Summer has started and that means one thing: BBQ time! We at the Best of Whiskies headquarters love to smoke and char those meats on the BBQ grill. For this blog we going to give out the recipe for those good ol’ fashioned bourbon glazed spareribs. ##
For good ribs you need to make the perfect sauce, so let’s get started to make that good ol’ BBQ sauce. First take a shot of the bourbon to relax and get comfortable.
Ingredients:
- Blanton’s Bourbon whiskey or any other bourbon would work. About 4 spoons or more…if you like!
- 4 racks of premium quality spareribs.
- 3 cloves of garlic. Pressed and ready to use.
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil to sauté onions, no worries. We’ll cover that later.
- 200 grams of fine chopped and diced shallot onions or any other sweet onion (yellow onion is a good replacement).
- 200ML of regular tap water (please do not use it in your whiskey).
- 3 teaspoons of tabasco or any of your funky pepper sauces.
- 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
- 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Some people use HP sauce instead…we don’t. Why did I mention it anyways?
- About 60ml of honey or maple syrup, I prefer honey.
- 350ML of ketchup (any brand is good).
- 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard.
- 240ml of brown sugar, i personally use caster sugar.
- 1/2 teaspoon of crushed black pepper for that oomph factor.
- A very finely chopped chili pepper or use that Carolina reaper in case you like it hot!
- 2 teaspoons of kosher salt.. okay you do not need the salt from the dead seas or pink salt from the Himalaya’s touched by the Dalai Lama, but please do use high quality sea salt.
- Half a teaspoon of cumin.
Got it? Let’s started prepping.
Ever heard of the French “sauté” ? Well the shallot onions need to be sautéed… tu comprends. It means those unions need to be glazed brown in a frying pan in olive oil. Do not turn on the stove too hot. When you let olive oil get too hot, it’ll release the evil spirits.
When sautéing the shallot onions brown at the very end, when they’re caramelized, add the garlic and glaze it as well. When everything is brown, transfer the onions and the garlic into a sauce pan and add the tabasco, apple cider vinegar, Worcester, honey, water, ketchup, mustard and bourbon in to a pan. Basically all the “wet” ingredients.
Whisk a few times with some good stirs on a low heat and then add the cumin, salt, pepper, chopped chili pepper, caster sugar (the “dry” ingredients) and slimmer on a low temperature for about a good 20 minutes. Believe me it’s not rocket science and you do not need to be Heston Blumenthal to do this. Anyone can do it.
It’s important to stir and taste while cooking the sauce in the sauce pan. Not hot enough…just spice it up. Not enough bourbon? Just add more or take another shot in case you are thirsty.
After 20 minutes your sauce is ready. Take it off the stove to cool down.
Use the sauce to rub the ribs and cover these with foil in the fridge overnight so the meat gets to absorb the sauce. Don’t use all of it, ‘cause you’ll need some more to glaze them when they’re on the BBQ, and for when your ribs are charred and ready to eat as seasoning.
Now the trick is to slow grill the ribs. Just like with distilling, it takes time. The longer the better. I put in the hours and glaze to the point of caramelization of the ribs during the grill on the BBQ.
Enjoy your meal, bon appétit.
When you make these ribs be sure to post them on our Facebook, we’ll love that!
Blog by Nils van Rijn
