Finger Lickin’ Pork Ribs with Spicy Cane Syrup BBQ Sauce

Sometimes the best recipe is the easiest one. That’s my plan for making “Finger Lickin’ Pork Ribs with Spicy Cane Syrup BBQ Sauce.” My husband requested Smoked Pork Ribs for Father’s day. So, we got out our simple “Buckey’s Smoker”and fired it up to cook the ribs. This little table-top smoker uses charcoal to roast the meat. The smoky ribs were delicious; however, this all-day event was alot of work. Today, I wanted an easy way to prepare another rack of ribs and I certainly didn’t want to labor outside in our 100 degree August heat. My simple solution was to coated the ribs with a commercial dry rub and then slow roast the ribs in the oven. For a Louisiana touch, I made a homemade BBQ Sauce using Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup to coat the ribs at the end of roasting. The “twist” in this barbecue sauce recipe is that it includes some unusual spices along with Louisiana-style molasses. These ingredients give a wonderful “kick” to the sauce. My homemade BBQ sauce is so much better than commercial ones, now I’m wondering why I don’t make this BBQ sauce all the time.

St. Louis Style Ribs

When our local Albertston’s ran a special on St. Louis style ribs, I couldn’t pass it up. I love roasted pork ribs. Although I don’t purchase pork ribs very often, we do enjoy a meal of these ribs roasted in the oven from time to time (or cooked outside on our tiny smoker). St. Louis style ribs is my favorite cut. These ribs are trimmed so that they are flat, straight, and evenly squared off. The hard breast bone and chewy cartlidge is removed. St. Louis ribs come from closer to the belly and are larger, flatter, and meaty. In contrast, baby back ribs are the upper ribs — higher and closer to the spine, they are smaller and still meaty.

I wanted an easy way to prepared the ribs, and decided to slow roast them in the oven rather than firing up an outside smoker.

Recipe

Today, I’m going easy and I am using a commerical spice rub to spread on the ribs. “Fin & Feather” is a sweet spice rub which I purchased from a mail order Kansas City retailer. This spice rub is balanced in flavors — not to sweet — and does not contain too much salt. Alternatively, I’ll make my own spice rub — which is basically my homemade Cajun spice combination plus brown sugar.

Before coating the ribs with the spice rub, use a small knife to remove the membrane from the bottom of the ribs. This extra step doesn’t really take alot of effort. And, it eliminates the leathery or plastic-like bite on the back of the cooked ribs. It allows dry rubs and salt penetrate the meat directly.

Then, coat the ribs with the spice rub and let them set for 30 minutes or longer — up to overnight.

It is so simpe to roast the ribs. Place the ribs on a large roasting pan fitted with a rack and bake in a low 325 degree temperature oven. Just let them roast away without disturbing — go on to do other things. No need to turn the ribs over from time to time or to baste with a sauce at this point.

Homemade Spicy Cane Syrup BBQ Sauce

The best part of this entrée is the homemade BBQ Sauce. My original plan was to use commerical Chili Sauce in the BBQ sauce recipe. Alas, I didn’t have this ingredient (commerical Heinz Chili Sauce) on hand — and decided to concoct my own sauce. Western-style chili sauce is similar to ketchup but the tomato-based sauce is revved up with more spices such as garlic, onion and cloves, cinnamon and allspice. That’s easy enough. I have all the ingredients on hand.

For my BBQ sauce, I gave a local slant by including Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup. This is a 100 perent unrefined sweet syrup made by slow-cooking fresh sugar cane juice in open kettles, according to the manufacturer. It is a Louisiana product which hails from deep in the Cajun part of our state. It is made by C. S. Steen’s Syrup Mill in Abbeville, Louisiana, founded in 1910. Abbeville, in Vermillion Parish, is a different part of the world, especially when the harvest of sugar cane begins in the fall. It makes for an interesting day field trip. This cane syrup tastes sweeter and less bitter than traditional dark molasses because no sugar is removed during processing. However, molasses can be substituted if you don’t have this syrup in your kitchen.

The spice combination in my BBQ sauce is the unique “twist” to this recipe. Adding allspice and cloves, along with smoked paprika, garlic, salt and pepper gives a flavorful “kick” to the tomato-based sauce. I wouldn’t describe this chili sauce as “Cajun.” But. it definitely is tasty. And, apple cider vinegar adds a tart tone to the BBQ sauce.

To make the chili sauce, simply add all the ingredients to a sauce pan. Bring to a gentle boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. The sauce will thicken and darken in color. This sauce recipe is too much to spread on the ribs, so serve extra sauce separately or use in another recipe. The sauce can be stored for up to a week in the refrigerator.

After the ribs are roasted — cooked throughout and tender — remove them from the oven. Smear the sauce on top of the ribs. Return to oven and roast up for 15 minutes to 30 minutes longer.

Transfer the ribs to a cutting board. Slice into individual ribs and serve.

For our Labor Day “picnic,” I added “short cut” homemade potato salad and cucumbers with onions and sour cream. It was an easy meal, thank you very much.

These ribs are delicious! They were tender, flavorful and juicy. When paired with this BBQ sauce, they were great. We sure did like the meat off the bones! Some of the best that I have ever made. And, I love an easy recipe and meal; I’ll be making these again.

Enjoy!