Hey all. I've had my WSM for about 2 years and have done probably 30 or so bbq's on it half of which being ribs. I have done bb's, full spares, and St.Louis. For the game yesterday I decided to do 4 slabs of St.Louis which I bought at a restaurant supply store. I decided for the first time not to skin to see how they would turn out. Well....they were by far the best ones to date and were far better than any I had in Memphis last year. They were so good I wouldn't be embarassed to enter them in a competition. No foiling, no 3-2-1, just rubbed, left on at 250 deg grate, and spritzed with apple juice at the 3 hour mark and a few more times until they were done after 5 1/2 hours. The meat had substance and needed a good tug to pull the ribs apart but ate off the bone cleanly. Should've taken pictures. Needless to say, I want every smoke to go this way! The question is.....did not skinning the ribs allow for the juices to stay intact while sort of steaming the meat? These ribs had plenty of moisture inside and a nice crust on the outside. Or did I just get lucky with purchasing ribs that had plenty of internal fat??
Skinning Ribs?
- Thread starter JMiller
- Start date
LarryR
TVWBB Diamond Member
J, you're talking about pulling the membrane, right?I've had some ribs where I couldn't get the membrane off and threw them on with the rest of the ribs and no one could tell the difference. I know there's an argument for smoke penetration when not removing the membrane.
George Curtis
TVWBB Olympian
some have the membrane already removed. also some have such a thin membrane that its a non issue. wouldn't worry about it.
My take on that is it can act as a one sided "foil" basically helping prevent excessive moisture loss once the meat has finished cooking.
I have pretty much always peeled off the membrane as well. But I noted the same thing as you did, the few times I didn't peel it off. Same temps, same cook essentially.
I think that if you properly control your temps and cook time, it shouldn't matter, as long as you pull your ribs when tender and done, not overcooked. But, for me, I like to foil with a brown sugar and honey butter glaze to finish my ribs, once they hit about 160 or so. No more smoke to take in, and a slow gentle moist heat to finish the ribs. I think allowing the connective tissue to fully render in a moist heat is key to turning out a consistent rib that isn't dry and overcooked, or tough on the inside but moist.
Just my opinion.
I have pretty much always peeled off the membrane as well. But I noted the same thing as you did, the few times I didn't peel it off. Same temps, same cook essentially.
I think that if you properly control your temps and cook time, it shouldn't matter, as long as you pull your ribs when tender and done, not overcooked. But, for me, I like to foil with a brown sugar and honey butter glaze to finish my ribs, once they hit about 160 or so. No more smoke to take in, and a slow gentle moist heat to finish the ribs. I think allowing the connective tissue to fully render in a moist heat is key to turning out a consistent rib that isn't dry and overcooked, or tough on the inside but moist.
Just my opinion.
i tried that once and it was such a fight and so much effort to do it i gave up trying to de-membrane them. properly cooked on a coal/wood fired smoker the membrane cooks away. unless your doing them in an oven or a crockpot or boiling them in a restraunt turning good meat to rubber the membrane should not give you any issues.
OK, I've done both. My sister tells me to leave the membrane on. Only because she likes the "crunch". AFA I'm concerned it has nothing to do with the final product, only mouth feel. The "doneness" or quality of the cook IMHO has nothing to do with whether the membrane is left on or removed. Frankly I think you had a great cook and/or great product. Do what you did exactly on your next cook do a 50/50 membrane on/off to prove the issue!
St. Louis spares rule....
St. Louis spares rule....
Shawn W
TVWBB Emerald Member
I only started removing membrane after I got my WSM in 2004. Before that I ate many parboiled grilled ribs with the skin on and said 'yum'.
I do like to remove them now and I scrape excess fat off. The resulting product seems less fatty.
If its strictly the removal responsible or if leaving it on also impedes the flow of rended fat off the ribs I couldn't tell ya.
They don't all seem the same either. Sometimes really thick and tough, sometimes thinner and tear easily. ?
I do like to remove them now and I scrape excess fat off. The resulting product seems less fatty.
If its strictly the removal responsible or if leaving it on also impedes the flow of rended fat off the ribs I couldn't tell ya.
They don't all seem the same either. Sometimes really thick and tough, sometimes thinner and tear easily. ?
Thanks for the responses all. I think rbenash is right that I was fortunate to have a great cook. It's possible the product had more internal fat than usual but I don't think leaving on the skin held the fat in as they weren't greasy at all. Since I did 4 slabs all on the top rack, they were all standing so the fat could render out. I do think it had a small steaming effect though. I used a remote thermometer mounted just underneath the bottom rack which read 135-140 throughout and a fry thermometer mounted through the lid holes which held at a 160 constant. I did need to adjust the vents a number of times to maintain the temps because the remote thermometer illustrated some temp spikes (probably due to wind) where the lid therm did not seem to move much. So maybe this was a difference compared to previous cooks where I just used a lid thermometer and assumed temps on the grate were slightly lower and constant. Who knows. What I do know is I'll be doing ribs again soon and will do half with skin and half without. I'll post results.
Michael Freeman
TVWBB Fan
I definitely remove the membrane. I like being able to eat my ribs without having to eat around some "shoe leather." A while back I got some ribs from a local bbq joint and I noticed they didn't remove the membranes. It was a pain trying to eat them. So, for me, it's worth the extra effort to get rid of the membranes.