So I was just at costco and I noticed that they have “Smithfield” ribs. They have baby back and St. Louis style. They are $28 for three racks. That is cheap. But are these good ribs? I do get the prime brisket from there and it’s amazing. But what about the ribs? I usually get ribs from the local meat market for $30 for two racks of baby backs. I want to cook the best quality ribs and I’ll pay a little more. I don’t make them all that often so not worried about the small extra cost. Where do you guys buy your ribs? Maybe getting a relationship with a local farm would be best?
What’s the best quality ribs?
- Thread starter PaulBz
- Start date
If you want better quality you should find someone who sells heirloom breed pork. For most standard, non-enhanced pork sold in the U.S. I don't think it matters all that much. They're all using the same breed of hogs.
I've used Costco ribs many times, though their switch to Smithfield pork is fairly recent and I'm not sure I've used those. The ribs I've cooked in the past have all been fine.
I've used Costco ribs many times, though their switch to Smithfield pork is fairly recent and I'm not sure I've used those. The ribs I've cooked in the past have all been fine.
I never used Smithfield anything. I buy ribs at BJ's, and sometimes from the local supermarket (Publix). I also bought ribs from Omaha Steaks and from Snake River Farms. If I was putting them in order of quality, it would be 1. SRF; 2. Omaha Steaks; 3. BJ's; 4. Publix. I also had ribs from the PX at the air force base here, courtesy of a friend who's ex military -- those, too, would be ahead of Publix.
BFletcher
TVWBB Honor Circle
For this, rather than looking at Costco wouldn't you want to dig into your own roots of culinary school and training, seek out beef and pork growers and harvesters (or suppliers), and make your own decisions about quality?
Bob Correll
R.I.P. 3/31/2022
IMO, making any grade of meat taste great comes from the pitmaster, not the highest quality meat.
Put me, possibly you, and Harry Soo in a contest cooking identical ribs from Costco and guess who wins.
Give Aaron Franklin a Select grade brisket to cook and guess what kind of magic happens.
Put me, possibly you, and Harry Soo in a contest cooking identical ribs from Costco and guess who wins.
Give Aaron Franklin a Select grade brisket to cook and guess what kind of magic happens.
If you read Aaron franklins book you would remember that he talks about using prime brisket. He also recounted a time that he was forced to use choice and it was the only bad review critics gave him. He also mentions that select brisket is not going to be good no matter who cooks it. No good bbq joint is using choice. No matter who cooks it, it won’t be as good as prime. The top bbq joint that does use choice is snows in Texas. They’re doing something right with that choice. Everyone else is using prime. The quality of the meat definitely makes a difference. I make killer ribs. People say they are the best they have had. But I made some ribs from a local chain called Schnucks. I have twice used them because I didn’t want to have one test sample. Their pork is just plain awful. No one is making good food with that pork. And I was wrong costco doesn’t use Smithfield. They use swift. Smithfield is what a couple other local grocery chains use. If I even realize my dream and open a place then I will find a good farm that I trust to get my product from. I really like the ribs from a couple of local butcher shops. Anyway I’ll keep trying. Let’s hope my dream works out.
I was confused when I read your original post about Costco having Smithfield ribs because they've had Swift ribs for many years.
You'll find certain varieties of Smithfield baby back and spareribs at Walmart and Sam's Club, among other places. Smithfield has four categories of baby back/spareribs:
- "Extra Tender" ribs are injected with a solution. I cooked these ribs a couple of weeks ago and they were fine, but I prefer a non-injected rib. These ribs are used with great success by some competition BBQ teams. Available at Walmart.
- "Fresh Pork" is their basic rib product.
- "Prime Fresh Pork" is a premium version. Available at Sam's Club.
- "All-Natural Pork" is a no steroids/hormones version. I'm starting to see this one at Walmart.
Timothy F. Lewis
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Go find a farmer!
