BBQ Ribs in the Oven (Schälrippe Recipe, Serves Two)

BBQ ribs in the oven cook in two stages: 90 minutes covered at 160°C, then 40 minutes uncovered at 220°C with BBQ sauce brushed on every 10 minutes. Total time is about two and a half hours, ten minutes of which are hands-on, and the result is rib meat that pulls clean off the bone.

I first tested proper ribs when I was living in the states. Felt the concept to be a bit too hard to be done without no experience and I assumed BBQ ribs were a thing you needed a grill for, which meant I never made them, which also meant I kept ordering them at restaurants and being mildly disappointed. German restaurants and ribs do not go together (well maybe this Australian place...)

Then I noticed Schälrippe(or ribs?) sitting in the meat aisle for less than the price of a decent steak, and decided to figure out the oven version. Two and a half hours later I had the best ribs I'd ever eaten.

This is a serves-two dinner if you're hungry, maybe two and a half if you have a bunch of sides. Schälrippe is the term for pork spare ribs, the meaty kind from the belly side of the pig (not the smaller back ribs). One rack runs around 400g to 600g and costs maybe five to six euros.

The trick is on the silver skin on the back of the rack. It's a thin membrane covering the bone side of the ribs and it doesn't render or soften during cooking. If you leave it on, the back of every bite is rubbery and pulls the meat off the bone in the wrong direction. Get rid of it.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 800g Schälrippe (one rack of pork spare ribs)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt, black pepper, sweet paprika, garlic powder
• 80g of your favorite BBQ sauce (about four heaped tablespoons)
• Aluminium foil

That's the whole list. You can complicate the rub with brown sugar, smoked paprika, mustard powder, cayenne, but you genuinely don't need to. The four basics plus a good bottled BBQ sauce do the work.

On the BBQ sauce: I know the food internet wants you to make your own, the bottled one I now buy is better, and the bottled one is also one minute of effort instead of forty. The Pit Boss sweet hickory or any decent supermarket bottled sauce works. Pick whatever you'd put on a burger. Or maybe my palate is not as sophisticated.

How to cook BBQ ribs in the oven

Pull off the silver skin first. Lay the rack bone-side up on a board. The silver skin is the thin, slightly opaque membrane stretched over the bones. Slip a butter knife under one corner near the end of the rack to lift it, grab it with a paper towel for grip (your fingers will slip on it), and pull it across the rack in one slow tear. It usually comes off in one or two strips. If it tears in three or four, that's fine, just keep going.

Rub the ribs with olive oil and the spices. A teaspoon of olive oil is enough for the whole rack. Rub it around with your hands so the surface is barely tacky. Then a casual amount of salt, black pepper, paprika, and garlic powder, both sides.

Cover with foil. Oven at 160°C for 90 minutes. Either wrap the rack tightly in foil and put it on a tray, or put the rack in an oven dish and cover the dish with foil. Either works. The covered slow cook is what breaks down the connective tissue. There's no browning happening yet. The ribs come out of this stage looking pale and slightly sad.

Brush both sides with BBQ sauce. Once the 90 minutes is up, take the foil off, pour off any liquid that pooled in the dish (this is rendered fat plus pork juice, which you can discard or save for something else), and brush a generous layer of BBQ sauce over both sides of the rack.

Oven up to 220°C, uncovered, 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes, open the oven, flip the rack, and brush more BBQ sauce on whichever side is now facing up. Four flips, four basting passes, total. The sauce caramelises in layers each time. By the fourth flip the surface should look properly glazed and slightly charred at the edges, and the meat should give when you press on it between two bones. Maybe you won't need 40 minutes. Use your eyes.

Rest for five minutes . Cut between the bones with a sharp knife. The meat should slide off the bone with very little pressure. If you cut a rib in half and it pulls apart cleanly, you nailed it. If it's still a bit tight, throw the rack back in for another five to ten minutes uncovered.

Macros (per plate)

• 700 kcal
• 45g protein
• 12g carbs
• 50g fat

These numbers are approximate. Pork ribs vary in fat content rack-to-rack, and BBQ sauces vary wildly in sugar content (some are 5g of carbs per tablespoon, some are 12g). The 12g of carbs assumes a moderate-sweetness sauce. The fat number assumes a fattier rack. If you're tracking, weigh the cooked meat and look at the sauce label.

The protein-per-euro on this is not chicken breasts, but it has a whole lot of flavour.

If you want a faster pork dinner, the pan-fried pork fillet post covers the four-minutes-a-side weeknight version. Same meat, different sport. If you're cooking solo, halve the rack and the timing stays the same. Works as a dinner for one with leftovers for tomorrow.

Some questions about oven BBQ ribs

Do I really need to remove the silver skin?

Yes. The silver skin is a thin membrane on the bone side of the rack that doesn't soften during cooking. Leave it on and the back of every bite is rubbery, the meat doesn't pull off the bones cleanly, and the rub never penetrates that side. Ninety seconds with a butter knife and a paper towel is the difference between rib meat that falls off the bone and rib meat that drags rubber with it.

Can I use baby back ribs instead of Schälrippe?

You can, but reduce the slow stage to 60 minutes. Baby back ribs are smaller, leaner, and from the loin side of the pig instead of the belly side. They cook faster and don't render as much fat, which means they're easier to dry out. Same temperatures, less time. The blast-and-baste stage stays at 40 minutes.

What's the best BBQ sauce for oven ribs?

Whatever bottled sauce you'd put on a burger. The food internet wants you to make your own, and you can, but a good bottled sauce is one minute of effort and frequently tastes better than the homemade version made in twenty minutes. Sweet hickory styles work well, mustard-based ones too. Skip the ones with corn syrup as the first ingredient.

What sides go with BBQ ribs?

Anything starchy plus anything green.