With Genius Recipes correspondent Kristen off for a few months trying to raise a genius newborn, we’re hearing from a few special surprise guests—and revisiting the column’s Greatest Hits with brand-new videos. Wish her luck! (And keep sending those tips.)
Photo by Julia Gartland. Food Stylist: Anna Billingskog. Prop Stylist: Brooke Deonarine.
In the late 1980s, when I was an undergrad at the University of Southern California, I met Teresa C., a Hong Kong–born food lover and daughter of a Monterey Park Chinese restaurant manager. (Monterey Park, east of Los Angeles, is renowned for its vast array of Chinese eating options.) We hit it off in finance and statistics, and hung out a lot at her favorite restaurants where I gobbled up foods like Chinese-Islamic sesame bread with stir-fried lamb with green onions.
I’d become an adventurous eater but also wanted to become an adventurous cook. I needed a gateway recipe.
One day, I asked Teresa what her family liked to make—something easy. Her immediate response was: 1-2-3-4-5 beef, a shank simmered with rice wine, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, and water. The “1-2-3-4-5” corresponded to a Chinese soup spoon ratio of ingredients in the order that she’d rattled off.
I memorized Teresa’s formula and tried out the recipe. It was tangy and umami-laden, unctuous and beefy. Its doability lifted the veil of mystery that I’d placed upon Chinese cuisine. I regularly threw it together and worked up the confidence to try more complicated foods like pot stickers and steamed bao from scratch. Eventually, I relegated the 1-2-3-4-5 recipe to my freshman-level cooking experiments and forgot about it.
A Classic Reminder
Earlier this year another Chinese-American friend, Jim Kuo, suggested that I make his mother’s 1-2-3-4-5 Spare Ribs. Jim is the son of legendary restaurateur and cookbook author Irene Kuo, whose tome The Key to Chinese Cooking is considered a classic. A mutual friend who knew that I’d adored the cookbook connected me to Jim a few years back.
An articulate man, Jim uncharacteristically described his mother’s recipe as a “dump dish.” As it turns out, like me, he had also been looking for an easy Chinese dish.
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“I made these Keto friendly and GF doing the following: used gluten free soy sauce (there are many brands out there but I used San-J gluten free tamari), reduced the molasses to a teaspoon in a double recipe, added a bit of Chinese 5 spice, and substituted the sugar with natural erythritol (I used Anthony's brand). Because I doubled the recipe I thought there would be too much liquid, but the magic happens when you remove the lid, turn up the heat and cook the sauce down. Be patient and watch it happen...the ribs were gorgeous...beautifully glazed! I served with cauliflower egg fried rice, sprinkled with a generous amount of sliced green onion and some Sambal Oelek chili paste on the side for heat. Amazing.”
“Many years ago, I recall asking my mother for an easy party dish that required little preparation and even easier cooking technique, and without hesitation, she suggested these ribs,” Jim noted. “Later, she demonstrated the recipe and I coined the term ‘dump dish,’ as she explained the technique of measuring the ingredients directly over the chopped ribs in a pan. She agreed in concept with the term ‘dump,’ but I think she was uncomfortable using such a colloquial expression herself.”
The recipe’s headnote does not include any clues about its origin, but Jim thinks it was something his mother grew up eating in Shanghai.
Photo by Julia Gartland. Food Stylist: Anna Billingskog. Prop Stylist: Brooke Deonarine.
Insider Family Tips
The recipe from The Key to Chinese Cooking was dead simple except for the part about chopping the spare ribs through the bone into small pieces. Jim pointed out that Irene always used a heavy knife to prep whole chicken and small-boned cuts of meats. But what happens to lingering bone bits?
Her tip to her son was this: Wipe away bone fragments with a cloth or paper towel, and as needed, snip off sharp edges where bones have splintered.
Knowing my cleaver limits and wanting to avoid disasters, I headed to my local butcher, picked out a rack of St. Louis–style ribs and had him saw it through the bone into narrow strips. Then it was just a matter of cutting the rib strips into individual riblets and adding everything to a saucepan. I chose a low 2 1/2–quart pan that would allow the riblets to evenly cook in one layer.
Photo by Julia Gartland. Food Stylist: Anna Billingskog. Prop Stylist: Brooke Deonarine.
The sherry, soy sauce, cider vinegar, and sugar lent an incredible combination of flavors: bitter, salty, sour, and sweet. The water facilitated initial cooking, but at the end of the line, the pork released its fat to gently fry the flesh and concentrate the seasonings around the dark-and-handsome riblets.
It was transformative to say the least—minimal-ingredient cooking at its best.
Bulletproof & Versatile
The genius of this recipe lies in its elasticity. For example, if you forget to have the butcher cut the ribs, they’ll be harder to stir in the pan. The meat shrinks up so much around the bone that they’ll resemble high-water pants. But even with an oversight like that, the ribs will still taste fine.
For the dry sherry, use a Fino or Amontillado style. You can also use Shaoxing rice wine, which wasn’t well known in America in 1977, when Irene’s cookbook was published.
Chinese dark soy sauce has a touch of molasses to impart a rich mahogany color to dishes. Pearl River Bridge is my go-to brand. When it’s not available, substitute a 2:1 ratio of full-sodium soy sauce (such as Kikkoman) to molasses.
Want a little heat? Add two or three dried red chiles or one sliced jalapeno to the seasonings, Jim suggested.
The sherry, soy sauce, cider vinegar, and sugar lent an incredible combination of flavors: bitter, salty, sour, and sweet. It was transformative to say the least—minimal-ingredient cooking at its best.
