Barbecued Spare Ribs

Barbecued Spare Ribs are a classic American barbecue meal made from pork. This version is cooked in the oven, not on a barbecue, and uses a barbecue sauce with Asian-associated flavors like soy sauce, rice vinegar, and garlic.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (910 g) pork spare ribs
- ¼ cup (60 ml / 2 oz) soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sake
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground white pepper
- 2 tablespoons pork stock
- Freshly-ground black pepper and salt to taste
- 2 teaspoons cumin (optional)
Steps
- Place spare ribs in one layer in a large baking dish.
- Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over ribs. Coat both sides.
- Marinate overnight, basting occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Place a large, shallow roasting pan on oven bottom. Fill with 0.5 in water. Place ribs on a roasting rack.
- Roast ribs 45 minutes.
- Raise oven to 450 F. Roast 15 more minutes.
- Serve hot or cold.
Notes from the original
- Alternatively, bake at 375 F for 20 mins then lower the temp to 325 F for 1 hour; this renders most of the fat and produces very tender meat.
- To actually barbecue the ribs on a grill, get grill temperature to 225 F and cook for 5-6 hours.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Barbecued Spare Ribs” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-10-27, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Spare ribs with Chinese barbecue sauce cropped.jpg by Spare_ribs_with_Chinese_barbecue_sauce.jpg: SpaceMonkey derivative work: Adrignola (talk), Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.






