British BBQ Society Forums

Hi there, when cooking ribs I followed a recipe that was for a 4 to 5lb rack of ribs. I just cannot find ribs that weight from butchers in the UK. Are American pigs bigger? The cooking time was 4 hours and the temperature was 250F. For a 2lb rack of ribs should I reduce the cooking time and temperature to get the same result as if it was a 4 to 5lb one? Any suggestions? Thanks

The pigs are bigger and the butchers are more used to cutting for bbq. Most probably they were what UK butchers sometimes call KingRibs as you can see they are the belly ribs, not baby backs and a heck of a lot thicker, and not cheap.

If you follow the times and methods in the link below you'll not go far wrong. I've found that if you use vinegar in the mixture when they're foiled they need less time than when you don't use vinegar.

http://awesomegrills.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... -ribs.html

A lot of people use the 3-2-1 method but to be honest if you follow this they'll end up over done. It may work for US pork because as you've noticed.......they're beast are bigger. You can get 20kg briskest over there!

Once you've done a few racks you'll get to know your meat and your grill. It's the time that they're foiled for that you need to play around with.

i tend to ask for the thick end of a whole belly and ask the butcher to take the skin off. tidies up quite nicely but expensive for a rack of spares, albeit very very meaty spares. i find 3-2-1 ok for that if you want fall of the bone, less for something with a bit of chew. if you're cooking for a crowd though and need to supermarket it, morrisons do packaged racks for £3-4 which turn out enough for a portion per person. do brookers still do those frozen boxes of meaty spares? never tried them because i've never had the capacity/requirement to cook 12 racks of spares, but would be interested to know other peoples thoughts on them

Asda do 2 for £5 on spare ribs, as mentioned before not a lot of meat on them, although good as something to nibble on. Apparantly their butcher's special are on a 2 for £6 so might see if they have any left.

Hi Oddsocks, Booker has some real nice loin ribs on offer at the moment, £30 for a 10kg box, plenty of meat on them too


Cawky

CAWKY1962 wrote:Hi Oddsocks, Booker has some real nice loin ribs on offer at the moment, £30 for a 10kg box, plenty of meat on them too


Cawky

Which ribs are those?

They sell three types from what I see - 'German', semi-meaty, and 'meaty'

I usually get the German ribs - I made some yesterday and they are nice. They are tender enough that you can grill them on a low/medium heat.

thanks cawky - lets hope the weather holds for a big cook, 10 kilos is a bit much for my little brood

Thanks for all your help and advice Everyone!

I always buy the meety ribs so much better, my local butchers sells them for a good price and so much better than anything you can get in the supermarket. I then trim them into what the US would call St Louis ribs (evens them up), having lived in the states I haven't really noticed a different in size (they are cheaper to buy though)

My ribs take between 3 and 4 hours depending on what recipe I'm doing as I normally have them foiled in a tray with some apple juice for the last 1hour so you cant really overcook. Use a tootpick or cocktail stick to see when done.