Beautiful fall day in middle Tennessee. We are just hanging out on the back porch, going to have some friends over later, watch a little football, and I am sitting here outside with the smell of applewood smoke drifting out of the Big Green Egg. Put my rub on a few racks of baby backs last night (I think my wife married me for the ribs I smoke, she seems to like me smelling of applewood or hickory more than Polo or Armani ). We are going to start with some homemade tomato basil soup and gougeres, then serve the ribs with bourbon brown sugar turnip greens and homemade paparadelle with prosciuto and orange. Chocolate meringue pie for dessert.
I have just about given up on wine with smoked ribs, pork shoulder or brisket. I have tried syrah (CA., France or Aussie), zinfandel, pinot (domestic and Burgundy), cabs from all over, Bordeaux and probably some Italian varieties, in all ranges from budget to high end, and it always seems that even wines I usually love are disappointing with the smoke and spice. What do some of you serve with bbq? A white of some kind maybe? I like riesling or vouvray with asian or Mexican so maybe it would go with the spice of ribs. My ribs are fairly spicy, I like them to bite back a little bit.
On the other hand, sometimes you just can’t beat a good beer.
If they are spicy, then a German Riesling might work. I am a fan of Carlisle Zinfandels or Alban Grenache with my dry-rubbed pork ribs. They are, however, NOT what I consider spicy.
Yeah I think I’ll have to open one and see. Wonder about Champagne or one of Bordelet’s pear ciders? I like your quote from Allan Benton. He makes some good stuff not too far from here. By the way, I do have one rack of beef back ribs on the egg today. I have a son that lives in Houston and I know that once I get west of Little Rock UT becomes Texas instead of Tennessee and bbq means beef not pork. Always love my visits to your state.
I usually go with something like Zin or CdR, but I wouldn’t claim these are great matches. They just have enough stuffing to assert themselves. I like the suggestion for cider - sounds good.
Lots of zin recommendations and it seems to make sense, but I’ve tried Ridge and Outpost zins and while I really like those wines, for some reason they just seem muted to me when paired with smokey, spicy meat. It guess it’s just me.
To me you’ve got to go for refreshment and CONTRAST to the weight and flavors of the food here. Rosé (especially sparkling) works for the same reasons others are suggesting Beer.
Last night I enjoyed some applewood smoked ribs on my big green egg, although they were spare ribs instead of baby back ribs. We drank a Paul Achs 2004 Altenberg Blaufrankisch that paired very well with the smoked meat.
