RECIPE WEDNESDAY: Barbecue Spareribs – recipe from the 1940s

Barbecue Spareribs

Recipe from the 1940s

You can get around the cooking time for the spare ribs by precooking them in the kitchen oven – then give them a crispy finish on a charcoal grill. To do this, have 3 to 4 pounds of spareribs cut into serving size pieces. Put them in a shallow pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake them in a moderate (350 degrees F.) oven for an hour. With this pre-cooking, you can put the ribs on the outdoor grill and swab them with the following Barbecue Sauce during a last half hour’s cooking on the grill.

Barbecue Sauce

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 Medium Onion (chopped)
1 eight ounce can tomato sauce
1 minced clove garlic
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
¼ cup water

Put butter or margarine, chopped onion, tomato sauce, garlic, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, mustard, tabasco sauce and water in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Use to baste ribs twice during last half hour of cooking. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

VINEGAR OF THE FOUR THIEVES: Recipes & curious tips from the past

Have you heard excessive brain labor causes baldness or the cure for wrinkles is a tepid bath in bran?
Do you want to know Thomas Jefferson’s recipe for Vinegar of the Four Thieves or how to make Ox Tail Soup?
Have you ever had ‘blueberry pickles’, ‘batallia pie’ or ‘snow birds’? You will learn all this and more in “Vinegar of the Four Thieves.”

Our ancestors had to be resilient when they faced obstacles in daily life, from dealing with pests, medical emergencies, caring for clothing and cleaning shortcuts. Almost everything they used in daily life was homemade. Some ideas were great but some were very strange.

This book is a collection of household tips, medical cures, clothing care and old recipes from the 1800’s and 1900’s. Many of the tips, such as the household cleaners, cooking tips and ways to control pests, still work and are helpful in today’s ‘green’ environment while others such as ‘how to cure a dog of eating eggs’ will make you laugh. Either way, this book will help you appreciate the difficult life your grandparents endured. With Bonus: First two chapters of novel Ribbon of Love

About Donna R Causey

Donna R. Causey, resident of Alabama, was a teacher in the public school system for twenty years. When she retired, Donna found time to focus on her lifetime passion for historical writing. She developed the websites www.alabamapioneers and www.daysgoneby.me All her books can be purchased at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. She has authored numerous genealogy books. RIBBON OF LOVE: A Novel Of Colonial America (TAPESTRY OF LOVE) is her first novel in the Tapestry of Love about her family where she uses actual characters, facts, dates and places to create a story about life as it might have happened in colonial Virginia. Faith and Courage: Tapestry of Love (Volume 2) is the second book and the third FreeHearts: A Novel of Colonial America (Book 3 in the Tapestry of Love Series) Discordance: The Cottinghams (Volume 1) is the continuation of the story. . For a complete list of books, visit Donna R Causey