www.sausagemaking.org

Whilst the nipper is a "food explorer" ..her exposure to slow cooked pulled ribs thus far (a struggle due to her previously vegetarian leanings) which she adores, gravitate the usual whipped together overly sweet sticky variety.

Whilst I do over time change it to less sugary gunk i'm very aware of the softly softly introduction of flavour & the outright "No way" response & good food left on the plate possibilities.

She's just about coming to terms with the spiciness of pepperoni for example, & tackling a marginal amount of chili in her food, but it's an introduction not to be forced!

She often preps her ribs as well, & at 9 is no stranger to the kitchen, big fan of garlic, hoi-sin, plum sauce etc to give an idea of her palate.

Can anyone please point me towards a kid friendly rib rub or similar to make at home as I feel that's the next step of simple hands on food prep & up the ante of enjoyment of making good food & feeding herself!?

How about just making a favourite rub , but with less chili? Involve your daughter in making it etc. I found that kids will always be receptive to food that they've had a hand in making.

If you want to play safe with flavours she already likes, you could do an oriental style dry rub at the start, maybe just a light dusting of five spice, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and then a char sui style glaze for the last 20 minutes or so, maybe along the lines of the marinade in this recipe:

http://www.itv.com/lorraine/food/char-s ... se-greens/

HTH

Phil

That looks good! & something she can rustle up herself.

You might want to try some herbal rubs (there are many rib rubs out there that are flavorful without being spicy) and finish cooking the ribs with a honey glaze. Honey-glazed or a honey/fruit glaze makes an excellent finish. Honey-apricot and honey-mango are particularly good with pork.

I am a big fan of Indonesian food and by the sounds of her likes this might just work as long as you reduce or take out the chili's.
Marinade: ginger, garlic, sweet soy (kecap manis or if you can't get, soy and some sugar or maybe honey), lemon juice, limited chili.
Serve with satay sauce to the side. Very similar ingredients: chili, ginger, maybe some finely chopped onion, garlic all fried up, then add soy, lemon juice and 1 to 2 tablespoon of peanut butter and enough water or milk to make it into a sauce. Be careful not to burn it.

Thanks, (& don't shout me down for this) ...no hot smoker yet, & a cold / hot box in the offing.

So, needed to get a taste for what I was aiming for, grabbed some pork out & cobbled up a hopefully nice wet marinade for a few days having reduce the heat but hopefully leaving enough tang & a spot of heat to make it interesting, a small joint of local outdoor raised pork.

As the wife is super sensitive to heat (sometimes a korma is a step too far) I noticed in waitrose a carolina style pork shoulder, so took a pic of the ingredients & made that a starting point.

used our vac sealer to keep it in the liquid in a fridge that is constantly 1c for 4 days.

cooked it in a conventional oven (sadly) last night & tried it out on the wife, success, enough heat & layered flavour, so good she took some to work in a baguette this morning (unheard of).

So as a marker for intensity of flavour we've got a starting point! ..just got to try the nipper out on the tiny bit left as a sandwich, she smelt it cooking last night (no supper & early bed as punishment (long story involving smoked salmon) & was sure she was missing something good.

Thanks for the suggestions they are food for thought, think I've got the wife hooked in which case all project requirements will be permissible!

One thing that concerns me, with vac sealed bags there is eventual draw of flavour & transferrance through the material (as noticeable with my vanilla sugar & recently made experimental c/s cheese) how long is a dry rub or marinade good for (vac bags are diamond ribbed variety via a certain Geordie supplier) & as we have 3 freezers space tends not to be too much of an issue...

Q, Suggestions regards pro's con's or outright "NOOOOO's" re, marinades that don't degrade when vac sealed & frozen 3 months + for general pre prepping & impromptu cooking)?