Marinaded Pork Spare Ribs

Simplest of marinades. No really! But, so good. This is the BBQ pork spare ribs I grew up on, and to me, it is the way they are -supposed- to taste. A bit of history; My dad initially came up with this 'marinade' as a thick basting sauce for a BBQ on the spare ribs, Weight Watchers brand Apricot Jam, and your run of the mill bbq sauce (sweet, not smokey). He painted it onto the ribs, and bbqued them that way.

My mum used the same recipe, same method, but she cooked them in the oven. And then you have me, who turned it into a marinade. What you will need:

1 cup apricot jam
1 cup bbq sauce
1 Tbsp of white vinegar
2 full racks of unmarinaded spare ribs (I think it's around 1kg?)

Mix the apricot jam in with the bbq sauce (it was about 6 Tbsp of each, so that's around a cup, right?) just make sure that you have it even between the two flavours. Stir and mix and break up the jam into slop. Add the white vinegar to thin it out from a sauce/basting to a marinade. Cut each rack in half (or thirds, or however many you need/desire) and put them into the marinade. Coat evenly, leave out for about an hour/half hour, depending on ambient temperature, and then turn them in the marinade. Put in the fridge and leave overnight or at least six hours before you intend to make dinner.

Put the oven on to preheat, around 180 degrees celcius, or for those who are all buh at the temperature, the same temperature you COOK EVERYTHING ELSE AT. Seriously, whole chicken, 180, pieces of chicken, 180, lamb leg roast, 180... You get the idea

Wrap two (or more) baking trays in alfoil, (tinfoil) with several layers. At least two, or else you'll be scrubbing caramelised marinade off of the tray for hours. Put the spare ribs onto the alfoil, curved sides up, spoon a little extra of the marinade into the scoop, put into the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Pull them out, turn them over, recoat with some of the marinade now on the more meaty side, and return to the oven for a further 25 minutes. When you first pull them out, is when you put on your vegetables, if they are long cooking and so on. About ten minutes before the ribs are done, pour the excess marinade into a pan, and heat it. Let it lightly simmer, stirring the whole while.

When the timer goes off for the ribs, pull them out, put on a plate, and drizzle the excess sauce over the top to give it extra flavour of deliciousness. It won't need much. Not featured; I cooked sweet potato and nadine potato wedges, with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. It is not necessary, the ribs are more than enough of a sticky, delicious, undignified meal all on their own. Have a wash cloth/bowl handy and conveniently nearby for when you're finished, or else you will stick to EVERYTHING. My advice? Use a knife to cut the ribs into individual meat sliced pieces, and release your inner carnivore with fingers and teeth.

Who cares, it's delicious, it's messy, and it is FUN to eat. Mmmm.

Deliciousness Served.