minutes.
• Gently turn the ribs over, meat side down. Brush the bone side of the ribs with a small amount of BBQ sauce. Leave the grill open, and closely monitor the ribs during this step! Grill the ribs long enough to caramelize, without burning them. You may need to adjust grill heat as necessary to achieve this, but normally this takes around 5 minutes. Place the grilled ribs bone-side down onto a cookie sheet, then re-apply BBQ sauce over the meat side.

SWEET AND STICKY PORK RIBS

Steps:

• For the ribs: Place the ribs in a roasting pan, cutting the racks in half to fit if necessary. Combine the garlic, rosemary, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt and cayenne in a small bowl, and rub the mixture evenly all over the ribs. Allow the ribs to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.
• Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Pour 1/2 cup water into the roasting pan and cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Roast the ribs until the meat is very tender and separate easily from the bone, about 1 1/2 hours. While the ribs are roasting make the BBQ sauce.
• For the sauce: Place the balsamic vinegar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to medium and cook the vinegar until it is reduced by a third, about 8 minutes. Whisk in the ketchup, apple cider vinegar, honey, mustard, molasses, Worcestershire, hot sauce and salt. Bring the the sauce back to a boil then lower the heat and simmer until thickened, 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
• To finish, remove the ribs from the oven and transfer to 2 aluminum-foil-lined baking sheets. Increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees F. Brush both sides of the ribs generously with the BBQ sauce and bake uncovered for 10 minutes, until the sauce is browned and sizzling. Allow the ribs to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.