Fatty Spares, Time to switch to BB Backs?


 
J

Joe P

TVWBB Member
Hi, I cooked some spare ribs this weekend. I was a bit dissappointed that they were a bit too fatty for my liking. They we're cooked enough (falling off the bone) but still had a bit too much gooey fat under some of the meat. I've had good results in the past with spares. Do you think it was the 1)ribs (a bit too fatty) 2)not dooed enough-- cook them more, say 7-8 hours, or 3)I need to cook them more outside the foil for the fat to render out?

I cooked them about 6 hours using the 3-2-1 method modified to the 3-2.5-1 method. I inadvertantly left them foiled for 2 1/2 hours as I was riding my bike and lost track of time.

I had them from a cyrovac pack I cut up a month ago into St. Louis style. I trimmed off all the visible fat when I cut them up but there still seemed to be a lot of fat under some of the meat.
 
Try moving the bulk of the unfoiled cooktime upfront, i.e., cook 4.5-4.75 hours unfoiled then foil and cook till just tender. Remove the foil, glaze if desired, and return to the cooker for a few minutes to firm up.
 
i've done spares a couple times and have always been disappointed. I only do BB now. I wish I liked them more, they are cheaper.
 
I recommend you give Kevin's suggestion a try. I did not care for spares until I learned adjust my cooking for them. Now that is all I cook for ribs. I also only go about 1.5 hrs foiled. Regards
 
Ive only done spare ribs once but the ribs after everything was cut off Slab/skirt or what ever its called so its just regular ribs they came out fine but the slab/skirt/ribtips (which ever its called) were really greasy. How long do those usually take to cook. I cooked them for 2 hours because thats what I remember readying somewhere else. Any recommendations?
 
Spares tend to have more fat than BB's. It's luck of the draw as to how much fat they contain. Selection is also difficult because most of us by spares in cryo and you cant see what the bottom rack looks like.

When prepping/trimming the ribs you'll need to spend more time scraping away the excess fat. It takes some extra time but the end result is a much cleaner rib. I usually take a small pearing knife and scrape at the excess fat until I am satisfied. Not difficult, just time consuming.
 
I find spares to need closer to 7 hours of total cooking time rather than 6. While I do foil, I only do it sparingly - how long depends on what the ribs look like after I trim them.

I also agree with Kevin (big shocker) that the foiling should happen later in the cook than earlier.
 
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