Sweet & Sticky Ribs - Substitutes for Sauce

Our answer

It is possible to make sticky spare ribs using other sweet sauces. You can make a basic sweet soy sauce by mixing soy sauce with dark brown sugar in a ratio of 1:2 (ie 2 tablespoons brown sugar to 1 tablespoon soy sauce). If you don't have brown sugar then you can use palm sugar instead. If you want to add a little bit of heat than add a pinch of dried red chillis or some chopped fresh chilli.

Nigella also makes spare ribs with other coatings. Nigella Express has ribs made with a glaze of apple juice, maple syrup and soy sauce and her latest book, Kitchen has spare ribs with pineapple and molasses (p392).