That picture from my pork cuts article is a fine guide to print and show your butcher. Looks to me that he left the scrap tip on. Nothing wrong with that.
Cookers:
Large Big Green Egg with a Ceramic Grill Store rack system, and the SnS setup.
Weber Genesis SA-E-330 LP INDIGO with SS Grates, Weber Crafted frame kit, baking stone, griddle (2/3), all from Ace Hardware.
For the first time in a long time I have no kettles as I gave them all away.
Everything Else:
SnS #3 with certificate. I was their first customer.
Sous Vide equipment.
SnS and Thermoworks instant read and leave-in thermometers.
Grill Grates for BGE.
Kingsford Blue Bag, Weber lighter cubes, Weber charcoal chimneys.
Rubs with salt: Meat Church Holy Cow.
Rubs without salt: Home-mixed versions of previously sold SnS Grills Rocky's Rub and Not Just for Beef using their recipe. SPOG.
Spices: Lots of 'em.
Dutchness I have smoked SLC ribs ranging from 3.2 lbs to 3.9 lbs from Sam's Club. It seems that most of their ribs run big. About 8 hours on the Kettle for these. I have no experience with smaller sizes, but no complaints with these.
I had my SLC ribs cut at 2.6lbs. I asked my butcher how much of the belly he cut with the ribs, he said half the belly. Dutch pigs get to 275-285lbs before they get slaughtered. I don't know enough about pigs if 200lbs is considered small...?
Thought I post these pics. Wonderful ribs, lots of flavor. I had a couple thicker SLC. They had a tiny bit too much of a chew on them. Next smoke I will leave them on a bit longer. They were on for 6 hours, with a couple of temp drops (still learning my new pit).
So we are months down the road and I have a little bit more knowledge about the ribs. I have another question to ask you guys.
My butcher says bellies are cut differently here compared to in America and that's why near the bottom of the rack of ribs the bones are really short. So in order to have a rectangular shaped rack he would need to leave some cartilage on from about half the rack all the way to the bottom (the more you go down, the more cartilage would be left).
He showed me getting rid of all the cartilage and the rack ends in a point, bottom ribs being very short.
So my question is...St. Louis Cut in the US...do the bottom 4, 5 or 6 ribs have any cartilage still on the ribs or is it completely removed and the rack still is pretty much rectangular shaped?
If you look above at the illustration @Quintin "Q" posted, the bottom left portion of the St. Louis cut spares is not bone. There's bone at the top, but not that bottom corner. There may or may not be cartilage there.
As CandySueQ said, just below the diagonal line of muscle is a line known as the costal/chondral junction. Louis cut of ribs will still have some cartilage but it is in the shape & contour of a rib. The rib tip cartilages are an extension of that that curves forward to join those ribs to the sternum (breastbone). These pieces of cartilage are bunched close together and angled forward rather than follow the contour of the rib bones. These are the cartilage pieces trimmed off to make St. Louis cut ribs out of spares. Nothing wrong with them other than they have a little less meat and are a bit more trouble to eat. Delicious, but even messier to eat than regular ribs if you're trying to eat in a "civilized manner". I don't try so I just cook whole spares and gnaw on the cartilage pieces.
I was talking about if rib 7 to 12 have any cartlidge left on a St Louis cut. Because if my butcher doesn't leave any cartlidge it will not be rectangular shaped.
I wouldn't worry about the rectangular shape so much. He knows what he is doing now, have him cut them, you smoke them, then post pics so we can drool. That's it, that's the list.
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