What weight spare rib most common?

gdenby · April 2007

Hi, all,[p]I happened to find Paul Kirk's "Championship Barbeque" at the library. As I was reading through the section on ribs, he mentions that the best weight for a slab of spares is under 3.8 lbs. (if I'm recalling correctly.) He goes on that heavier weights may take forever to become tender. So, looking at the ones I was about to do, and seeing that they were about 6 lbs, I figured that maybe this was why my ribs weren't coming out quite as tender as I'd hoped.[p]I looked around at a few markets in the area. Of the ribs that were cryovaced, most were 5 lbs and up. Is this common? Are the smaller slabs like prime beef? That is, you need to talk to a butcher to get them?[p]BTW, the results from the six pounders were pretty good. I did them 4-1-.5. Very nearly finger pullable[p]gdenby

AZRP · April 2007

gdenby,
Was that 3.8 lbs for a whole slab or one trimmed to St. Louis style? -RP

gdenby · April 2007

AZRP,[p]It seemed to me that he was talking about whole, not trimmed. If trimmed, then I'd guess most of the spares I see are closer to 3.8 pounds. His top recommendation was for ones under 3 pounds, but he said they were really hard to find outside major production centers like K.C.[p]gdenby

stike · April 2007

gdenby,
that's crazy...
you sure it wasn't babybacks?

gdenby · April 2007

stike,[p]I'm going to go back to the book and read carefully. I've been googling around, and haven't found anything that clears matters up. I've found 3 references to the average size of spare ribs, at least 11 bones, untrimmed being about 3.5 lbs. The references seem to not be refering to St. Louis trimmed. [p]All of the whole slab spares at the market closest to me were in excess of 4.5. The ones I had were just under 6 lbs, and, if I counted right by feeling through the meat, had 13 bones. There wasn't a huge amount of fat. [p]gdenby

stike · April 2007

gdenby,
you'd have to trim spares an awful lot to get under two pounds for a whole slab.[p]it had to be a reference to baby back slabs, or racks of trimmed spares. cutting into racks doesn't speed cook time though, so it still only seems to make sense as a reference to baby back slabs.

thirdeye · April 2007

gdenby,[p]He is right. The smaller weight ribs are preferred. However, a lot of folks will argue about the amount of acceptable trimming that is performed prior to putting ribs into a category. [p]Butchers could refer to BB's as 1-1/2 and down, meaning they are 1-1/2 pounds or less. For spares 3-1/2 and down or 3 to 5 are common sorting ranges. You won't find these terms at the grocery store and sometimes they will only come into play when you order a case of ribs.[p]Sometimes I see slabs from Excel that are 3-1/2, hardly ever do I see lighter ones. But I snap them up when I do!! On the other side of the coin, 5 and 6 pound slabs are everywhere out west. It takes some experience and patience to cook the big slabs but I kind of like doing it. These spares could be called 6 and up. LOL BTW, that is a 24" grate they are on.[p][p]~thirdeye~

Unknown · April 2007

gdenby,
I would MUCH rather spend a little extra time cooking and have a yummy meaty rib as a reward rather than cut it short for a few toothpicks

gdenby · April 2007

stike,[p]One last bit. I came across a spreadsheet originating from the University of Kentucky. It records that a 182 lb carcass will have 8.6 lbs of spare ribs, on average. I also came across a reference that said the average carcass weight for barrows and gilts (just adult pigs) was around 150. So if Kirk was saying that 3.8 lbs was as heavy as one would want, but that 2.8 was great if one could find them, that seems to me to indicate the spares would be coming from younger hogs rather than older. So that would suggest a more tender meat to begin with.[p]gdenby

What weight spare rib most common?

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