PORK used to be a bad four-letter word. It still is?! I don’t think so. People who mouth the C word—Cholesterol—about pork half-know what they’re talking about. Pork is not all that bad; otherwise, do you think the Germans who love to eat pork will continue to make the best sausages out of pork meat? The suckling pig was relished by Greeks and Romans in celebrating culinary abundances. Pork pies by the English are popular. In Brazil and some other Latin countries, pig-suckling broth is sipped from tumblers! If here in the Philippines we have crispy pata, the Germans dote on their pickled pig knuckles with sauerkraut—and the best is still at Schwarzwalder in Greenbelt. (A bit of trivia: sauerkraut-making was learned from the Chinese. It is a meal of fermented cabbage that was eaten by the Chinese who were building the Great Wall.) And will America ever survive without the breakfast bacon? No, never!

Baby-back ribs

OTHER than the word “baby” in the back ribs, there’s absolutely no guilt in cleaning up a whole rib rack smothered with honey-mustard barbecue sauce and getting your fingers sticky and sweet.

This could be the absolute excuse to eat pork. It was a lucky day when we stopped at the SM Hypermart at Tiendessitas to do some shopping. I stumbled upon what I thought was a real bargain: baby back ribs (and from the packaging it was imported) at P97.50. I couldn’t believe it yet I loaded my cart with a dozen racks...only to find out that the price was for half a kilo. But okay na rin, the meat looked tender, and a recipe was already dancing in my head.

Here are two easy recipes for the marinade. In truth, anyone who cooks baby-back ribs cannot fail to make a good dish. The flavor of the meat accounts for 80 percent of the deliciousness. Any meat close to the bone benefits from the extra flavors extracted from the bones during slow cooking. The slowcook method is more important than the marinade, in other words. Read through the recipes to know what we mean.

Recipe No.1: Nancy’s Fil-Am sauce

1 kilo baby-back rib rack or riblets

Marinade and basting sauce:

1 tbsp rock salt

1 tbsp freshly ground peppercorn

1 cup tomato or banana catsup

1 to 2 tbsp molasses

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup mustard

1 cup garlic, smashed

Combine ingredients and massage through the rack or riblets. To make riblets: slice through the meat between the bones. They call this part “fingers.” Marinate ribs for 30 minutes. Place on baking sheet with some marinade. Leave some for basting. Bake at 250° or 275°  for 1 hour or 1 hour and 15 minutes. Baste after 10 minutes in the oven, then baste every 30 minutes. You’ll get the tenderest off-the-bone ribs of your lifetime!

Recipe 2: Umami pepper ribs

1 kilo baby back ribs, cut through the “fingers” for riblets

Marinade:

½ cup light soy sauce or patis

3 tbsp Chinese rice wine or white wine

3 tbsp brown sugar

¼ cup freshly ground peppercorn

1 tbsp rock salt

¼ cup hoi sin sauce or oyster sauce

Toss everything and let stand for 30 minutes. Braise-brown ribs on griller, then slowly pour marinade. Simmer (do not boil!), covered, on low heat for about 30 to 45 minutes or till off-the-bone tender! Serve with available vegetables and greens.

Nancy’s notes

IF you have a rack of baby-back ribs, cut through the “fingers” or what chefs call the intercostal membrane, the meat between ribs, to get riblets. Usually a rack yields 8 to 10 riblets, good enough for two servings. Remember that there’s more bone than meat in baby back—less yield, that’s true, but more flavor because meats near the bone are more flavorful and umami.

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PORK used to be a bad four-letter word. It still is?! I don’t think so. People who mouth the C word—Cholesterol—about pork half-know what they’re talking about. Pork is not all that bad; otherwise, do you think the Germans who love to eat pork will continue to make the best sausages out of pork meat?

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