Crock Pot Barbecue Rib Recipe: A Lesson In Risk Management
How about a "lite" post on economics and risk management now that we are in holiday season. I knew I wanted to post this when I flicked on TV last week and reporters were showing a $25,000 dessert and a $73,000 cell phone as part of a segment on what gifts were hot for the holidays. If a $25,000 dessert isn't a sign of incredible avarice not seen in my life time, I don't know what could be. And, why is it $25,000? Because it contains edible gold leaf. Eating gold? What were those seven deadly sins again?
And, guess where one can buy this dessert? New York City. Home to the gluttonous bankers of Wall Street who have been making wild sums of money by doing unthinkably stupid things with your money. Being that we are in the early stages of Wall Street greed and gluttony being severely punished, how about a contrarian view? A big mound of barbecue for less than $10 and a few minutes preparation time.
This recipe is basically from good ole Betty Crocker with a few twists. The recipe makes enough barbecue for four large portions at a grand total price of about $6-7 if you use western style ribs. It's just as good as any restaurant and you can tweak the ingredients to personal taste.
Ingredients
3 1/2 lbs of pork ribs.
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 garlic cloves or equivalent garlic powder
1 medium onion
1/2 can cola
1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce. I like regular Open Pit for two reasons. 1) It is thick and sugary so it caramelizes in the crock pot. And 2) Because it has a smoky flavor so I don't need to use liquid smoke. Isn't liquid smoke made of nuclear waste?
What to do:
--Put ribs under a broiler until browned on all sides. 20 minutes or whatever it takes. This isn't making Epogen so don't worry about exactness. Or similarly put them on a grill to brown them on the outside. You really want to crisp or render the fat. It also removes much of the fat.
--Pour the cola in the bottom of the crock pot.
--Cut up the onion and throw it in the crock pot.
--Combine the rest of the ingredients and brush on ribs.
--Dump the ribs in the crock pot and turn the crock pot on high for about 4 hours. This time is variable and depends on your slow cooker. It could be longer.
You'll have plenty of sauce left over. Brush the ribs very hour or so with the extra sauce. Then, after the 4 hours or so dump all of the sauce on the ribs and cook for a final hour or so. I wait till near the end of cooking time because I don't want the sauce to caramelize or "burn" too early. You'll know when they are done. The ribs will be tender and the sauce thickens to be caramelly and gooey. If you don't like thick sauce, then try a thinner barbecue sauce.
You can also make this recipe on low heat as well but I use high heat as I believe it caramelizes the sugars in the sauce better. The low heat recipe would be about 8-10 hours. And if you are at work, you can dump all of the barbecue sauce in at the beginning.
Finally, I use western style ribs because you can usually find them for 99 cents a pound on sale anywhere in the U.S. (even in California) and they are all meat. No bones. Baby back ribs are also significantly more expensive: usually $5.99 a pound and up. And they are typically half bone by weight. Thus baby back ribs translate into about $12 a pound for the meat. That's 12x more expensive. Usually each westerns style rib weighs a pound to a pound and one half. You could actually use more ribs in this recipe but you'd have less sauce to slather all over the ribs. Or double the sauce recipe or whatever. If you use baby back ribs or regular ribs, you'll have to peel the membrane off of the inside of the ribs as well. That's another reason not to use them. That's a pain.
Your family can eat gourmet grub like a king on a price a pauper could afford. And, in times of uncertainty, what better risk management tactic makes this much sense?
Happy holidays!
And, guess where one can buy this dessert? New York City. Home to the gluttonous bankers of Wall Street who have been making wild sums of money by doing unthinkably stupid things with your money. Being that we are in the early stages of Wall Street greed and gluttony being severely punished, how about a contrarian view? A big mound of barbecue for less than $10 and a few minutes preparation time.
This recipe is basically from good ole Betty Crocker with a few twists. The recipe makes enough barbecue for four large portions at a grand total price of about $6-7 if you use western style ribs. It's just as good as any restaurant and you can tweak the ingredients to personal taste.
Ingredients
3 1/2 lbs of pork ribs.
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 garlic cloves or equivalent garlic powder
1 medium onion
1/2 can cola
1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce. I like regular Open Pit for two reasons. 1) It is thick and sugary so it caramelizes in the crock pot. And 2) Because it has a smoky flavor so I don't need to use liquid smoke. Isn't liquid smoke made of nuclear waste?
What to do:
--Put ribs under a broiler until browned on all sides. 20 minutes or whatever it takes. This isn't making Epogen so don't worry about exactness. Or similarly put them on a grill to brown them on the outside. You really want to crisp or render the fat. It also removes much of the fat.
--Pour the cola in the bottom of the crock pot.
--Cut up the onion and throw it in the crock pot.
--Combine the rest of the ingredients and brush on ribs.
--Dump the ribs in the crock pot and turn the crock pot on high for about 4 hours. This time is variable and depends on your slow cooker. It could be longer.
You'll have plenty of sauce left over. Brush the ribs very hour or so with the extra sauce. Then, after the 4 hours or so dump all of the sauce on the ribs and cook for a final hour or so. I wait till near the end of cooking time because I don't want the sauce to caramelize or "burn" too early. You'll know when they are done. The ribs will be tender and the sauce thickens to be caramelly and gooey. If you don't like thick sauce, then try a thinner barbecue sauce.
You can also make this recipe on low heat as well but I use high heat as I believe it caramelizes the sugars in the sauce better. The low heat recipe would be about 8-10 hours. And if you are at work, you can dump all of the barbecue sauce in at the beginning.
Finally, I use western style ribs because you can usually find them for 99 cents a pound on sale anywhere in the U.S. (even in California) and they are all meat. No bones. Baby back ribs are also significantly more expensive: usually $5.99 a pound and up. And they are typically half bone by weight. Thus baby back ribs translate into about $12 a pound for the meat. That's 12x more expensive. Usually each westerns style rib weighs a pound to a pound and one half. You could actually use more ribs in this recipe but you'd have less sauce to slather all over the ribs. Or double the sauce recipe or whatever. If you use baby back ribs or regular ribs, you'll have to peel the membrane off of the inside of the ribs as well. That's another reason not to use them. That's a pain.
Your family can eat gourmet grub like a king on a price a pauper could afford. And, in times of uncertainty, what better risk management tactic makes this much sense?
Happy holidays!
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