This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe – Cola and Jam Spareribs (p 280) – was one I approached with some trepidation. Firstly, the only ribs I *really* like are Dorie’s beef short ribs – pork spareribs are not my favourite – plus, Coke and apricot jam? Supposing that Dorie knows much more what she is talking about than I do, I dutifully marinaded the ribs in the jam, orange juice, lemon juice, five spice powder and ground ginger overnight. The marinade ingredients alone sounded promising and it smelled pretty good when I was mixing it up.
For once I actually read the recipe the whole way through before I started (not something I am wont to do!), so I noted that the total baking time is about 2 hours (thanks Dorie for actually writing that in the recipe – when I am cooking, I don’t need that extra step of adding up all the separate cooking times..) and prepared them for a late lunch – actually with the Dorie’s warm weather pot-au-feu as the starter and a cherry clafoutis that I am posting on Sunday for the dessert…
Result?
Well I liked these quite a lot – for ribs, you understand. The sweetness from the jam and cola and the lovely aromatics of the ginger and five spice worked really well together. Will I make them again? For myself, probably not. For a large gathering of friends? Yes. Easy and flavourful and something a little different from barbecue ribs.
And yes, I ate mine with a knife and fork, à la française!
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LOL, I’m glad you liked them a lot for “ribs.” My oldest has only liked one of my rib recipes…and this was not it. Hubby loved them though 🙂 I had to throw some green on the plate to get a decent photo…you did a fabulous job for a plain plate of ribs~
Thanks – I try to challenge myself to make brown food look good!
Who can resist ribs? Finger lickin’ ribs? Perfect picnic meal!
I wouldn’t toss these aside, but they definitely would not be my first choice for ribs – but they are (relatively) thrifty, so I suppose that gives them added points.
If every there was a time for a jammy Shiraz from California or Australia, this is it.
Though personally, ribs are a perfect meal to wean yourself off of a wine fixation, and move onto beer. Stout is the classic pairing, though a deep ale works well too. These are a bit fruitier, so lend themself to a slightly lighter beer than stout quite well.
(Sorry, for the ‘Murricans here, thrifty = cheap.) 😉
oh wow! cola and jam… I want this recipe… BOO
A great idea but needs some work…
I love a good pork rib, but not all that sweetness so I went a different direction .. .surprise. My hat is off to you for using a knife and fork! I guess I am just a messy American ; p
I started eating mine a la française too but after a while ended up switching to my hands. Even though they were falling off the bone I couldn’t help myself. I agree these ribs would be great for a large gathering (down to the red checkered tablecloth).
🙂 Mine were not quite falling off the bone… Too bad for me!
If I had been over, I don’t think I would have been so proper with the knife and fork. Maybe if we had just met, but now, I think I can just dig in 🙂
Ha! Even though he is a big Seinfeld fan, Ethan still doesn’t subscribe to the “eating a Snickers with your knife & fork” school of thought!
They sound pretty tasty Mardi – I’d probably have sauce all down the front of my shirt!
But they weren’t that saucy…. 🙁
You’re welcome to “dig in” of course!
That plate looks soooo good! I wish I had some more ribs. I tried to eat them with a knife and fork, but I couldn’t resist… I had to finish them off the “American way”. :)) We loved them, and I can’t wait to prepare them for a group of friends.
🙂 I like my ribs with a knife and fork!
They do look good Mardi! I have a recipe for chicken using apricot jam and Russian Salad Dressing but I’ve never done it on the grill. This post makes me think I should try it.
Oh THAT sounds wonderful!
I love the setup in your pics with the ribs on the red-and-white-checked tablecloth. It looks perfectly picnic-ey!
Well thanks so much!
I’m glad Neil weighed in, since you aren’t much of a “hunk o’ meat” person. The recipe sounded sweet to me, but tastes differ, of course. The 5 spice powder sounded intriguing, though.
I normally love anything with 5 spice…
They look delicious… but I’m just not warmed up to the idea of using Coca-cola in cooking. I don’t drink it, so why would I cook with it? 🙂
That said, I’m intrigued enough by the ginger and five-spice that I might make some concessions.
Thanks – the cola never actually touches the meat though, no flavour imparted whatsoever…
Wow, I’ve read a lot of comments about this not being a favorite, so I think I will use the only ribs I have (beef short ribs) and forego the marinade overnight, brown, then roast. We’ll see how this turns out! They look really good though…I’m sure I would eat the whole lot (sans knife and fork)…
That sounds like a definite plan – would love to work with beef ribs and this marinade…
Beautiful ribs! Glad you enjoyed the them…I thought they were very good, too. I think I would spice it up just a bit more next time. Enjoyed your post!
Yes they need some spicing up I think!
Delish!!! And your placemat has got me craving a picnic!
LOL, it’s a napkin actually!
Oh, I love ribs!! These look wonderful! All for spicing up any dish!
Odd question, but what kind of knife is that in your picture? The ribs do look great as well, interesting combination.
It’s a Laguiole 🙂
Wow what a strange mix…looks good though and I love anything sweet!
Yeah, not quite sweet and sticky enough though..
Such an interesting way to prepare ribs…they sound wonderful!
Interesting, definitely!
Sorry you weren’t super crazy about them, but I thought you were able to get a pretty nice shot of a not-so-easy to photograph test subject!
Thanks!
Your pictures are just lovely! We have a favorite rib recipe as well, so I went into this one with some skepticism, but all in all they weren’t too bad! Glad you enjoyed them : )
Yeah, they were ok, not fabulous but definitely tasty!
I’m not a huge fan of ribs either, by I’m really curious about using coke in the recipe. I might give this a try.
It does not impart that much flavour actually – disappointing!
Your ribs are gorgeous! I’m completely jealous of your beautiful photos – so French and American at the same time!
Why thanks!
I can’t really imagine eating these with a fork and knife but then I couldn’t imagine cooking with a can of Coke either. I enjoyed them and will make them again but I have coke phobia still… something for me to work on I guess.
I am not a Cola fan either – this kind of sort of convinced me it has potential for cooking…
I was amazed at what cola did for some slow cooked pork I made last year. The addition of Five Spice here seems like a twist I will have to check out.
Jason
Yes I can see with slow cooked pork that might work…
I married a blue-blooded Southerner (he, he) and I was wondering what he would have thought of these ribs (I would have made them if my work schedule were not so crazy – I miss my FFwD crowd:)
I like country ribs and short ribs, but spare ribs have to be extraordinary to win my approval.
Nice photos of a not so photogenic meal:)
Thanks, they are SO HARD to photograph! They are unfortunately, not extraordinary..
I did not make these this week; was caught up in work stuff. I didn’t regret it until I saw your ribs and read your post. Maybe I should have squeezed them in somewhere.
Not a “must” in my opinion…
The ribs look delicious. I still haven’t been able to bring myself to cook with soda. Guess I’ll have to get over that sometime.
It’s strange – the cola does not even touch the food – perhaps might have been better if it had…
Very interesting… I, myself, am not a big ribs fan. Sure, I’ll eat them on occasion, but I don’t typically go searching for recipes. And, I surely wouldn’t have tried one that called for cola… But, if you and Dorie think it’s a good recipe, who am I to argue? I bet my brother would love it… He’s the rib lover in the family!
Yeah, I mean, it was ok, not outstanding but I certainly would not say no…