Oven Baked Pork Ribs

Instructions

1. Cut each rack in half and pat dry
2. Rub each with a combo of ground pepper, a little salt, cumin, cayenne, and brown sugar. (Or basically with whatever you like and takes your fancy. Keep people's heat tolerance in mind when adding hot spices.)
3. Double wrap each half rack with foil and let them sit in the fridge for a while. (Could be 24 hours but that seems excessive although maybe helpful with timing, meaning you can prepare ahead.)
4. Heat oven to 275 degrees
5. Remove from fridge and place in the oven on a sheet pan or whatever. for 21/2 hours.
6. Meanwhile, make the sauce OR use your favorite store-bought.
7. Put two tablespoons of canola or similar in a solid saucepan and heat
8. Add the chopped onions and gently cook until soft (say 5 minutes)
9. Add chopped garlic
10. Stir about and then add all of the following: water, cider vinegar, tomato paste, brown sugar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, salt, black pepper, whiskey, molasses, cayenne - depends on the heat tolerance of your eaters. but say at least half a teaspoon, paprika and lemon juice.
11. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for at least an hour. Then check the consistency. it will probably need another hour or more. Give it a stir to check it's not sticking.
12. When it's nice and thick and tastes how you want it, turn off the heat.
13. After two and half hours remove the rib packages from the oven and let them cool for a bit (or until you're almost ready to serve.) Remove the foil and return ribs to the sheet pan.
14. Crank up the oven to 450 degrees and remove the foil and place ribs back on the sheet pan. (You could add some of the liquid to the sauce, or reduce, or discard.)
15. (You could also do this last step on an outdoor grill. The trick is carmelize the sauce without creating a charred mess. Add the sauce at the very end or thin the sauce a bit and paint it on slowly over time.)
16. Place the ribs back in the oven and re-heat the sauce. Keep at eye on both. You don't want the ribs to burn and you don't want the sauce to stick.
17. Take the ribs out and coat with one-third of the sauce. back to the oven for five or so and coat with another third.
18. The idea here is to have the sauce caramelize a bit but not char, blacken or burn.
19. Remove the ribs and serve with the last third of sauce.