Tell Me What To Cook Episode One-Pork Ribs And Palo Santo

Time To Cook

Alright, the votes were counted and tabulated.  Now, it’s time to cook!  Here’s the menu you said you wanted to see:

• Pork Ribs cooked low and slow (BBQ)
• Make a dry rub and sauce for the ribs
• Drink/use Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron beer
• I added “Hoppin John” & beer bread to the menu as well

I decided to get Baby Back ribs since they are usually very tender and a bit lower in fat than regular spare ribs.  I went to one of my regular beer stores, Tower Wine & Spirits to pick up a 4-pack of the beer.  I decided to try to use the beer in the BBQ sauce so that meant that I needed to “experiment” a bit (I hate that) and make a couple test batches of the BBQ sauce to get the recipe right.  OK, I was ready to put this meal together.

The Dry Rub

I decided to make my basic dry rub and add a bit of brown sugar to it.  Here’s the recipe (enough for a couple pounds of ribs):

• 2 Tbs Salt
• 1 Tbs Black Pepper
• 1 Tbs Paprika
• 1 Tbs Garlic Powder
• 1 Tbs Brown Sugar
• Cayenne Pepper to taste

I put the rub on the ribs and let them sit in the refrigerator overnight.

The BBQ Sauce

I tried a couple of versions of the sauce before settling on using molassas as the base  of the sauce.  It seemed to go well w/the beer:

• 1/4 cup molassas
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 6oz beer (the other 6oz poured into a glass for sipping!)
• 1-2 Tbs tomato paste
• 1-2 tsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp chili powder
• cayenne pepper to taste

I combined all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmered over low heat til it thickened up a bit (be careful it doesn’t burn).

The Hoppin John

Hoppin John is basically black eyed peas simmered with vegetables and spices.  Here’s my basic recipe:

• 1 lb dried Black-eyed peas soaked overnight
• 1 cup each of chopped onion, green pepper and celery
• 1 can (14.5oz) diced tomatoes w/jalapeno peppers
• 4-6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Saute the onions, green pepper and celery til tender then add all the other ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 1-1.5 hours.

The Meat

I like to cook baby back ribs at 250-275 degrees for 2-3 hours on the Big Green Egg.  I usually add wood chips to give a nice smoke flavor.  This time I used Pecan, which has a mellow nutty flavor that is slightly sweet.

Here is the video of all of the recipes and getting the meat cooking on the ‘egg:

The Eating

Finally!  After several test batches of BBQ sauce and a fair amount of cooking, the meal was ready to eat.  All I can say about it is WOW!  The ribs came out “eggcellent” as always.  The dry rub really added some nice flavor.  The brown sugar in the rub helped to form a bit of a crust on the outside of the ribs and the Pecan chips added a nice smokey flavor.  The Palo Santo based BBQ sauce came out fantastic.  It had a dark sweetness and a nice tang to it.  The beer really added a nice flavor component.  The Hoppin John was a good accompaniment to the ribs and the Trader Joe’s beer bread was very good. All in all it was a fantastic meal.

The Beer

The Palo Santo is a great beer.  The aroma and taste are alluring.  It has a lot of dark fruit, vanilla, coffee, chocolate and a slight oak like sweetness to it.  There is a slight bitterness but just barely.  The taste is very unique, probably from the Palo Santo wooden tanks.  The color is a deep, dark ruby red/brown and it looks great in the glass.  The 12% ABV is there but very well hidden.  This beer goes great with sweet and smokey BBQ food.  It is well worth you trying, especially with food!

Here is the score:

1. Appearance- 8 points (out of 10)
2. Smell- 9 points (out of 10)
3. Taste- 18 points (out of 20)
4. Drinkability- 8 points (out of 10)

Total 43 (out of 50) Points- A 4 Mug Rating

Here’s the video (part II) showing how the meal came out along with the actual beer review:

Wrapping Up

I had a great time making the meal you, the reader/viewers suggested, I make.  My hope is that I was able to give you some ideas on how to mix things up a bit and try new combinations of food and beer.  Hopefully you can take my basic ideas and recipes and make them your own by adding your unique twist to them.  That’s the fun part, trying new things!  I hope to do more of these in the future so please let me know what you thought and how you have mixed fod and beer together to make a memorable meal.