How do you all serve your spares?


 
A

Anton

TVWBB Fan
I've been back and forth between spares vs baby backs as my preferred pork rib. To me the spares end up a way better eating meat, but I never really know how to serve the wierd smaller slab with all the tendons in it. I usually have a crowd that aren't meat eaters and am always scared they will get this wierd piece of rib with a bunch of white tendon running through it. So I'm just wondering how others serve it?

Anton
 
do you trim your spares st louis or KC style? Do you remove the membrane from off the back of the ribs? I've never had any weird tendons on my ribs. If you don't trim the tips off, you get some chunks of cartilege...

anyhow, when I serve spares, I usually cut them two to a piece and serve them that way, rather than in a half rack. Gives people more flexibility to eat how much they want (and doesn't waste any for people who don't want to eat so much). I haven't found it to be any different than serving baby backs...
 
I trim my Spares, so I haven't ran across that issue with the tendon. To answer your serving question, I cut them up between each rib and let them pick what they want. Some I cook them for want the smaller side of the rack, some like the larger side or the rack.
If I was cooking for a larger crowd, I would do what Adam said, 2 bone sections.
 
If I am making them for myself and my family, I usually don't trim them at all. If I am making them for others, I usually trim them KC style and save the tips and skirt for myself.
 
The only difference between trimming kc vs st louis is cutting off the flap of meat on the outside right?

That wouldn't effect what I'm talking about, I guess I'll have to take some pictures of it, then you'all can see what I'm talking about. There are these cords of something that runalong the rack (perpendicular to the rib bones) I think they are towards the sternum. They are probably about a cm thick and very white in color.

In looking at Figure 3 on this page I guess it is the Costal(Rib) Cartilage I'm talking about. No one else runs into this stuff on their spares? Thats odd.
 
to trim to st louis, you trim off all that stuff at top of the rack - it runs the whole length almost - which includes a bunch of cartilege and stuff. For KC style, you take the flap off. But for either style, you'd be trimming off that strip of cartilege, which leaves you with a pretty clean set of ribs. Like others have said, you can do it before or after. I'm trending, lately, toward doing it after so I can munch on them and the wider ones sit better in my rib rack anyhow.
 
Anton,

That cartilage is removed when trimming to St Louis or Kansas City style.

I have a modified WSM that I use for cooking ribs. It has 4 cooking shelves instead of the normal 2 so I can cook them flat instead of using rib racks. The top shelf is about 4"-5" into the dome. It is on this shelf that I'll cook all of the tips. It keeps the trimmed spares on the shelf below well basted.

Anyway, I cut them into pieces prior to cooking so, when my spares go into foil, the tips will get to kick it in a bbq sauce hot tub. It is my version of rib tip 'burnt ends'.
 
That was my only source for information for trimming spares. The top two 'slabs' in this photo are full with cartilage. So do people not cook these? (seems like an aweful big waste as there is a bunch of meat on them)

There is no mention of trimming out the cartilage on Chris's spare rib page.

Anton
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Anton:
That was my only source for information for trimming spares. The top two 'slabs' in this photo are full with cartilage. So do people not cook these? (seems like an aweful big waste as there is a bunch of meat on them)

It would not let me view your pics for some reason, but..I trim the cartlidge and the skirt/flap. I use them for a "treat" for the cook after they have been on 2-3 hours. Sometimes, I foodsavor them and freeze them. After I get a big batch worth, I'll break them out to do and test new rubs, or just to have a "scrap" cook.
icon_biggrin.gif

There is no mention of trimming out the cartilage on Chris's spare rib page.

Anton </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
 
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