Coffee isn't the first liquid I expect to see poured into a slow cooker full of ribs. One home cook skipped stock, juice, and water and used half a cup of fresh Americano instead.
Reddit user u/simmyawardwinner paired the coffee with St. Louis spare ribs and one cooking apple cut into pieces. The ribs sat on top of the apple, while the Americano was the only added liquid in the slow cooker. After eight hours, she described the ribs as fall-off-the-bone.
Start With St. Louis Spare Ribs
The cook had tried baby back ribs in the slow cooker before, but that batch didn't work out. For the next attempt, she switched to St. Louis spare ribs.
The dry rub stays short: one tablespoon of brown sugar mixed with half a tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning.
BBQ sauce gets brushed over the ribs before they cook.
Put a Chopped Apple Under the Ribs
One cooking apple gets cut into pieces and placed in the bottom of the slow cooker.
The ribs rest on top rather than sitting against the bottom of the pot. The apple isn't turned into a sauce or mixed with apple juice.
When another Reddit user asked whether the recipe meant a whole apple or apple cider, the cook confirmed it was one cooking apple cut into pieces.
Pour in Half a Cup of Fresh Americano
Coffee supplies the added liquid.
The recipe calls for half a cup of Americano, and the cook says it was freshly made when it went into the slow cooker. No broth, water, apple juice, or other cooking liquid was added.
That doesn't mean the finished ribs come out tasting like a cup of coffee.
The Ribs Didn't Taste Like Coffee
One commenter had the same question: would the coffee flavor come through, or would it turn bitter during the long cook?
According to the cook, neither happened. She said the coffee and apple added subtle warmth, depth, and sweetness without leaving an obvious coffee taste or bitterness. She has also used fresh coffee as a rib rub before without getting a strong coffee flavor in the finished meat.
She Started the Slow Cooker on High
Cooking method was another change from her previous batch.
Instead of starting low, she cooked the St. Louis ribs on high for four hours, then medium for another four hours. She described the result as fall-off-the-bone.
Slow-cooker settings differ by machine, so her timing shouldn't be treated as a universal formula. She later said her previous cooker had trouble cooking food on low and that she planned to replace it.
Coffee may sound like the dominant ingredient when it is the only liquid poured into the pot, but that wasn't how she described the finished ribs. Half a cup worked alongside the apple, BBQ sauce, brown sugar, and Old Bay rather than making the pork taste like coffee.
Would you pour fresh coffee into a slow cooker full of ribs, or stick with stock or another cooking liquid?
Leave a Reply