Large rib cook - remove membrane?


 
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Barry McCorkle

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Large rib cook - remove membrane? Pics added

I have a very large rib cook to do, probably 70+ ribs. Typically, I remove the membrane on ribs I do for the family, however, I am not looking forward to pulling the membrane off of 70 or so baby backs for a cook today at work.

How do some of you handle this for large cooks, do you leave the membrane on or remove it on all?
 
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So you want everyone at work to eat something you'd prefer not to eat? Big tasks like this always seem bigger than they really are. Start pulling and you'll be done in no time.
 
Jerry N. said:
So you want everyone at work to eat something you'd prefer not to eat? Big tasks like this always seem bigger than they really are. Start pulling and you'll be done in no time.
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Not quite. Maybe a little more info would be helpful. I am the assistant cook for this endeavor. The other guy cooking never pulls membrane on cooks that he has done before. We are doing two batches of 36 ribs. We pulled the membrane off the first 36 and it took nearly an hour. So as you suggested, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. However, while going through the effort, I wondered if restaurants or caterers pull membrane off their ribs. I have a hard time imagining that they do. It's a frustrating, messy job. Thought I would throw the question out here to see what others do.
 
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Barry this week I did Pork Back Ribs, for the life of me there was not membrane you could pull on them, don't know why. I took a sharp knife and slit a cross hatch pattern on them and they were excellent.
I've done the same on beef and pork ribs and there was no difference in the meal. That said when I am just doing a few racks I take the time and pull all membrane but my experience is if you do a nice cross hatch it works very well. That is what we did for a group cook in camp when the kitchen was a 2x10 laid across two logs.
I know from conversations with guys who work in Barbecue places they never pull them.
 
Barry McCorkle said:
Not quite. Maybe a little more info would be helpful. I am the assistant cook for this endeavor. The other guy cooking never pulls membrane on cooks that he has done before. We are doing two batches of 36 ribs. We pulled the membrane off the first 36 and it took nearly an hour. So as you suggested, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. However, while going through the effort, I wondered if restaurants or caterers pull membrane off their ribs. I have a hard time imagining that they do. It's a frustrating, messy job. Thought I would throw the question out here to see what others do.
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I know what I'd do. If I was "the assistant cook", I'd let "the other guy cooking" get the credit or the blame. Lots of folks say that scoring is a fine way to go. Let us know how it goes.
 
Barry,

I would bite the bullet and remove the membranes. I think it yields a better end result. For me cooking is about the process and the process is focused on maximizing the quality of the product at the end. My reward is the satisfaction of seeing people enjoy my food. Now having said all that I am usually cooking only four or five slabs so I'm not sure how I would react to a marathon session of this painful chore...

Regards,

John
 
One rack or 70: they gotta come off.

If you find one that does not have the membrane, it definitely was taken off at the processing plant.
 
We cooked 74 racks of baby backs for my next door neighbors daughters graduation party and we removed the membrane on all of them. It was a job prepping all of those ribs, I think five of us worked on them, he all so cooked a whole hog plus they got 500 hot wings!
 
If you do some searches on line, you'll see that a lot of folks say that scoring is the way to go, including Adam Perry Lang, who wrote in his book that he feels it helps the ribs stay together better when tender (paraphrasing from what I recall). Then some say it doesn't make much difference. Then a LOT of folks say that it's absolutely necessary to remove the membrane, including most of the folks here and competition cooks. I suspect that for higher temp cooking it might cook or crisp up, but honestly haven't ever tried leaving it on and smoking lownslow like I cook 'em.
 
Before I found this site, I always left them on. My daughter hated that aspect of them. I think that's what turned her into a vegetarian :rolleyes:
 
Thanks to all for the advice. We ended up removing the membrane on the ribs and they have turned out well.

To the person that did a 74 rack of ribs cook, my hat is off to you.
 
Barry;
I belong to the "remove" school of thought. I just flat like the ribs better when the membrane is removed.

This large rib cook kind of reminds me when a good friend and I used to grill 100 - 10 ounce prime filet mignons at one time at our Association Outing. We used flip baskets that held several steaks at once and worked on a REALLY big brick grill. It took BAGS of charcoal to get it going. I was really the "sou chef" to my friend. He was a rather large ex-football player and he was SERIOUS about his grilling. It was normally done at the local country club and if anyone tried to bother us while we were working they got sent on down the pike, NOW!:D

He is gone now but NOT forgotten. A good man, a good cook, and lots of appreciative people on hand.

I hope things work out as well for you and your buddy.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Here are a few pics of the cook. Sorry no plated or finished shots.

Ribcook3.jpg


Ribcook1.jpg
 
Barry,

You've had lots of great advice above, from guys way more experienced than me, but here's what I would do. Buy Swift brand ribs at Costco. They have the membranes already removed. They are vac. sealed, three racks to a pack.
 
Hmmm...I'm a new Costco member and bought a package of their ribs (three to a pack) about two weeks ago. All three still had the membrane.
 
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