Saturday, September 3, 2011

Greek Style Spare Ribs

I hope today was summer heats last hurrah, 95 deg & 45 % humidity! Early this am I cut up some of my last tomatoes, some Vidalia onion, & sliced cucumbers. For the marinade I used about one cup of apple cider vinegar, 3 cups of water & about 3 Tbs of olive oil. Salt, pepper, a tsp of sugar & 3 cloves of smashed garlic.
Yesterday I went to my butchers to get some bacon & a rack of spare ribs. I ask for the spare ribs & he said I don’t have any cut, I can go break down a hog & get some for you. They butcher on Thursdays. I said I don’t need them until tomorrow so I’ll pick them up in the morning. Now these ribs would be fresh off the hog! These Greek style ribs do not need a long marinade time & pretty simple to prepare. About 2 hrs. before cook time I cut my 5 ¾ lbs. spare ribs St. Louis style. I cut the flap meat in 3 pieces for the cook! I wanted to try some Bone Suckin rub on them so wet them down with red wine vinegar & the rub. The rest of the trimmings I vacuum sealed & froze for use in beans or soup later. I seasoned the ribs with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, & oregano, then back in the fridge. Just before cook time I would add 3 cloves of chopped garlic, lemon zest & the juice of one lemon. Below in a photo I show my favorite zester, a Hamilton Beach. I got the ribs on at 1:30, smoke mode 180 deg. for one hour then went to 225 deg. At 3:00 I put a potato in the oven at 350 deg. I use a potato heat rod, & pierce the potatoes with a fork, nothing on the skin. In two hrs. you will have a crusty potato skin with potato in the middle. After 3 hrs. I turned the ribs end for end, with my Traeger I rarely turn my meats & my ribs are done meat side up. I also added the juice of one lemon. About 5:15 I decided the ribs were done after a bend test so pulled them & tented with foil to rest for 10 min. Total cook time was just under 4 hrs. I prepared the wife & my plates. I love these Greek style ribs for a change of pace from the usual BBQ rub & sauce. This was the first time I used spare ribs instead of baby backs & I prefer the baby backs.

Printable rib recipe

My salad


Spare ribs


Trimmed out


Lemon zester


Potato


Seasoned ribs


About done


My plate
That's Philly cheese sauce on my potato


Smokin Don

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