A Primer on Cooking Oven Baked Ribs
Somewhere in Kansas City and Memphis; you will find the best ribs that have been prepared in a barbeque pit. Wood coals are used in the cooking of these ribs for some 12 hours by professional pit masters. Unfortunately these pits are not easily accessible by all. Does this mean that rib lovers have to stay without their favorite dish? The best option is such a situation is to use the ovens which will at least some not so bad ribs on the table. Oven baked ribs are thus as equally as good as those prepared in those barbeque pits. One thing however that will differentiate the oven cooked ribs with the open pit ribs is the smoky flavor of the open pit ribs. Smoky barbeque sauce and liquid smoke can be used to achieve the smoky flavor of pit ribs. You can also decide to forget the smoke flavor and instead concentrate on the moist and tender ribs that are produced by the oven.
Ribs prepared in the oven can be prepared for only a few hours which are a far cry from the 12 hours required for open pit cooking. When it comes to buying the ribs, allocate each person some half rack of ribs so that they are enough for everyone. In order to come up with some great ribs, you will need large roaster with some rack inside, oven, saucepan, large skillet and a cookie sheet that has been lined up with foil. The ingredients include cooking oil, salt & pepper, barbeque sauce, 3 to 4 cups of some cooking liquid as well as the pork ribs that have all excess fat removed and cut up into some 3 or 4 inch slabs. The cooking liquid can be a mixture of anything that you fancy or even beef broth, water and red wine.
Here is how to cook ribs an oven. Begin with heating up the oven to a temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit and then take the fat stripped ribs, sprinkle them on all sides with pepper and salt. Take the skillet and heat up a few olive oil tablespoons over the medium heat range. Take a few batches of ribs and put them into the pan for searing without overcrowding it and proceed to sear the ribs on all sides till they become brown. The ribs may brown but they are yet to be fully cooked and more on the underside. Take the ribs out of the pan and place them on the larger roaster's rack after they have sufficiently browned. Take another pan and heat up your cooking liquid mixture to the boiling point. Have some cooking liquid poured into the roaster's bottom and make certain that it covers the bottom but that it doesn't immerse the ribs. Cover up your ribs and ensure that they cook at 250 degrees for approximately 3 hours. After the three hours elapse, the ribs are ready and they should be taken off the oven and the broiler settings adjusted to high. Have the oven's rack adjusted to six or eight inches over the broiler. Broil them for 2-3 minutes and ensure to brush them with the barbeque sauce till they get ready.
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This article touched the basics of the topic. I have 2 more resources related to the above. They are oven baked ribs and how to cook ribs. Do consider reading them.
