Skip to main content
Main

Spare Ribs

A method of seasoning spare ribs, steaming them, then browning them in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spare Ribs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the spare ribs well with coarse sea salt, black pepper, minced garlic, sage, sugar, and flour.

  2. Place a dipper of water in a baking pan.

Cook

  1. Steam the ribs in the oven for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the water and brown the ribs quickly in the oven.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Garlic + sagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Spare ribs
The main meat, which becomes tender from steaming and then browns at the surface.
Flour
Coats the ribs and helps the surface brown and form a crust during cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during the final quick roasting.
Garlic
Adds aroma and savory flavor to the meat.

The step that matters

Remove the water and brown the ribs quickly. Once the water is removed, the dry oven heat must brown the surface fast. Lingering moisture or slow browning leaves the ribs pale and soft instead of crisp at the edges.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sage, sugar, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sage, sugar, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More spare ribs recipes

Roast 9Baked 4Curing 3 See all 11 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes