Wife came home from shopping today with a rack of St Louis Style Short Ribs from the Manager's Special bin. Full rack of cooked and ready to warm and serve for $6.72. We're gonna halve it for tonight's meal, along with baked beans and slaw.

St Louis cut meatier and thicker than baby backs, and done in St Louis style means it is cooked in and slathered with thick sweet red sauce. Those who like baby backs or dry rub need not apply.

That's a deal.

Sounds Great.

I got some on tha smoker now

We tried them last summer and did not like them, the sauce in particular.

Sounds good,
Slaw and beans even better

I found a recipe a few years back for spare ribs that we really liked.

Tuscan rustica or some such. Basically a dry rub with Mediterranean style herbs to include a fair bit of fennel. Done in the oven.

They were killer.

Well here I am with dry rubbed baby backs on the smoker today. The local sale is $1.98/# this week. So far I’ve picked up 8 racks and need to make room in the freezer for more.

"St. Louis Style" refers to the trim of a rack of ribs.

Ya take the traditional cut sold in the store, and remove the end towards the spine, leaving just the one piece rib bones.

https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-trim-pork-spare-ribs-st-louis-style

I just pulled a Boston Butt off the smoker.

Yeah! BB's for $1.98. I'd have a cart full as well. Enjoy! It may be blasphemy to some, but I'm not crazy about some smoke flavors& feel I can do a cook that suits me in the oven. Tater salad & cold beer are my preferred sides.

On my way Rocky……

I'm in. If you had let me know sooner, I'd have made the beans and slaw.

And then they sell the ‘tips’ like it’s something of a bonus meat or something, ya, tips of bone or cartilage…………
Bogus.

3-2-1 method 😃

I know it doesn't appeal to some, but I grew up a stone's throw from St Louis, and my Dad worked in the Swift & Co. stockyards. I ate more than my share of sticky-sweet smoked meats that was - as far as I knew - the ONLY kind of BBQ there was. The sauce used is enough to keep you licking your fingers for three days afterwards.

My next life stop was Texas, and damn if there wasn't a whole new kind of "Q" made here. And then there was the Carolinas and whole hog. Dayumm. Then Memphis style. Dayumm again.

My blood stream is still about half St Louis sauce, but there are no kinds of Q that I do not love.

Did some baby backs last summer when the watermelons were prime. Used watermelon juice to baste them, lightly mixed with bbq sauce, like 80:20 watermelon:bbq. Was awesome.

Yep.

Prefer baby backs in 4lb range. But ill take St Louis also. St Louis is little fattier imo. Really doesnt matter, ill buy baby back, St Louis or spare ribs. I just do em in the oven. Little olive oil, salt and pepper....sometimes a wee bit smoke paprika. Hour and half to 2 hours @350, pull em out and slather whatever sauce I have on hand. Back in for 15 to 20 minutes on broil(450) to caramelize the sauce. Doin a rack tomorrow after work. Slaw in the fridge. Beans soaking in brown sugar and maple syrup as we speak.

Smoke and dry rub. I dint like the sticky sweet sauces.

Depending on the rub and how much sauce you use, you can offset the sweet to your liking. Increase the pepper and smoked paprika in the rub, add some heat with franks hot sauce to something simple like sweet baby rays or similar and it can be really good!

Bastid!

My dad was born in 1929 in St Clair Mo and grew up next to Route 66. In his day there were tents set up next the the road that sold various specialty foods to travelers. He was particularly enamored with a rib stand called "Diver Jones Ribs". As a kid he hung around there until Diver Jones (WW1 diver) showed him how to make his famous ribs. They have been a family favorite since.

The recipe called for a commercial sauce and Maull's was his favorite. The sauce was augmented with copious brown sugar, garlic salt and thinned with beer. The ribs were done over a fairly hot bed of real charcoal and flipped often. The sauce was painted on them every time they were turned. Cut to single ribs and serve. I am pretty sure the ribs are just a vehicle for the sauce. Enjoy.

Ribs in the crockpot with some sauce is hard to beat. Can chew on the bones and suck out the marrow. Dip a piece of bread to soak up the fat that liquified.

If you don’t chew the bones no need to apply.

Yep, no thanks.

Pig feet in tha crock pot is the shnizzle mmmm

In the 50s, Swift & Co gave away the "trim" cuts to any and all. Trim included ribs, cheeks, tongue, and pig snoots. About every half mile on every road, there was a cinderblock and screen BBQ pit run by gray-haired Black men. The signs all said Ribs and Snoots. Hickory wood, low and slow. Basted continuously with that thick, sweet sauce until the sauce permeated the meat all the way to the bone.

