Grilling For All Reasons

In addition to playing around with my own concoctions for sauces, marinades, and rubs, I am constantly trying out commercially available sources.  It is, however, a rare and welcome event (at least up to now!) that I’m asked to try out and evaluate a product.  Such is the basis of this post.   Say HELLO to PIG OF THE MONTH.

Pig of the Month is a family operated business located in Dayton, Ohio specializing in ribs and sauces delivered to your doorstep.   Not just any ribs and sauces, but fully cooked and sauced Baby Back Ribs and regionally authentic sauces from around the country.   No longer do you have to avoid cooking ribs at home for fear that you’ll under or over-cook them, nor do you have to settle for the shrink-wrapped variety available at the supermarket (processed how long ago?!?).  Pig of the Month ribs are slow-cooked to tender perfection just prior to shipping and freshly sauced.  You don’t have to do anything but heat them up and dig in.

I had the opportunity to evaluate their ribs and the Key West in a Bottle Citrus Grilling Sauce.  The ribs arrived within 2 days, packed in a well insulated box with dry ice.  The ribs were vacu-sealed and sauced with my choice of sauce (Key West).  Pig of the Month leaves nothing to guesswork, or truly being ready to heat and eat.  In the box with the ribs and a bottle of Key West sauce were complete instructions for reheating in your choice of oven or microwave (yes, microwave!), AND two rib-eatin’, sauce catchin’ bibs and packets of moistened hand wipes.  You get the sense that, as they say on their web site – “let us eat with you at your kitchen table tonight” – is more than a catch phrase and that they really mean it.

I took some of the ribs and prepared them precisely per the enclosed instructions – both in the oven, and in the microwave.  I would recommend using the low end of the recommended reheating times and checking them – you can always add more time, but can’t undo them being overdone.  I’m always wary of reheating meats in the microwave, since due to the cooking being done from the inside out, there’s a tendency for meats to dry out and become tough or chewy.  If you follow the directions precisely (keeping them sealed in the plastic vacu-pack with a couple of steam vent holes cut), you’ll get finger-lickin’ moist ribs.  If you do have a bit more time, I found the oven heated ribs a bit better to my tastes, if only because the sauce will caramelize adding to the rich flavors.

Now, I wouldn’t be true to my Grilling For All Reasons mission if I didn’t put these ribs on the grill, now would I?  You bet.  The better part of the rack went right on the grill over natural lump charcoal.  Cover the grill and turn them after a couple of minutes and leave only for a couple of minutes more — remember, you’re just reheating them, not cooking them.  Just enough to heat them through and caramelize the sauce and you’re ready to eat!  FAST!  and EASY!   And, as you’d guess, the open fire and smoke are a great finishing touch to a fantastic rack of baby back ribs.  I’ve tried many of the pre-cooked, pre-sauced ribs that are commercially available (to clarify – when I had a hankering for ribs, but didn’t have the time to do them “right” – just so we’re clear!), and I was impressed with the quality, tenderness, moistness, and flavor – hard to tell that you didn’t just spend hours slow-cooking them yourself.  So, for those “Q” aficionados out there, these are a great option when you just don’t have the time to “do ‘em right” from scratch on your own.

In addition to the ribs, I also had a bottle of “Key West In A Bottle” citrus grilling sauce, so, I decided to use it in several additional recipes.   Given the regional flavorings of the Gulf and the Islands, I chose several regionally authentic recipes to use the sauce with – fresh grilled Gulf shrimp, a rice dish originating in Jamaica, and a barbecue vegetable dish originating in Trinidad and Tobago.  The “Key West” sauce incorporates a variety of fruit juices true to the region – mango, pineapple, orange, lime, grapefruit, and lemon – but make no mistake, it IS a hearty grilling sauce with ketchup and brown sugar, and a solid peppery finish. Not only does it do justice to tender pork ribs (and other meats and seafood), but also works well as a seasoning in other dishes – vegetables and rice in particular.

Here are the recipes:

Key West Grilled Gulf Shrimp

Key West Rice

Key West Barbecue Vegetables

I highly recommend you give Pig of the Month a try – great ribs, regionally authentic sauces, and superb customer service.