Thrilled With Sauce, but Better to Flavor the Meat
I found an easy recipe for sweet and sour spare ribs that had an excellent sauce. However, I’m still trying to figure out how to get flavor into the ribs.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
Aside from fruits, I don’t usually eat sweet and tangy foods. However, recently I had a craving for sweet and sour ribs, one of my favorite dishes from my childhood. Despite that, I wanted a recipe that didn’t require frying the ribs.
Inspiring Recipe
As I was searching the internet, I found Sweet & Sour Spareribs from Food.com. The instructions in this recipe for making the sauce on the stove and ribs in the oven looked simple.
First Try
After buying a package of spare ribs and a bottle of ketchup, I was ready to start!
Ingredients to Use
Using 2.75 pounds of the ribs, I decreased the amount of the other ingredients by half. However, since I didn’t have any regular sugar, I just doubled the brown sugar.
Steps to Prepare
When it came to the directions, I had to tweak the steps for the ribs and sauce as follows:
Step 1 – For the ribs, I used a medium roasting pan instead of a large shallow pan, since that’s what the rack came with.
Step 3 – Regarding the pan for making the sauce, I utilized a small one instead of a medium one because that’s what I had available.
Step 5 – When it came to cooking the sauce, I stopped when it became thick even though it wasn’t clear yet.
Step 7 – As for the sauce covering the ribs in the oven, I only needed to pour about 1/3 of a cup to coat the surface.
Step 10 – Finally for the last step, I didn’t have a brush to get the remaining 1/2 a cup of sauce on the ribs, so I just used a spoon to spread it out.
Time to Eat
With the ribs on a plate, I was ready to taste the ribs covered with the gooey sauce.
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 🙂 |
The sweet sauce was definitely delicious, but there wasn’t enough to cover each piece of rib. Also, some pieces of meat were a little lean and dry.
Second Try
For the second batch of ribs, I wanted to focus on creating a thinner sauce, hoping that it would be easier to apply to the ribs.
Ingredients to Use
Since I had 3 pounds of spare ribs, about the same amount as last time, I used the same measurements for the other ingredients as before.
Steps to Prepare
Because I was trying to refine the sauce, I only adjusted one of the related steps this time by not cooking the sauce as long. As a result, I was able to use about 3/4 cup out of 1 cup of the available sauce to bake the ribs, more than before and at a higher ratio (3/4 vs. 1/3 cup and 75% vs. 40% of the usable amount, respectively).
When it came to adding the remaining sauce, I put it all around the ribs except for the underside.
Time to Eat
After the ribs were done, I wouldn’t wait to try them out.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 🙂 |
Though the sauce was not as sticky, it was still good. However, only the parts of the ribs that were coated with sauce had flavor and some areas remained a little dry and tough.
This recipe definitely had some pros and cons, so next time, I’ll trying the following:
Continuous Improvement
- Find a recipe that marinates the ribs and is flexible enough to include the sauce from this recipe.
Whenever I eat out, I usually use little or none of the provided sauces because I’m never sure what’s in them, but after making the sweet and sour ribs, I learned the following:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- By making a dish at home, you’ll know exactly what ingredients are in it!
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the Sweet & Sour Spareribs recipe from Food.com?
- Share your favorite recipe for baking spare ribs?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)