Goin down the rib rabbit hole

[bowhnter]

‘Woods post the other day on his new smogriller about grilled ribs took me back about 35-40 years ago.
When I was workin at GTE installing switches in Chicago suburbs there was a rib joint that I would run across 6 lanes of traffic and back for those ribs.
I think it may have been Rolling Meadows, but my memory is short these days.

Anyway, BBs we’re my favorite many years ago, but a year or so ago I switched to STL cut. The BBs I can get now have way too much loin meat for my liking.

I would rather eat a half rack or more and not have leftovers than pork chop on a stick.
Not to mention that ‘grilled’ flavor over smoked that I used to love.

All that to ask this…where can one get thinner BBs without all the loin meat?
Sam’s 3 packs are all 3lb plus average and I think I need to be around 2lb or a tad over.
Krogers, winco, brookshires, etc, still too big.

I’m on a quest to recreate.

Suggestions?

 

[sudsandswine]

I too do not like all the loin meat on my babybacks, I trim it off and add it to the grinder pile.

 

[bowhnter]

I thought about the trimmin and I have a grinder. I just don’t use it much at all (years ago) so I was seeing a waste in my situation.

 

[Fooball]

My GF likes the loin meat (she says BBs are "meatier" than SL cut) so I eat the skinny end of the BB and she likes the thick "meatier" end. Works for us.

I find when you have the big BB sales around the holidays for grilling (4th, Memorial, Labor) that the stores really stock up and have a bunch in the bin to choose from.

You can go through them then and pick out the skinnier ones for your freezer.

My stores usually have Smithfield or Hormel for the big sales.

 

[ronbrad62]

One option is to look for Danish back ribs. They tend to be smaller baby backs and will probably be as trim as you are looking for.

 

[bowhnter]

Ron, Slovacheks in West, TX say they sell them. That’s a jaunt though.
I need to go check out the smaller stores rather than the normal chains.

 

[16Adams]

I've been buying as near to under 2.5# baby back as I can. That eliminated the 3Pack Sam's years ago. Not always possible but I'll always look for smallest in the bin. Duroc is another avenue for small back ribs but Duroc is a tad pricier. No evidence but heard a rumour one time that the true small 2# back ribs are sold to restaurant chains. That way they can advertise a rack of ribs, and afford to cook and serve them. Rumors, who knows?

 

[oldgfbbq]

Mrs G-man said the same thing two days ago about a rack of BBs. Had not purchased them in a while, but the price was right.


If I buy them again, they will be trimmed quite a bit.

 

[bowhnter]

Sounds like trimmin it is.
Sako might have mentioned Trader Joe’s in the past. I will have to check.

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

True baby ribs are are almost as hard to locate in stores as 3-1/2 and down sized spare ribs. Both of these cuts are harvested from hogs that weigh less than 225 pounds, live weight. Twenty years ago, true baby backs weighed no more than 1.75 lbs. Any thing heavier was considered a back rib, not a baby back.



Two hundred twenty-five pounds used to be the average weight of a butcher hog. The meatpacking industry realized that it takes the same amount of time to butcher a 275 lb hog as it does a 225 lb hog. Bigger hogs mean more product weight for the same amount of time used for processing smaller hogs. According to the USDA, the average weight of butcher hogs in 2021 was 284 lbs. Bigger pigs mean bigger piggy parts and the majority of our retail meats are produced by five different companies that are all butchering larger hogs.

 

[CivilTrojan]

The last time I went into a Trader Joe’s they had what looked like true baby back ribs, however they twice the $/pound as the back ribs at Sam’s. I guess you have to decide if the $ is worth the hassle of trimming. I personally am going to start trying the St. Louis cut the next time I smoke ribs, if I don’t like those I may try Trader Joe’s.

 

[ncmoose]

I read this as "rabbit ribs" and thought "man, these guys will smoke anything!"

 

[bowhnter]

Those are a bit too thin :grin: