Spare rib bones....or lack there of.


 
Jason Smart

Jason Smart

TVWBB Member
Is it just me or are spare ribs lacking more bones all the way through these days?

I just don't remember spares having 1.5" to 2" bones over the last half of the rack down to nothing. Even if I trimmed them St.Louis style they would be half racks with a lot of throw away...
 
I know what you're saying. Either they're slaughtering younger hogs or there's a been a nice cut of St Louis trimmed ribs taken between the back ribs and and spares they're selling retail.
 
Originally posted by Steve Cole:
I know what you're saying. Either they're slaughtering younger hogs or there's a been a nice cut of St Louis trimmed ribs taken between the back ribs and and spares they're selling retail.
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That's a perfect description..
 
They could also be cutting longer pork chops, leaving less spare ribs. I have a local butcher that does this since they don't really sell many spare ribs.
 
I noticed the same thing this weekend. I went to do a St louis trim and had maybe 2" of rib bone and the other half scrap. I thought it was just the one I picked out.
 
Originally posted by Ben M (KC):
I noticed the same thing this weekend. I went to do a St louis trim and had maybe 2" of rib bone and the other half scrap. I thought it was just the one I picked out.
Click to expand...

Glad to see I am not alone. I have been to no less than 5 different grocery stores each week over the past month and most have had 10-15 racks of spares....all like I describe above. I had to go through them all to get something decent....and those weren't very good. I have been just grabbing the best of the worst
 
And this is what drove me to doing backs almost exclusively now. Short diagonal bones and the tops are all crud, chine-bone and whatnot, making the ribs very unpleasant to eat with too much waste.

I'm finding Costco loin backs are the best value in terms of low wastage and plenty of meat. I don't know what the local comp teams do for spares, though...nothing in my part of the world has been good in that department for at least a year, and BJs has gone to enhanced (backs and spares both), making it even tougher.
 
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