I read this story with my grade 12 French students about a woman who tries (and changes) a mother-in-laws recipe. It’s a cute love story but in the story the changed recipe ends up breaking up the couple. Even still, I attempted (and changed) my mother-in-law’s rib recipe, because hey, I’ve tried her cooking and it’s just that good! Don’t worry — the husband and I are still happily married 🙂

Being the lazy and sometimes picky cook that I am, I changed her recipe to avoid buying things that I won’t use again. To be honest, actually, I was also cooking these ribs for my parents and my dad is the kind of dad that washes off food if he detects any kind of spiciness (so I decided to omit the chili powder to save him a trip to the kitchen sink.)

The ribs still turned out fabulous, so here’s the recipe I ended up using:

4 pound slabs pork ribs

1 tbsp ground black pepper

1tsp salt

1tsp paprika

1tsp cumin

Cut the ribs in half, sprinkle with seasoning (above), and wrap each half in tinfoil. Bake at 300 for 2.5 hours.

Meanwhile, combine 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1 cup onion in a saucepan. Cook onion through. Add

2 cups water

1 cup tomato paste

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup brown sugar

5 tablespoons honey

4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

3 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 teaspoons whiskey

4 teaspoons garlic

1/2 teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoon dark molasses

Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and leave it there for one hour. Sauce will thicken. When it’s done, just put it aside until the ribs are done.

To crisp up the ribs, BBQ for three minutes on each side. Then slather in some sauce and grill for another minute on either side (the leftover sauce can just be put on the table for extra for those extra saucy people)

Et voila!

Sorry not a lot of pictures of the cooked meat, I realized as everyone was half done their ribs that I hadn’t taken any ‘after’ photos — so I quickly snapped one of the leftover as everyone was happily finishing their dinner.

