I found an easy recipe for sweet and sour spare ribs that had an excellent sauce. However, I’m still trying to figure out how to get flavor into the ribs.
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My Story
Aside from fruits, I don’t usually eat sweet and tangy foods. However, recently I had a craving for sweet and sour ribs, one of my favorite dishes from my childhood. Despite that, I wanted a recipe that didn’t require frying the ribs.
Inspiring Recipe
As I was searching the internet, I found Sweet & Sour Spareribs from Food.com. The instructions in this recipe for making the sauce on the stove and ribs in the oven looked simple.
First Try
After buying a package of spare ribs and a bottle of ketchup, I was ready to start!
Ingredients to Use
Using 2.75 pounds of the ribs, I decreased the amount of the other ingredients by half. However, since I didn’t have any regular sugar, I just doubled the brown sugar.
Steps to Prepare
When it came to the directions, I had to tweak the steps for the ribs and sauce as follows:
Step 1 – For the ribs, I used a medium roasting pan instead of a large shallow pan, since that’s what the rack came with.
Step 3 – Regarding the pan for making the sauce, I utilized a small one instead of a medium one because that’s what I had available.
Step 5 – When it came to cooking the sauce, I stopped when it became thick even though it wasn’t clear yet.
Step 7 – As for the sauce covering the ribs in the oven, I only needed to pour about 1/3 of a cup to coat the surface.
Step 10 – Finally for the last step, I didn’t have a brush to get the remaining 1/2 a cup of sauce on the ribs, so I just used a spoon to spread it out.
Time to Eat
With the ribs on a plate, I was ready to taste the ribs covered with the gooey sauce.
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 * |  |  | |
The sweet sauce was definitely delicious, but there wasn’t enough to cover each piece of rib. Also, some pieces of meat were a little lean and dry.
Second Try
For the second batch of ribs, I wanted to focus on creating a thinner sauce, hoping that it would be easier to apply to the ribs.
Ingredients to Use
Since I had 3 pounds of spare ribs, about the same amount as last time, I used the same measurements for the other ingredients as before.
Steps to Prepare
Because I was trying to refine the sauce, I only adjusted one of the related steps this time by not cooking the sauce as long. As a result, I was able to use about 3/4 cup out of 1 cup of the available sauce to bake the ribs, more than before and at a higher ratio (3/4 vs. 1/3 cup and 75% vs. 40% of the usable amount, respectively).
When it came to adding the remaining sauce, I put it all around the ribs except for the underside.
Time to Eat
After the ribs were done, I wouldn’t wait to try them out.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 * | | | |
Though the sauce was not as sticky, it was still good. However, only the parts of the ribs that were coated with sauce had flavor and some areas remained a little dry and tough.
This recipe definitely had some pros and cons, so next time, I’ll trying the following:
Continuous Improvement
- Find a recipe that marinates the ribs and is flexible enough to include the sauce from this recipe.
Whenever I eat out, I usually use little or none of the provided sauces because I’m never sure what’s in them, but after making the sweet and sour ribs, I learned the following:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- By making a dish at home, you’ll know exactly what ingredients are in it!
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the Sweet & Sour Spareribs recipe from Food.com?
- Share your favorite recipe for baking spare ribs?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)
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