HOW MUCH IS A RACK OF RIBS RECIPES

Steps:

• In a food processor or blender, mince garlic and scallions. Add hoisin, ketchup, honey, soy sauce, rice wine or vodka, rice vinegar and five-spice powder. Process until well blended. Taste for sweetness; the mixture should be sweet like barbecue sauce, not candy. Adjust the taste with honey, soy sauce and vinegar.
• Set aside 1/3 cup marinade for basting. Transfer remaining marinade to a container or pan large enough to hold the ribs, or to large resealable plastic bags. Add ribs and turn until well coated. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, and up to 2 days, turning occasionally in the marinade.
• Heat oven to 300 degrees. Set up a rimmed baking sheet (or two) with an oven-safe wire rack that fits inside, the kind you’d use for cooling cookies. Line the bottoms of the pans with foil or nonstick baking mats. Place the racks inside the pans and place the empty pans on the bottom rack of the oven. Pour in hot water until it comes about halfway up the sides of the pan. (Do not skip the water: The steam helps cook the meat to the right tenderness.)
• When the oven is hot, remove the ribs from the marinade and place on the racks, meaty side up. Bake without basting, 1 hour for baby back ribs, 2 hours for St. Louis style ribs. Check the water level occasionally to make sure it hasn’t cooked off.
• Remove ribs from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Pour off any water from the baking sheet and return the ribs to the racks. (Alternatively, you can finish the ribs on a medium-hot grill; see below.)
• Return ribs to the oven and roast (or grill), basting 2 or 3 times with reserved marinade, for 20 to 30 minutes (less time for baby backs, more for spareribs). Watch the ribs carefully to make sure that the edges don’t burn, and don’t baste them too close to the end; they should be dry and sticky, not wet on the surface.
• Use a big knife to cut between the bones, making sure that each rib has meat on both sides. Mound on a platter, sprinkle with scallions and cilantro, and serve immediately.

Steps:

• Mix all of the spice rub ingredients together in a large bowl. Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs (otherwise ask your butcher to do so) and coat both sides of the ribs with the spice mix, rubbing the spices into the meat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
• Prepare the barbecue for indirect cooking over very low heat (95° to 130°C, low and slow).
• Lay the racks bone side down, or in a rib rack, on the cooking grills over indirect very low heat, close the lid, and cook for 3 to 4 hours or until the meat has shrunk back from most of the bones by 5mm or more. Meanwhile, make the sauce.
• In a saucepan over low heat on the stove top, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes or until the onion has softened. Add the remaining sauce ingredients. Increase the heat, and cook for a further 10 minutes over high heat or until the sauce is thick and sticky, stirring regularly.
• After the ribs have been cooking for 3 to 4 hours, brush the racks with the sauce and continue to cook for a further 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting every 20 minutes.
• The ribs are done when you lift a rack at one end with tongs, bone side up, and the rack bends so much in the middle that the meat tears. If the meat does not tear easily, continue to cook until it does.