Roast Spareribs
Pork spareribs Salt and pepper Flour Bread-crums Powdered sage (may be omitted) Minced onion Butter, fat or cooking oil Trim the ends of the ribs neatly, crack them across the middle, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover the meat with greased paper and leave this paper on until the meat is half done; then remove the paper and dredge the meat with flour. In ten minutes, baste with butter, fat or cooking oil, and afterward baste every fifteen minutes with the gravy. This is a necessity, as this meat is very dry. Just before taking the pork from the oven, strew its surface with bread-crums mixed with the seasonings. Cook five minutes, and baste once more. Make the gravy as directed for roast leg of pork, strain, and pour it over the meat, or serve in a gravy-dish.
A plain roast of spareribs with no oven temperature or timing given, on the assumption that the cook already knew both. The one thing the recipe insists on is the basting, and it is right to.
- Oven and timeTake this as a moderate oven, 325-350F. A full side of spareribs (3-4 lb) needs roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours; the paper comes off at the halfway point, so around 45-60 minutes in.
- DonenessPork is safe at 145F, but spareribs are full of connective tissue and are tough at that point. Roast until the meat pulls back from the bone ends and a skewer meets no resistance, nearer 190F internal.
- Greased paperThis is parchment or plain paper brushed with fat, laid directly over the meat to keep the surface from drying and colouring too soon. Foil does the same job; leave it loose so steam escapes.
- The basting is the recipeSpareribs have little internal fat to self-baste once rendered. Every fifteen minutes is not an exaggeration, and skipping it gives dry, stringy meat regardless of how carefully the rest is done.
- Bread-crumsThe recipe does not say which; dry crumbs hold up better here than fresh soft ones. Mix them with the sage, salt and pepper and a little minced onion. Five minutes is all they need; longer and they scorch. Press them on lightly after a baste so they stick.
- Cracking the ribsCracking across the middle lets the slab lie flat in the pan and makes it easier to cut into portions. A butcher will do it; at home, cut partway through the bones from the concave side with a heavy knife.
- The gravyThe cross-reference is presumably to the pan gravy for roast leg of pork: fat poured off, flour stirred into the drippings, stock or water added and simmered, then strained. Skim well, as spareribs throw a good deal of fat.
- YieldAllow about 1 lb of untrimmed spareribs per person. A single side serves three to four.
Spareribs were long a butcher's afterthought, the bony sheet left when the belly was cut away for bacon and salt pork, and they were commonly eaten fresh at hog-killing time. Here they are given the older oven treatment, dressed with the sage and onion that English cookery had long attached to pork. The Delineator was a Butterick pattern magazine whose recipe pages were aimed at the household cook working with a coal or gas range and no thermometer.