La Prudencia Iberico Back Ribs

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

With an incred­i­ble fla­vor, suc­cu­lent and ten­der tex­ture, the Iberi­co Back Ribs are unlike any oth­er. Tak­en from the black pigs native to the Iber­ian Penin­su­la, these free-range pork are mar­bled with fat sim­i­lar to Wagyu. These are fall-off-the-bone, melt-in-your-mouth deli­cious. It’s a deeply sweet pork with a savory fin­ish that lingers on your tongue in the best way.

PREPA­RA­TIONS AND PAIRINGS

There is next to noth­ing more mouth-water­ing than sticky bar­be­cue ribs, and using Iberi­co baby back ribs will bring it to an entire­ly dif­fer­ent plane. Try this recipe from Chef Javier de la Hor­maza, a Basque born, trained chef spe­cial­iz­ing in Span­ish fine foods:

• Cov­er the ribs in cold water in a deep oven­proof dish. Add gar­lic, car­rot, cel­ery, thyme, cloves, anise, and bay leaves. Cov­er with foil.
• Roast it for two and a half hours at 130˚C, until the meat is ten­der but not falling off the bone.
• Remove from oven, and leave to cool down in the liquid.
• Make a glaze of quince paste mixed with vine­gar and heat­ed in a saucepan over low heat, until it looks sim­i­lar to a jam.
• Trans­fer your ribs onto a dif­fer­ent tray, and brush some of the glaze all over it.
• On a heat­ed bar­be­cue grill, cook the ribs for three to four min­utes on each side, until caramelized.
• Brush the remain­ing glaze, sea­son with sea salt, and serve

Best paired with a sim­ple sal­ad, and a cold beer.

WHAT THE RIB?

All ribs are not alike. And we’re not talk­ing just about pork qual­i­ty (in which case, the Iberi­co Back Ribs would be top of the list). We’re talk­ing types of ribs.

Spareribs

These are ribs that come from the bel­ly area (under­side) of the pig. The rest of the meat is cut away; those are usu­al­ly used for pancetta, bacon, etc. But spareribs still hold quite an amount of meat on them

St. Louis Ribs

Basi­cal­ly, fanci­er spareribs, with the car­ti­lage and the breast­bone removed. It comes in a uni­form rec­tan­gle shape, and are thin­ner and flat­ter, and eas­i­er to brown.

Baby Back Ribs

This is the cat­e­go­ry our Iberi­co Ribs fall under. These are not tak­en from baby pigs, rather the ​“baby” is used to indi­cate how it is short­er than spareribs. They’re tak­en from the pig’s back area, around the loin. They’re curvi­er, with lots of lean meat.

Storage Instructions

Your cut of Iberi­co ribs comes frozen and vac­u­um packed. Store in freez­er. Thaw only when about to cook. Cooked left­over meat can only be kept in the fridge for 3 to 4 more days. Con­sume immediately.