Grandma Hoole’s Country Style Ribs

Posted by: Susan on: May 2, 2010

• In: Pork Dishes | Sauces
• 2 Comments

Here is another recipe that I’ve had since the 1980’s and have never made.  This is a recipe that my grandmother, Elinor Hoole gave me.  I always thought it looked great, but just never made it until last week.  I have 2 great recipes for Country Style ribs and they will be posted one right after the other.  This recipe calls for vinegar to be added and for a minute I had to stop and ask myself, what type of vinegar my grandmother would have used – would she have used a white wine or red wine vinegar – or would she have used balsamic?  Did they even have Balsamic Vinegar back in her day?  Considering I got this recipe in the late 1970’s – early 1980’s – she probably would have made this in the 1950 – 1960’s and I don’t think that Balsamic Vinegar was on her list of staples in her pantry as it is with mine.  So, being the cook that I am now, I chose Balsamic for its rich flavors and it was a great choice.    Her recipe is more of a BBQ type vinegar sauce – something that would be on a good North Carolina pulled pork sandwich –  I could see myself using her recipe with white or red wine vinegar on Pork Shoulder to make pulled pork sandwiches – does anyone have a great coleslaw recipe?

Directions:

1-/2 – 2 lbs of country style ribs (approximately 4-5 ribs)

1/2 cup sliced onions

1/2 cup catsup

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp vinegar

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp dry yellow mustard

Arrange ribs in shallow pan.  Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Drain and continue cooking 30 minutes longer. 

While ribs are cooking, add all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to boil.  Have sauce warm and ready to use on the ribs once they’ve cooked 60 minutes. Baste the ribs with the sauce for the remaining 30 minutes.  Just before serving pour the remainder of sauce over the ribs. 

Serve with tater tots, french fries or hash browns, a green salad, chocolate cake or chocolate chip cookies (I think my grandmother had a sweet tooth).

**COOKS NOTE:  I did bake the ribs for 90 minutes and then pulled the ribs out and poured the sauce in it’s entirety over the ribs.   I also doubled the batch of “sauce” as I found that if I did not double it I wouldn’t have enough of the sauce to cover the ribs.  What I think would have been even better is to have cooked the ribs WITH the sauce for 90 minutes so that it had a chance to soak up all the good flavors of the sauce.  I think that Sweet Potato fries would have gone really well with this recipe – but I could not find them anywhere.  I’m sure one of the grocery stores carries them and if not, I’ll have to find a recipe for them and make my own.**

Bon Appetit!