Brother, you could eat until you bust for next to nothing.

yep +1... lotta' Rib ignorance on this thread... 4 lb baby backs?, what the F" did that hog weigh, 800 lbs? lol... try 1&1/2 lb and down for a true "Baby Back" rib... I prefer "back" ribs at 1&3/4 lb, more meat & more flavor... prefer St. Louis cut spares at 2&1/2 and down, skin on, skirt off... gotta' watch it...some'a them crooked meat cutters will cut old sow ribs down to make weight (look for Big bones)...

Report: Dey was dewishus.

I'll bet they were.

Only thing I grill anymore is ribs. Worth the time and trouble they are.

Time and trouble are why I don't grill ribs. I leave them to the pros.

I don’t grill ribs because I’m lazy and happy making them in the oven. Yellow mustard for a binder and Cabelas pork rub. Sealed tightly with a little water in the pan at 250 degrees for 4 hours. Then drain and coat them with baby ray’s honey BBQ sauce at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Usually have trouble flipping them over to add the sauce because they’re falling apart. Baked beans, potato salad and slaw to go with them makes a great meal. I’ve only found slaw made the way my mom made it to be worth eating. Apple cider vinegar, a little sugar and mayonnaise with a little celery seed mixed in.

What do you mean by "sealed tightly"? A lid? Foil?

There are great cooked on the pit with mesquite wood

If you smoke them with apple wood it's a very mild smoke flavor.

Mesquite?


No way Josè!

Rosticciana??

That's because you ain't got the ghey.

Rocky, that sounds like enough for a meal. Why are you going to halve it?

I guessed it was a grammatical error. If so, it is the first I have seen you make.

That is my favorite wood for pork chops and pork ribs.



Hell yesterday I used combo of apple wood and pecan on a couple of tri-tips and they turned out phenomenal!


I've made a couple orders from these guys. Apple wood, alder, pecan and hickory, might do some mesquite next order.

https://fruitawoodchunks.com/shop/ols/products

Rez bougie!


I like hickory anymore.

Sealed with foil, I feel the steam helps cook them

I’m having ribs tonight, but I need not apply for reasons mentioned above.

Hardware store here in town quit selling the actual wood chunks, so I decided to order some. A little google-foo led me to the outfit in Colorado. I only use a chunk or two when cooking so it doesn't really amount to much. Sometimes I even split a chunk in half. Not sure if the wood is any better than the ol' Western brand but it sure doesn't suck!

Looks pretty reasonable actually Sam.

Seems like sometimes I like sitting next to my pit smelling the smoke wood more than I like tasting it.

I think I use the same company for fruit woods.

Except for pecan, I've got a lifetime supply of it and use it a lot.

Me and Sam got an endless supply of cottonwood.

Pecan is one of my favorites.


Only variety I didn't like so far was post oak(whatever the hell that is).

Everyone raves about oak so either I didn't use the wood correctly or I got a funky batch(Western).

Yum yum!


There is an endless supply laying on the fence right now!

And we have box elder, ash, elm, Russian olive, choke cherry, all kinds of fancy trees.....lol

I’m tempted to make my own schit big ass hickory blew down up the hill last yr

Don't try Russian olive.

Smells like piss when it burns!


Wonder if you can smoke with willow? Would have been about all my great grandparents would have had.

ROSEMARY AND FENNEL PORK RIBS (ROSTICCIANA)

We still have some diamond willow fence posts hanging in between steel. Only thing I'd smoke with that is maybe a mud duck.

🤤🤤🤤

Coastal Oak, Quercus agrifolia, which people call Red Oak is what all the hoity toity wine and cheese crowd uses for "Santa Maria" tritip, looking at you 805.

Got a buncha old vine Zinfandel wood drying out behind garage for smoking.

I'm with Sam like the apple wood for most smoking.

Never liked mesquite, it makes the sausage taste peculiar.

That's what she said....

I wonder what they used then?

Could you order wood from Sears back then?

Apple is my favorite to infuse flavor. Sometimes a little hickory for a smoky bite.

Not after it's dark out.

if you can find any citrus wood, it makes a light sweet smoke . it is lighter than pecan . with any smoking wood make sure it is completely dry

slick bark Ozark Mountain Hickory... fresh cut, Dead Green... if you know, you know!... if not, you got somethin' to learn... can't find that?, fresh cut Apple works pretty damn good in a pinch... dry wood?... why bother, just use charcoal lol...

Chokecherry would probably be alright.

I did a search for rosticciana. Lots of different variations on the seasoning but the one thing all recipes had in common was cooking the ribs hot and fast on the grill. Like 15 minutes fast, interesting.

That’s it. Recipe I used was out of a Cooks Illustrated I believe.

Done in an oven on a wire rack over a bit of water. They have come out great every time. Have used both spare ribs and loin ribs.

ETA- It was milkstreet, not cooks illustrated.

I obviously understated the wood issue. (Overlap from the steak knife thread.)

