Membrane on ribs


 
P

Paul H

TVWBB Gold Member
I tried something a few cooks ago with my spare ribs. I was tired of struggling to pull the membrane off the ribs so I took a sharp knife and scored the ribs(not to deep) from top to bottom. The theory being that the membrane should shrink anyway and and the fat between them will render out. I was pleased with the results. Since one test doesn't really prove much I tried it again this weekend. The results were the same. The ribs passed the pull test for doneness and they were fall of the bone without foiling. I thought they might be a little on the dry side but that was more my fault than any scoring. Oh,by the way, LOVE THIS WSM. She kept temps rock steady for well over 8 hours and still had plenty of steam left
 
Good idea. If you decide you do want to get the membrane off however go down to your local bait and tackle shop and get yourself a pair of catfish skinning pliers (No, I'm not kidding). I've found these to work good when trying to grab that slippery membrane.
 
A simple way to deal with the slippery membrane is to use a butter knife to get a corner started, then grab it with a piece of paper towel, pulling diagonally away from the corner and up at the same time. The possibility also exists that the membrane was removed when they were trimmed for sale. If in doubt that it's already been removed, or you just can't "get a handle on it", scoring in a diamond pattern will assure you don't cut thru the secondary membrane, preventing the possibility your ribs will fall apart during cooking.
 
Kirk, on the back side of the rids there is a very thin secondary membrane underneath the first one that most people remove before cooking. This mebrane acts as a binder and holds the ribs together during the cook. If you somehow remove this membrane, which is pretty hard to do, "falling off the bone" is going to take on a whole new meaning if you cook the slab whole. You will recognize this membrane after cooking as the "skin" that is on the backside of the bones.
 
Interesting... I have always run a knife up each bone to seperate the mebrane, then pulled it off. This does expose the bone on some and leaves just some fat on others, no other membrane remains. This past weekend's smoke was the first time I've had a problem - lots of bones falling out. How can I pull the membrane without pulling the secondary underneath? Should I not be loosening the membrane with the knife prior to pulling?
I don't mean to jump your thread Paul, if this continues, I'll start another...
Kirk.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kirk B.:
Interesting... I have always run a knife up each bone to seperate the mebrane, then pulled it off. This does expose the bone on some and leaves just some fat on others, no other membrane remains. This past weekend's smoke was the first time I've had a problem - lots of bones falling out. How can I pull the membrane without pulling the secondary underneath? Should I not be loosening the membrane with the knife prior to pulling? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Here you go. Scroll down to almost the bottom and on the right hand side is the link for the video.Membrane removal.
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Thanks Byan, I'll have to try that next weekend - practice makes perfect, right? (Just another excuse to fire up the smoker
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