Braised Ribs

by infamouscookery

Lately we’ve been eating baby back ribs more frequently than usual, owing to some unexpected deals at the grocery store. Since we don’t always have time to attend the barbecue for several hours, we usually braise our ribs. We start with a sugary rub, something like a 8:2:2:1 mixture of sugar, salt, black pepper, and red/cayenne pepper. After browning the meat on all sides in a lightly oiled pan, we add enough liquid (usually apple juice, or possibly beer) to partly cover the meat, and bring it to a boil.

These ribs (and the beer surrounding them) are almost ready to cover.

Once the liquid has warmed up, we simply reduce the heat to its lowest possible setting and wait 2.5-3 hours
(they don’t even need to be flipped during that time). At 1 hour, the ribs are tasty but not as tender as they can possibly be.

These beer braised ribs have now been cooking for about 40 minutes.

The braising liquid that remains in the pot can be reduced to make a pretty good barbecue sauce (which one can thicken with a little flour). Here are some pictures of the final meals:

Here are some ribs cooked for three hours. They tasted a lot better than I lit this picture.