I love BBQ ribs but I had never made them myself. We have some wonderful BBQ joints in this area (all hails to E&J!), and I imagined nothing I could do would even approach the "professional" stuff. I was right. The ribs I made were adequate, but certainly they were not rich and tender as those we get from take out.

I must confess that part of the problem was that I cooked them wrong. During the first hour I was supposed to bake the ribs covered, and instead I broiled them uncovered. Why, you ask? Because I'm an idiot and could not follow directions. Had I done them properly, they would have been partially steamed and would likely be much more tender.

In any case, given that they take almost 3 hours cooking time in the oven, and that gas prices in the Bay Area have gone through the roof, I don't think I will be making them again.

The recipe below reflects the cooking method of the original, not mine. The original recipe called for white wine vinegar, but I didn't have that handy so I used red wine vinegar instead. I can't imagine it'd make much of a difference.

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Spareribs

Ingredients

3 lbs. pork spareribs

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

2 cups wine vinegar.

Barbecue Sauce

Rub salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes onto both sides of the ribs. Put the ribs in a baking dish, cover them and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 450F. Pour vinegar over the ribs and cook covered for 1 1/2 hours, turn the ribs a couple of times during the cooking.

Remove ribs from the baking dish and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 450F for one hour. Cool.

Preheat oven to 400F. Place ribs into a baking dish. Cover ribs with bbq sacue. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until heated through, about 20 minutes. Serve.

Adapted from Sylvia's Soul Food