Rib cooks: I’d love your feedback

[jroller]

I just launched a new Rib Calculator on my site and would love some real-world feedback from folks here who actually cook ribs.

The idea is simple: instead of relying on the usual half-rack-per-person rule, the calculator lets you choose your crowd size, rib cut, and serving style to get a more realistic estimate of how much to buy. It also accounts for things like kids vs. adults and whether ribs are the main event or part of a bigger spread.

If you have a minute, I’d be grateful if you’d give it a try and tell me where it feels right, where it feels off, or anything that seems confusing.

Here’s the calculator.

I’m especially interested in feedback from people who cook for groups and have a good feel for baby backs, St. Louis, spares, beef back ribs, or beef plate ribs.

Thanks in advance. I’m trying to make this genuinely useful, not just publish another calculator.

[SheilaAnn]

jjdbike check this out!

[SheilaAnn]

I accidentally touched somewhere on the screen (iPad user) and was brought to Etsy, I went back and was forced to click an ad because the whole website was blurry. Lots of ads make it so hard to gather what you want to know!

The calculator was ok, I guess. But it worked and I liked the option of main, combo, appetizer. Is it accurate? Depends on the voracity of appetites at the table 🤣🤣🤣🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

[jroller]

First, thanks. Second, I forgot to group the content at the top so the ads wouldn’t show. I will fix that as soon as I get home. Appreciate the heads up.

[bbqLuv]

Great idea.
I never thought about a calculator to estimate portion control.
Here my guest is your 6 ribs, and 3 for your child under 12.

I would use it a guide.

I do see a need for it. Thank you

[jroller]

Yeah, this is not a tool intended for most folks here. Much more for the avg. Joe just trying to understand his situation.

[cruiseplanner1]

Just make a bunch, they are great leftovers for the rest of the week. And more cut in half, vac seal and freeze. Not enough can be a problem but too many never is........

[jroller]

Great minds....

[klflowers]

Man I wish we had this a few years ago for our reunion. We had 80 people and did 60 racks of ribs. Way to much.

[Richard Chrz]

Yeah that is a lot, what did you end up thinking would be right?

[jroller]

Yikes...that's a lot! Hope you sent folks home with leftovers. That's what we always do when we cook a whole hog for our (smaller) gatherings.

[klflowers]

Richard Chrz we could have gotten by with half that. We also had chicken, burgers and smoked sausages. jroller we sent people home with full racks we had so much left over

[Donw]

I think you did an excellent job with the calculations. I entered past cooks with different numbers of adults and children and compared with what I had actually cooked for those groups. Right in the very close ballpark. I might mention that teenagers might throw the count of ribs off because I have fed teenage athletes a time or two so in those circumstances adding a few more racks has saved the day.

[jroller]

Great to hear. Thanks for taking the time! Agreed. That is an edge case, but we do treat teens as adults instead and it naturally builds in some buffer. Always better to have a few too many than not enough. The it offers the option for adding leftovers which adds one rack to small cooks and +15% to larger crowds on top of the natural buffer built in. When I make these tools, one of the guiding principals is to err on the side of abundance.

[N227GB]

I gave it a try on my Android phone. Site is responsive (renders well). I did a test run as if I was still doing a BarbeTuesday for my office group (retired).

Nice work!

Posted from my phone.

[jroller]

Excellent...I am in the Apple camp (have been since the mid-90s, for the record) so good to have feedback from devices I don't have ready access to. I just went back in and grouped the sections to relieve some of the annoying ads. That should further help with quick access to the tool. They pay the bills but I hate for them to be overly intrusive.

[HawkerXP]

Works for me. Thanks!

[jroller]

Thanks for taking the time!

[Richard Chrz]

texastweeter would have good feedback on this.

[jroller]

Hope to hear from texastweeter

[texastweeter]

Im pretty simple with rib cooks. BB are 1/2 rack a person, spare, kc/stl cut i go 1/3 rack a person. I always include 2 sides with all my cooks as well. Just fed 150kids and about 30 adults for a youth rally before I left for the DR, but it was burgers and dogs they requested so it was a bit different to calculate.

[jroller]

I accidentally touched somewhere on the screen (iPad user) and was brought to Etsy, I went back and was forced to click an ad because the whole website was blurry. Lots of ads make it so hard to gather what you want to know!

The calculator was ok, I guess. But it worked and I liked the option of main, combo, appetizer. Is it accurate? Depends on the voracity of appetites at the table 🤣🤣🤣🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

I have gone back in and grouped the sections to the ads are less invasive. Should only fall between sections and below the calculator itself.

[DrJimmy2112]

I gave it a try and found that it gave me an accurate result. I too ended up on Etsy but no big deal.
Very cool, Best wishes!

[jroller]

I gave it a try and found that it gave me an accurate result. I too ended up on Etsy but no big deal.
Very cool, Best wishes!

Thanks for the feedback and for taking the time. Curious about the Etsy thing. Did you happen to be taken to a listing for Going Whole Hog? That would be my cookbook page listing and that would make some sense, at least, though I still don't know why. If it was just some random Etsy page then no clue. I'll have to dig into it. Anyway...thanks again.

[DrJimmy2112]

It was a random Etsy page. Glad to help and best wishes jroller !

[jjdbike]

I just launched a new Rib Calculator on my site and would love some real-world feedback from folks here who actually cook ribs.

The idea is simple: instead of relying on the usual half-rack-per-person rule, the calculator lets you choose your crowd size, rib cut, and serving style to get a more realistic estimate of how much to buy. It also accounts for things like kids vs. adults and whether ribs are the main event or part of a bigger spread.

If you have a minute, I’d be grateful if you’d give it a try and tell me where it feels right, where it feels off, or anything that seems confusing.

Here’s the calculator.

I’m especially interested in feedback from people who cook for groups and have a good feel for baby backs, St. Louis, spares, beef back ribs, or beef plate ribs.

Thanks in advance. I’m trying to make this genuinely useful, not just publish another calculator.

Hey jroller,

That's pretty cool and I find it very useful.
Thank you for coming up with this and sharing it here!

Best regards,
JD

[jroller]

Great to hear! Thanks for taking the time and sharing your feedback.