What Goes Around Comes Around: BBQ Ribs in a Clay Pot

By Lori Powell

Having just announced spring last week, we are back with a cold front.  This calls for warm measures in cooking!

When I moved to Pennsylvania, one of the items that moved with me was a clay pot Romertopf -- the original, unglazed terra cotta pot for gourmet cooking, as the pamphlet reads). Funny what you discover in the recesses of your kitchen cabinet.

This pot was, I think, re-gifted to me by my Aunt Gladys when I got my first apartment in Virginia Highlands, Georgia. It was my first real attempt as a grownup back when I was 20.

My Aunt was an interior decorator and was a style adviser to me, extending beyond furnishings. Upon moving to Georgia, she counseled me on many things such as, “Cut your hair…you are gaining weight…you can find a rich man just as easily as you can a poor man.”

She is also the reason for my first permanent…big, big mistake…does a poodle come to mind? And what with my extra weight, it was an absolutely dreadful combination. You get the picture.

Aunt Gladys was a transplanted New Yorker whose prior residency was Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and as she tells it, “I told your Uncle Roger (who has since passed on and was my favorite uncle), move me South.”

Apparently she was sick of the winters in Pennsylvania and wanted to make herself over as a Southern belle. Like Tabatha on Bewitched, it was a job accomplished (including the ya’ll) with a New York-Pennsylvania-Georgia kind of mixed drawl. The ironic part is that she is back in Pennsylvania, after all these years, and living 40 minutes away from me outside of Doylestown, where her daughter resides.  They’re coming for din din tomorrow.

Oh lord, here comes the style police…hope she has a thang for Ikea but I seriously doubt it. So I will be reverting right back to when I was 20.  (Hmmm…that’s not too terrible. Actually that time was a big learning curve in my life and I’m glad that I lived through it. But no need to do it again.)

Sooo I digress and if you are still in the mood to talk food…back to the clay pot whose origin I think was Pennsylvania where my aunt first received it. The pot then moved with my aunt to Georgia, then with me to the Hudson Valley in New York and is now back in Pennsylvania where it finally is getting some use with some country style ribs, natural BBQ sauce (the one without corn syrup, tons of preservatives and other sugars) and onion. If you do not have a clay pot just use a Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid. I’m serving this with sautéed kale and baked beans laced with bacon.

BBQ Country Style Pork Ribs
Serves 6

2 tablespoons oil
2 racks country pork ribs (about 4 pounds), cut into ribs by the butcher
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large onions, sliced
1 ½ cups BBQ sauce (I use Annie’s)

Heat the oil in a large, seasoned cast-iron skillet over moderately high heat.  Sprinkle ribs with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Brown ribs on both sides, in batches, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate as browned.

Add half of the onions and half of the BBQ sauce to the bottom of the clay pot (that has been soaked in water for 10 minutes and drained), then add the ribs and remaining onions and sauce.

Cover pot and set in a cold oven. Turn oven to 450F and bake ribs for 2 ½ to 3 hours or until falling from bones.

Serve with beans, sautéed kale and watch out for errant bones.

Next day eats: BBQ pulled pork sandwiches with slaw, tacos or with rice and beans.

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