On Jun 30, 2:22*pm, "Nancy Young" > wrote:
> [snips]
> Thanks again for the recipe. *This is something I haven't tried before.
> If this isn't the dumbest question: is this red-cooking sauce similar to
> what they use to make chinese spare ribs?
>
Similar ingredients maybe, but the red-cooking, or "loo", is stewing,
while the spare ribs and roast pork (cha siu, sometimes called
barbecued pork) are roasted. The typical roast pork recipe calls for
a long marinade with soys, rice wine, sugar, hoisin, garlic, and often
ketchup. The star anise I like so much in the stews is absent. The
cha siu sold in Chinese delis/markets is usually redder from the
addition of food coloring to the marinade, with a glossier finish from
basting with honey. -aem