Properly trimming St. Louis Spares?

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rdstoll

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Hi - I've been having trouble figuring out exactly how I'm supposed to trim spares for a competition. I've read a number of threads and have watch videos but I'm still confused.

Below you can see a picture of a rack that I trimmed so that the width of the entire rack was the width of the widest bone (all the way to the right).

However, you can see on the bottom part of the rack that there is still cartilage showing as you move to the left. In the second picture I lay my knife down where I'd have to cut to get all the cartilage off. Doing so would leave a "tapered" rack of Spares.

Can someone give me a quick explanation of how this is supposed to work? I see all these guys on TV with beautiful racks of ribs so I don't know if I'm just buying crappy racks of ribs or just doing this whole thing wrong.
 

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Those look fine to me. I find the longest bone and cut parallel to the other side of the rack even with the longest bone.
 
But when you turn in a rib you're not turning in cartilage, are you? The reason I ask is I always have trouble cutting these things when they're done because the rib and the cartilage aren't always lined up.
 
I guess I see why guys cook several racks just to get 6-8 good bones to put in the box!

Thanks for the responses. I was finally able to nail a rib cook down without overcooking them so at least some progress being made!

A fellow Brethren is helping me with chicken which seems to vex me the most.
 
When I cook ribs, I am cooking 6 racks, which perhaps more than some people do. When you are picking out the ribs, you want to try and get the racks roughly the same width. When you trim them, you want to try as best you can to get all the racks the same width, that way you can use bones from other racks if you need to replace one in the rack that you want to use. Rarely do I do this, but if you are turning in say a 4x4 or a 5x5 stack, you still want the width to be relatively the same.
 
Agree, multiple slabs allows you to cherry pick these few for a full box.
 
I trim off any of the cartilage that turns. It looks like you have a piece of that about the middle of the rack. If you take just another 1/4-3/8" off, you will get rid of it. The rack won't be perfect, but you don't want cartilage coming out the side of your rib.
 
For a comp, I usually cook 6 racks of St. Louis Cut to get the 8 ribs (hopefully 4 and 4) ribs to go in the box, for a uniform presentation. One rack may look the best, but I missed the tenderness timing. Others may taste great but not look good. Gotta have backups, plus they make great snacks for later.
 
We found going greater than 4 is a distraction for the half hour box build. We normally end up with one rack that is the best. I just make sure I trim the ribs straight and get the appearance right but if the 4th bone is money so are 2-9 lol. I would love a judge to comment on getting a short bone and some cartilage on a wonderfully flavorful and tender piece. Would you hurt the entry for where the rib came from? I personally haven't seen it hurt.

If you take the third bone (tallest bone) and create a 90 degree angle on that bone to the short side of the rack your long side trim will be cleaner as well.
 
So sounds like some of you turn in a "bone" that has cartilage? Is it hard to get a clean cut if the bone and cartilage aren't totally lined up? That's another problem I've had.
 
That rack looks a little different than an average rack I get. And by that I mean the bones on the left side really look short and don't extend all the way (or most of the way) to the end before the cartilage starts.
 
rdstoll said:
So sounds like some of you turn in a "bone" that has cartilage? Is it hard to get a clean cut if the bone and cartilage aren't totally lined up? That's another problem I've had.
Click to expand...


There is a left and right side to a rack so to speak. Figuring bone 3 is the tallest count 3 bones to the longer portion of the rack. The bones from 7 out will definitely have cartilage and portions of the flap but can still be sliced properly to turn in the same as a full bone. Sometimes these pieces are nicer and meatier. When you slice find the straightest bone and make your slice. Then follow the same line paying little attention to the way the bone goes as you move away. Always try to slice parallel don't worry if your bone is a backslash.
 
I would love a judge to comment on getting a short bone and some cartilage on a wonderfully flavorful and tender piece. Would you hurt the entry for where the rib came from? I personally haven't seen it hurt.



Response

As a judge, if the bone has enough meat on it to have a good bite for judging, then that is all that matters.

As a cook, if I have the shorter bones that have the cartilage, I usually put them in the back row so it doesn't show for appearence score.
 
fnbish said:
That rack looks a little different than an average rack I get. And by that I mean the bones on the left side really look short and don't extend all the way (or most of the way) to the end before the cartilage starts.
Click to expand...

That is a short rack, so it looks a little different. Should have 2-3 more bones to the right. The end bone is not the longest.
 
Were there other bones to the right (in your pictures) of the longest bone?
 
That is an odd looking rib. I usually start my cut at the end of the longest bone, and run my knife parallel to the other side of the ribs
 
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