I trimmed 6 slabs of spare ribs tonight into St. Louis ribs. This is really pretty easy to do. I start by removing the flap of meat on the bone side, then taking off the membrane from the back of the bones. This part doesn’t have to be done, but try a rib with the membrane then one without, and you tell me which you prefer!
After the membrane is gone, I turn the ribs over and find where the top of the bone is on the ribs. Once I find it, I cut along the top of the bones to make a more rectangular slab. The good thing is that I have great knives, which I talked about in my equipment post… if I hit bone, they go through with very little problem. The end product will be a rib that is nothing but meat and bone, no cartilege to have to fight.
Once trimmed, I put the ribs in the refrigerator wrapped in foil. Tomorrow morning, I’ll put rub on them and get them cooking early. The rub is simple: it’s a 5:3:1:1 ratio. Five parts cane sugar, 3 parts kosher salt, 1 part chili powder and 1 part whatever I want. I used a mixture of onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil and cayenne pepper.
Tomorrow morning, after I get things going, my test will be in how to cook, using the same basic rub on everything. Two of them will be cooked using the 3-2-1 method, which is three hours cooking, 2 more hours cooking but in foil, and one more cooking without foil. Two more will be done using no foil, and the last two will be done using a 3-1-2 method. The times aren’t strict times; I’ll try to adjust to how done I see the ribs getting.
I’ll post my results!
Curt,
I found this very interesting. I have never trimmed my baby backs. I only remove the membrane. Why do you remove the flap? Taste or Looks? I tried th3 3-2-1 method for the first time this weekend with country style ribs (on sale) and they turned out wonderful. It made me wonder how good the baby backs would be this way. I am anxious to here the results from your expirement.
Todd
Babybacks don’t need to be trimmed this way, as they don’t have rib ends or the brisket flap. The flap is just meat, but it looks much nicer with that and the rib ends cut off.
The country ribs you fixed were boston butts cut into ‘ribs’… they do have good flavor. And babybacks usually use more of a 2-1-1 method, as they cook a lot faster.
My results were that I thought the unfoiled ribs were the best in flavor and tenderness, the one hour next, and the 2 hour foil the least, so I think I’m going to be playing around with either no foil or shorter foil times.
Curt
Curt,
Do you recommend spare or Baby backs? I did not catch that you where using spare. My eyes saw ribs and my mind processed baby back. I often wondered whether to just go with spare because there is obviously more meat on the bones. Look forward to you info.
Todd
Todd,
I like spares for a variety of reasons. For competition, they just look better, I think; the bones are flat and lay better in a box for turn ins. Also, they are meatier, and, probably since they start with more fat, etc., have more flavor. I used to cook baby back ribs, but I switched about 9 months ago, and I haven’t done anything but spares since. I also like having the rib ends to use for sandwiches or baked beans.