Thank all of you! I believe after listening to the reasoning here I’ll go ahead and trim to a nice St Louis cut. The tips won’t go to waste either they’ll go in some beans or I’ll smoke then wrap them until I can easily remove the cartilage and make faux McRib sandwiches with them.
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if you trim them you can then offer a choice of - ribs? or just the tip?
(i'll show myself out)Comment
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When serving others I always use St Louis Cut......for me I prefer the whole slabComment
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Save the tips. Season and smoke but without sauce. Save them for cooking beans or greens.Comment
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Famous Daves Restaurant has RIbs Tips on the menu. They're meaty and good and sold separately.
So that is proof that rib tips should be trimmed from a rack of spare ribs.
If you have any questions about this see Menu | Famous Dave's BBQ Restaurant (famousdaves.com)Comment
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TrimComment
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Circumcise 'em. Off with the tip. I prefer meaty baby backs but usually buy spare ribs just to get that flap of meat. Afro-American barbeque restaurants in Chicago have perfected the preparation of tips. Every restaurant has their own touch, it seems. The tips, as they are known when cut into McNugget size pieces with a cleaver, provide an opportunity to experiment after you are done preparing the ribs. Wrap the tips in foil so that they get mushy, grill another 15 minutes. then unwrap them, sauce them, and burn 'em to get a crust. Or, just keep grilling them until they turn into jerky. All good! Cut with a cleaver. The smack and flying meat are part of the fun. Lots of sauce on them before you serve them. It's suppose to be messy finger food.Comment
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I'm camp St Louis trim for guests, but don't much care for myself.Comment
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I love to trim mine. Then I take the trimmings and then drop them in the deep fryer and toss in some sauce. Killer app!Comment
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Oh absolutely. I deep fry them at 325-350 and then toss them in a peanut sauce or an asian chili sauce. The only take about 6-8 mins at 325-350. Fry them up to 140 F internal and let them rest for a few mins in the sauce. They are so dang good. Crispy on the outside and nice and tender on the inside. Oak Smoke
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For people like us, who know what that cartilage is, why it's there, and that it's worth the impression of chewing on someone's ear to get at some morsels of good meat, I'd say leave it on.
For anyone else, trim it quicker than anyone could say "Yuck, what's this???" Ask me how I know.
K.Comment
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As I recall. Scientist were wondering why scurvy wasn't prevalent in Asia yet whole groups of people had no access to fruit. Turns out that cartilage , which is consumed by Asians where meat was expensive and not wasted, is a source of vitamin C. Someone with more knowledge may correct me on this (like Meathead's wife).
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I love St. Louis style ribs but to save $$ I usually buy whole spares and trim off the chine bone and skirt - nothing else; kinda like the ones at the CenTex BBQ places. Chine bone goes into stock, skirt goes into sausage.Comment
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I prefer St Louis ribs and if I buy full spares on a good deal I usually trim and eat the tips separately. Good eatin’ either wayComment
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Baby backs are the only ribs I cook or eat anymore. The cartilage in spares is the number one reason I never do them. Even when trimmed to St Louis I find that baby backs are way more tender and flavorful.Comment
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Personally - if your target is a group of women you don’t know, I would be conservative and trim the spares down to St. Louis style, and cook the rip tips separately. It’s just easy to eat that way for most folks, and they don’t need to pick around all the little bits of cartilage and such unless they WANT rib tips.
That said, your wife is the one you should be asking this question. They are her friends after all. You are just the help in this particular situation…. Cook it how she wants it done.
I hope you don’t get some ladies there like my sister in law or the two 30-40 year old daughters she raised, none of which will touch any meat on the bone.
Edit: rereading some comments above…. So many people in this country expect baby backs when you tell them you are serving ribs, that some may even find the size of the SLS spares or the higher fat content off putting. Just saying…Comment
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I’ve excepted the fact that there are some risk in cooking for strangers. Yes I hope they aren’t too vegan. If things go too far down hill there are several restaurants in the area that would cover almost any base. I learned years ago that things go best for me if I make a well thought out plan and then let it go. I plan on bringing up my menus early on in their visit so I can make any needed changes. If all else fails we have a Sonic and Dairy Queen.
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