K Kruger
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Untrue. Categorically. Numerous "good" bbq joints use Choice, in fact I'd venture that most do. If Franklin got a bad review using Select then he didn't know what he was doing; one cooks Select differently.
For a restaurant, if you're lucky you can find a pork supplier that has a good breed and that can provide consistent quality and quantity though, with pork especially, this can be somewhat difficult on your own. Good meat distributors have info and access and I'd start there.
Don't worry - or even slightly concern yourself - that you didn't go to culinary school. I can count on one hand how many c-school graduates I hired over the years (and all CIA, no less); all pretty worthless. Okay cooks, no real chef skills though.
Dustin Dorsey
TVWBB Hall of Fame
How do you suggest cooking Selects, Kevin? I've heard that hot and fast works best in that case. I know you seem to be a proponent of hot and fast regardless.
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I know where Paul is going with his comment, because I think we discussed something similar in another thread a while back, but it's not quite what Franklin says in his book.
Franklin has very high standards for the brisket he uses, and this has as much to do with the way the animals are raised and slaughtered as it does the marbling of the meat. In his book on pages 103-104, he recounts a story where due to a supplier issue he's forced to "dip down and use an entirely different grade of brisket, the crappy commodity stuff that's widely available everywhere (and that most barbecue joints use)." He continues, "Trying to nurse that meat into something our customers would still rave about was almost impossible. The briskets were so incredibly lean and tough. We resorted to techniques we never do: mopping with oil, butter, onions, and garlic to add moisture, richness, and fat; wrapping them with foil (the dreaded so-called Texas crutch) to try to seal in what little juiciness they had. It felt like we were running a different restaurant for those days." And he says, "The whole time I was feeling pretty crappy about the quality of our product, not to mention the welfare of the animals the meat came from."
One would assume he's talking about Choice or Select brisket, but Franklin does not say which he was cooking during those few days.
On page 108, when discussing grades of brisket for home use, he writes, "All grades of brisket are used in the professional barbecue world, everyone has his or her preferred grade. The most popular around the state of Texas is probably Choice, because it's relatively affordable and in the hands of an able pitmaster can still produce fairly juicy brisket.
Franklin continues, "I use Prime grade, which is by far the most expensive, but its marbling is important to the style of brisket I'm going for, which pushes tenderness and moistness to the extreme. In many grocery stores you'll be fortunate to find Choice or Prime, but it's worth putting in some effort to try to track one of them down. This is especially true if you're just beginning as there's a larger margin for error with fattier grades. Then again, the errors are more painful with more expensive beef."
Franklin doesn't diss Select brisket, he simply quotes the USDA description that "It's fairly tender but, because it has less marbling, it may lack some of the juiciness and flavor of the higher grades."
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I can't agree with the statement that "No good bbq joint is using choice" but it is obvious that many joints are gravitating toward higher grades of brisket. My local South Bay area joint/chain Armadillo Willys used to serve USDA Select 20 years ago and at some point upped it to USDA Choice, and then a few years ago stepped it up to USDA Prime because 1) the owner took a road trip through Texas and found that many of the best joints there were now using Prime, 2) he could lock-in a good contract price on prime brisket with Sysco, and 3) most importantly, prime brisket resulted in a better final product for his guests, a difference that he could taste. And maybe 4) it's good marketing to tell customers you're serving the highest grade of brisket available.
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Not sure how any of this brisket discussion translates into ribs, the original subject of this post.
Timothy F. Lewis
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Good luck PaulBz, do the homework before you go out in the business world. Even guys doing GOOD “hobbyque” don’t always last very long.
Get ten racks and get them all to turn out the same. Then, do that ten times in a row. Then, you might have a chance. Not just good but, consistent, the repeat performance is the key, doing it well once or twice is fine at home but, the big boys are able to turn out the best product time after time after time adjusting the outcome by learning the product idiosyncrasies. That’s what only time and practice, trial and error, success and failure can teach. Asking here is all well and good but, you have to learn through trial by fire, there is no way around that.
