The first challenge in making great ribs is finding great pork, which is sadly becoming near impossible. Pig farming has evolved (or devolved) from a livelihood into business into big business. Today's commercial, commodity market pig is bred to be as lean as possible and is raised on a farm that operates like a factory, probably never even seeing the light of day or a bit of mud to root around in.
Sure, you can buy a nice looking rack of ribs from the supermarket. Take them out of that styrofoam tray, slather them in a store-bought barbeque sauce and grill 'em up; they will probably taste okay. Not much different than what you might get at your local TGI Friday's or Outback Grill. Of course, you have no idea what age the pig was slaughtered at. Or what breed the pig was. Or what it was fed. Are you eating ribs from a single animal, or were there a couple different pigs in that tray? Where is the pork from? Did it travel across the country in a transport container from Alberta? Is this pork from one of those farms you hear about, where the animals are jacked up on antibiotics to prevent them from getting ill from the squalid, festering conditions they live in? Maybe that rack of ribs on your plate starts to look a little different. Or the ribs on your children's plates.
It wasn't always this way. And thankfully it doesn't have to be today. There are plenty of farmers around producing natural, healthy food. Food you could feel good about serving to your family.
Heritage Breed Pigs
You may be astonished to learn there used to exist different, distinct breeds of pigs (I know I was). They were bred over generations for various qualities. Hardiness. Grazing ability. Mothering ability. They looked different, sometimes very different, from the pink stereotypical "commercial" pig of today. Some were black. Some were spotted. Some were really hairy. All of these traits, of course, are of no use to a "big business" commodity farmer. He wants an animal that is disease tolerant, grows fast on minimal feed, and it extremely lean (the pork industry thinks everyone wants lean pork, for some deluded reason). The unique characteristics of those old breeds have been bred out of today's commodity pig.
Thankfully, the bloodlines of those old breeds have not been entirely lost. Known today as "heritage breeds", small scale farmers continue to raise the traditional breeds. Tamworth (a descendent of the wild boar). Berkshire. Large Black. British Saddleback.
Grass Roots Farm
One such farm that raises heritage breed pork is Grass Roots Farm. Located in Mt. Uniake, they raise Tamworth, Large Black and Berkshire pigs. The pigs are free range pasture raised and feed on natural green pastures.
They are able to roam freely, root up grasses and farrow naturally. Basically living like pigs are supposed to. These pigs are free of drugs, with no antibiotics or growth hormones used. The pastures the pigs graze are are free of synthetic inputs of any kind.
These are some happy looking Tamworths on Grass Roots Farm. Tamworths are on the Canadian Endangered Species "Critical" List. Farms like Grass Roots are helping to save the breed from extinction.
The black & white pig above is a Berkshire on Grass Roots Farm.
Pork
Kelly and I recently bought our second pig from Grass Roots Farm. Our first was a Tamworth, and we really enjoyed it. The meat is quite dark and has a distinctive flavour, different from any pork we were used to. For our second pig we chose a Berkshire. As they had not been slaughtered yet we were able to have the animal butchered to our specifications. Among other cuts I was able to get some "double-cut" chops and fresh pork belly, both unavailable at your local supermarket.
Ribs
Getting back to my ribs. These are two racks, halved, of Berkshire spare ribs. The animal was a little on the smallish side when it was slaughtered, but they typically dress at a smaller size anyways.
Berkshire has a wonderful marbling of fat and is prized in Japan, where is known as "Kurobuta" (black pig). The fat, I hope I don't have to remind you, is where the flavour is. Why does bacon taste so good? Fat. Why are your porkchops always dry and flavourless? Commercial pork producers have bred their pigs to be extremely lean. Berkshire is interlaced with beautiful, snowy, tasty fat. Berkshire, incidently, is crossed with commercial "commodity" pork bloodlines when they get a little too lean even for the mass market.
Canada Day Ribs
Canada Day in Halifax, 2011 was a beautiful day and I decided around noon that I would smoke these ribs over apple wood for the afternoon, as I had done with great success a couple weeks ago. However, the weather meant that everyone on the block had their clotheslines out. While I personally have no objection to bed sheets redolent of smokey pork (and Whistler actually prefers it) I don't think the neighbours share my enthusiasm for slow smoked barbeque. There is, however, no chance these ribs aren't going be slow-cooked, so that means the oven.
Despite what you may think, you can make some fantastic ribs in the oven.
Oven "Smoked" Ribs
I started by slicing up a Nova Scotia apple and put that with some sage leaves from the garden into a shallow pan. I filled the pan with the water that had been soaking my apple wood chips, which had turned the water a tea-like colour.
Over top of that I placed my four demi-racks of pasture raised Berkshire ribs, that had been seasoned with kosher salt and pepper. The oven smelled incredible as these slow cooked for about 3.5 hours.
The finished product. These went over the neighbour's to be warmed on the barbeque with a little homemade BBQ sauce as part of a neighbourhood Canada Day potluck, to be served with copious amounts of craft beer. Happy 142 years Canada! And what better way to enjoy it than with friends and some natural, ethically raised, local, top quality pork.
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