Baby Backs or Spares?

[BBQ PD]

I like the taste of the spares over the BB's. To me, a BB is nothing more than a pork chop with the loin removed, and I'm not a fan of pork chops. I trim the spares down to St. Louis style, and don't forget the trimmings; smoke the trimmings alongside the ribs, but cook them about one hour longer, slice them; bingo, rib tips.

 

[Btheezy]

http://www.bbq-book.com/news2006/html/october_2006.html

Is that a good idea for trimming them?

 

[Grillman]

Both are good.....but Spares are my favorite, and I Never trim them to St. Louis style.
I'm greedy...I like all the meat on the ribs. That's the way I remember first eating them.:-D

Back in the mid-70's there was a small BBQ joint here in town that served them that
way. Whenever I see St. Louis spares I feel cheated that I didn't get that wonderful
boneless meat at the top of the rib.:shocked:

But; it's just personal preference...cook em & eat em; the way you like best.:thumb:

 

[Braddog]

I was the same way for quite a while, because my spares always came out greasy. No more.
Trim spares St. Louis style and cook 'em properly and they're every bit as good as BB's - and a LOT cheaper.

+1

Once I started trimming my spares, I haven't gone back to BB's.

Cheers,
Braddog

 

[Zak]

I prefer Baby backs over spares because the only ones i could normally find around me were injected and way to fatty. Even trimmed up the spares were just too loaded with fat. I keep an eye out at the local grocery store for BB on sale which they are right now at $2 per lb. Which reminds me i gotta stop on the way home to grab a few racks for the freezer.

The same store also has good deals on a lot of other cuts and right now they have whole loins on sale which are untrimmed. So i get one of those and cut it up so i end up with some BB's, 4 or so pork roasts, and some trimmings for sausage. The only thing i could do without is the 10-15 minute conversation i get into everytime i talk to the butchers. Real nice people but sometimes i just want to get in and get out.

 

[Btheezy]

Now to the next question:

Use a rib rack or directly on the grate?

 

[Big George's BBQ]

I do direct on grate
I like both but usually get BB as that is what my family prefers

 

[BBQ Grail]

I was the same way for quite a while, because my spares always came out greasy. No more.
Trim spares St. Louis style and cook 'em properly and they're every bit as good as BB's - and a LOT cheaper.

Pork today is so much leaner than it used to be. I've got to agree with Arlin on this one. Spares trimmed to St. Louis style gets rid of most of the fat.

Also, careful selection of your ribs can make a huge difference to. I like to try and find the smallest spare racks that I can. It just seems to me that they are leaner that way.

Flavor wise my wife prefers baby backs. I always told her that she couldn't tell the difference between the two after they had been trimmed and smoked. But after giving her 8 bones (four of each) and having her pick the baby backs each and everytime I no longer questioned her.

So if it's just me and guys we have spares. If my actually requests ribs we buy baby backs...

 

[Cook]

I'm not sure how trimming to St. Louis gets rid of fat? Trimming the fat itself can be done w/o cutting away meat (which is what a SL cut does). Am I missing something? I'm not in any way saying don't go SL cut...just wondering how that reduces fat? LOL

Hogs are leaner than they used to be...that's the problem if you ask me.

 

[JD McGee]

bb`s...

 

[big brother smoke]

Sometimes I want BBs and sometimes I want spares. It's all about what I am craving; the tastes are just different.

 

[OL' Timer]

I tried switching my customers to SLS's and I had a lot of complaints. So I just go with the full and most say they like the extra meat. I use the trimmings from the flap for beans.

 

[dataz722]

I have tried making spares many times myself and also eaten spares from other bbq places and I just don't like them nearly as much as bb's. They are tougher it seems unless you overcook the crap out of them, I hate dealing with all the cartilage and I just like the flavor of the bb's better.

Now to the next question:

Use a rib rack or directly on the grate?

Never tried a rack but I just bought 5 of them for $2 each from lowes the other day to try out.

 

[prudog]

I was trying to find nutritional data to support that I believe spares definitely have more fat than BB's. Having eaten so many, I am sure of it myself. I prefer spares, but I also like ribeye more than strip steak, both probably because of fat content and flavor.

I ran across a cool website that cleared some things up for me:

http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/rib_cuts.html

As for the fat debate, they say that "As you move further from the spine, the bones get larger, flatter, straighter, and wider apart with more meat between them. There is more fat marbling in the meat as you go further from the spine and closer to the belly.

 

[Big Jim BBQ]

It's all good. I do whatever strikes my fancy at the time. Nice to have a change from time to time.

 

[jestridge]

I like spares!!!!

 

[gtsum]

for years I only did BB's, but about 2 years ago I started doing more spares...now I do spares 99% of the time. More fat = more taste imo!

 

[Arlin_MacRae]

Now to the next question:

Use a rib rack or directly on the grate?

For me, that only depends on how much room I need on the grates. If I'm doing a lot of ribs then stacking them vertically allows you to cook more per grate. Sometimes I roll and skewer them too.

 

[parrdist]

I started trimming spare ribs St Louis style and haven't done BB unless I find a hell of a sale. As far as wood I started using cherry and wife say's she likes it better than apple.
If the wife is happy I'm happy.

 

[Btheezy]

For me, that only depends on how much room I need on the grates. If I'm doing a lot of ribs then stacking them vertically allows you to cook more per grate. Sometimes I roll and skewer them too.

Never heard of rolling and skewering them before