Cooking differences between St. Louis Ribs vs Baby Back?

[Roger R.]

It's been years since I cooked Baby Back Ribs, as I really like St. Louis cuts - but lately they have been priced very low in my area and I am tempted to try them again.

With St. Louis Ribs, I trim the fat, remove the membrane, cut away any flap meat, slather them with mustard and rub them well. Then I roll them & skewer them and cook them on my 18.5" WSM at 250º for 4.5 - 5 hrs. With my BBQ Guru they always turn out perfect.

Can someone please remind me of any differences in cooking Baby Back Ribs? Is there a difference with all that extra meat on them?

 

[Erik Tracy]

I'm not an expert, but have done both and the usual advice is that baby backs will in general take 1 hr less than St Louis ribs.

ymmv...

 

[Joe F]

I do mostly "back ribs"....I don't think that they are actually "baby back ribs".
I used to use the $2.99 sale ribs from Safeway and QFC, but have found that I like the fresh ribs from Gartner's much better.

I use Malcolm Reed's recipe for Memphis ribs (howtobbqright.com)
I run 235°-ish for about 5 hours.

Watch his 11 minute video he shows how to check for doneness.
That is the key, no matter what cut of rib...
The doneness check.

 

[MickS]

Baby backs on the WSCG. I three slabs at 3# each- to much fat for me. For now o
I need baby backs in the 2.0 to 2.3 range. I rubbed them down the night before and
sprayed olive oil (usually mustard) and used some of Jeff's (Phillips) rub. Put them on
My new WSCG for 6 hrs at 225 ish. Every hr added one chunk of hickory and spritzed with
apple juice n cider vinegar 75/25 ratio. After the 6 hrs basted them with BBQ sauce 20 min.
Taste was exceptional. Bark was yum yum.
Not a lot of smoke ring but the smoke taste was there. No water pan for a change where my old WSM
always had the water pan.

 

[Dwayne M]

basically the same, as others mentioned usually take slightly less time but determining if they are done is still the same for either. in general in my experience baby backs/back ribs (its the same thing) have less fat to render and also less meat mass in general, if you try full un trimmed spare ribs vs st louis which are trimmed down spare ribs or back ribs it will likely take longer to fully cook them due to the added meat and fat mass in the "tips" of the spare ribs which are what is removed to create st louis ribs.