• country style pork ribs, 2 lbs.
• red cabbage, half head
• honeycrisp apple, large
• yellow onion, medium small

The day before cooking, you’ll make two mixtures. In a crock-pot liner bag, the pork. In a gallon ziploc, the purple stuff.

The Pork

Spread some Koops or similar mustard all over your pieces of pork. (Not Dijon. We don’t want sweetness from the mustard. That’s what the whiskey and brown sugar is for.)

Add minced garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and I’ve found that chipotle Cholula sauce makes nearly everything taste better. It adds smoke and a nice tang.

A clove or two of garlic won’t hurt anything. and throw a few whole sprigs of rosemary on top—the needles will fall off when it cooks and you can pick the sticks out. Give it a little butter or good olive oil.

Go find an almost-empty bag of coffee and hork the metal closure band from it. Use that to seal the cooking bag as airtight as you can to spend the night in your fridge. Man, that smells good.

The Purple

Cut your red cabbage into wedges. Eat the delicious hearts out of the wedges so you’re left with leafy pieces to add to the bag. Separate the layers somewhat.

We need this to all mix together.

Add a quarter cup of brown sugar to the bag.

Cut your apple into 8 wedges and add them to the bag.

Chop that onion up. Throw it in the bag.

Now is when it gets good

Get yourself a large shot of rye whiskey. I like Old Overholt. It’s cheap and tasty. Add the shot of rye and about a tablespoon of white vinegar to the bag.

Now get the air out of that ziploc of purple goodness and kind of knead everything around. Want to get the juices between the layers of cabbage, but you don’t to mash your apples.

At this point your kitchen smells awesome.

Leave that pork alone, but every once-in-a-while pick up the purple stuff and distribute the juices evenly. Knead it a little bit if there are cabbage chunks that aren’t separated, and definitely open the bag and sneak a piece of cabbage. It’s so good and you’ll notice it getting better as it spends more time turning an even purple color.

Now it’s tomorrow morning

Fire up your crock pot on high and drop that bag or meat in there. You should have that liner bag sealed up tight with the coffee closure. You’re going to cook that pork alone for probably less than two hours. you want it all the way cooked (at least 145º).

Your pork is cooked, purple it up

Take the closure off you crock liner and open up the bag how it is supposed to be used. Dump your purple stuff over the top. You’ve likely been messing with it in the bag and sneaking an occasional cabbage leaf. Spread everything over the pork and keep the crock on high for another hour. After that, cut it back to low or warm and let it go for hours and hours. We’re now trying to infuse that meat with the purple goodness.

At some point, you could slice up and throw a half stick of butter in there, but otherwise do not disturb much.

Serving time!

If you have picky eaters who fear the cabbage, take a few of the ribs out and serve separately. But for best flavor, stir the pot. The pork should break into chunks and smell and taste like Thanksgiving.