St Louis cut ribs question

[Finster]

Food Lion has SLC ribs on sale this week. I'm more familiar with baby backs, but thought I might pick up a rack or two to cook this weekend.

Is there an optimal weight for SLC cut ribs (or even full spares) the way there is for baby backs (2.5 lbs generally is the sweet spot for BBs)?
Or does it not really matter as they are different cut from a different place on the hog?

[realdocBBQ]

Correct, the point of the lower weight for babybacks is to minimize the loin meat that can and does dry out and have a different texture. My wife prefers BB anyways, though.

For STLs, I don't think that matters - so I go for the largest racks, as long as they don't have huge amounts of flappy thin meat on the ends or something that is going to get trimmed off and fed to the dog or something anyways. The bigger and THICKER the better, in my opinion, when it comes to STLs!

[Finster]

Thank You sir.
Add on question in re huge amounts of flappy meat.... easily detectable through cryovac packaging? Detection skills get better with experience?

As for the BBs, once I learned the weight trick from folks here in the pit, my rib cooks became exponentially better. Prior to that, I would get the heaviest racks I could find. Now, I chuckle when I see "extra meaty" on the packaging.

[realdocBBQ]

It is 'somewhat' detectable. Feel for the bones - if you can feel the bones getting smaller and then end completely, but there's still 4" of meat after that, that's a sign. You can leave that meat there, but most of us trim it off, it is easy to get dried out, as it is thinner and such.

[Jfrosty27]

I also think bigger is better with STL’s.
But remember they take longer to cook than BB’s.

[Huskee]

In my personal opinion it matters much less with StL. I've done 4.5lbers with great success. I would just recommend the obvious, if you're doing more than 1 try to get them all as close to each other in weight/thickness as possible to avoid varying doneness. I don't think they always take longer to cook than back ribs, it depends on their thickness vs your avg thickness of back ribs. Thicker is longer regardless of which type of ribs.

[Mosca]

I agree that there isn’t a weight limit for spares. But you also aren’t going to find extra thick ones anyhow, because that meat sells for more off the bone than the baby back meat does, or than spare ribs do.

I have a strong preference for spares over baby backs. I think the meat is more flavorful, and I love nibbling at the tips. De gustibus ‘n ‘at.

[LA Pork Butt]

I think the spares or St. Louis ribs have more flavor.

[Hulagn1971]

I'm with Huskee, try to get them as uniform as possible. They are by far my favorites to cook over babybacks. I need to check across the street at our FL and see what they have in stock.

[jfmorris]

Just be prepared to smoke for maybe an hour longer than when you are cooking baby backs, but other than that, all the above advice goes - get slabs that are similar in weight so they get done at the same time.

[dpearce]

Baby backs are kind of expensive around here and don't go on sale often. The local grocery stores usually have uncut ribs for sale from time to time, so I end up trimming them down to St. Louis style, then smoking the trimmings in a cast iron pan along with the ribs. The trimmings tend to cook faster than the whole ribs, which means it's nice to have a few "chef's choice" bits before the ribs are done.

Any fat I carve off gets rendered down as pork tallow and stored in mason jars in the fridge. I use a dollop of that on the ribs when (or if) I wrap near the end of the cook.

And yes, as people have already said, they will take longer to cook.

[Huskee]

Yeah back ribs are crazy expensive here too. And here they're always too thick, "extra meaty", as if that's a good thing. They make much more per pound of meat when more loin is attached to bb ribs.

[captainlee]

Definitely St Louis, agree on flavor. Plus we will get two meals from one rack and maybe a snack.

[djl]

The SLC indicates the have been trimmed. So, grab the one or two that look like they do need trimming. They should be squared off (a rectangle with basically the same size bones from one end to the other)

[radiodome21]

I love STL ribs. Only can get them at Costco. Just did 2 racks this weekend on my Silverback. Was actually going to fire up the WSM and as my chimney was just starting to burn up it started pouring. Ended up pivoting to to the grilla and did at 275 for about 3 hours. I did wrap too and used Costco maple syrup because we were out of honey. They were fantastic and no leftovers. Interestingly enough the middle slab was the thickest. So I did that and the bottom rack and froze the top rack. I don’t bother looking at weight either and have never had issues with the meat drying out like I have had with baby backs.

[realdocBBQ]

Problem with buying STL or BB at Costco (here anyways) is they are only available in 3-packs. Thus, it is really difficult to evaluate for all the extra floppy meat hanging off the end of any of the three racks, and you cannot see the individual weights or thicknesses and I have frequently gotten some really janky looking ribs in the middle 'hidden' rack. Even the bottom rack sometimes is a little off-looking, but the only one you can get a good look at is the top of the three.

Still a decent deal, and they are somewhat cheaper this way than at Wally World, but it's kinda annoying sometimes to get 2 good racks and one scrawny rack in the center.

[realdocBBQ]

I've noticed on BB the membrane is 'usually' removed, sometimes it's partial, but not on St. Louis in my experience.

[N227GB]

Give Aldi a try—single cryopacs of BBs under $3 a pound. I see STL cuts there as well.

[Alan Brice]

Usually Smithfield.

[fitzoo7]

Just track your local stores coupons, usually can get them for $3.50/lb. I personally like buying them in the cryovac because they aren’t opened and dried out in the display case.

[Spinaker]

STL Ribs are the best. I take those over baby backs any day. As others have said, I get the biggest I can. They cook much more evenly and the are great off the bone.

[Mosca]

Our local supermarkets usually sell full spares with the breastbone removed (NAMP 416C). That is my favorite cut; I’ve gotten well over my squeamishness of dealing with the cartilage, in favor of that meat around the cartilage being some of the best on the pig.

[Sweaty Paul]

Spinaker, I’m with you. StL are my favorite. They just seem to work every time.