Smack Bones

Here is a cooking tip from the Deep South.

Many grocery stores (Food Lion is one) sell 1-pound packets of RIB TIPS (riblets) for around $3. They look like spare ribs but the bones are only a half inch long, or so. They are the trimmings from shaping spare ribs and are prime, sweet, pork rib meat. My grandmother used to serve them as a snack or appetizer; she called them "Smack Bones" and I loved them. I finally figured out how to cook them -- one has to be patient. Cooked properly, most of the fat runs out and the toughish rib membrane nearly crystallizes.

Dose the riblets well with lots of salt...salt them until you think you ruined them. Garlic salt or plain salt. Then put them atop the grill of the roasting pan -- not IN a pan, they don't cook right sitting in their juices. Bake at 350 for a little over an hour. If you take them out early they won't be good. Cook them until you think they're about ruined. They shouldn't look burned, but damn nearly. Then cool a bit and nibble the good stuff off the bones and give the bones to the cockroaches. No sauce needed. M-m-m-m good!

You can thank me later.

-- DALTON HAMMOND