BRITU

[Guest]

Please excuse me if this has been discussed before; I just registered!

I've had great success with Mike Scrutchfield's BRITU recipe. Next time, I want to use St. Louis ribs instead of babybacks. Is there anything in the prep I need to adjust? Should I target the cooking time at 4 hours instead of 5?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doug D]

If anything, you will want to cook spares longer than babybacks-- more like 6 hours.

 

[Guest]

I've heard contradictory info about St. Louis ribs. Some folks say the lower fat content requires less cooking time. Others say the greater mass requires more. FWIW, the best St. Louie's I've ever had were in North Carolina, and the pitmaster told me he gives them about 4 hours.

I guess the question then becomes: How do I know when they're done? It's not like they pull away from the end of the bone like babybacks do.

Hmmm. . . questions, questions.

 

[Bob McFadden]

The first time I did spares they were on for about 6.5 hrs. and pulled away fron the bone clean. The next time they were on 5.5 hrs. and realy needed to stay on another 30 minutes to an hour. They didn't come off the bone clean. They are done when the meat shrinks back about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and tears easily from the bone. IMO.

Bob

 

[Doug D]

Neil, perhaps you are confused as to what St. Louis ribs are. St. Louis refers to a style of trimming pork spare ribs wherein the breast bone (sternum) is trimmed off, and-- depending on who you talk to-- the skirt meat is either trimmed off or left on. Like any rib when slow cooked, the meat does indeed pull down from the ends of the bones as they near doneness. As a rule, babybacks are leaner than spares, no matter how they are trimmed before cooking. And spares, even trimmed St. Louis style, average a half pound or more higher in weight than the average rack of babybacks.