Honig-Senf-Spareribs (honey mustard spare ribs)
Oven ribs rather than a smoker, rubbed and roasted low and slow until the meat pulls back from the bone, then glazed with honey and two kinds of mustard and finished hot so the glaze actually caramelises rather than just sitting sticky on top.
Christoph's oven method for spare ribs, written for a kitchen without a smoker, glazed with honey and two mustards rather than a classic barbecue sauce.
Ingredients
Written for a 40 × 30 cm baking sheet
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ribs
- 1 3/8 kg pork spare ribs, one rack, membrane removed from the back rounded
- 15 g fine salt rounded
- 5 g freshly ground black pepper rounded
- 8 g smoked paprika rounded
- 5 g garlic powder rounded
- 8 g brown sugar rounded
Honey mustard glaze
- 90 g honey rounded
- 45 g Dijon mustard rounded
- 25 g wholegrain mustard rounded
- 15 ml apple cider vinegar rounded
- 10 g garlic, finely grated rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Pat the rack dry and mix the salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder and brown sugar together. Rub it over the whole rack, on both sides, and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour, or overnight in the fridge for a deeper flavour.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C. Wrap the rack tightly in a double layer of foil, meat-side up, and set it on a sheet pan.
- Roast for about 2 hours 30 minutes, until the rack bends and cracks slightly when lifted from one end with tongs, and the meat has pulled back from the bone ends. Unwrap carefully; a lot of hot steam collects inside the foil.
- While the ribs roast, whisk the honey, both mustards, vinegar and garlic together for the glaze.
- Turn the oven up to 220°C, or heat the grill. Brush the ribs generously with the glaze on both sides.
- Roast or grill uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, brushing with more glaze once halfway through, until the surface is dark, sticky and slightly charred in places. Watch closely; the honey in the glaze burns fast at this heat.
- Rest for 5 minutes, then slice between the bones and serve with the remaining glaze on the side.
Notes
- Removing the membrane from the back of the rack is not optional in spirit. Left on, it goes rubbery and stops the rub and smoke flavour from reaching the meat from that side at all.
- Low and slow, wrapped, is what makes these ribs tender. Skipping the wrap and roasting them exposed the whole time dries out the surface long before the connective tissue has broken down.
- Glaze at the very end, not before. Honey-based glazes burn well before the meat is anywhere near done if they go on too early; they belong in the last 15 minutes only.
- They reheat well, gently, in a low oven, covered in foil; a microwave dries them out fast.
Ingredient substitutions
- Dijon and wholegrain mustard can both be swapped for a good all-purpose mustard in the same total quantity; the two together just give more texture and a rounder flavour.
- Apple cider vinegar can be white wine vinegar or plain white vinegar, both giving a similar sharpness.
- For a spicier glaze, whisk in 10 g of hot sauce or a pinch of cayenne pepper along with the mustards.
- Beef short ribs work with the same rub and glaze, though they need closer to 3 hours 30 minutes wrapped before they reach the same tenderness.
From Christoph Mayer