Coffee Maple Country Style Ribs

Fall off the bone tender!

There is nothing I love like I love maple syrup….well, maybe pepper jelly. I just adore them both. Maple syrup makes everything better; and maple syrup with coffee is the makings of bbq sauce heaven. Ever since I made the bacon-wrapped coffeebourbon ham one Christmas I have been planning to revamp the combo on some ribs. And it only took me 5 years to actually do it.

I have been drinking coffee ever since I was a child. I must have mentioned this before that my great-grandma used to soak crackers in coffee and give it to us as kids. We loved it, and I still love coffee to this day. I think it gets overlooks a lot in the meat department because everyone expects the food to taste overwhelmingly like coffee. But the coffee mellows out during the cooking process, you end up with meat tasting rich, maybe a bit oaky, with a mild coffee after taste on the palette. I venture to say if someone doesn’t like or drink coffee they probably wouldn’t be able to tell what that little extra something is, that the rib has going on. It’s a very simple recipe that every pork lover should try.

Can we talk about how I made this video and totally forgot about the images? Two images only, I was too busy filming with the two cameras and did not remember that I had no process shots. But at least there is a video to follow along to.

Ingredients (Printable recipe) 

For the brine
8 country style Pork Ribs
½ cup sugar
¼ cup salt
water (enough to fully submerge the meat)
For the Rub
4 tablespoon Brown sugar
2 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon smoke paprika
2 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon Instant coffee
To cook the ribs
1 cup brewed coffee
1 cup maple syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
 

Instructions

• Mix together salt, sugar, and water and create the brine soak the pork in the brine mixture for 3 to 6 hours
• preheat oven to 300 degrees
• Rinse off the brine and pat dry the ribs thoroughly
• make dry rub sugar, onion powder, smoked paprika, instant coffee, salt, black pepper, and allspice
• season all surfaces of the meat liberally with the dry rub
• Sear on a hot grill for additional flavor, about 3 minutes per side (optional)
• place the meat in a foil pan or on a sheet pan covered in several layers of foil
• Pour in fresh brewed coffee
• Place another layer of foil on top sealing the edges to create a pouch.
• Place in the oven for 2 or 2 ½ hours
• Test the meat at the 2-hour mark it should be fork tender and early pull away from the bone
•  Pour off pan drippings into a saucepan if there is too much fat in the drippings you can skim it off the top
• Add maple syrup, for a more intense coffee flavor, you can add a tablespoon more instant coffee here
• cook sauce until thick and bubbly
• Pour all the sauce over the tender meat ensuring to brush it in all the nooks and crannies