Rib question

Yes on the membrane. Choice is yours on the St. Louis cut. My experience is that you pay someone else to convert your spares into St. Louis, so if cost is an issue, you will make more on the spares. IOW: What is more important? Money or time?

If I remember correctly, this past March at a local KCBS contest, brethren JasonTQ did some vending to raise money for the charity benefitting from the comp, and when asked, he said that he did not pull the membranes on the many slabs that he did. Maybe he could explain his method.

Pulling the membrane is as important on 30nslabs as it is on 1 slab. Do it! As for the rib tips from full spares, I always made twice the profit on the tips as In did on the slabs. Well worth the time for me.

Yes with pulling the membrane. I just think you should take the time to do it right and pulling the membrane really does make a difference.
With 30 you'll have a routine down and get through it in no time.

If you decide to skip pulling the membrane, I would at least score (slice through it every inch or two) the membrane so it wont be as tough.

Any one have a method for pulling membranes better than what I've been doing? I start at the corner of the first bone with a butter knife. Once I get enough to grab on to, I use a paper towel for grip and pull back. I try to do it in one sheet but it never works out that way. Also, since we're in the area, what do you guys do with the flap meat?

poorolddan said:

Pulling the membrane is as important on 30nslabs as it is on 1 slab. Do it! As for the rib tips from full spares, I always made twice the profit on the tips as In did on the slabs. Well worth the time for me.

Click to expand...

Yes....I agree 100%

i buy them already skinned its worth it

Should I Pull the membrane when you have a lot of ribs to do?

ALWAYS! If it's good for one, then do for all.

Here's a video from nearly 2 years ago with my membrane pull technique: [ame]https://youtu.be/sHjCD4QiNqc[/ame] The membrane pull is about 40 seconds in.
Here is a video where I go into the membrane pull a little more detail, on Loin Back ribs, [ame]https://youtu.be/CWYZ9cnDY2E[/ame]

Today, we are buying the Smithfield Prime Reserve full spares, and are making St Louis cut out of them. I love the thicker St. Louis cut's from Hormel or Swift - they are great! But they are hard to buy in cases less than $3 a pound. You can get the Smithfield from Sams, or from Sysco, etc., and they are $1.60 or so a pound. Cut the tips off and if you throw them away, you still have quality St. Louis cut ribs for $2.25 ish, and if you cook and use the tips, all the better.

I've heard that you can get commodity St. Louis cut from Seaboard in a thick version, but have not sourced them to try yet. The regular commodity St. Louis cut from Seaboard are good, but they are often pretty thin. They are cheap enough, low to mid $2, and they are super easy to prep. I've heard from BBQ restaurant friends that you can source ribs with the membrane pulled, and i'm planning on doing more work to get those sources and test. I've trained my high-school apprentice to prep ribs, and I'm monitoring his speed, which is still not that awesome. But hey, didn't we all get faster after doing a few hundred racks of ribs?

EricD said:

Any one have a method for pulling membranes better than what I've been doing? I start at the corner of the first bone with a butter knife. Once I get enough to grab on to, I use a paper towel for grip and pull back. I try to do it in one sheet but it never works out that way. Also, since we're in the area, what do you guys do with the flap meat?

Click to expand...

Same method I use. You'll never get them to come off in complete sheets. Some are friendlier then others.

Paring knife 45 degrees across the bones every inch or so in both directions. You end up with an X pattern across the bones. A rack done in 10 seconds or less.

Season as usual & cook.

I personally remove the membrane.

However, I have a very close friend who is a national competitor and he does not remove the membranes. He cooks low and slow and then in the last stage of the cook he hits the membrane with high heat and he claims they just completely dissolve. I have eaten his ribs many times and there is no trace of the membrane.

The team has been doing this since day one. Can't be all bad because they have won over 600 national awards Including; Grand Champion win for the State of New Jersey, Best of the West Nugget Ribs Cook-off, The Jack Daniels Invitational BBQ, and The Best In The West Cook-Off (the super bowl of barbecue competition) just to name a few.

But we are all set/fixed in our own ways, even though they have had great success leaving the membrane on, I still have never tried to cook ribs with the membrane.

In the end we all do what works best for us...

I never pull the membrane. When cooked properly, it all but dissolves. It also makes for a juicier rib. Ain't nobody got time to skin 50 racks everyday.