Soaking ribs

[Smokey Piglet]

Soaked some ribs yesterday (bone-in BBQ and some boneless for the missus) for about 10 hours - in a mix of apple cider and apple cider vinegar.

They came out great, but a little too apple tasting for me.

Grilled for ~1 hr (don't have a smoker, yet!). Everyone raved about 'em.

Made my own sauce while waiting for the ribs to finish - found a copy of Shack Sauce on the net. Pretty good, doctored it up a bit for me. Poured it hot into an empty Ketchup bottle - plastic - don't do that! Melted on the spot. Luckily I had an empty vinegar bottle...

Smoked (ok, grilled, but I love saying smoked) a few fatties too - one rubbed, one rubbed and stuffed w/ cream cheese - woo-wee, that creme cheese one was GOOD!

Any advice on the ratio of cider to vinegar? Anything else go in the bath? I hand-ground some garlic salt, but nothing else went in there. I may have put too much vinegar in the bath.

The were very tender, even grilled, but a little too much apple.

Thanks!

Da Piglet - fat and happy!

[Neil]

What ratio did you use?

[Smokey Piglet]

At first, 50/50 cider/vinegar.

But, after I added more ribs (bought the BBQ rack later), added probably 80% cider, and 20% more vinegar.

But mostly to a 50/50 mix. Too much vinegar? Any other ingredients recommended?

Thanks!

Da Piglet - who just warmed up the two fatties, and served 'em for b-fast w/ some eggs and toast - in-farking-credible!

[VitaminQ]

I've never soaked ribs, but anytime I use a vinegar/ juice mix, I use at least three times as much juice as vinegar. I don't know if cider as opposed to juice makes a difference or not. But generally, I'll use 1 part vinegar to three parts juice. Sometimes less vingar, probably, but nevr more.

[MadCity Q]

If you have a marinade that contains 50% vinegar, the treatment should probably be fairly brief to prevent the meat from getting mushy. One to two hours would be plenty for a cut as thin as ribs. The thinner the cut, the less time they would require.

I'm not sure that ribs really benefit all that much from "soaking" before you cook. Generally speaking, the cuts of meat that benefit the most from brining or marinating before cooking are those that have a tendency to be bland or dry. Ribs are usually moist and flavorful without brining or marinating.