to trim or not to trim pork spare ribs

Unknown

is it necessary to trim pork spare ribs prior to cooking them? in other words, i notice that spare ribs are most frequently trimmed "st. louis" style and then cooked on the egg. what happens if you cook them on the egg without doing the "st. louis" style trim?

Fidel

Nothing happens except they take longer to get done.

At a bare minimum remove any of the sternum bone that is still attached, the membrane on the ribs, and the skirt. There is a lot of cartilage where there are no rib bones. As long as you don't mind eating around that then you'll have no issues.

Rascal

Probably nothing. Trimming just gives a rack better visual appeal and makes for easier seperation of the ribs after the cook.

Jeffersonian

If I'm not going to make an accompanying dish like baked beans, where i can use the trimmed parts somehow, I generally don't trim my spares. I do pull off the membrane, cut off loose meat and excess fat, however.

Buster Dog BBQ

If you do trim them you can use the cut portion as a snack after about 3 hours.