Championship Baby Back Ribs Recipe
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

I was watching a show on the Food Network where several cooks were battling it out over BBQ pork back ribs. I observed their techniques and final products, and became very enthusiastic about wanting to be competing with them. Some were good, others were not-so-good, but one thing was for sure - I felt left out.

Feeling ready for a rib-fight, I’ve decided to pull out the proverbial white glove and slap any would-be challengers with my championship rib recipe. I’m so confident that it will knock your socks off, that I don’t mind sharing it with you.

When making the sauce, be sure to use tomato ketchup that is made with real sugar. Sugar will caramelize nicely when on the grill, high fructose corn syrup will not. Also, high fructose corn syrup is something that I always avoid eating as I don’t want to become a diabetic overnight.

If you’re a purist and would like to make your ketchup from scratch you can combine tomato paste with brown sugar, salt and red wine vinegar.

This recipe works best with a pressure cooker. By cooking the meat under pressure, the flavor of the surrounding steam combined with the herbs gets pushes into the meat, as opposed to conventional cooking methods which tend to cause the fluids to exit the meat instead. But if you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can boil the ribs for 1 to 1.5 hours in water with salt and pickling spice, until the meat gets really nice and soft.

Without further a due, I present to you a recipe that, in one hour, will produce ribs you’d swear took all day to make.

Yields: 3 racks of baby back pork ribs

Equipment Needed:
- 1 Pressure cooker (preferably electronic)
- 1 BBQ grill (I used gas to grill them for the recipe, but would use charcoal if I was competing)

Ingredients:
- 3 Racks of pork back ribs
- 1 oz of McCormick pickling spice (cinnamon, allspice, mustard seed, coriander, bay leaves, ginger, chillies, cloves, black pepper, mace and cardamon).
- salt
- water

Ingredients for the BBQ sauce:
- 1 cup of ketchup that is made with real sugar (no high fructose corn syrup)
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 2 tbsp of chipotle mustard
- 2 tbsp of Japanese soya sauce
- 1 tsp of liquid smoke
- 1/2 tbsp of Tigers sauce (tamarind-based sauce)

Instructions:

1. Cut the racks into three or four sections. Put them into the pressure cooker with 1oz of the pickling spice mixture and about a tbsp of salt. Put in enough warm water to cover half the ribs. Pressure cook on high for 23 minutes.

2. Mix the BBQ sauce by whisking together all the ingredients. Set aside. Pre-heat your BBQ grill.

3. When the pressure cooker is done, let out the steam, take out the ribs and place them on the BBQ Grill. Smother them with BBQ sauce and grill until the sauce has caramelized and you’re ready to enjoy some fall-off-the-bone ribs!