Deviled Country-Style Pork Ribs

Rib Date: September 21, 2014

Ribsters: Wiss family, Stults family

We celebrated our good friend Barry Wiss' anniversary of his 29th birthday with a little dinner party at the house, featuring the final entry into Rex's Rib Review, at least as we now know it. 

They say (whomever "they" be) "Always leave 'em wanting more."  I can't say the Deviled Country-Style Ribs did that.  At least not for me.

The Deviled Country-Style Ribs most closely resembled an old school diner-style breaded, fried pork chop.  Simple comfort food.

The recipe comes from Iowa, which makes sense.  It was a contribution to Steven Raichlen's, "Ribs, Ribs, Ribs" book by his assistant, Nancy Loseke, a native Iowan. Loseke's grandmother, born on an Iowa farm and raised there since 1898, used to make breaded pork chops for Sunday supper, and it was those Sunday suppers that inspired this recipe.

The ribs are brined for 6 hours in a salt, brown sugar, water solution.  They get dried then smothered in a wet rub (shallots, garlic, tarragon, white wine, mustard, pepper) then covered in bread crumbs ( gluten free for us). 

I set up my Weber grill in the three zone arrangement-- coals on the outsides, drip pan in the center-- and cooked the ribs over the indirect portion for about 45 minutes.  My wife, the sexy sous chef, did all the hard work-- the prep-- I did the cooking, which was in the dark by then.  That's kinda hard.  Right?

Grilling in the dark

We've all known guests that come over empty handed.  Kim and Barry Wiss, joined by her Mamma, Gramma Pat, are opposite of that.  They bring too much stuff!  This time it included a bottle of Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc, a bottle of Champagne, a mountain of shrimp Pat just brought in with her that day from New Orleans.  And they brought nachos from C Casa in the Oxbow.  A little OTT.

We served the Deviled Country-Style ribs with some mashed taters and white gravy.  Excellent decision it turned out!  And some nice wine Kim brought home from work. She works at Antica Napa Valley winery, which makes good wine, especially their Sangiovese.

Comments from the Ribsters

Finished ribs

My wife Gillian agreed they tasted like a breaded pork chop, a comment with which Kim agreed, adding that they tasted better smothered in gravy.  Doesn't everything?  Barry, upon hearing that, got seconds and successfully employed the smother technique.  He concurred.  Better with gravy. 

Gramma Pat wasn't a fan.  "Too thick," she said.  She basically said if you want a breaded pork chop, have a breaded pork chop.  Don't try to turn a rib into one.  Hard to argue with her logic.

As for me?  Again, an interesting recipe that was fun to try, but I won't be repeating anytime soon. 

Well, that wraps up this little three year project.  I'll post a separate concluding message sometime soon.  I'm debating between just calling it quits all together or morphing this into something else, as some have suggested.  If you have a suggestion or comment, make it on the blog or feel free to tweet me at @RexStults or email it to RexStults@sbcglobal.net.

Honey Mead Ribs

Connor, Gillian, Joe, Becky, Ed, Susan, Michelle & Ben

Rib Date: August 21, 2014

Ribsters: The Napa Valley Vintners "Relations Team" and significant others: Becky Peterson (and Ed), Susan Duke (and Joe), Connor Best (and Ben), Michelle Novi, and me (plus sexy sous chef).

For this rib event, Gillian and I hosted the Relations Team at the Napa Valley Vintners (http://napavintners.com/). The NVV, for whom I've had the pleasure working for the last nine years, is the non-profit trade association for the Napa Valley wine industry. I co-lead the Relations Team within the association. The Relations Team oversees all of the NVV's advocacy efforts, including Napa name protection, environmental leadership, wine quality education and partnerships, member relations efforts including educational workshops, community relations and last but not least, ensuring that the many millions of dollars raised at our Auction Napa Valley event each June are responsibly distributed to non-profits here in Napa Valley. We stay fairly busy...

We've all heard the phrase "Happy wife, happy life," which I not only believe in, but was recently proven to be true according to some Yahoo news headline I saw last week. (So it must be right?).

That reminds me of a story my insightful and colorful grandfather told me more than 20 years ago, one Sunday when I phoned him to see what he was up to. He said that he and my grandmother had spent the day at church, got some soup and went shopping. I remarked that it sounded like a pretty crummy way to spend a Sunday, but he corrected me and said it was GREAT! "Whaddya mean," I pressed, surmising there were other ways he'd rather spend a Sunday. "Your grandmother had a great day, which means I had a great day. It's all about domestic tranquility."

Seeing as many of us spend as much time at work than we do at home, I believe you should strive to extrapolate the "domestic tranquility" philosophy to the workplace. Call it "professional tranquility." And while many of our jobs are anything but tranquil, I know mine isn't!, it adds significantly to your quality of life if you enjoy the people you work with. I'm fortunate in that I enjoy my close colleagues on the Relations Team, as well as all my co-workers at NVV. It was nice to spend a fun, delicious evening "off campus" with the spouses and significant others.

Now that I've set the stage, waxing philosophically, it's time to discuss the ribs...

Due to the title of the ribs, specifically the inclusion of the word "mead," I anticipated a sweet, honey flavored sticky rib that would be interesting, perhaps surprisingly good, if not bizarre. But lemongrass plays a big role in the wet rub, which my wife had started preparing by the time I got home that afternoon, so, when I walked into the house, it smelled like a killer Vietnamese restaurant. To me, lemongrass = Vietnamese. Yum.

Turns out the wet rub was half Viking, half Vietnamese. Essentially honey, mead, which is a wine made from honey, and lemongrass. Country style ribs sit in honey mead sauce, then get grilled over direct heat. Pretty simple.

Honey Mead Ribs, grilled corn & beans

Reviews
Michelle led off with a comment with which I agreed, saying "I wish the sauce was thicker and sweeter."

Joe also commented on the sauce, calling it "subtle." I thought it may have been too subtle.

His wife Susan, meanwhile, had the best comment saying, "I'm afraid to speak as I might say something stupid like I did last time." I don't remember exactly what she said last time, as it was two years ago, but I do recall it being a bit off the wall.

Ben said "the beans complimented the dish perfectly." (My wife doctored the beans up and they were pretty damn yummy.)

Speaking of my wife, Gill said she thought the ribs were "a little bland." She's right.

We had a fun and interesting assortment of wines with dinner, as everyone brought a bottle, but in disguise (the wine, not the guest). We had reds and whites from all over the world and it was fun, with this fairly knowledgable wine crowd, to guess variety, origin and even vintage.

Bottom line: The company was better than the ribs. Honey Mead Ribs won't be making a return to my grill anytime soon.

Next: Last but not least, it's Deviled-Style Country Pork Ribs!