Baby Back Comfort

I’m always flattered when a fellow foodie asks for one of my recipes and this is the one that keeps coming up.  While often thought of as a Summer BBQ favorite, the oven cooking method here makes Baby Back Ribs the perfect comfort food this Fall with only 6 ingredients besides the ribs, salt and pepper and it makes a homemade BBQ sauce from scratch.  It came from my grandma and I even submitted it to my Junior League of Boca Raton cookbook when I was on that committee eons ago.  It’s in there, “Savor the Moment” page 46, a gorgeous specimen of a coffee table book of which I am proud to have been a part.

Barbecued Ribs

Ingredients
1 onion, sliced
5 lbs. baby back ribs
salt and pepper
1 14 oz. bottle chili sauce (my grandma’s recipe called for Brooks Tangy Catsup, but I’ve never seen it again and chili sauce seems to be what that was)
½ (12 oz.) bottle horseradish (I’ve also used pure horseradish, about 2 T. mixed with 3/4 c mayo
½ c packed brown sugar
¼ c worcestershire sauce

1. Spread onions in an oiled 9X13 pan (sometimes I need 2 pans or have to cut the slabs to fit).
2. Sprinkle both sides of the ribs with salt and pepper and arrange over the onions.
3. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours.
4. In the meantime, combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl to make the BBQ sauce.
5. After the first 2 hours of cooking, remove foil and spread sauce over ribs.
6. Bake uncovered 1 hour.

Talk about perfect fall-off-the bone meaty ribs!  Serve with cornbread, coleslaw, and sweet potato pie (or pumpkin for us yankees!)