My first disappointment


 
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ERIK MITCHELL

TVWBB Member
I really wanted to do spare ribs this past weekend, I had done baby back ribs and thought they were excellent, but hadn't tried spares yet, so I wanted to try them on Sunday. I headed out to Costco to pick some up on Saturday, and they were out of them, so I figured I'd just stop by my favorite local butcher shop and get them there. I pulled up to the butcher shop and all the lights were out. I was there a few weeks ago and everything looked fine to me, now it looks like they're closed for good. To me this is the biggest disappointment of the whole weekend because this was a great place with butchers who really knew their stuff. So I headed over to another butcher shop in the area, that I hadn't heard that good of things about, and with good reason. The guy behind the counter wasn't friendly at all, not a good sign. Anyway I ask for a couple of slabs of spares, and he tells me they never carry them, but he's got some babybacks. So I give in and take the last two he has. When I went to rub them I got a good look at these ribs, and was once again disappointed, but thought this is what I've got.
So on Sunday I tossed the two slabs on the smoker along with my first fatty. The fatty was the only thing that wasn't a disappointment. After three hours I took off the fatty and thought I'd check the ribs. There was so little meat on them that they were done alittle more than 3 hours. I'm not sure if I over cooked them or not, but I don't thinks so, when I took them off they were perfect by the pull test and had pulled back on the bone, but they were not nearly as good as the ones I had done a few weekes ago. Maybe I should have held out for the spares.
 
I'm glad that you enjoyed the fatty.

The computer folks have a saying - GIGO meaning "Garbage in, Garbage out" You just showed how it applies to barbecue
 
These Costco's in the burbs can be bad for spares. The one in Bloomingale never has them yet the one in the city that my team mate goes to says they have them all the time. The Sams by me never has them either unless its a summer holiday like the 4th or Memorial day then they have a whole meat cooler full of them. I much prefer spares over bb's but its a headache to find them lately.
 
I never have trouble with the Sams near me now, but just over a year ago they were very spotty, some weeks loads other weeks none. I had a few words with the manager, about the fact I wanted to have spares available every week, not just the one in two or three that had been happening, and they pulled their socks up and there has only been one weekend they let me down since then, (mostly my fault for waiting till Friday to want to buy some to cook on Saturday, even then they phoned the other Sams in the area and found me some, the extra millage was on me for that one, IMO).

Speak to them about it, what they don't know can hurt them, (or at least hurt their business).
 
On a positive note the WSM held temp perfectly, and I could have done two cooks with how long it held after the food was done.
I'm most disappointed about the butcher shop closing, it was a great place that had never let me down, I called their phone this morning and it was disconnected so I guess it's gone for good. It's surprising, they always seemed busy.
The second butcher shop smelled like a mixture of bleach and lemon when I walked in, kind of made me nervous.
 
Erik
Cooking spares and baby back's are totally different as you just found out. Spare's are much bigger and need to be cooked for around 5-6 hours on the average. Try this next time for your baby backs. With your temp around 225-250, cook em around for a total of 3 hours. 1.5 hours uncovered but spray with apple juice every 45 minutes. Next hour, cover the ribs lightly with foil still spraying apple juice. Last half hour, baste with your sauce uncovered.

This is what I learned and seem's to be doing pretty good.
 
Ariel, it was me with the rib problem, not rich...but,

The last time I did baby backs I tried to experiment with the foil method, I did three total slabs all a different way. One with no sauce and no foil, one with no foil but with sauce, and the last in the method you're describing. I thought they were all good, but I thought the foil method was too mushy for my taste, I like a bit more texture than the what the foil method produced. I thought the ribs without sauce and without the foil were by far the best. Plus there was alot more meat on the ribs I did before than the ones I made yesterday.
 
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