If you don't like Baby Back Ribs, there is something seriously wrong with you, so just "x" out this web page right now and go somewhere else :P

I had a couple of pints of picture perfect blackberries left in my fridge after using the other pint to make a desert sauce for a throw away Bisquick cake I'd made the other night. Had some Baby Backs in the freezer and for some reason they seemed to go together. I've had fruit based BBQ sauces before; that Saucy Susan stuff growing up for instance and Asian cuisines use them frequently as well. Something about those berries and the pork seemed made for each other so I took a quick look on my favorite cooking web site, Epicurious, to see if I could find anything interesting using these ingredients together.

Sure enough, there was one BBQ pork recipe listed. It more or less gave me a basis to start with but essentially I disregarded it since a) I was using my crock pot to cook the ribs (I still don't have a grill here, working on it) and b) I know how to put together a decent Carolina style BBQ sauce already without needing a recipe.

I wound up making the sauce, which follows. Cooked it up in the crock pot and Ghosty termed them "Meat Candy" when he put the first bite into his mouth. The term "Meat Candy" is usually used for bacon, however, being that pork is from the same animal and that these ribs were equally as delectable as bacon, the moniker was appropriate.

They were literally falling off of the bone when I tried to get them out of the pot. Juicy, slightly sweet and aromatic, and a crisp layer had formed on many of the ribs from the sugar in the sauce. These ribs were as good as any we've paid for, maybe better. I served them with truffle scented herb roasted potatoes (I grow several types of herbs on my deck, cut them up and tossed it with some EVOO and truffle oil). If you have the inclination and time, give it a try. Making this from scratch is rather expensive compared to buying a bottle of prepared sauce since blackberries usually aren't cheap, nor are they always good (taste before purchasing if possible - they frequently are too tart and seedy; although you will be straining the seeds out). I got my berries at 3 pints for $10 which was a good price around here and, the ribs were on sale also or believe me, I never would have tried doing this.

Please note that amounts are approximations. I was not measuring as I went along, because cooking is like art, you don't really think about it that hard when you're in the flow of it, however, I'm rather good at eyeballing and pretty sure of the amounts I've written below. Taste it yourself, and adjust to your own liking. For instance, depending on the sweetness of the blackberries you may or may not need more brown sugar.

BABY BACK RIBS IN BLACKBERRY BBQ SAUCE
(Serves 2-4 depending on how much of a pig you are)

2 racks Baby Back Ribs
2 pints blackberries, rinsed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 water
Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste

Preheat broiler. Salt and pepper ribs, and place under broiler in ovenproof pan. Brown on both sides, approximately 20 minutes per side. Remove from broiler and set aside or place in crock pot to await sauce.

Place blackberries in medium sized cooking pot with 1/4 water. Begin heating on medium high. Add brown sugar as it begins to warm. Start mashing up blackberries with the back of a large spoon (wooden seems easiest). Add ketchup, apple cider vinegar, chili powder, salt and black pepper to taste. Continue cooking and bring to a boil, mashing up berries as best as possible. Taste to see if it needs anything, more sugar, more vinegar, salt, pepper, etc. Remember, it's your sauce, and some people prefer it tangier, sweeter, hotter, etc.

Cook about 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat.

Strain sauce through a fine sieve, pressing out liquid into a bowl and discard solids/seeds

If ribs are not in crock pot yet, place inside and pour sauce over ribs. Plug in pot, and turn onto High, for 6 hours.

After a couple of hours, check to see if it requires more liquid. I added about 1/4 cup of water at that point since crock pots are not always exactly air-tight. Also, about 4 hours into it, I moved the ribs around a bit just to have them evenly cook inside. I do not know if this was necessary or not; I just felt like perhaps I should do it since it seemed like the ribs on top needed some sauce to be spooned from the bottom of the pot to the ribs on top.

At 6 hours, the crock pot turned off and went into "Warm" mode. I had it there for about 1/2 an hour. I plated the ribs, which were falling apart, spooning the sauce in the pot over them. As already mentioned, they had formed a nice dark crust on them, just like you would get on a grill, quite amazing. I'm assuming this was from where they were touching the edges of the pot or laying at the bottom? I just don't know enough about this type of cooking but it makes some sense.

The sauce, was very tasty, not a thick BBQ sauce, more the thin vinegar based "mops" you get down in North Carolina, which I prefer. Ghosty and I both agreed this sauce was preferable in many ways to those gloppy, thick sauces since it didn't hide the meat which should be the star of the dish. The sauce complimented the meat, instead of overwhelming it. You could use the extra sauce to dip the meat in if you desire - we didn't, preferring it on the drier side (dry, being the wrong word, since they were about as succulent as they could get).

I'll make it again, and next time I'll measure everything out exactly so that I have a "real" recipe to keep and pass down. But, for now - just in case anyone wants a go at it, this should give you a decent start.