Here I Go Again...Saturday Night's Dinner Was Awesome! 🌞

Last edited Mon Aug 18, 2025, 03:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Local Supermarket had St. Louis-Style Ribs on sale
for $2.99 /lb. I wanted to recreate the flavor of Chinese Spareribs,
at home. Now if you don't know, as compared to baby-backs, there's
about 3x the meat, and (if you take your time), can be just
about as tender.

After thawing in the fridge for 24 hrs. I removed the packaging,
and using a butter knife, carefully peeled off the membrane on
the back side of the ribs. That done I took a cleaver and split the rack
in two. This enables one to enclose the ribs, with the marinade
in a single gallon-sized ziplock bag.

For a marinade I chose a standard Sun Luck Plum Sauce.
(8 oz.) as the foundation, then added (2 oz) Pearl River, Mushroom-
infused soy sauce, followed by (2 oz) Lee Kum Kee, Guizhou Style
Black Bean Chile Sauce. Needing a 2nd variety of hot pepper I
topped it off w/ (1 oz) of Scotch Bonnet Pepper-based Baron's
Caribbean Hot Sauce.

At this point, some of you may be thnking that "that marinade
has way to much chile!" ... but you'd be wrong. Marinades are,
for the most part, not absorbed quickly, (and these amounts are
tailored to set up the final ingredient). So I freezer-bagged the
ribs and left them in the fridge for 24hrs.

Brought them out of the fridge about an hour beforehand and
laid them out so they'd come up to room temperature.
Pre-heated the oven to 250 degrees. Previously I had set out
a large, rimmed baking sheet, with a wire rack to keep
the ribs off the surface of the pan, thus allowing even cooking
on all sides.

On that wire rack I laid a sheet of aluminum foil 4" longer than
the ribs, and placed the ribs on that. I brushed the upper
surface of the ribs with the marinade. Next dotted the ribs with
butter, finally enclosing the ribs completly with a matching sheet of
foil, and sealing it around the edges.

Popped it into the oven, proceeded to live my life for 3 1/2 hrs.
My baby red bliss potato salad had been ready for a day at this point.
So no action required...for hours ;^)

Took the tray out unwrapped it and let it sit, A warm, dark sweet
smell wafted into my nostrils, followed by an immediate rush of
saliva. When seated I literally pulled the first rib off with my fingers.
Mmmm tender.

Remember, this is an experiment to try and get the more complex flavors
of Sichuan, the umami or earth flavor which elevates the very best cooking
world-wide.

Tasted the meat, every flavor was there; it was warming from the peppers,
sweet from the plum, darkness lurked from the mushroom soy, but every flavor
was muted. So holding my breath, I spread the final ingredient on the ribs
in front of me and took a bite.

No the heavens didn't open, but I almost gagged from the shock. Suddenly
an entire CHOIR of Plums, tropical peppers, beans, & mushrooms crouching
in a dank forest, burst into song, and, above all the rest, at its very zenith, with
both heat and vinegar, the Ka Me Chinese Hot Mustard I'd spread just moments before....

We ate it all up!

Hope this was fun to read!

*Names of the products are just to help people find them...