I am making pork ribs and cabbage to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but I forgot to soak the meat overnight like the recipe says! It's too late now, so do I just go ahead and rinse & cook it? What will it be like, and what exactly does the soaking do, anyway? Help! My husband and his Irish friends are expecting dinner to be on time. :)

Why do you have to soak it? Is it a marinade? You might want to get another recipe for a dry rub (just salt, pepper, garlic powder and whatever spices you want to use) and cook them that way.

From what my grandmother has told me, pork used to be soaked overnight to get rid of the "pork" smell. However, today's pigs are not feed scraps so it doesn't have quite the smell. My mom, however, will soak pork in cold water and a little salt for an hour, rinse, and then soak in fresh cold, unsalted water for another hour. This greatly improves the smell of the meat.

You are talking about ribs right? Soaking ribs isn't necessary--unless you are trying to incorporate some special flavor--and since you have run out time, all you have to do, is bring them to a boil and let simmer for abt an 30 mins -hour (depends on how meaty they are--less, of course, if they don't have alot of meat) Remove from heat, strain, dry pat and proceed with recipe. All soaking or bringing them to a easy boil does, is help them become fall -off-the -bone tender., and help with flavoring . They may be a little tougher otherwise...but with pork, they are usually easy to keep tender--just don't over grill, if grilling. Happy St. Patty's Day. !!