Coke & Ketchup Barbecue

The recipe for Coke stew called for 2 pounds of boneless pork ribs. The packages at our supermarket are about 2/3 pound each. I should use 3 of them. Instead, I keep using 2. With the Asian flavored Coke stew, I got away with it, but since there's sugar in ketchup, the combination of ketchup with a can of Coke makes the barbecue sauce too sweet. Still, it was good. Just needed to add enough spices to overcome the sweet. Next time, I'll not only use more meat, but I'll also substitute something like Spicy V8 for the ketchup. The missus says she'd like to try it with worcestershire sauce. Spicy V8 and worcestershire sauce is basically a bloody mary mix. So next time we'll try making our barbecue sauce with Coke and bloody mary!

Other simple recipes for barbecue sauce are welcome. (She's allergic to garlic powder, which means most commercial sauces are off-limits.)

You know, ten years ago, as a New York Yankee by way of the Philadelphia suburbs, I thought "barbecue" meant you cooked something on a grill. We northerners even call grills barbecues. The singular noun never refers to food, only to the tool used to cook the food. The food is always "barbecued" (adjective) somethingorother. Barbecued ribs, barbecued chicken, etc.

"Thrown another shrimp on the barby!" -- No, that's the wrong hemisphere.

Down south, barbecue (singular noun) means slow-cooked pork in a tomato-based sweet sauce. The slow-cooking is what makes the pork fall apart into shreds, as the surrounding fat cooks off into the sauce. The meat gets infused with the sauce flavor, so the sauce is important.

There's a terrible monstrosity called "shredded pork in barbecue sauce" that looks the same, but absolutely doesn't taste like barbecue. Shredded pork is just what it sounds like, pork that's been shredded. No infusion of flavor. Stuff's really gross. (These are objective facts I'm reporting, not mere personal preferences of course.)

So to make your very own southern-style barbecue, cut your 2 pounds of boneless pork ribs into cubes. Brown them in vegetable oil in a dutch oven. Add your can of Coke. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to simmer and cover the dutch oven for half an hour.

Meanwhile, cut up some onion and some garlic. Maybe just cut up some tomatoes instead of using ketchup, but like I said, we're gonna try bloody mary next time. Maybe throw in some peppers, too. I like spice. Mix it all together with the pork and Coke. Keep simmering for about a day. Seriously. I didn't leave the simmer on while we slept, but it was on the whole time we were awake. I'm told you can use an electric crock pot, too.

White rice cooks faster than brown rice, but I think brown rice tastes better. We eat our barbecue over rice. Southerners eat it straight off the plate or as a sandwich -- usually on a hamburger bun. I'd like to try it on a good baguette.