Trimming Spare Ribs


 
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Barry McCorkle

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General question for experienced cookers - How long does it take you to trim spare ribs to a ST. Louis cut and to get most of the fat and other unwantables off?

After doing this for the first time this weekend, it took about 15 - 20 minutes per rack and I still wished I had spent more time trimming. Do you also try to trim away most of the small white cartilage bones from the end of the smaller rib bones?

Chris, I am looking forward to you posting your pictures on your trimming spare from your Texas sugarless ribs.

SC Que
 
I take about 5 min to trim and skin and removing fat. If it's for competion I take a little longer but not 15 or 20 min.
Jim
 
Obviously I spent a lot of time trying to determine where to make the cut to trim down to the rib bones. Any advice on this? Do you make a basically straight cut or do you try to follow the ends of the rib bones?

SC Que
 
SC Que,

Yes, I keep meaning to post those pics, but other topics keep coming up. I probably won't get to it until October at the rate I'm going.

I've cut the spares straight across, but I like to try to follow the ends of the bones if I can. I don't like that cartilage stuff.

With a little practice, you'll get into that five minute range Jim describes.

Regards,
Chris
 
Looking for thoughts on trimming the remains of the diaghram from the inside of the rib cage on spares.

Why do butchers leave this on the rack...to sell more scrap???

As a normal course of business I trim this away but thought that others possibly may not. Just curious if anyone leaves this on.

Tom.
 
J.

With regard to your question about trimming the spares. You can save yourself a lot of time by having the "fell" or rib cage side membrane trimmed from the racks by the butcher ahead of time.

Tom.
 
In regards to trimming spares...it is a lot of work initially and can be pretty confusing! With each rack that is trimmed, it does become much easier.....I now take only about 5 minutes to trim em up. Matter of fact, I just trimmed up 6 racks yesterday for a neighborhood cook-out! All at 7am I might add!!!

Here is what I do:

I first trim the small end of the rack. I try to trim so the rack is within the 18 1/4" of the WSM. This means I must sometimes cut off 1 of the "real" bones at the small end. I cut this piece all the way up through the "brisket" piece...this gives you a pie shaped piece of meat with some bones in it.

I then remove the "skirt"...this is the flap of meat on the BONE side towards the smaller end of the rack. You want to remove this because it often hides some pockets of fat!! I then trim any fat away that lies underneath the skirt. DO NOT throw this skirt away!! Cook it up...it is ALL meat! It doesn't take long either!

Then I remove the membrane from the bone side of the rack.

The last step is trimming through the brisket bone....by far the hardest part of the trim! You will be going through some cartiledge so use a strong bladed knife..I use a 10" Chef's knife. Turn the rack so the bone side is up...then you can just follow the tip of the bones to determine where to make your cut. If you follow the rib ends, you leave those cartiledge pieces on the chine bone.

After I have trimmed away the chine bone, I then will trim any large amount of fat from the rack. Some need LOTS of trimming, others need NO trimming. Just be careful to not trim away ALL the fat!

In the end I have 3 pieces of trim.......the small end of the rack, the skirt meat and the long chine bone. ALL of these are cooked(they are all pure meat!!) and I then pull apart and offer up for munchies.

Eventually I will have some pics to share....unless Chris beats me too it!!

All in all, I always prefer my butcher to do the above trimming...it takes about 30 seconds with a butcher's saw and he doesn't charge me any extra. However, Kroger will usually run these cryovaced racks on sale for .99 a pound. That is cheap enough to take butcher lessons!!

Good Luck!!
Stogie
 
Stogie,

Thanks for the details! All of the responses have been helpful. I am probably going to start cooking more spare ribs since the grocers and pig producers have driven me out of the market with $4/lb prices. I picked up this group of spares at BiLo for .99/lb and I am hooked.

SC Que
 
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