BBQ ribs in summer? Yes! From the oven in winter? Bring them on!
The ribs in Swiss shops seem to be from greedy butchers. The bones bear little meat on them. One could think the poor animals have been kept on a strict diet or the butcher is trying to get away with as little as possible for the lower price. Take a few more grams off and the next alternatives would be to sell the bare bones as dog food or as stock material at best.
In Switzerland one can find very lean meat, a lot of filet in most shops on one end and lard on the other in specialty butcher shops. You won’t find pork with rind anywhere, the cut of meat that in many countries (eg. Estonia, Australia, Germany) is served as a popular Christmas or special festive meal, pork roast with crispy crackling …
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| Smoke Roasted Rib Cut of Pork |
Some less expensive variety meats and inner organs have found the way onto the shelves more and more in the past few years helping to live the motto of "If you already make the kill, eat everything". There is a variety of livers, kidneys and tongue to choose from as well as recently spotted fresh chicken hearts for the lovers of the Brazilian rodizio. I am still on the look for lamb tongue that I see many food bloggers blog about and would love to try.
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| Chicken hearts |
Where I live the choice of ribs on sale is down to one: pork short ribs. So the choice is between to buy or not to buy. I buy, occasionally, despite the secretly luring subtle taste of disillusionment after the dinner. The relative equation between the bones and the meat is drawing the scale of the bones to the ground and the meat to the sky. And yes, the meat is heavenly.
Oven Roast Ribs
Ingredients:
1-2 raw 5-rib pieces per person
Salt
Black pepper
Oil
Honey
Ca. 1 table spoon of fresh lime juice per 5-rib piece
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| Roast ribs from the oven |
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350-360 Fahrenheit).
Rinse the ribs in cold water and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Take a piece of aluminium foil big enough to wrap the ribs in and drop some oil on the inside. Place the ribs on the foil, spread some honey and drizzle some lime juice on the ribs. Wrap the foil together. Place the packages into a cooking tray and cook the ribs until the meat is falling off the bones. Check after 45 minutes that the ribs don’t burn on the bottom. The cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the ribs and meat.
For the last 15 minutes open the foil and leave the ribs to build more browning on the top.
Serve hot.