Recipe below article or jump straight to the Barbecued Pork Ribs with Cachaça BBQ Sauce Recipe
Let´s talk a little about Pork Ribs – a staple of the American barbecue menu. From the tip of Argentina to the polar caps of Alaska, ribs rule the smoke house. Are there better cuts of meat to smoke than pork ribs…yes, but for me, nothing speaks barbecue better than a slab of ribs in BBQ sauce.
“The Ribs King”
Montgomery Inn – “The Ribs King”
I grew up as a small child down the street from one of most internationally famous rib joints in American, Montgomery Inn, founded in 1951 in an old stagecoach station. The sauce recipe was legendary and the restaurant was named as one of the top ten rib restaurants in the US. The owner of the place was nicknamed “the Ribs King” and it had a huge following of locals and celebrities. We always heard stories about how “the Ribs King” would cater for the “King of Comedy” Bob Hope´s celebrity golf tournament out in California each summer. And that they catered the wedding of Rosemary Clooney – you may know her less famous nephew George, who is the 2nd 3rd most famous Clooney from where I grew up…his dad, Nick Clooney, was the local anchorman when we were young.
Montgomery Inn T-Ball
Ok enough of the name dropping, the real reason I remember it so fondly was that my first tee ball team was sponsored by Montgomery Inn and I wore that baseball jersey all summer long. Ah…the simpler times.
Salt or Sauce?
Video: Knocking off the extra salt crust after smoking a slab of Brasilian-style pork ribs.
I grew up with BBQ sauce, preferably with a spicy kick and some cole slaw on the side. In South America, they like to salt their ribs. A style which I discovered later in life – and now enjoy immensely for steak, but still, I prefer to sauce my ribs so they are finger licking good. Either way, the key to quality ribs is patience. The long, slow process of smoking your ribs makes it all worth the effort when the meat falls from the bone and you are enjoy them with a cold beer and shot of tequila. Now-a-days, I also prefer cachaça. (See how we DIY aged our own Barcelona BBQ Cachaça in this video blog)
- 1000 grams pork ribs
- 16 tbsp Homemade Tomato Paste (see our video on making tomato paste)
- 6 tbsp Hoisen sauce
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 120 ml aged Cachaça or you can use tequila/ whiskey
- 2 thai peppers chopped
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- In a medium size mixing bowl, combine the ingredients; the Hoisen sauce, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, thai peppers, garlic, and finally the two shots of my special homemade diy-aged cachaça (Tequila is a great substitute) Mix this up well with your fork so it become almost a paste.
- Then add your homemade tomato paste and mix together again. (Your tomato paste should have had no added sugar or salt)
- Next, cover your slab of ribs with the sauce. Make sure that you save some sauce for later and that the bone side is face down on your serving plate. Let that sit for at least 30 minutes to glaze your meat.
- When your fire is ready, place the slab of ribs bone side down towards the fire. Your heat should be medium heat at this point. Cover the grill and I like to leave my ribs for a good 15-20 minutes on the direct heat, but make sure that your flame is not flaring up and burning them.
- After this time, I see the BBQ sauce has really started to bake into the ribs, I remove them from the fire and move my hot coals to one side of the barbecue. Now, I add more sauce to the ribs, place them sideways in my rib racks and return them back on the barbecue. But on the side of my barbecue opposite of the coals so they are being cooked with indirect heat. I let them smoke away for another 60-90 mins.
- Once the meat is tender and falling off the bone, they should be ready to eat. I like to add another quick touch of sauce before I take them out of the smoke. *A trick I have used to keep them moist during this process, is to spray the ribs with vinegar mists while they are smoking away.
