Pork "Frances"

My grandmother Frances left us July 2012. She’d missed my grandfather terribly, saw an opportunity to depart, so she did. I miss her greatly, but she is now where she wants to be. I’d like to think she’s aware of what I am doing now, the cooking and the writing and is proud of me. I’d also like to think she’s proud of herself for passing her love of cooking onto me.

This is a family dish. It is not my recipe. It is not Mom2’s recipe, nor does it belong to my siblings or cousins. Yes, we all make it. We have all gotten it to the near perfect taste of her dish. But this dish is my grandmother’s. It has no name. Ribs in sauce is the closest thing it gets called on a regular basis. When I am having people over for dinner, or when Mom2 is having company over, this is often a go-to meal. It is incredibly easy and inexpensive to make for the masses, providing hearty portions of protein by keeping the budget intact.

Maybe I should mention here too that this dish is the ultimate in comfort food for me. I love the pork, but really it is the sauce. It is the most basic red sauce one can make, but when I am overly stressed or emotional, red sauce is what I turn to, to make my world right again…then dark chocolate as a chaser. The basic red sauce recipe has been slightly modified for this dish, but then again, it gets modified for almost every dish. I’d like to present to you the dish with no name as Pork “Frances!”

Pork Frances uses the basic red sauce recipe but omits one can of tomato sauce. This will initially be a thicker sauce but as the pork cooks, the juice from the pork will thin and flavor this sauce significantly.

I love pork country style ribs, which I know aren’t really ribs, but alas, I still love them. I normally buy boneless. I picked up a new pack at my bulk store and half the pack was boneless and the other half was not. For tonight’s testing, I used the bone-in ribs. My recommendation is to use boneless. This is why. As the meat cooks, and gets tender, it falls off the bones, which is fantastic. However, there were tiny pieces of bone floating in the sauce as they came apart. It was difficult to always find those pieces and I would hate to have or hear of you having a choking hazard, so opt for boneless.

I hope you can enjoy this dish as much as my family does.

Directions:

1 batch basic red sauce-omitting one can of tomato sauce

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Granulated Garlic

2 lbs pork country style ribs–boneless (about 6-8 ribs)

Add olive oil to a skillet (or to your Dutch oven if using one) and heat. Meanwhile, season each side of the ribs with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. Sear each side of the ribs. Add to slow cooker or set aside if using a Dutch oven. In the same skillet or Dutch oven, make the batch of basic red sauce, omitting one can of tomato sauce from the directions, be sure to pull up all the stuck on bits at the bottom of the pan. Add sauce to the slow cooker, or return pork to the Dutch oven, nestling it nicely in the sauce.

Set on low for 3-6 hours in your slow cooker or bake at 200º in the oven. You can cook them higher and faster, 2-3 hours on high or 350º in the oven for between 60-90 minutes.