Test Kitchen

Every Saturday I'll try out a new recipe...you'll see the good and the bad of it. Thanks to a reader for sending me a great crock pot recipe link. For this week's Test Kitchen, I decided to give one a try...

Soy-Glazed Spareribs
http://www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/crockpot/soyribs.html

Description: Bomb! But in all fairness, this recipe has a lot of potential. This is a classic example of the importance of reading other people's reviews of recipes. They offer great tips. That's one of the benefits of using a big site.

Recipe Difficulty (Scale of 1-10): 2
Any crock pot recipe should never have a high difficulty level. If it does, you probably should move on. This one was easy. I had to bake the spareribs in the oven and then transfer them to the pot. That was easy and so was making the sauce.

How it turned out: Uneatable
Cows whose favorite snack is a salt lick said this was too salty. This was shocking because I really didn't feel this would be a problem. The good news...the ribs were very tender. That's why this recipe has a world of potential.

Would I make again: Yes
Here's how I'll do it next time...and yes, there will be a next time. Cut the soy sauce in half (and use a low sodium). I plan on keeping the chicken broth measurement the same but use a low sodium as well. This recipe is a classic example of "you can always add more salt, but you can't take it back". Recipes like this get better each time you make them.

SAVED UPDATE!!!
I'll be frank...I wanted this recipe to work, and when it bombed, I was pissed. That usually results in me immediately tossing it into the trash. Sara stopped me. I put the ribs in the fridge. The next day I cut all the lean meat off the bones. I then diced the meat into small pieces. I made a simple soup with cabbage, noodles, and a variety of other things. The rib meat provided all the seasoning I needed for the soup and because the pieces were so small and diluted from the broth...it turned out pretty good. Plus a good soup really cleans out the pantry.