Rib Pickin' - Spareribs or Babybacks
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 10:34AM 
It had been awhile since I'd done ribs on my Big Green Egg, but with the weather hovering around ~70 degrees I decided Saturday was a perfect day to fire up the cooker. So off to the store I went for some ribs. When I got there, all that was available were spare ribs. Now I usualy cook baby backs but didn't feel like hunting all over town for them so I just went with St Louis style spare ribs.
What's the differnece? Well, baby backs come from "high on the hog" and are typically smaller and more tender. Spareribs on the other hand come from the belly of the hog, are larger, and typically have more fat. You also have to deal with a flap of meat on the bone side of spare ribs and a strip of meat and cartilage along the edge. You can find spareribs with the extra flap and cartilage removed by the butcher. These trimmed spareribs are often referred to as "St. Louis Style".
Spare Ribs
Baby Back Ribs
While the spare ribs turned out okay, my family let me know in no uncertain terms that they prefer the "other kind". So from now on, I'll stick to baby back ribs even if I have to chase all over town to find them.
Cheers,
Braddog
BBQ, Babyback, Big Green Egg, Ribs, Spareribs, barbecue, barbeque in BBQ, Big Green Egg, Tip
Reader Comments (5)
Nice writeup. Any guidance on picking the better of either style. For instance, I picked some baby backs up from Wally World recently, that were labeled as "extra meaty". They didn't have any that were nor labeled as such, but the ribs were not very good. The thick end of the bones was very thick and included some sort of joint and the "extra" meat was basically a mess on the other side of the silver skin.
I wasn't happy with those ribs, so guidance on how to pick the best ones in the store would be a nice blog entry for either the spare or the baby backs.
As a matter of preference, I prefer the baby backs, but my father prefers the spare (he says he likes to "pull" the meat off the bone).
sid.
We had good weather here too and cooked up some of the "other kind". Unfortunately the thermometer on the bbq was broken and I didn't know it until it was too late. The 1st 1.5hr wasn't hot enough, 2nd 1.5hr was too hot.. Ended up with ribs that were just too dang tough.
Sid;
Your rib purchase sure sounds like spares, doesn't it? Thanks for the idea for a new post. I'm always thinking about what would be a good topic for the blog.
Cheers,
Braddog
Dan;
I had exactly that problem a couple of months ago. Luckily I figured out my thermometer before I ruined anything.
What kind of rig are you cooking on?
Cheers,
Braddog
I used to be a back ribs guy but switched to spares about a year ago. I think it's just a personal preference. I like the flavor of the spares better.