Spare Ribs and Curved Bones

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RX2006JE

Knows what a fatty is.
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I wanted to as and see how some of you handle your spares (cut down to St. Louis cut) when the bones start curving making a "Hollywood" cut almost impossible. And makes for a difficult presentation. I know and have heard of some cutting through the bones to make straight cuts. If that is how you do it what type of knife would you suggest. I have a cleaver that I thought that I could use, and was thinking that would be the best. Don't have a butcher around here so getting ribs that are straight to begin with is not possible. And picking them out in the packages is just a crap shoot. Any suggestions would be appreciated
 
If you are talking about comp ribs, I wouldn't go hacking through the bones. If you can, buy ribs that you can see the bone "layout". If you can't, then buy multiple racks and select the ones with straight bones for comps. Leave the other ribs for eaters at home. I suppose that's one of the hidden costs of competition cooking. You may have to skip over several racks - but you can always use them for practice! :)
 
Don't cut through the bone!

Perform your "Hollywood Cut" as you would normally, essentially one rib's worth of meat on either side of the bone. However, as you are cutting that rib, use the next bone over as the guide for your knife.

As the bones curve you will notice that at some point you will be left somewhere in the middle of the rack with a partial rib. Trim off the partial to create a new straight edge and continue the Hollywood cut as before. Do not plan on getting your 6-8 turn in ribs from one or even two racks.
 
dont cut the bone it will look terrible and you dont want any bone slivers going to a tasting judge he'll round file you ASAP
 
J-bones are hateful. The best thing to do is buy your ribs where you can sort through the racks and select only those with the straightest bones possible. There simply isn't any easy way to make fishook ribs look good in a turn-in box.
 
I agree...sort through them all if you possibly can. Sometimes you just cant see enough to make a good judgement call.

I just trimmed up 4 racks of spares that came 2 to a pack. I picked through them the best that I could at the market and still came out with only 2 good competition racks....one from each package.

The good racks got trimmed and set aside for competition and the others will be used for practice.
 
Kevin_Texas said:
What is a "HOLLYWOOD CUT"
Click to expand...

Cutting the meat next to the bone on each side of a single rib so you end up with twice as much meat on each side of the bone. For a rack that has seven bones, you'd only be able to turn in three.
 
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