[conspire] 8+ lbs. raw pork spare ribs

[Ross Bernheim]

On Aug 25, 2005, at 9:33 PM, Rick Moen wrote:

> Quoting Bruce Coston (jane_ikari at yahoo.com):
>
>
>> 8+ lbs. raw pork spare ribs :bought it, bringing it,
>> any suggestions on what to do before cabal, as i will
>> need to do any marinading when i move it from freezer
>> to fridge tomorrow morning.
>>
>
> Well, you know, that's sort of where the main possibilties for
> creativity lie, isn't it?
>
> I recently had pretty good luck with a marinade I saw suggested
> somewhere on the Net:  ground mustard seed (not much!  1-2 tsp is
> plenty), honey, crushed garlic, and canola oil.  (Yes, I know.  No  
> need
> to repeat that feeble joke about canola yet again.  ;-> )
>
> I guess the secret is to know how daring is enough but not too much.
> The lazy man's way is to just use a jar of somebody's barbecue sauce.
> If in doubt, you can't go too far wrong with that.
>
> As it happens, I've gotten one of those 6 lb pork roasts y'all have  
> seen
> before at CABAL meetings, and am probably going to use that
> tried-and-true marinade seen frequently in the past:  Sour fruit soup
> concentrate (from the New Wing Yuan Market in Sunnyvale), grated  
> ginger,
> crushed garlic, cooking sherry, soy sauce.  Poke the roast a bunch of
> times with a serving fork, to make it more permeable, pour the  
> marinade
> into a big plastic bag, drop the roast into it, tie the bag over it so
> that the marinade contacts it on all sides, let soak in the  
> refrigerator
> 1+ day, pour roast + marinade back out onto a roasting pan for
> slow-cooking in a 300 degree-or-so oven.
>
> Pork doesn't fit everyone's diets, of course (various reasons), but  
> has
> the advantage that marinade penetrates a bit better than with beef or
> (the stuff you yourself can't eat:) poultry.  Of those, poultry is by
> far worst:  I couldn't get my marinade to flavour _that_ meat  
> hardly at
> all.

Uptake of marinade does indeed vary with type of meat. Lamb takes
marinade easily, and being of a bit stronger flavor, can stand up to a
strong marinade very well. Beef marinates well for thin to moderate
cuts. Deep penetration needs help.

Pork needs a longer time to gain flavor from a marinade as the flesh
does not take the marinade too well into the cells. When in Germany
the local butcher would fill a large plastic garbage bag with 20 or more
pounds of pork steaks and marinade and marinate for a week. Very good
on the grill with lots of flavor.

Chicken and turkey are virtually impermiable to marinade. A rub or
sauce will work well with these.

> For any vegetarians reading this, hey, I'm sorry, but at least we make
> available a well-cleaned oven, stove, and pots/pans for your
> no-animal-products convenience.
>
> Anyhow, 8 lb, huh?  That's a lot of meat.
>
>
> In a desparate last-minute attempt to make this post on-topic for a
> Linux user group mailing list:
>
>
>> may try some stuff at ross's tinight re dvd problems under mepis and
>> kanotix but my burner works for now. and see below re m/b.
>>
>
> I'm downloading a fresh image of SimplyMEPIS 3.3.1-1, just in case
> there's any doubt about integrity.
>
> Stuff I don't have current plans to download prior to this Saturday's
> meeting, unless someone speaks up and says "I want to install that and
> would really appreciate your burning it for me":
>
> o  Beta 3 of the fully-redistributable SUSE 10 is now available for
>    download (5 binary CD images; versions for i386, x86_64, and PPC).
>
> o  Ditto beta 3 of Mandriva 2006 for i586 (3 binary CDs).
>
> o  Also, there's an initial single-CD image of "Freespire", the freely
>    redistributable (and, in fact, all open-source) community  
> variant of
>    Linspire.
>
> I downloaded Vector Linux 5.1 and will burn a cd or two to bring.


Ross