Ribs and membrane

[wade]

Nice to have a good debate!

Remember they are feeding paying local customers that return day after day for the taste not one off for judges on how the rib looks, so maybe its about dollar Greenbacks and not Red Herrings, bit fishy that

Yes, you are right - this is likely to be about Dollars in the restaurants - but possibly more likely to be down to the less time it would take to prepare 100+ racks of ribs each day without having to remove the membrane.

[Kiska95]

Yes I agree.

I'll give them a go at home doing them both ways and try them in Kansas City and see if there is any difference. But whose to say as all tastes differ. Its obviously a local thing and not a conscience science. They use outdoor brick smokers not huge but yes it may be a little quicker but they take them off at the end so its only a marginal difference

Guy Fieri only watched not cooked and he was surprised as he had never seen it before

[wade]

Hi Brian. It is a shame we are so far apart geographically. It would be great to get together and give it a try - especially as we would get to eat ribs afterwards

[Kiska95]

Wade you seem to be right on my wave length!

However I do get down that way from time to time so I may just look you up and we can discuss the night away with good food and some drink

[wade]

You are on - just let me know when you are around.

[Simple-BBQ]

Do you think the membrane causes the ribs to behave differently to the heat? In other words, will the membrane tense up under the application of heat differently to a rack without? If it causes the ribs to squeeze that could make the meat fibres come closer together making flavour harder to penetrate and possibly, force a little moisture and fat out. That would impact on the end result.

Just a thought offered for debate.

[wade]

I usually only but fresh ribs from my local butcher but last weekend I had to buy some that were frozen. Same rub. same method, same smoker but they tasted stale and quite unapetising. I actually threw them out for the birds. Not sure if it was the freezing or if the ribs were just old.

[noxskuses]

possibly more likely to be down to the less time it would take to prepare 100+ racks of ribs each day without having to remove the membrane.

I suspect that's the main reason busy caterers don't do it

I've cooked a lot of ribs with membranes on & off, & I can't honestly tell the difference. I don't normally bother removing the membrane these days.

Sounds like a bad batch Wade. I've bought the 'bulk buy' ribs (baby back & spare) a few times from meatpacks, which are frozen, & they are delicious!

Pete

[essexsmoker]

Aaron Franklin said he doesn't bother on his rib video just because of time.