Chicken spare ribs - now forgotten?
As I mentioned yesterday, when I came across one of Beverley Sutherland Smith's articles for The Age, called Spare ribs of chicken, I had never heard of such a thing. I was intrigued and vowed to look into it, which I have. But I'm not really any the wiser.
In her introduction to the three recipes she presented, she said that they were an invention, if you like, of John Cester - then a young man with a stall in Prahran Market. He's still there indeed but no longer young, although now a prestige brand name, and Prahran Market has also morphed from a really good value and vibrant market to a rather posh upmarket overpriced affair. At least it was the last time I visited. Above you see his rather lovely logo and a dish of his chicken spare ribs, for he does still sell them.
But back to John Cester. Beverley Sutherland Smith claims that he, being a thrifty type did not like to waste meat left on the carcass after the legs and breast had been removed. So:
"One day he removed the two strips of meat and bone from the shoulder of the bird ... The choice of a name was difficult: it sounded strange to refer to them as shoulder bones, so they are now called chicken spare ribs - although it is a misnomer, as they are not really the rib of the chicken at all. They do have a little curved bone which in shape is similar to a rib, but that is the only resemblance." Beverley Sutherland Smith
The dish at the top of the page is of John Cester's chicken spare ribs. To me they do not look much like something left behind on a carcass, but more something deliberately cut from the chicken. And ditto for the other pictures I found - one from a website called Bush Tucker and the other from Lilydale Chicken.
When I looked for definitions of what chicken ribs were I found there was a bit of variety there too.
"Ribs are the first cut of the breast with a good amount of meat, they are a great finger food or starter. Easy to fry for 4-5 mins. 25-30 per kilo" John Cester
A new definition it seems to me - not quite wastage from the back of the chicken carcass. But it's what it says on their website these days.
Elsewhere:
"Chicken spare ribs are the scapula bones" - Bush Cooking
"Chicken ribs are pieces of bone-in breast" - Gourmet Traveller
"I bought chicken spare ribs from the local chicken shop. I am not sure if the term is anatomically correct, but lets just go with it, shall we!" - Kidspot Kitchen
SBS also seems to think it's really strips of the breast with the bone in because they say:
"Because we’re working with the very lean breast meat of the chicken, the chicken ribs lend themselves to hot and fast cooking or grilling for best results. Cook them too long and they’ll dry out and become chewy or tough." Adam Roberts SBS
Lots of sites also suggested using thighs, drumettes, wings instead, so really all of the recipes you will find - and there are quite a few - will work with any bit of chicken really. Because most of them are for marinades followed by fry ups or grills. This picture is of one of the posher recipes that I found - from the Gingerboy restaurant via Gourmet Traveller -
I don't think you are going to find any chicken spare ribs in your local supermarket though. Woolworths has two products listed on their website - both from the 'chill' section and one of them was unavailable. Coles had nothing. So unless you feel like a trip to Prahran market which is a real hassle to get to, or Lilydale, which is an hour or so away I don't think you will be able to find them. Besides I'm not sure that Lilydale chicken has a shop - they are probably just a big chicken farm - organic and free range though it might be. It must be big or you wouldn't find their products in Coles and Woolworths. Mind you, I guess you could always slice a bone-in breast into fingers.
Something that didn't become a real big thing in the sense that it is trendy and available everywhere but which nevertheless still lingers on. Interesting.
