Whole30 and Country Style Ribs

I FINALLY got It Starts with Food from the library - after a wait of many, many months. Who knew that so many Hennepin country residents were interested in a Whole30...I should put flyers for my blog in the book when I return it! ha. I enjoyed the book's easy to read quality - and indeed did get inspired to do my own Whole30. A Whole30 is basically 30 days of eating a pretty strict diet of no grains, dairy, alcohol, sweeteners (including stevia), soy, potatoes or corn products, or oils others than olive and coconut oil. I'm excited to go for it because I have never been really strict about some of those things (other than gluten/grains and soy/corn products) and I want to see what I notice.

So I kicked things off on Sunday, promptly making a batch of ghee since I have taken to snacking on butter sometimes while cooking dinner. I also made a batch of kalua pig with kale, and, to continue a pork feast, I tried making some country style ribs in the crockpot. I think it was maybe my last package from the half pig purchase, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experimentation of some unknown-to-me cuts of pork.

Country style ribs are more meaty AND fatty than other ribs, and it turns out they aren't technically even ribs, but are more "blade steaks" or chops. (This porknography site has all you might ever need to know about cuts of pork, recipes, pork history and more. It's very informative.) Country style ribs don't always come with the bone, and sometimes have more connective tissue. What is nice for me to know is that pretty much any ribs are good slow-cooked in sauce.

My Pastures a Plenty ribs were more like the ones on the left

For my ribs: I put them in the slow cooker, poured on some homemade sauce (modified below from this recipe) and put it on low for 8 hours. I also added a little water but that turned out to be unnecessary. I wish the slow cooker had a little steam exit, because I wanted some of the liquid to cook off. The sauce wasn't thick and gooey on there, which may have been due to my not cooking it down long enough, or my adding water to the crock pot, or both. These ribs being more fatty may have also released more fat, thus more liquid. Next time I will make sure the sauce is more viscous when putting it on the ribs and will not add water, or I'll just cook the ribs in a little broth and serve them with the sauce. I did have extra sauce afterwards, and it tasted great once I cooked it down some more.

Paleo BBQ sauce *Makes enough for at least 4 pounds of ribs with plenty extra

2 T bacon grease (I actually used lard in keeping with the strict no sugar business, but it seemed to separate more. Use bacon grease if you can!)
1 diced onion
2-6 cloves garlic, minced (I omitted)
1-1 1/2 c bone broth
1 jar tomato paste (6-7 oz)
1 tsp dried mustard powder
2 T chili powder
1/2 t chipotle pepper powder
2 tsp liquid smoke (opt)
2 T apple cider vinegar
salt to taste

In a saucepan heat bacon fat. Add onions and saute until tender. Add garlic (if using) and simmer another minute. Add remaining ingredients and cook down about 10 - 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Pour over crockpot ribs, or eat with bbq!