British BBQ Society Forums

asked my wife to pop into the butchers that i use quite a lot and asked her to get a rack of spare ribs, i explained what she needed to ask him for, and as he doesn't seem to have any trouble doing what i want i thought it wouldn't be a problem. anyway, she comes back half an hour later with what can only be described as the thin end of a belly with the skin removed (and added to the bag) £19 the cheeky sod charged her! i can only assume that he ripped her off as she wasn't confident describing what she needed, as he knows what a rack of spares looks like, he's done it enough times for me and they normally come in at £8 or £9 a pop.

anyway, shan't be using that butchers again (ball hill butchers in coventry)

ribs cooked nicely and very VERY meaty. now i've only got about a kilo of skin to deal with.

rant over

My butcher has done the same to me but only once, belly ribs (for want of the correct term) cook very nicely and are the same part of the pig but not trimmed as much, but if you wanted spare ribs then that is what they should have given you, cut the belly pork meat off and sold that separately rather than selling it to your wife when that's not what she asked for. Anyway mine didn't rip me off but I'm sure if you went back and challenged them they'd offer something as a gesture of goodwill.

Sometimes, when you can't find meaty enough spare ribs , it becomes necessary to buy whole bellies. What i do in these instances is trim my ribs St. Louis style and then I am left with ribs, rib tips and belly pieces. I rub them all and smoke them but the belly pieces I tray and foil with apple juice and BBQ sauce and cook until falling apart. This meat then makes nice boneless rib sandwiches.

joker smoker wrote:Sometimes, when you can't find meaty enough spare ribs , it becomes necessary to buy whole bellies. What i do in these instances is trim my ribs St. Louis style and then I am left with ribs, rib tips and belly pieces. I rub them all and smoke them but the belly pieces I tray and foil with apple juice and BBQ sauce and cook until falling apart. This meat then makes nice boneless rib sandwiches.

that's pretty much what i did! had the ribs on the day and x2 bbq pork and slaw wraps every day this week at work! it actually didn't turn out as bad as i though last saturday, the amount of meat that came off them was crazy

Question is would you order then again( at the right price)?

DrSweetsmoke wrote:I just got the most fantastic ribs from my butcher. They were so meaty I had him cut them down so our clients will be able to manage them this weekend.

We are now in talks about full sponsorship too as we are currently partially with them.

Now that's just showing off Well done, you must have more sponsorship than the rest of the society put together now

oddsocks wrote:asked my wife to pop into the butchers that i use quite a lot and asked her to get a rack of spare ribs, i explained what she needed to ask him for, and as he doesn't seem to have any trouble doing what i want i thought it wouldn't be a problem. anyway, she comes back half an hour later with what can only be described as the thin end of a belly with the skin removed (and added to the bag) £19 the cheeky sod charged her! i can only assume that he ripped her off as she wasn't confident describing what she needed, as he knows what a rack of spares looks like, he's done it enough times for me and they normally come in at £8 or £9 a pop.

anyway, shan't be using that butchers again (ball hill butchers in coventry)

ribs cooked nicely and very VERY meaty. now i've only got about a kilo of skin to deal with.

rant over

You lucky people
Score the skin in closely spaced lines and salt lightly. Place the skin between 2 baking tins, NOT trays, and cook at 180 for a while, depends on the amount of fat, till nice and crisp and unhealthy drain the fat and use it for saute pots with a bit of finely minced garlic. OR freeze the skin and use it at Christmas to cover the turkey breast withj. You can season the fat side heavily and that will impart extra flavour to the turkey skin,