Tag

I cut down a Hawthorne a while back. Have used a bit for smoking some pork and some ribs. Worked just fine. Pretty mild.

Freaking thorns on those things are not mild. Hateful sob’s.

Have you ever chewed on green willow bark? It is nasty.

Have you ever tasted beaver meat? It tastes just like willow bark.

I would be very hesitant to use any form of willow to flavor meat.

After sawing and burning cottonwood in our wood stove, and burning the slash in the pasture. Yes, the stuff which covers the pasture with cotton. It is pretty damned stinky as well.

Ribs❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️


Oven, grill, smoker(electric or offset) slow cooker, Insta-pot…can cook good ribs.

Kinda like sex, some is ok, some is “Oh my God”,
any is always a good thing.




We prefer spare ribs. I cut them into St Louis and boneless, which the wife prefers.

I cook ribs twice a year. Once for the Boy Scout troop and once for myself and friends. 2 years ago we cooked 360 racks in a day. Then cooled, vacuum sealed, and froze them for delivery. That was a LOOONG day.

Memphis sucks for pretty much everything, but we do have the best dry rub ribs

Seriously.

Who hasn’t?




P

How's that recipe with human ribs ? Might be the only fresh meat some will see for a while.

Post oak. Texas, brisket. I've used on other slow cooks. Really like it.

WTF??

Rendezvous dry rub, and 3.5 hours at 225 F in the Cookshack smoker. Simple and hard to beat.

Thought provoking!


Hahaha! Whatta douche.

I have got a bunch that I am cutting down this spring for the burn pile...thorns are right...bob

Lamb ribs, are our favourite !!

Unbelievable flavour.

We throw lamb chops on the grill while we are smoking whatever. They take 1.5 minute a side and never make it to a plate.

How do you season them Paul?

I have a bunch of ribs.

I like ribs on the grill but I prefer to parbroil them first to tenderize them a bit before putting them on the grill and giving them a good sear. However, when I don't feel like making a day of it I put them in the Insta pot and they come out great every time. Not quite the sear I get on the grill, but browned a bit and tender as they can be. I make up some rub from recipes I found online and rub them down and let them set for a few hours before cooking. Kansas city rub it my favorite so far, but I've had several rubs that were great- and they are cheap to make compared to store bought. I usually make up enough to last for most of grilling season at one shot.

Can't remember, exactly Jim.

Cooking for me is an instinct thing, with what is on hand.

Seem to remember those being dot indian themed (garam marsala, cummin, curry powder kinda thing).

Betting the above mentioned Mediterranean / Moroccan seasionings would be an excellent play, as well as anything Greek.

Those guys know lamb, too !

No kidding.

I go to the internet for inspiration on cooking lamb and it's all the same.



Have to start looking for Mediterranean, middle east and Asian.

Lately, I seem to keep it simple and only use salt before cooking. Maybe a ittle more salt and some pepper after it comes off while resting.

Been using sauces more and more though. Chimichurri, tzatziki, roasted red pepper creama…..

It’s all good.

Haha, what would be wrong with salt & pepper, maybe some lemon zest, so you can taste the lamb ?

Touch of honey, if you want sticky !

Because Americans don't like the taste of meat?

Here is the rub recipe for the rosticciana ribs. May be good on lamb? Can’t suck.

KOSHER SALT AND GROUND BLACK PEPPER

2 TABLESPOONS PACKED LIGHT BROWN SUGAR

1 TABLESPOON FENNEL SEEDS, GROUND

1 TEASPOON RED PEPPER FLAKES

1TEASPOON GRANULATED GARLIC

4TEASPOONS MINCED FRESH ROSEMARY

2 2½- TO 3-POUND RACKS ST. LOUIS–STYLE PORK SPARERIBS



Heat the oven to 325°F with a rack in the middle position. Set a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons salt, 1 tablespoon black pepper, the sugar, ground fennel, pepper flakes, granulated garlic and 4 teaspoons of rosemary. Rub the mixture between your fingertips until well combined and the rosemary is fragrant. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over both sides of the racks of ribs, then rub it in.
Place the ribs meaty side up on the prepared baking sheet. Transfer to the oven, then pour 3 cups water into the baking sheet. Bake until a skewer inserted into the meat between the bones meets no resistance, 2½ to 3 hours. Transfer the rib racks to a cutting board and let rest for 20 minutes. Cut the ribs between the bones and transfer to a platter.

Yes !!

Dumb fuggers !

That sounds good, 'Mooner !

Me too, first had em in KC. They are almost impossible to find around here.

I came across a recipe that really works well with lamb chops, I bet it would be killer on ribs too.

You salt the chops or ribs first, let the salt marinate for an hour or two, and then slather them with a paste made from fresh rosemary and garlic, ground bay leaves, black pepper, and mustard seeds (whole, not ground).


Sounds strange but it's awesome.