Home › Sausages › Roasted Spare-Rib of Pork
Roasted Spare-Rib of Pork
A spare-rib of pork usually weighs about eight or nine pounds, and will take from two to three hours to roast it thoroughly--not exactly according to its weight, but the thickness of the meat upon it, which varies very much. Put into a moderately hot oven. A proper bald spare-rib of eight pounds' weight (so-called because almost all the meat is pared off), with a steady fire, will be done in an hour and a quarter--there is so little meat on a bald spare-rib that if you have a large, fierce fire it will be burnt before it is warm through. Joint it nicely, and crack the ribs across as you do ribs of lamb. When you put it in to roast, dust on some flour, and baste with a little butter. Dry a dozen sage-leaves, rub them through a hair sieve, and put them into the top of a pepper-box, and about a quarter of an hour before the meat is done baste it with butter, then dust pulverized sage, or sprinkle with duck-stuffing. Some people carve a spare-rib by cutting out in slices the thick part at the bottom of the bones. When this meat is cut away the bones may be easily separated, and are esteemed very sweet picking. Apple sauce, mashed yellow turnips, mashed potatoes, and good mustard are indispensable.
A straightforward dry roast, but the joint described is much larger than what a butcher sells today, and the whole method turns on judging thickness rather than weight.
- "Moderately hot oven"Roughly 350-375F in a modern oven. The instruction against a "large, fierce fire" is the important half: a thin, well-pared rib will scorch in a hot oven long before the centre is hot.
- The size of the jointAn eight- or nine-pound spare-rib is a far larger piece than anything sold under that name now: the whole rib section from one side of the pig. A supermarket rack of pork spareribs runs 2.5 to 3.5 lb; two racks, or a bone-in pork rib roast of 4-5 lb, gets you closer to the original.
- "Bald" spare-ribThe recipe explains the term itself: almost all the meat has been pared off, leaving little more than bone and a thin covering. That is why it cooks in an hour and a quarter while a meaty joint of the same weight needs two to three hours.
- Cook to temperature, not to the clockThe recipe is honest that weight tells you little. Use a thermometer in the thickest part away from bone: 145F for a rib roast, rested ten minutes. Ribs stripped nearly bare are done as soon as they are hot through and browned.
- Jointing and crackingCracking the ribs across, as for a rack of lamb, means cutting partway through the bones from the underside so the roast can be portioned at table. A butcher will do this on request; a home cook needs a heavy cleaver, not a knife.
- Powdered sageDrying a dozen sage leaves and passing them through a sieve gives you rubbed sage. Jarred ground sage is milled finer and is stronger by volume, so use less. It goes on in the last quarter hour rather than at the start.
- Duck-stuffingThe period shorthand for sage and onion stuffing. Sprinkled over the meat here rather than packed inside, it functions as a crust.
- Flour and butterThe dusting of flour with butter basting is an old way of building colour on a lean surface. It works, but watch it: flour scorches faster than fat alone.
- ServingA 4-5 lb rib roast serves six to eight. The apple sauce, mashed swede or yellow turnip, mashed potato and sharp mustard listed at the end are not garnish in this tradition; the fat wants the acid and the mustard.