Spareribs
When the ribs are closely cut, and spare, it is well to dress with bread crumbs. Put the ribs in a pan; spread over them a dressing of crumbs, nicely seasoned with pepper, salt and sage; then put another layer of sparerib, and seasoning, with little water in the pan. Cook until well done; drain off the top; add little water, and thicken the gravy.
A bare-bones nineteenth-century method: two layers of ribs sandwiching a sage bread dressing, roasted in a covered pan until the meat gives up its fat and juices. Nothing about heat or time is stated, so the numbers below are the ones that matter.
- Oven and timeThe recipe names no heat and no time. If you cook it in a moderate oven, 325-350F, a rack of spareribs needs 2 to 2 1/2 hours covered to become tender; "until well done" here means thoroughly tender rather than merely cooked through. Pork ribs are safe at 145F but only palatable nearer 195F, when the connective tissue has broken down.
- The hinge: keep it coveredThe recipe says nothing about covering the pan. With only "little water in the pan", an uncovered dressing dries to crumbs and the meat stiffens before it tenderises. Cover the pan tightly with a lid or foil for the first 1 1/2 hours, then uncover to brown.
- "Closely cut, and spare"This describes ribs butchered with very little meat left on them. Modern racks, including the St. Louis cut, generally carry more meat, so one rack cut in half will serve as the two layers.
- The dressingRoughly 3 cups dry breadcrumbs, 1 to 2 teaspoons dried sage, salt and pepper, moistened with a few tablespoons of stock or the pan drippings. Dry crumbs alone will absorb the rib fat and little else; a little liquid keeps it from turning pasty at the bottom and dusty on top.
- "Drain off the top"This most likely means skimming the rendered fat from the pan liquid rather than discarding the top layer of ribs. Spareribs throw off a great deal of fat; pour the pan juices into a bowl, let it separate, and lift the fat off.
- Thickening the gravyUse some of the reserved fat rather than butter: about 2 tablespoons fat to 2 tablespoons flour, cooked a minute, then whisked into the defatted juices with enough added water or stock to make a cup or more.
- YieldOne rack of spareribs with the dressing serves 3 to 4.
Spareribs with a sage-and-crumb dressing belongs to the American pork-butchering tradition, when a farm hog was killed in cold weather and every part found a use within days. The hams and sides went to the smokehouse and the barrel; the ribs, which cured poorly and kept badly, were generally eaten fresh and quickly, and nineteenth-century cookbooks treat them as an everyday roast rather than a special-occasion dish. Sage was a standard seasoning for fresh pork in Anglo-American kitchens and remains so in breakfast sausage. The dressing here exists to make a thin cut of meat feed the table.