Maybe this has been discussed but I couldn’t find it. Where I live I can’t find baby back ribs. Everyone just carries pork back ribs. I’ve made these several times and they have a thick lean piece of meat on them that is dry and necessitates a longer cook due to the thickness. Is there a way to trim this off without hacking up my ribs? Or am I just imagining this? Thanks for your help.
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Good to see you posting! No, you are not imagining things. Baby backs and pork back ribs are essentially the same thing. That lean stuff is loin meat, which is adjacent on the pig to where those ribs live. Sadly, many butchers will cut them so there's a bunch of loin meat that they then get to sell for back rib prices.
You can trim it off with impunity. Also, I've learned here on the Pit that a good rule of thumb for pork back ribs is get racks that weigh no more than about 2.5 lbs/1.1kg. If they weigh more than that, they will very likely have significant loin meat on the rack.
I believe that the loin meat is better cooked for less time than the ribs, rather than more. So if you cook the rack til the ribs are properly done, that loin is dry, dry, dry. Cook it till the loin bit is right (145F/63C), and the ribs won't be close to done. So you definitely want as little loin on there as you can.
Good luck! -
What DaveD said.
Meathead on different cuts of pork
From the link above,
“Boneless Baby Back Ribs. Baby back ribs are attached to the loin muscle. In the old days loin meat sold for more than ribs, but the demand for baby backs has changed this. So lately butchers have been leaving more loin meat on the ribs. Now they have taken it ever further by labeling loin meat as “boneless baby back ribs”.”
It sounds to me, from your description, that your suppliers are calling baby back ribs “pork back ribs”. Your profile picture shows full spares with brisket attached, so you know what full spares are! When I see baby backs in markets today, they are really thick with extra loin meat on top, because markets here get $4.99/lb for baby backs and $2.19/lb for that loin meat.
Nothing wrong with trimming that extra meat. Use it in beans, soups, etc, anywhere it makes a difference!Last edited by Mosca; March 9, 2023, 08:50 PM.Comment
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It's the same piece of the hog. When the "extra meaty" baby backs are all I can find, I just trim that lean loin meat off before cooking.Comment
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That loin meat makes for an excellent breakfast cook up with snags/bacon/eggs/beans etc, whatever tickles your morning taste budsComment
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We have a local butcher here that sells “custom cut baby back ribs “ They cut them with a huge amount of loin meat left on and sell them for $8.99/pound! And the uninformed buy them like crazy I guess because he’s been doing this for years. They’re just terrible.Comment
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Thanks for your responses. Very informative. So I will buy these ribs, trying to stay 2.5# or less and trim this loin meat off. I will smoke that separately. Then I hope to get back to the quality of my previous baby backs. As Dave D said, I couldn’t get both parts done properly. I would get the rib area done and then the loin area was really dry. Thanks again.Comment
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