Curious Cook

The secret to ribs is already in the kitchen: the oven

EVERYONE knows the barbecue mantra “low and slow:” cook tough cuts of meat over low indirect heat for hours and hours until they fall off the bone and melt in the mouth.

I thought that was about all there was to it. Then I tried several recent recipes from acknowledged masters of the grill, and got dry, chewy spareribs. I took a closer look under the grill lid, and what I saw leads me to offer some fairly heterodox advice for barbecuing ribs:

Don’t try this at home.

The chemical weapons of onion and garlic

WHAT do garlic and onions have in common with gunpowder? A lot. They’re incendiary. They can do harm and they delight. Sulfur is central to their powers. And they helped inspire the work of a chemist who has just published a welcome treatise on the smelly yet indispensable allium family.