We had some great (and some not-so-great) ribs at the Charlotte RibFest last
weekend. Thinking I can do it better vbg I've been searching for the style
of ribs the pros were using. However, the only ribs I can find in my local
stores are baby back and spare ribs. The pros were using something
different - bigger than baby back and easier to eat than spare ribs.

What is the name of the ribs the pros are using and where can I buy them in
the Charlotte area? I live in the Lake Norman area.

Thanks to all!

Scott

On Sat, 22 May 2004 16:04:20 -0400, "Scott Randolph"
wrote:

The pros were using something
different - bigger than baby back and easier to eat than spare ribs.

What is the name of the ribs the pros are using and where can I buy them in
the Charlotte area? I live in the Lake Norman area.

Don't know where you can buy them, but it sounds like you're talking
about a St. Louis cut of spareribs. Pics and explanations he

http://www.uspork.org/buyersguide/belly3820.html

http://www.ribman.com/abtribs.html

I buy mine at Albertsons when the price is right and when they are
Thomas Morrel (?), not Hormel. The Hormel stuff has been brined or
injected with brine.

--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a university somewhere in Idaho
"Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?"

Scott Randolph wrote:
We had some great (and some not-so-great) ribs at the Charlotte RibFest last
weekend. Thinking I can do it better vbg I've been searching for the style
of ribs the pros were using. However, the only ribs I can find in my local
stores are baby back and spare ribs. The pros were using something
different - bigger than baby back and easier to eat than spare ribs.

What is the name of the ribs the pros are using and where can I buy them in
the Charlotte area? I live in the Lake Norman area.

Thanks to all!

Scott



I have seen 'extra meaty' loin backs and they look similiar to
babybacks. Have bought and cooked them. Though cause it was winter (20
below zero) I baked them in the oven. They were good, but could have
been better if I cooked them on my kettle.

Hope this helps.

Happy Q'en,
BBQ

Thanks for the links. Now that I know the name I can call around and see
who carries them.

Scott

"Kevin S. Wilson" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 May 2004 16:04:20 -0400, "Scott Randolph"
wrote:

The pros were using something
different - bigger than baby back and easier to eat than spare ribs.

What is the name of the ribs the pros are using and where can I buy them
in
the Charlotte area? I live in the Lake Norman area.

Don't know where you can buy them, but it sounds like you're talking
about a St. Louis cut of spareribs. Pics and explanations he

http://www.uspork.org/buyersguide/belly3820.html

http://www.ribman.com/abtribs.html

I buy mine at Albertsons when the price is right and when they are
Thomas Morrel (?), not Hormel. The Hormel stuff has been brined or
injected with brine.

--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a university somewhere in Idaho
"Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?"

On Sun, 23 May 2004 14:25:50 -0400, "Scott Randolph"
wrote:

Thanks for the links. Now that I know the name I can call around and see
who carries them.

Or you could buy regular spare ribs and trim them yourself. There's
instructions for doing so somewhere on the Intraweb, but I'm too lazy
to find 'em right now.

--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a University Somewhere in Idaho
"Anything, when cooked in large enough batches, will be vile."
--Dag Right-square-bracket-gren, in alt.religion.kibology

Kevin S. Wilson wrote:

On Sun, 23 May 2004 14:25:50 -0400, "Scott Randolph"
wrote:


Thanks for the links. Now that I know the name I can call around and see
who carries them.


Or you could buy regular spare ribs and trim them yourself. There's
instructions for doing so somewhere on the Intraweb, but I'm too lazy
to find 'em right now.


It's not hard to learn to make the St. Louis cut yourself. Use your
sturdiest, sharpest butcher knife.

Lay the ribs with the membrane side up and the thin end of the bones
toward you, on a cutting board.

First, remove the membrane (I use a dull table knife to get this started
- it's one task you don't want a sharp knife for). It's easier to remove
this neatly, if you do it before otherwise trimming the ribs.

Next, lift the "brisket flap" as much as possible, and cut it away from
the slab of ribs, so that it comes off in a single piece. Save this, rub
it, and smoke it along with the ribs - it will provide a snack when the
ribs are about half done.

Finally, with the ribs still membrane side up, small end of the bone
toward you, move your fingers up the bones from the thin end, feeling
for the "joint" at the wide end of each bone. You can note that there is
cartilage initially continuing straight off from the joint end of each
rib bone, but it quickly angles sharply off in an entirely different
direction from the rib bones themselves. That's the stuff you want to
cut off. Note how, if you drew a black line across each "joint", it
would describe an arc running lengthwise across the slab, with the
longest ribs, and the highest part of the arc just a little off from the
center of the slab. Now, starting at the thickest end of the slab, with
your heaviest, sharpest knife, cut through those joints, all the way
across the length of the slab. Voila: closest to you, you have your St.
Louis cut, and farthest from you, "rib tips". Cut the tips into a few
smaller sections if you wish, rub them and smoke them along with the
ribs and the brisket flap. They'll take longer than the brisket flap to
get done, but should be edible before the ribs themselves, and they're
plenty good, though the meat and bones (more like cartilage, really)
aren't so neatly arranged as they are in the ribs themselves.

The process is a lot simpler than it sounds. If you're just going to
throw away the brisket flap and the rib tips, it's too much of a waste,
they add up to a pretty substantial fraction of what you paid for when
you bought the whole slab - in that case it would probably be just as
economical to buy the butcher-trimmed St. Louis cut.

-dpig

Douglas Barber wrote:
Kevin S. Wilson wrote:

On Sun, 23 May 2004 14:25:50 -0400, "Scott Randolph"
wrote:


Thanks for the links. Now that I know the name I can call around
and see who carries them.


