First Cook - my St. Louis trim spares

[ljh34465]

Cooked up a rack of the ribs I did my first St. Louis trim on. Cut the rack in half for refrigerator storage and for a taste off. The ones on the left had Al Roker's rub which continues to be one of my wife's faves. (will post the recipe if anyone wants it) On the right is a mix of 75% Yardbird and 25% Dizzy Pig Swamp Venom.



I was going to do them low and slow, no foil, no sauce, no peeking. 250 for 5 hours. (Following Militant Squatter's recommendation - Thanks)

Well, I peeked at 3 hours because I wanted to get a photo part way through. Much to my surprise, they sure looked done. Check the temp with the Thermopen and yup, those babies were a little more than done.
I think two things happened - I did not do something Rick told me to do and that was calibrate my thermometer. And then my temperature was related to Tommy Smothers, the Yo-Yo man. I kept overcompensating and it went to 200 and then to 300 - thought I averaged 250 but the ribs said "uh, uh".



Pulled them and wrapped in foil and held in the oven at very low temp -170 until ready for dinner.





We both liked these better than baby backs even though I screwed up. Think it was well worth the work of trimming the spares.

The mix of Yardbird and Swamp Venom was way too salty for my taste but maybe I was too generous with the rub. Something else I have to learn along with getting a stabilized temp on the egg.

And I thought I did it right - got it up to about 350 and choked it down to 250 - ceramic should have been up to temp after an hour as well. But I kept chasing it and overcompensating - need more practice.

Long story a little shorter:

[landarc]

Well, it looks like it went down easy, nice job.

[BBQ Grail]

Looks good.

I trim mine down past that last knuckle. I like the results better and have more meat to cook and snack on while cooking everyone else's ribs.

[Bushwacker]

Now those Ribs look purrrfect!!!, That last plate of bones,, I still se a lot of Gnawing meat on them,, send them over here for a lite snack,, lol Great Job

[Mark Stanton]

They look real good to me

[nolaman]

Mmmmmmmmmmm Beautiful! I'd eat em! Please do post Roker's Rub....
Thanks,
_______________
coon@$$

[cdollar]

Originally Posted by nolaman

Mmmmmmmmmmm Beautiful! I'd eat em! Please do post Roker's Rub....
Thanks,
_______________
coon@$$

+1



Chuck

[ljh34465]

done

[a55bag]

can some one explain the advantage of trimming it down a spare rib to st louis? and which one is better baby back or st louis?

[ljh34465]

A55,

There is a wealth of information on those questions - do a search at the bottom of any thread - try spare ribs, baby backs, etc. and there must be a bizillion threads. Short version, IMO, majority like the flavor of spares better (there was a recent poll on this) they are much cheaper, the trimmings make good snacks, etc., etc. but this was my first attempt at spares. One of the reasons for trimming is that the skirt and the brisket end seems to cook much faster so you got two things being done at different times.

Come, you experienced Brethern, help me out here

they will be done quicker when smoking direct instead of indirect with a plate setter or some other barrier between the meat and the charcoal.

looks good!

p.s. calibrate the dome thermometer.

[ljh34465]

Thanks, Rick - dome thermometer is now calibrated - just totally forgot your earlier recommendation. And yeah, it was reading low so my temps were higher than I thought - you picked up on this with the pizza
So, do you recommend direct or indirect??
Thanks,

i always do ribs indirect. some people do them direct. try it both ways and find what you like the best.

[ljh34465]

next time indirect - will advise

[cowgirl]

Wow!!! Love the looks of your ribs! Nice job!!