Marinade für Spare Ribs (Asian-style rib marinade)
A soy, ginger and five-spice marinade for spare ribs, the savoury counterpart to a honey mustard glaze rather than another version of it. It is a marinade first and a light glaze second, since the sugar in it means it still needs to go on before the meat is fully cooked, not after.
Prep10 min
Rest240 min
Servings4
Christoph's soy and five-spice marinade for ribs, written as the savoury alternative to the honey mustard glaze rather than a second version of the same thing.
Ingredients
Units
Temperature
Servings
Marinade
- 90 ml soy sauce rounded
- 45 g honey rounded
- 20 ml rice vinegar rounded
- 10 ml toasted sesame oil rounded
- 20 g garlic, finely grated rounded
- 15 g fresh ginger, finely grated rounded
- 3 g five-spice powder rounded
- 1 g chili flakes (optional) rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Whisk the soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar and sesame oil together in a bowl or jug until the honey has fully dissolved.
- Stir in the garlic, ginger, five-spice powder and chili flakes, if using.
- Pour over one rack of spare ribs, membrane removed from the back, in a dish or a large sealed bag, turning to coat all sides.
- Marinate at least 4 hours in the fridge, ideally overnight; the flavour is noticeably deeper after 12 hours than after 4.
- Lift the ribs out and let the excess marinade drip off before cooking. Because it contains honey, it burns easily; if roasting or grilling, cook the ribs mostly unglazed and brush any reserved marinade on only in the last 15 minutes, boiled first for at least 2 minutes if it has touched raw meat.
Notes
- This marinade contains sugar, so treat it like a glaze near the end of cooking, not just a soak. Any marinade left over that has been in contact with raw pork must be brought to a full boil for at least 2 minutes before it touches cooked meat again.
- Grating the garlic and ginger rather than chopping lets them distribute evenly through the marinade instead of sitting as separate pieces that burn on the surface during cooking.
- Longer is better within reason. Past about 24 hours the acid and salt start to change the texture of the meat’s surface rather than just flavouring it, so do not go much beyond that.
- It keeps unused, unrefrigerated marinade for up to 5 days in the fridge, sealed, as long as it has not touched raw meat.
Ingredient substitutions
- Five-spice powder can be swapped for a pinch each of ground cinnamon and star anise if it is not to hand, though the flavour is less rounded.
- Rice vinegar can be apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lime juice in the same quantity.
- Honey can be brown sugar dissolved in a spoon of hot water, which behaves similarly on the grill.
- For a spicier version, add 15 g of gochujang or sambal oelek along with the other ingredients.
From Christoph Mayer