Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Make it Gluten-Free Tuesdays: Barbecued Spareribs

Photo from North Carolina Miscellany

Since we just celebrated Memorial Day, I thought it would be appropriate to share this recipe for Barbecued Spareribs from the 1964 Hyde County (NC) Cookbook.

This recipe isn't one from my great-grandmother's collection (as most will be in this series.) After thumbing through her recipe box and cookbooks, I couldn't find a grilling/barbecue recipe! I happened to find this pork barbecue on North Carolina Miscellany just in time for grilling season! North Carolina Miscellany is a really cool blog created & written by the NC history collection of UNC libraries. I'm rather addicted to all-things-north-carolina-history, so this one of my favorite blogs to visit.


This cookbook was originally published in 1964 by the Hyde County Home Demonstration Club. A home demonstration club was generally a women's group, formed primarily of farm wives or those who lived in a rural setting. It was a way to share education in the art of homemaking such as cooking, gardening practices, raising chickens, canning, food preservation methods, etc... These groups often shared and collected recipes and sometimes the resulting collections ended up a collaborative cookbook like this one.

This particular cookbook was so well received in the Coastal region of NC, that 3 more editions were printed in 1968, 1970, and 1973.

A great thing about this vintage recipe is that it is almost completely gluten-free, as is! You only have to change one ingredient to make this a safe option! The tomato soup. As you know, nearly all store-bought canned tomato soups are thickened with wheat flour.



For this recipe:  in place of the can of tomato soup (and we're assuming this is a small (10 3/4 oz.) can since the recipe serves around 4) you can use 1 cup + 2 tablespoons gluten-free ketchup or quite simply 1 cup plain, canned tomato sauce + 2 additional tablespoons brown sugar. Also if you wanted the vinegar & tomato sauce thickened a bit, you could add 1 tablespoon corn starch + 2 tablespoons water mixed together. Whisk together the cornstarch slurry with the tomato sauce and vinegar and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until slightly thickened. Then pour sauce over the ribs and roast as directed.


One more tomato soup option: If you are a super motivated cook you could even simply create your own homemade gluten-free tomato soup!

In most older recipe books like this, if a recipe indicates "vinegar" it generally is referring to white, distilled vinegar which is gluten-free.



Barbecued Spareribs
Created by Mrs. Miles Finch
Published in the Hyde County Cookbook, c. 1964
Adapted to be gluten-free by Carrie Forbes
Printer-friendly recipe.

Dry Rub: 
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon salt (I personally would only use about 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon is a LOT of salt!)
1 tablespoons celery seed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon paprika

Tomato Sauce:
2 pounds pork spareribs, cut into serving pieces
1/2 cup white, distilled vinegar
1 cup + 2 tablespoons gluten-free ketchup (or tomato sauce option listed above)

Directions: 
  1. Mix together dry rub ingredients and rub over the spare ribs. 
  2. Place ribs in a large roasting pan and broil for 8 minutes on each side. 
  3. Arrange the ribs in the roasting pan to create a rack. 
  4. Mix vinegar & ketchup together and pour over ribs. 
  5. Roast at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, basting with the tomato sauce every 30 minutes. Makes 4 very large servings. 
  6. Carrie's Slow Cooker Option: Make a foil rack to place in the bottom of your slow cooker by rolling up 3-4 pieces of foil and placing in a rack pattern in your slow cooker, as seen in the picture below. After initially broiling the ribs in the oven, place in a large 6-quart, greased slow cooker. Pour tomato sauce over ribs and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours until ribs are extremely tender. If desired, baste ribs with tomato sauce mid-way through slow cooking. TO release excess moisture from the slow cooker during the cooking time, place a chop stick right under the lid to create a vent. 
Make an easy foil rack using tightly rolled foil "sticks" in a criss-cross pattern.
You can roast chickens, ribs, beef roasts, etc.. 

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Now it's your turn!
Do you have a favorite family recipe that you re-created to be gluten free? It can be a new post, an old post, a post you've edited! Simply fill out the form below and a link to your recipe will be included! If you have time, please add a link back on your post to today's Make it Gluten-Free Tuesday at Gingerlemongirl.com.


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