Cook the liquid down as needed: Keep it saucy when enjoying it over rice or let it concentrate and become glazy when you’re looking for the ultimate Chinese-style pupu-platter-ish spare rib nibble. A cucumber salad like this one by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford is a refreshing contrast to the rich riblets.
It’s hard to go wrong with these spare ribs, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced cook. It’s a keeper formula that I won’t forget ever again.
pounds meaty spare ribs (ask the butcher to slice them into individual ribs and cut each rib crosswise into 3 pieces)
1
tablespoon dry sherry
2
tablespoons dark soy sauce
3
tablespoons cider vinegar
4
tablespoons sugar
5
tablespoons water
1 1/2
pounds meaty spare ribs (ask the butcher to slice them into individual ribs and cut each rib crosswise into 3 pieces)
1
tablespoon dry sherry
2
tablespoons dark soy sauce
3
tablespoons cider vinegar
4
tablespoons sugar
5
tablespoons water
Got a genius recipe to share—from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Perhaps something perfect for beginners? Please send it Kristen's way (and tell her what's so smart about it) at genius@food52.com.
From our new podcast network, The Genius Recipe Tapes is lifelong Genius hunter Kristen Miglore’s 10-year-strong column in audio form, featuring all the uncut gems from the weekly column and video series. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss out.
Andrea Nguyen is a James Beard award-winning author, cooking teacher, consultant and editor. Her latest book is "Vietnamese Food Any Day" (Ten Speed Press, 2019). She edited "Unforgettable", the biography cookbook about culinary legend Paula Wolfert.
Making this as we speak, with pork spareribs that I boiled a bit beforehand to soften. Prepared the sauce in a separate bowl to taste before adding to meat. It tates great so far! Can't wait til it's finished! Thank you for your recipe.
I made these with country style ribs and they were tough as rocks. :( I normally put my pork in a Le Creuset pan and bake them and they are fall apart tender.
I've never made this recipe with country-style ribs -- which have more meat on them than spareribs. I've only used spareribs as the recipe is for that. The two cuts are not the same. Sounds like you needed to cook them longer if you were using country-style ribs. I'd use the same amount of time as you would in your Le Creuset. Try the recipe again with spareribs so you get a sense of how the recipe works as originally written by Irene Kuo. Thanks for reporting on your experience!
I made these Keto friendly and GF doing the following: used gluten free soy sauce (there are many brands out there but I used San-J gluten free tamari), reduced the molasses to a teaspoon in a double recipe, added a bit of Chinese 5 spice, and substituted the sugar with natural erythritol (I used Anthony's brand). Because I doubled the recipe I thought there would be too much liquid, but the magic happens when you remove the lid, turn up the heat and cook the sauce down. Be patient and watch it happen...the ribs were gorgeous...beautifully glazed! I served with cauliflower egg fried rice, sprinkled with a generous amount of sliced green onion and some Sambal Oelek chili paste on the side for heat. Amazing.
Wowza! This is amazing. Thanks for tinkering with the recipe and making it your own. Moreover, you’ve shared your adjustments and I’m thrilled to bits. This is what community cooking is about.
Would this recipe work with back ribs? I bought some (on sale) the other day and then saw this article. And just to make it even more bizarre, I'm hoping I can make this with back ribs in my Instant Pot.
Not crazy. The back ribs will take longer because of their size. Someone else asked about IP experimenting with this recipe so scroll on down to check out my suggestion! Thanks.
So I made this with back-ribs and they were awesome. I used half a rack of ribs for two. I cut the larger ribs in half, and let them simmer for about an hour, and another 10-15 minutes would probably be just right. The other half rack is in the freezer for the next time I'm in the mood for ribs... which may be pretty soon after how well these turned out! I'll try it with the instant pot next.
This is terrific information, Ken. I was just eyeing some meaty back ribs that are on sale at my local butcher shop. I bet you could cook these partway then freeze them and finish them after thawing. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.
I do not know but don’t see why it would not work in a slow cooker. I’m unfortunately not a slow cooker cook but you’re just simmering and then boiling off the liquid so the recipe is easy to tweak and tinker with. Go for it!
I've made Mark Bittman's version of this recipe and it's delicious. Do you have a recipe for the Chinese-Islamic sesame bread you mentioned? We used to get a bread that sounds like that at a Mongolian BBQ place in Los Angeles near LAX, and I've been looking for the recipe for years.
I like Kikkoman's Gluten Free Soy Sauce as a GF soy sauce. You could use Tamari for the dark soy sub but definitely add some molasses. Glad you're interested in this recipe!
Much like sherry as a substitute for Shaoxing cooking wine during a time when Chinese ingrediants were hard to come by in the US, the cider viengar in this recipe is likey a substitute for Chinese black vinegar.
The book was written in 1977 so the sherry was definitely a substitute for Shaoxing, which is still hard to find in some places, even where there are Asian markets. Irene sometimes liked cider vinegar. She calls for "Chekong" (Chinkiang) vinegar elsewhere in The Key. So interesting, right?
I don't see why not? You could sear the pork tenderloin, add the seasonings and cook the pork until you're satisfied. Then pull it and let it rest while you cool down the sauce (if needed). Then add back the pork and tumble it around. Great idea!
Make it first in a regular pot to understand how the recipe works. Then for an IP, I would experiment -- x2 or x2.5 of the recipe because the IP needs about 1 cup of liquid to function. I'd try high pressure for 8 to 10 minutes, then depressurize naturally for 8 to 10 before releasing pressure and boiling off liquid. I'm just guessing here so please report back your experience to share!
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