Call for Recipe: St. Lawrence Slow Cooker Ribs

In December 2023, TILife’s copy editor, Elspeth Naismith, presented "Call for Recipes!" The article showed a tea towel that hangs proudly in her kitchen and provides the ingredients for a "Traditional 1000 Islands Shore Dinner," written by the late Les Cook, renowned Canadian fishing guide. Elspeth suggested that our River communities have many farmers, restaurants, store keepers, and yes, both year round and summer residents who have favourite recipes that all have special River meanings.

Elspeth wrote: . . . "Thousand Islands Life" is asking our readers to share their favourite River recipe with us. Tell us about the recipe, why it’s special, and why it reminds you of the River. Is it something that you only make at a specific time of the year? Is it a dish that you only make when you’re on the River?"

St. Lawrence Slow Cooker Pork Ribs

Adapted from various sources
Serves: 4 – 6 (depending on what else you’re serving)
Prep time: 15 mins Total time: 8 – 10 hrs

This is one of my summer favourites. It takes about 15 minutes or less to prep in the morning – unless the silverskin isn’t cooperating and coming off easily – then you can toss it in the slow cooker and ignore it all day. It doesn’t heat up the kitchen and you don’t burn off a lot of propane or NG in your barbecue. Everyone loves ribs and it’s an easy dinner. Win-win-win!

My other trick with this recipe, is that once the ribs are cooked, I don’t throw out the sauce in which the ribs have cooked. I let it cool slightly, then pour it into a wide-mouth container and tuck it in the fridge. This cooking liquid separates into three distinct layers – the sauce on the bottom, the gelatin from the meat and bones in the middle, and the pork fat to seal the top. The next time that I make ribs, I scrape off and discard the fat layer, then plop the sauce and gelatin into the cooker on top of the ribs, along with a bit more fresh BBQ sauce. Since we make ribs almost weekly during the summer, it works out well – the sauce keeps building on itself and the flavour gets better and better.

HOWEVER – if you don’t have a comfort level with reusing a sauce that has been used with raw meat, then don’t do it. There are a couple of schools of thought about whether this is safe or not, and I have only my own anecdotal evidence that it is safe (plus a few threads on Reddit), so follow your own dictates. There’s no shame in saying “um, not so sure about this” and starting afresh every time.

Ingredients: For the Dry Rub

• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard

For the Ribs:

• 1 kg (2 lbs) baby back, side, or spare ribs
• 2 cups barbecue sauce (homemade or commercial)

Instructions:

1. Remove the silverskin (membrane) from back of ribs (see note 2).
2. In a small bowl, stir together all ingredients for the dry rub. Rub this mixture generously over both sides of the ribs to coat. This makes enough rub for 1 kg/2 lbs of ribs (see note 3).
3. Put ribs in slow cooker. Drizzle on 1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce, reserving 1/2 cup for later.
4. Cook on low 8 – 10 hrs (see note 4). The more racks in the pot, the longer it'll need to cook. Check about halfway through the cook time and turn ribs if needed, to make sure that they all have time submerged in the sauce.
5. Gently remove cooked racks and lay on a foil lined baking sheet. Pour reserved barbecue sauce on top. Put under a broiler for 3 – 5 mins until barbecue sauce starts to bubble and caramelize. Or, you could wrap them in foil and throw them on a heated grill, for the same effect.
6. Serve with coleslaw, green salad, roasted potatoes, or whatever you wish!

Notes:

1. Dry Rub: This is a suggested recipe for a rub, but if you have a favourite, then use it. Or create your own. The idea is to have a savoury rub that will enhance the flavour of the pork
2. To remove silverskin, use a dinner knife (i.e. not a sharp knife) to loosen one edge of the membrane, then just slide your fingers underneath and around the side to loosen it up and pull it right off. Try using a piece of paper towel to grab the membrane – makes it easier to grip it and pull it off. [Warning: some silverskin will come off more easily than others – don’t get discouraged!]
3. This amount of rub covers about 1 kg/2 lbs of ribs, but it’s easy to double, triple, or quadruple the amounts, so you’ve always got some on hand. Only pour out the amount that you need for the current batch of ribs, so that you don’t accidentally contaminate the entire container of rub with a hand that’s touched raw meat.
4. Other recipes for cooking ribs in slow cooker suggest that you can cook them on high for 4 – 5 hrs, but since cooking in either the oven or on a grill requires low low heat for longer periods of time, I recommend cooking on low for longer, rather than the shorter period on high heat.

By Elspeth Naismith

Elspeth Naismith grew up in Gananoque, graduated from McMaster University in Hamilton (B.Sc (Bio)), and then from Centennial College as an RN. She also joined the Naval Reserve (thanks to a high school chum), and after spending time on both east and west coasts, she took a break from nursing and accepted a 3-year posting to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. The "break" turned into 25 years, and included jaunts to East Germany, Wales and the Irish Sea, and Bosnia. She retired from the Navy in 2011 and moved back to Gananoque in 2013.
Today she not only leaves her mark on all TI Life articles, as she is the "Real Editor", "Comma Queen," and "overall lifesaver," but she is also an official recipe tester for America's Test Kitchen.

Illustration by Marie-Anne Erki

Marie-Anne Erki, is a Kingston artist and emeritus professor civil engineering at the Royal Military College. Marie-Anne initially considered a career in architecture, but her love of mathematics led to becoming a structural engineer. She says, "At a time before computer assisted drawing (CAD), both disciplines required a huge amount of freehand and mechanical drawing. After a quarter of a century of great fun as a structural engineer, I decided to pursue painting full time." We at TI Life are fortunate that Marie-Anne has accepted to be our Official Illustrator and you will find her work on many of our articles. You can also see her works at marieanneerkipaintings.blogspot.com/