Went for the bone-in at Sam's Club. However, when I looked at the selection, they were all sliced into 1/2" thick cuts, cut pretty much like you would see pork chops. WTF? I look at the package and it says, "Beef short ribs, $6.98/lbs, TRAYED". The butcher comes out and I ask if he has any back there that aren't already cut into slices and trayed. He tells me that when they get a shipment of short ribs in, they usually come in packs of 2. However, this last shipment came in packs of 4. He brings them out and they are MASSIVE! Cryovac'd 4 packs that feel HEAVY. I ask how much it would be for the 4 pack...he goes in back, weighs them, and comes back with the sticker. He says to me, "Are you sitting down??" and he's laughing. It came to just over $162. I asked if he would be able to give me two and just cut the other two into trays like they have on the racks. He thinks about it and says, "Sure, why not." He asks if I wanted them trimmed up, and I felt guilty since he was helping me out by breaking up the 4 pack. I tell him no thanks and I'll do it at home, plus take the membrane. But now that I think about it, I probably could have saved some $$ since it's likely he would have weighed if after trimming. Oh well. The good part is that instead of the $6.98/lbs for the trayed ribs, he gave them to me whole at $5.98/lbs. Not anything to brag about when compared to sale prices but it was nice of him to do that.
I trimmed up both, took the membrane off both, rewrapped one and put it in the freezer. The other is in the fridge waiting for some dusting, some blue hickory smoke, some heat and hopefully some oohs and ahs from the family!
