Get Your Grill On

Of course you can toss a whole “packer” of spare ribs on the smoker and have plenty of good eats. The St. Louis cut on a spare rib produces a better presentation and cooks more evenly. You can see from the picture of the full packer of ribs that the there are wider and narrower parts of the rack. The wider sections are going to cook slower than the narrow. The St. Louis cut takes care of this issue.

Let’s take this full rack of spare ribs and turn it into a St. Louis cut. The first step is to flip to the back and remove the skirt. We’ll keep this small piece of rib meat for beans later or a snack before the ribs are done. The skirt off of the smoker won’t be as tender as your ribs. The skirt should be done in about 3 hours.

The next step of removing the membrane is optional. To leave the membrane will leave a bit of chew to the backside of the rib. Some that cook over higher heat will leave the membrane to render and crisp up. Since I cook low and slow, I like to remove the membrane. It can be tough, but will a little patience and practice the membrane removal can be accomplished. The best tip I’ve been given for removing the membrane is to use a paper towel to get a good grip. I simply us a paring knife to work up one edge of the membrane, grab with the paper towel, and pull. This process can be referred to as “skinning” the rib.

Let’s start squaring this rib up to look like a traditional St. Louis style rack of ribs. You’ll notice that the rib bones don’t extend all the way across the full rack. The top of the rack is full of cartilage, not bone. To start the St. Louis cut, follow the rib bones across the rack separating the bones from the upper cartilage. This upper cartilage is known as the “rib tips” We can either cook these up now as snacks or save for later. Since I have a small family, one rack of St. Louis ribs will feed us well. My rib tips are saved for beans or a future smoke. They’ll get tossed in the freezer until there are several for a good feed of Rib Tips. Back to the cut, I stop with about 2-3 small ribs to go. Remember, we want a square rack, not pointed. If we left the last few small ribs, they’ be overdone by the time the rest of the rib rack was ready to eat.

A flip back to the front and you can see the transformation that our packer has taken to become the legendary St. Louis Style Spare Ribs. Rubbed with some love, this rack of ribs is ready for smoke.