Or you could buy regular spare ribs and trim them yourself. There's
instructions for doing so somewhere on the Intraweb, but I'm too lazy
to find 'em right now.


It's not hard to learn to make the St. Louis cut yourself. Use your
sturdiest, sharpest butcher knife.

Lay the ribs with the membrane side up and the thin end of the bones
toward you, on a cutting board.

First, remove the membrane (I use a dull table knife to get this
started - it's one task you don't want a sharp knife for). It's
easier to remove this neatly, if you do it before otherwise trimming
the ribs.

Next, lift the "brisket flap" as much as possible, and cut it away
from the slab of ribs, so that it comes off in a single piece. Save
this, rub it, and smoke it along with the ribs - it will provide a
snack when the ribs are about half done.

Finally, with the ribs still membrane side up, small end of the bone
toward you, move your fingers up the bones from the thin end, feeling
for the "joint" at the wide end of each bone. You can note that there
is cartilage initially continuing straight off from the joint end of
each
rib bone, but it quickly angles sharply off in an entirely different
direction from the rib bones themselves. That's the stuff you want to
cut off. Note how, if you drew a black line across each "joint", it
would describe an arc running lengthwise across the slab, with the
longest ribs, and the highest part of the arc just a little off from
the center of the slab. Now, starting at the thickest end of the
slab, with your heaviest, sharpest knife, cut through those joints,
all the way across the length of the slab. Voila: closest to you, you
have your St. Louis cut, and farthest from you, "rib tips". Cut the
tips into a few smaller sections if you wish, rub them and smoke them
along with the
ribs and the brisket flap. They'll take longer than the brisket flap
to get done, but should be edible before the ribs themselves, and
they're plenty good, though the meat and bones (more like cartilage,
really) aren't so neatly arranged as they are in the ribs themselves.

The process is a lot simpler than it sounds. If you're just going to
throw away the brisket flap and the rib tips, it's too much of a
waste, they add up to a pretty substantial fraction of what you paid
for when
you bought the whole slab - in that case it would probably be just as
economical to buy the butcher-trimmed St. Louis cut.

-dpig

That's a keeper, thanks Dave. I've not been trimming the full slabs at all
and have been noticing why the St. Louis cut is sold in the first place.
Gonna do this next rack, thanks again.

Dale
--

Duwop wrote:
Douglas Barber wrote:
Kevin S. Wilson wrote:

On Sun, 23 May 2004 14:25:50 -0400, "Scott Randolph"
wrote:


Thanks for the links. Now that I know the name I can call around
and see who carries them.


Or you could buy regular spare ribs and trim them yourself. There's
instructions for doing so somewhere on the Intraweb, but I'm too lazy
to find 'em right now.


It's not hard to learn to make the St. Louis cut yourself. Use your
sturdiest, sharpest butcher knife.

Snipped

The process is a lot simpler than it sounds. If you're just going to
throw away the brisket flap and the rib tips, it's too much of a
waste, they add up to a pretty substantial fraction of what you paid
for when
you bought the whole slab - in that case it would probably be just as
economical to buy the butcher-trimmed St. Louis cut.

-dpig

That's a keeper, thanks Dave. I've not been trimming the full slabs at all
and have been noticing why the St. Louis cut is sold in the first place.
Gonna do this next rack, thanks again.

Dale
--


Last week, I bought some spare ribs @ $1.49# and noticed that they also had St
Louis cut @ $4.99#. Then I saw several packages of "Rib Tips" for $0.89#.
Along with the spares, I bought 3 packages of the rib tips. There's a lot of
meat in there that people are paying for them to cut off. The tips Q'ed up just
like ribs, but the presentation wasn't quite the same.

BOB

It's not hard to learn to make the St. Louis cut yourself. Use your
sturdiest, sharpest butcher knife.

Thanks for the great instructions! I'm heading out to buy some ribs and give
it a try!

Scott

On Mon, 24 May 2004 19:58:59 -0400, "Scott Randolph"
wrote:

It's not hard to learn to make the St. Louis cut yourself. Use your
sturdiest, sharpest butcher knife.

Thanks for the great instructions! I'm heading out to buy some ribs and give
it a try!

Scott


Other tips:

1) illustrated guide to trimming (from the Virtual Weber Bullet site):

http://virtualweberbullet.com/ribselect2.html#spareprep

2) The trimming is REALLY easy with a pair of these...
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=203272

cuts through ribs like buttah...


-Chef Juke
"EVERYbody Eats When They Come To MY House!"
www.chefjuke.com

Douglas,

It's not hard to learn to make the St. Louis cut yourself. Use your
sturdiest, sharpest butcher knife.

I finally got around to buying a rack of spare ribs to try out your
instructions...

First, remove the membrane (I use a dull table knife to get this started
- it's one task you don't want a sharp knife for). It's easier to remove
this neatly, if you do it before otherwise trimming the ribs.

Membrane came off easy enough...

Next, lift the "brisket flap" as much as possible, and cut it away from
the slab of ribs, so that it comes off in a single piece. Save this, rub
it, and smoke it along with the ribs - it will provide a snack when the
ribs are about half done.

I guess you don't always get a flap. I turned the ribs every which way and
could find a flap to cut. I started prying a table knife under different
sections but when I started tearing up the meat I stopped.

I thought cutting the rib tips off would be the hard part. I was surprised
at how easily the knife went through the joints. It only took a couple of
minutes total! I put the various pieces in the freezer until I can pull the
smoker out.

Scott