Tennessee Bar-B-Que Pork Ribs-Momma’s Style

Ribs and Mash

This is the barbecue of my childhood. I don’t recall the first time I ever had grilled meat.  I must have been in my teens. We didn’t grill. Maybe when we went camping once, but we weren’t campers either. But I digress, THIS is pure home-cooking barbecue. Those are country-style pork ribs (barbecued) and mashed taters with the skins on. (That’s right I said tater. You might know them as potatoes, but I’ve eaten just as many taters as I have potatoes… the taters are always good, I’ve had potatoes that were not.)

There’s not really a recipe, I want you to do this just like you remember Mama doing back in Tennessee.

Get out the biggest rimmed baking sheet that you have and line it with foil. Put the ribs on the pan, salt them, pepper them, sprinkle them with garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Chop an onion and put it on top of the ribs. Cover this tightly with foil and put it in a 350° oven. After 30 minutes turn it down to 325°. In about an hour take off the foil and flip the ribs. Put them back in the oven uncovered at 350°. Check on them every 15 minutes or so to make sure the pan hasn’t gone dry. If it does, add a little hot water into the pan. Only an eighth of a cup or so. After another 30 minutes or so top them with the barbecue sauce of your choice and put them back in the oven at 400 until they’re syrupy and the sauce is sticky.

The mashed potatoes are just as easy of course. Take about eight small white or yellow potatoes and quarter them. Put them in enough water to cover, add a teaspoon of salt and boil. After you can easily stick a fork through them, drain the potatoes, add a half a stick of butter and mash them by hand with a potato masher.  Add about a quarter cup of heavy cream and mash them a little bit more. Salt and black pepper to taste. We’re pretty fancy in my house these days so we had raw sugar snap peas by the bowlful  while we were waiting for this to cook. Mama would’ve made green beans, or if it was Sunday fried okra, or fried green tomatoes. BUT This is an easy meal for any night of the week and tastes great tomorrow too! Enjoy!