British BBQ Society Forums

Sorry if this has been asked before but are spare ribs any good for smoking?

I've always been put off by these in the past due to the little circular bones in them an inch or two from the end so would seem a pain to do.

Can we get beef ribs or St. Louis ribs here or do the Americans just call their ribs by different names than we do?

Spares are perfect, if you dont like the bit at the top (by far the best bit!!!) just cut it off to create a st louis cut. If you use the search function you will find alot of threads about both beef and pork ribs

Cool will do. It's more the fact when I've had them from the Chinese takeaway and gone face first in being greedy then having to spit out the little bone pieces that's put me off a little.

They are usually super cheap so I will grab some and try out!

You should be able to get any cut from a good butcher

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CLEGGZILLA wrote:You should be able to get any cut from a good butcher

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Granted but you may have to rephrase it to UK terms. A good point is spare ribs, if you ask for spare ribs in most butchers (country style ribs in the US) you may well get the chops from the end of the loin into the shoulder so you need to make sure your butcher understands exactly what you want.

Good call. I am gutted that meatclub manchester has stopped. Www.meatclubmanchester.com which gave you a good idea on butchery and the cuts

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Got to agree with Toby. Trim it yourself to St Louis style (loads of vids on Youtube on how to do it) and chuck rib tips on to munch while you wait for the bigger cuts to cook.

I pick the meat off the tips and the kids devour it while we wait for the ribs to finish.

So for example, if i got a rack and it had these small bones in I just cut across the top to remove them; making a shorter rib?

https://www.johndavidsons.com/?product= ... s-uncoated

Not sure what the picture you linked was as I can't see any bone in it apart from the cartilage. From the pic below you can see the back of the ribs (spare ribs in Us sometimes belly ribs in the UK). Where you get the larger bone at the end of it you get a raised rounded part, where the cartilage starts. Find that point at one end and then cut along between bone and the cartilage.

Righto, so the small circular bone piece are the cartilage?

So in theory if I got a rack of those just that bit away , taking a couple of inches off the length or so? Then I could cut the cartilage out of the pieces and put in a foil tray in the smoker and those are the rib tips people speak of?