Adult version of sweet and sour pork ribs

The weather here has been miserably cool and wet for the last week. So, my mind turned to comfort food. A quick check of the freezer book turned up some country style pork ribs, which seemed to fit the bill.
My family has a traditional recipe for the sauce to go withribs - essentially 1 cup each of brown sugar, ketchup and vinegar. My kids always loved this, but I always thought it was too simple and much too sweet, so I wanted to produce an adult version.
The base which came to mind was hoi-sin sauce, slightly sweet with that nice burnt soy touch. I used about ½c of hoi-sin, plus 1/3c of rice wine vinegar, a dash of fish sauce, a clove of garlic and 1T honey. Then I tasted it and slghtly increased the hoi-sin and honey. It needed salt, but also something to brighten the flavours - anchovy paste achieved both objects!
Getting close now, but a bit too saucey still. Thinking back to the original family version, I finished with about 1T of tomato ketchup.
The wine accompaniment was a BC 2007 La Frenz Muscat, fresh and clean with the Muscat hint of orange and finishing dry.
The thought process involved is interesting. I imagined a flavour and then pulled ingredients from some sort of mental data bank of past experiences to achieve the result. Sort of like imagining which wine will work best with particular food.

David, first-- Welcome!
Second, are you a writer for Cooks Illustrated?? Your post felt very much like one of their articles (that's a good thing.)
Your ribs sound delicious. I usually just grill them with barbecue sauce for sort of a "down home" taste, but yours sound great. How long did you cook them? I believe country style ribs are just slabs of the shoulder...I'll bet they would be amazing cooked low and slow.

Thanks, Carrie
I simmer the "ribs", which are in fact shoulder, for about 45 minutes, then drain them.
I painted them with the sauce and left them to marinade for about 2 hours, then painted them again. 2 hours later I put them in a covered casserole , with the remaining sauce, thinned down with about 2-3T of chicken stock, brought them to a simmer on the top of the stove and then baked them for about 20 minutes in a 350º oven. Served with a baked potato.

[Jenise]

The weather here has been miserably cool and wet for the last week. So, my mind turned to comfort food. A quick check of the freezer book turned up some country style pork ribs, which seemed to fit the bill.
My family has a traditional recipe for the sauce to go withribs - essentially 1 cup each of brown sugar, ketchup and vinegar. My kids always loved this, but I always thought it was too simple and much too sweet, so I wanted to produce an adult version.
The base which came to mind was hoi-sin sauce, slightly sweet with that nice burnt soy touch. I used about ½c of hoi-sin, plus 1/3c of rice wine vinegar, a dash of fish sauce, a clove of garlic and 1T honey. Then I tasted it and slghtly increased the hoi-sin and honey. It needed salt, but also something to brighten the flavours - anchovy paste achieved both objects!
Getting close now, but a bit too saucey still. Thinking back to the original family version, I finished with about 1T of tomato ketchup.
The wine accompaniment was a BC 2007 La Frenz Muscat, fresh and clean with the Muscat hint of orange and finishing dry.
The thought process involved is interesting. I imagined a flavour and then pulled ingredients from some sort of mental data bank of past experiences to achieve the result. Sort of like imagining which wine will work best with particular food.

David, "simple and sweet". No wonder your kids loved it. My mother's was very similar, though I believe she used American tomato sauce (being specific because I believe English tomato sauce is essentially ketchup), and we were adventurous enough for her to get away with adding some cayenne pepper for kick. I would still love it, though like you as an adult I now long for more complex treatments.

I applaud your solution of the anchovy paste, which probably wouldn't have occurred to me. Sounds like a great recipe--I love that cut of pork.