Savoureux Savoureux

Action shot! You can almost smell the fresh chopped garlic and the foaming Peroni waterfall.

I hope a few of you out there got The Office reference with the title of this post. Dwight Schrute has made my world a better, and funnier place. But off of references and onto the real business at hand, which is ribs.

Often, more often than not, I end up finding ribs dry and overcooked. This is not as much of a problem if you enjoy that jerky-meat kind of texture, gnawing with a meditative enthusiasm. But I am not personally a fan. Especially when it is not jerky, it is supposed to be tender juicy meat to be plucked off the bone.

As we raided the grocery store here in Italy with almost a barbaric tone, I came across ribs in the meat department. The cart was already overflowing with cured meats, cheeses and fresh sausage. RIBS YES! I thought, despite the fact that the protein and fat ratio of our haul was out of proportion.

I have never personally grilled ribs. I have only watched people cook them. But as I said previously, they have only been a disappointment. As we tooled around the rest of the store, I began to mull over how to attack this issue. Ribs were full of connective tissue. They were already pre disposed to being tough! Well, step one, break that down with a marinade.

While we were in the beer and liquor aisle, continuing our spree. Aperol! We can make spritzes! Ahahahaha!-I noticed the loose cans of Peroni, and had a small lightbulb moment. Beer was an excellent marinade, that would tenderize and moisturize, I grabbed two cans and tossed them into the overflowing cart.

My friend told me I looked like a grill ninja with my scarf around my face in the darkness. I welcome being referred to as Grill Ninja in place of my birth name if you like.

Let me explain part of my sudden urge to cook ribs. This was mostly in part to discovering our rental villa was equipped with a beautiful outdoor wood burning grill. I had never cooked with wood before, but I knew I had to give it a go upon laying eyes on its stony exterior.

Although we were a good nine hours away from dinner time, I put the ribs into the marinade as soon as we returned home, these babies were gunna soak. I also threw in a head of garlic chopped up rough into the mix for good measure.

Part two of attacking the toughness issue was the cooking method. One way to do good tender BBQ is to cook lowwww and slowwww (notice the extra letters for emphasis). But how many of us are going to babysit a grill for a good six hours? Tending and feeding a perfectly thick bed of smoky coals all the while. The answer is, few, and this was not the time nor the place. Also, I didn’t want pit BBQ, I wanted tender meat, kissed by wood smoke, not enveloped by it. A little more of a springtime flavor profile than smokey southern summer.

So all I had to do, was par braise the ribs for a little bit in the oven in the same liquid they had been marinating in. Then I took them out, and finished them on the grill. The end result was perfect. Tender, delicious, wood kissed meat without overwhelming char. Also, the beer really stood out, giving some juicy mouth watering depths to sink your teeth into.

I can’t wait to experiment more with this method, and with ribs specifically. So many marinades and braises, so little time.