Rib help

[Wayne Thompson]

I am hoping some of my fellow VWBB friends can help me with a problem. I have had a heck of a time finding some good ribs to smoke. I had good success going to Costco up until last spring. The last several packs of ribs I have gotten there have not been good. I have been searching my area for a new place to get ribs at a decent price with no luck. Anything I find is very expensive. If any of you have any ideas, I would sure appreciate it. I live in the Detroit Metro area.

Wayne

 

[Michael Constable]

What was wrong with the last Costco batches?

 

[ChuckO]

The thing about ribs is if you can cook them right, any quality of ribs will be good. I know this, cuz I buy the cheapest ribs I can find, and they're good.

The most important thing about ribs is how you cook them, and there's plenty good methods how, all found here

 

[Bob H.]

Have you spoken with your Costco store manager about the ribs? They seem to really go out of their way to make things right with the customer and to provide quality meats?
Tell us about how you are making your ribs. I have always thought that unless you overcook and dry them out, or over smoke or season that its pretty hard to make bad ribs.
If you tell us more maybe we can help you.......

 

[Rich Dahl]

Sorry to here that your Costco ribs are not up to their usual standards. As suggested I would talk to the meat department manager or store manager. Could be a supplier problem that their not aware of.

 

[Mike Taylor]

My only problem with Costco ribs is that you can't tell what they look like in the three pack except for the one on top. I have purchased them for competition and have had packages with three different size racks. Hard to put a good looking box together. On the other hand when doing ribs for company they have always been great.

 

[ScottyB]

Where I live Costco has been selling Smithfield pork ribs in cryovac and they have been excellent. Years ago they had Swift which was hit and miss. What are they selling where you are?

 

[Wayne Thompson]

Thanks for the replies all. Some of you were wondering what the issue was with the ribs we picked up at Costco. The main issue was the cut. I picked up what I thought was St. Louis cut ribs only to find out that they were cut wrong. Instead of being cut at the "knuckle" that separates the St.Louis cut from the rib tip was in the middle of the "rib". So, instead of a St. Louis cut we had a rib that was one half St. Louis cut and half rib tips which were awful. After that, I decided to stick with baby backs. Well, the baby backs we got were not so hot either.

The Costco near me has always carried Swift which up until now had been great.

I plan on visiting with someone the next time I am there regarding the decrease in the quality of the ribs they are selling.

 

[Mark P]

hey wayne check out market place meats on cooley lake rd, they will help ya out ,

 

[Brian B.]

Wayne,

I have some friends in Detroit, so will ask around. I was having the same issue here in Indy, even with the higher end grocery stores like Fresh Market. They were leaving too much extra loin meat on the top and it was messing with the cook and texture. I ended up finding a local "high end" butcher that had some beautiful ribs that cooked and tasted excellent. They also ended up matching the price of my local store, so I think that I paid $4/lb for them.

Here are the Fresh Market ribs. The one on the left is untrimmed, middle is trimmed like crazy and right is marginally trimmed. I was not happy with these at at.

My local place has these t-shirts, so you know they are good:

And then these beautiful ribs.

Try to see if there are any local farms that you can order retail cuts directly from. We have a couple around here that I have started using and they do a good job. The big chain stores have had declining quality for a while unfortunately and it isn't worth going through everything to be disappointed.

Just my $.02

 

[Wayne Thompson]

Thanks Mark. I will give Market Place Meats a try.

 

[Wayne Thompson]

Just to update things I made the trip to Costco earlier in the week to check out the ribs again. I was looking for St. Louis cut ribs but all the packages were baby backs. However, they looked fairly good. I found a package that I could tell that the three slabs in the pack were of fairly equal size and brought them home. We cooked them up on Christmas Eve and they were very good. When I took them out of the package my first thought was that they were in fact St. Louis cut. I even picked the package out of the trash to double check. I treated them more like a St. Louis cut and they turned out great. At this point I would say that I have not given up on Costco after this experience. I did not talk to anyone while I was there because the place was so crowded but I intend to talk to someone regarding their ribs the next time I am there. Hope you all had a great holiday!