Let me begin this by telling you a story. The worst thing that has ever happened to me while cooking happened while I was cooking ribs for Beyond Bacon.
It was the middle of winter, right about this time of year. We were experiencing extremely low temperatures for this area, in the low 20s Fahrenheit (about -7 Celsius). And we needed to do our smoked ribs recipe that day. Back then I had a charcoal smoker, and it was so cold that the smoke was not hot enough to cook my ribs by the time it traveled that far up and I was having trouble getting the charcoal to get hot enough to begin with. I began to play with fire, both literally and figuratively. Soon enough I managed to get a backdraft to flare up my arms and hit me square in the jaw.
The result was some terrifically painful burns and the greatest casualty of them all: I was forced to shave off my beard for the first time in 6 years.
Since then, I’ve tried dozens of ways to get oven baked ribs to taste as good as smoked ribs and consider myself something of a rib expert.
This week I’ve created the best ribs I’ve ever made, according to Stacy. And no fireballs were needed with this easy oven-baked technique!
The trick is the tag team of molasses and horseradish. You might say that the molasses hits you full force like a British Bulldog running powerslam, then the horseradish comes off the top rope with the heat like a Dynamite Kid diving headbutt to finish it off. This triumphant twosome is perfect for pork ribs and we can’t get enough of them. And you know what’s missing? Nightshades!
We’re not kidding when we say we think these are THE BEST ribs without nightshades you’ll ever try. They were so good Stacy said to me, “These are the best ribs you’ve ever made, you have to try them.” That’s saying a lot, considering how much we love our Asian Short Ribs and Pork Backbone recipes; and so I immediately tried one of the ribs I’d made for her and Finn. “Ok, yeah, you’re right. They’re good.” Then Stacy declared we HAD to share them on the blog.
“But wait!” You say, “Why ever would you use molasses, a *gasp* sugar in you recipe?!” Well, like Sarah from The Paleo Mom says, molasses is the sugar you can love! It’s packed full of great nutrients like iron, calcium, B6, potassium and more! And it tastes great, too.
You can combine horseradish and mustard yourself, but we get our horseradish mustard from local markets in the area that resell a local farm’s homemade sauces, jams, etc. It appears this organic Annie’s brand would be available to most readers and uses quality ingredients as well. Of course, you can just add horseradish to your favorite mustard, too.
This simple 3 step method will ensure your ribs are succulent, juicy, and fall apart at your fingertips – NO FORKS NEEDED.
Ingredients
- 2 full racks of pork ribs
- 1/4 C unsulphered blackstrap molasses
- 1/4 C horseradish mustard (or 1/4 C brown mustard with 1 Tbsp grated horseradish)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325.
- After preheating, before drying, boil the ribs in water for 10 minutes.
- With paper towels, pat both sides of your ribs dry.
- In a small bowl, stir together the horseradish mustard (or horseradish and mustard) and the molasses
- In a separate bowl, combine the spices, salt and pepper.
- Coat the ribs on both sides with molasses-mustard.
- Sprinkle both sides with the spices and rub in.
- Wrap each rack with foil and place on a baking tray, meatier side up.
- Bake for 90 minutes at 325 degrees. Allow to rest ten minutes before removing from the foil.
This sauce is fantastic on EVERYTHING, make a double batch and save it for later. It’s great to dip your steak in, put on burgers, or even coat your wings in. For serious, you’ll want to drink it!
