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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Recipes / Grassfed Recipes / Pork Recipes / Melt in Your Mouth Pastured Pork Ribs

Melt in Your Mouth Pastured Pork Ribs

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

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Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Do Pork Ribs Need to be Marinated?
  • Where to Find Pastured Pork Ribs
  • Pork Ribs Recipe (melt in your mouth!)

pork ribs recipe

I don’t order ribs at restaurants because the sauce invariably contains high fructose corn syrup. This totally toxic genetically modified sweetener, even in small amounts, gives me a canker sore (or a zit) in a hurry. Sometimes within the hour if I get enough of it.

Our whole family loves ribs, though, especially pastured pork ribs.

So what to do?

The solution to avoid the nasty restaurant sauces is to make ribs yourself with a homemade sauce that is just as enjoyable without any downside!

Bonus, you can lick your fingers at home without any judgment!

Do Pork Ribs Need to be Marinated?

One question I know I will get about this recipe is why aren’t the ribs marinated?

Marinating is, after all, one of the primary ways traditional cultures prepared pork before eating to ensure its safety.

The answer is that slow cooking performs a similar function. The ribs below are boiled first and then roasted at a low temperature for up to 3 hours. This ensures a complete and thorough slow cook.

This is a common practice in the long-lived Okinawan culture, where they slowly stewed their pork before eating.

The most important time to marinate pork is when it will be quickly cooked, as in making pork chops and the like.

If you don’t eat pork for whatever reason, feel free to substitute beef short ribs instead.

Where to Find Pastured Pork Ribs

I buy grassfed pork ribs from two places.

My first choice, is to buy pork ribs from local farms in my area. If you live in Central Florida, I recommend Trailbale Farm, which will have pork cuts on its website in the coming weeks. This family farm’s products are delivered free (with a reasonable minimum order) and also featured at numerous farmers markets.

In addition, Whole Foods gets really good ribs from time to time. Keep on the lookout if you shop there occasionally.

If you live in a food desert, your only option short of raising a pig yourself is to order pastured pork ribs online and have them shipped to your door.

Be sure to make pork broth with the rib bones after you’ve finished enjoying this recipe!

Melt in Your Mouth Pastured Pork Ribs 3
4.34 from 3 votes
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Pork Ribs Recipe (melt in your mouth!)

Traditional recipe for pork ribs that are melt in your mouth and covered in a sauce that is just as sweet and tasty as restaurants, but without all the nasty ingredients.

Course Main Course
Keyword grassfed, pastured
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 30 minutes
Servings 6
Calories 963 kcal
Author Sarah Pope

Ingredients

  • 2-4 pounds pork ribs 10-20 ribs, preferably pastured
  • 2-4 cloves garlic crushed
  • filtered water
  • 1 tsp sea salt

Sauce

  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup date syrup
  • 1/4 cup brown mustard
  • 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
  • 1-2 tsp smoked paprika powder

Equipment

  • 1-2 cedar wrap paper instead of foil or liquid smoke

Instructions

  1. Simmer ribs for 30 minutes in a pot with enough water to cover along with sea salt and garlic cloves.

    Melt in Your Mouth Pastured Pork Ribs 1
  2. While ribs are simmering, make the sauce in a small saucepan on the stovetop on low heat to ensure all the ingredients blend well.

    Melt in Your Mouth Pastured Pork Ribs
  3. Remove ribs from pot, pat dry with a clean dishtowel, and place in roasting pan. Pour the sauce over the ribs and cover with sustainably produced cedar wrap paper. You can use foil too, but cedar wrap paper will do the same job and impart a delightful smoky flavor without the use of aluminum!

    Melt in Your Mouth Pastured Pork Ribs 2
  4. Bake at 225 F/107 C for 3-4 hours. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

    Melt in Your Mouth Pastured Pork Ribs 3

Recipe Notes

Be sure to only use organic brown sugar as conventional brown sugar from the supermarket is all or partially GMO (unless it is specifically labeled "brown cane sugar").

Substitute sustainably produced coconut sugar for the brown sugar if desired.

This recipe makes a lot of sauce, so select the amount of ribs you cook (2-4 pounds) depending on whether you like the ribs drenched in sauce or only just covered.

Nutrition Facts
Pork Ribs Recipe (melt in your mouth!)
Amount Per Serving (8 ounces)
Calories 963 Calories from Fat 603
% Daily Value*
Fat 67g103%
Saturated Fat 25g125%
Cholesterol 267mg89%
Sodium 549mg23%
Carbohydrates 35g12%
Sugar 8g9%
Protein 55g110%
Vitamin C 1.7mg2%
Calcium 100mg10%
Iron 3.1mg17%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Category: Pork Recipes
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (6)

  1. Nancy

    Dec 26, 2020 at 7:13 pm

    4 stars
    These turned out really well. I would actually rate this more like a 4.5. Almost perfect, but not quite there. I usually just put ribs in a glass baking dish and slow cook with home made BBQ in the oven. But then about a year ago the farmer we buy them from told me about just putting them in the slow cooker. Both methods yielded moist, falling apart ribs. But they were falling apart to the point that they were kind of no fun to eat because they weren’t even on the bones at that point. This method yielded meat that maintained it’s shape and stayed on the bones, however, the meat was pretty dry. I would definitely use this method again, but would probably add some water to the bottom of the pan to “steam” the ribs a little and try to better maintain some moisture. I think with boiling the ribs first, juices from the meat AND a lot of the fat got simmered out.

    Reply
  2. Susan Hoffert

    Apr 30, 2020 at 10:28 am

    I found your article on the effects of eating fresh pork – and the blood concerns – so interesting. It will influence my future pork consumption! And that article led me to this one. I am wondering if you use ketchup without hfcs – most of it comes with that. I have problems with the virus also and know what you mean. I avoid corn like the ‘plague’! Thanks for your sharings.

    Reply
  3. Mary

    Jul 17, 2019 at 7:06 pm

    I’ve never, ever heard this before, and I’m grateful to have found your blog!
    I have been cooking my ribs in the Instant Pot before moving them to the oven. I can’t imagine this practice needs to be changed, but let me know if you have any input. I’m also grateful you mentioned the coconut sugar and can I use honey? Jovial uses honey in a lot of their recipes but I think I saw on your blog somewhere that it’s a bad idea to cook it. I came to your blog by way of your soaked einkorn bread machine recipe.
    I’ve purchased diced canned tomatoes and olive oil from Jovial and was really pleased with the outstanding flavor and reasonable prices so I’m purchasing the 25 lbs. of einkorn.
    Thanks for your help.

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Jul 18, 2019 at 8:28 am

      It’s not a good idea to cook with honey. It destroys its properties and Ayurvedic medicine teaches that cooked honey contributes to the development of disease.

  4. Shawna

    May 15, 2019 at 12:35 pm

    Hi Sarah,

    Can the water from boiling the ribs be utilized for any useful purpose or would it contain toxins or other detrimental qualities?

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      May 15, 2019 at 3:18 pm

      The water would be fine to use as a base for a soup or sauce.

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