I’m sitting here with 16 pounds of baby back ribs that I am going to slow-grill for my friends on Wednesday and serve along wtih homemead potato salad.
I don’t believe in BBQ sauce, really, I’m much more interested in serving a deliciously flavored and tender rib that doesn’t need a goopy sweet sauce drenched on it to make it taste good. (Oh, I’ll be serving something up, probably a mix of a good spicy BBQ, A1 and salsa) I want the ribs themselves to cause swooning.
Part B is cooking them long and slow to make 'em tender, but part A is a good rub.
My boring but effective nature is to do soy, garlic, and black pepper. But that’s kinda dull. Any other ideas? Grated onion? What herbs make a good rub? Marjoram? I’m stumped.
And as for potato salad…what do you all consider the key ingredient to making it really fabulous? My ingredients are:
Good waxy potatos (red, white, yukon)
all kinds of onions and chives
mayo
brown mustard
celery
red pepper
italian parsley
boiled egg
salt and pepper
Anything else? Or is it just a matter of balancing all the flavors? I love to use herbs, but I never know which ones work with what foods. (I adore cilantro and would use it in everything but most of my friends hate it.)
And one more thing: for the vegans, I have big, fat portobello mushroom caps, the size of small hubcaps. How should I season or prepare those for grilling?
Hey Stoid, I don’t make ribs often, but you can search here are some recipe ideas.
My favorite ingredients for potato salad are:
Red Potatoes (peeled and cut before boiling)
Diced Celery
Chopped Dill Pickles
Mayo
French’s Mustard
Dill Weed
Black Pepper
Salt
Cayenne
Garlic Powder
Boiled Eggs
Essentially the same as yours, but no raw onions (Bleck)
You should try the cayenne. Just enough for a mild burn throughout the eating of the potato salad. Yumm.
try adding a cup of fresh cream to the mayo before mixing it in and substitute the eggs for a ton of drained sweetcorn
For the ribs : half a cup of apricot cutney to your usual marinade and maybe some good olive oil.
Howzat?
The simplest, most basic American-style rub, with a nice balance of sweet/salt/heat/earthiness and suitable for pork, beef, chicken, and even salmon, is as follows:
1/4 cup coarse salt (kosher is good)
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
3 tblsp fresh grounf black pepper
1 tblsp granulated garlic
1 tblsp granulated onion
1 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp celery seed
Tarragon, thyme and oregano are also good in potato salad. I don’t put egg in mine, but I occasionally put in some chopped olives. (Good ones, like kalamatas or the big green ones, whatever they are.)
Potabella mushroom…I like to remove the stem, scrape the black ribs off the underside of the cap with a spoon, lightly drizzle olize oil all over the shrooms and lightly salt them with sea salt, but table salt is okay too. Then just toss those puppies, whole on the grill, turning a few times (I think about 3-4 minutes for each side). MMMMmmmmm
My potato salad usually ends up tasting closer to my devilled eggs than potato salad. Might have something to do with the fact that TD doesn’t like potato salad but worships devilled eggs. Try combining your recipes for both of them.
As for the dry rub, you’ll have to wait for TD. He’s the “rubmeister” in our house. He tends to make ribs extra spicy for me though, as I like em fiery.
Dad used to add green olives and some olive juice to his potato salad. It was the best I’ve ever tasted.
He could very seldom be coaxed into making it but when he did it was a treat.
