Rib Date: March 15, 2014
Ribsters Attending: Stults family, McDonald family, Hunter family, Snider family and Francis Davin
We celebrated the end of another fun and successful youth basketball season by smoking Jamaican Jerk Spareribs. The basketball season was more irie than the ribs.
The Jamaican Jerk Spareribs come from... you guessed it: Jamaica!
My lovely sous chef/wife Gillian prepped the ribs while I was at our son's Little League baseball game. There are 14 ingredients in the jerk seasoning, my favorite of which is rum (Bacardi 151 is what we used.) Those 14 ingredients (too many to list- buy the book) get blended up and slathered over the ribs and they marinated for about six hours. The ribs went on my Weber Smokey Mountain cooker at 2:30 and spent four hours smoking, mostly using oak. Take them off, chop 'em up, and eat 'em. Pretty simple, especially for me, since I was at the baseball game until it was time for the smokin'.
Given the Jamaican theme- we had some Red Stripe beer on hand, served the ribs with red beans and rice, and of course, enjoyed some good reggae music throughout the evening. (Little known fact about the author: I was a reggae DJ on college radio at WSU.)
My favorite part of the meal had nothing to do with the ribs. Eric Hunter, appropriately named, brought over some duck that he had shot out of the sky. Some of the breast pieces went on the smoker with the ribs, while his duck sausage saw some grill action. They were both off the hook and went really well with the nice bottle of cab they brought to me as a gift for coaching. Duck and cab. Yum.
The Jamaican Jerk Spareribs, from Steven Raichlen's book, "Ribs Ribs Ribs," were unanimously voted OK.
Since the party was to celebrate the end of the basketball season, I will turn to player comments first:
Jack Hunter approved of the ribs, which he said he would eat again. "They have a lot of flavor and I like how they fall off the bone."
Calvin Snider, meanwhile, wasn't as enthusiastic. "They don't have any flavor."
Calvin's mom Terry seemed to like them. "They were earthy, smoky and fell off the bone."
Her husband Dale shrugged and said they were good, but definitely not his favorite.
Tasha McDonald liked that they weren't saucy, while her husband JR switched his comments away from Coors Light. "The smokiness paired great with the nice St. Supery cabernet sauvignon that Francis brought."
Speaking of Francis, he thought the ribs were pretty good, but rather bland.
April Hunter said they were not juicy enough and her husband Eric concurred, noting that he only had to use one napkin.
My wife Gillian, the sous chef, said they would have been better with a rub and a good sauce.
For me? I'd give them a six out of ten. Not bad. Not good. Comments above summed it nicely.
Again, the lesson from the book repeats itself: If it ain't from the south or Asia, it ain't all that great.
That theory will be tested again on the next recipe: the Italian-inspired Beppe's Ribs from NYC.