Your broad stroke declaration that “no good BBQ joint uses choice” is absurd.
Get ten racks and get them all to turn out the same. Then, do that ten times in a row. Then, you might have a chance. Not just good but, consistent, the repeat performance is the key, doing it well once or twice is fine at home but, the big boys are able to turn out the best product time after time after time adjusting the outcome by learning the product idiosyncrasies. That’s what only time and practice, trial and error, success and failure can teach. Asking here is all well and good but, you have to learn through trial by fire, there is no way around that.
Your broad stroke declaration that “no good BBQ joint uses choice” is absurd.
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BFletcher
TVWBB Honor Circle
I feel grateful that I have ZERO interest in developing the craft to open a BBQ joint; attempting to venture into that world would ruin one of my weekend pleasures... slowing down and doing smokes at my own pace and experimenting in my own way. And enjoying a cold adult beverage. Some of my meals are far less than perfect but are always edible. And let's face it; friends aren't going to tell me when my food sucks, so I would need to learn to be extremely critical of my own creations and I don't have that ability, lol. Possibly the biggest challenge of all? Hiring employees that are suitable; you wouldn't be able to pay premium wages and would have to settle for what you can get rather than selecting the quality help you would want to hire and keep.
Timothy F. Lewis
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
My feelings about cooking for a living exactly! I have sold everything else I enjoy for money. Cooking is the last thing I have for myself!
Even if I wanted to, the market is so cutthroat and margins are so thin, turning a profit is pretty tough. Add into the equation any help, it’s even harder!
Even if I wanted to, the market is so cutthroat and margins are so thin, turning a profit is pretty tough. Add into the equation any help, it’s even harder!
The top bbq joints now a days are using prime. At least most of them. I’m not looking to open a joint making choice briskets like others do. I have never seen a select brisket in any store. I am from St. Louis and I am not really sure where you would find a select brisket. Nor would I ever want to cook one. Maybe fast and hot? Why would you not just cook a prime or choice low and slow though? I apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intent. I made made choice briskets and prime. The difference in the meat is very noticeable. And you can get a prime brisket for $50 at costco or sams. Not much of a price difference from choice. And you realize that Aaron franklin also doesn’t want to offend anyone. So he isn’t going to blast other places or how they do things. He even says there is no wrong way to make bbq. Prime brisket definitely creates a better flavor and taste for customers than choice. I have made countless racks of ribs and I have them down now. But I just want to have the best quality rib. And I am looking to open a sports bar that does bbq maybe once a week. And I intend to have the best quality bbq with the best meat. I feel like I can do that easier because I won’t be an every day bbq joint. I have a lot of food ideas that I will implement into my business outside of the bbq realm. But that is another topic for another forum. But I love bbq and when I do make bbq once a week or so, I want it to the best bbq in the city. So contacting a local farmer for consistent product is the way to go I think. Aaron franklin gets his product from Creekstone Farms in Kansas City mo. So finding a farmer that I trust to handle all of my product would be what I want. You can buy a bad piece of meat which I have done before inadvertently. And it doesn’t matter who cooks it, it won’t be a good piece of meat. For instance do not buy ribs from a certain local chain here which I won’t mention. No one is cooking those ribs to be good eats. I have also gotten dry food and not consistently good bbq from more than one joint in this city. So anyway I’m looking to change the game. And no one is using wsm’s. I feel that’s the best bbq. And I have had a lot of bbq in my life. I try to eat at least one bbq joint in every city I visit.
James N
TVWBB Guru
Paul I hope for the best what ever decide to do...But and there's always that big Butt...Id do as much research as you can then do 20 times more...K Kurger who posted on this post knows what he's talking about....Do some research on him and on other members that are at the top of there game then study other greats who aren't internet folklore....JMO...No harm no foul