Slow-cooked ribs

Slow-cooking is fantastic.  It usually doesn’t take much prep  – mostly it requires forethought – and it’s great to load some food up in the morning, and come back after a day at work or school to a delicious-smelling house and a hot meal waiting for you.

These ribs are very easy and they just fall off the bone.

1. Brown the ribs under your broiler.  Browning them results in the creation of a ton of flavourful compounds, thanks to the Maillard reaction.  After you’ve done one side, don’t forget to flip them and brown the other!  The goal here is just to get those tasty brown bits on the surface, not to cook through, which is why you should use very high heat and keep a close eye on them.
2. Meanwhile, prepare a standard mirepoix by sautéing some carrots, onions, and celery with a few spices, like chili powder, sage, and garlic.  I like using woks because they make it easy to toss the vegetables.  The more airtime they get, the better they taste!  (Not really, but it is a lot of fun.)
   

   Sautéing mirepoix

    

   

   This was difficult to photograph...

3. Put your browned ribs in the slow-cooker and cover with the vegetables.  It might be easier to put a few veggies in first, then a rack of ribs, then some more veggies, more ribs, etc., until your crockpot is full.
4. Coat in your favourite barbecue sauce.  I wasn’t awesome enough to make my own, but Bulls-Eye Chicken & Rib sauce was pretty good. You can add beer to your sauce in whatever proportion doesn’t result in too runny a sauce; I like using beer that’s dark, but not too dark – like Rickard’s Red.  If your sauce is thick, you might want to try and spread it around a little while adding it, but unless it’s more of a spread than a sauce, it’ll probably migrate downwards as your meal cooks.
   

   Step 3 plus this...

   

   ...equals this.

5. Put the lid on, set your slow-cooker to Low, and come back in about seven hours, or whenever the meat’s tender.  Use a meat thermometer if you’re not sure.  As always, try not to open the slow-cooker before it’s done, because all the hot air will escape.
6. Eat!  I microwaved some potatoes when the ribs were about done and they went very well together.  Potatoes are great with the extra sauce.  Yum!

I'd like to dedicate this meal to my friend Steve and his appetite for meat.

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