New Years Day Tradition

Barbecue spare ribs, the mere thought of these messy, tasty morsels leaves my mouth watering.  There are many different rub seasonings, sauces, smokes and cooking methods.  How does one choose the best of each?  When is the right time to serve this, usually long prep time, meal?  Is it possible to prep, cook and serve without any of the previously mentioned items?  In a typical kitchen setting, home or restaurant I would say no.  This however is not your typical household situation.  My father would have you believe that my mom had some southern cook in her, but that was only one certain style of cooking (Remember Cajun Style) which had no bearing on this meal.  Our New Years Day tradition was the barbecue spare rib, no smoke, no rub, all day cook time.  This process began early in the morning of Jan 1.  First we need to clear up one minor detail; no racks of ribs were actually sacrificed in the making of my mom’s spare ribs.  Again our freezer is full of ground beef, no pork.  Not once did I see any rack of ribs.  No baby back’s, no St. Louis Style nothing even resembling a rack of ribs were seen near or in our kitchen.  The ribs my mom used were indeed “spare.”  This may be why the use of neither smoke nor rub was necessary.  Let’s start with the prep, or my mom’s version of the rub; put all rib pieces in large pot, fill with water (unseasoned of course) and boil for approximately 3 hours.  Instead of enhancing the flavor of the ribs with a seasoning rub, Marie’s method pretty much removed any flavor which may have been left.  Now we need to cook these babies low and slow, right?  Uh wrong, let’s go with the oven at 350degrees (automatic setting of our oven) and place rib pieces on a broiler pan, again no salt or pepper and  smother with Open Pit BBQ sauce and bake for another 3 hours.  Now these were some tender ribs, messy and saucy.  I believe this was my dad’s favorite meal.  I’m not sure why, maybe the fact that it was the only meal that didn’t contain beef.  Nonetheless this meal was prepared for the family every New Years Day.  Traditions are good things; find one for your family.  Even though ours was boiled spare ribs, we still looked forward to New Years dinner.