Makro Meaty Belly Ribs

[esselle]

Has anyone used these before. I tried some last weekend but they were the first ribs I have bought for smoking and didn't realise that they needed to be trimmed (i do now thanks to google ) The question is after trimming to leave just ribs the meat on the ribs still seemed very fat even after cooking, probably upto 2 inches thick on some ribs, is this too thick?
Cheers

Scott.

[Steve]

2" sounds very thick. I've never bought spares from Makro but I've seen them in there and never seen any racks that thick.

I assume you cut them St. Louis style?? Had you trimmed the fat off or are we talking about having a big fat cap on them? Pictures would make this so much easier

[esselle]

2" sounds very thick. I've never bought spares from Makro but I've seen them in there and never seen any racks that thick.

I assume you cut them St. Louis style?? Had you trimmed the fat off or are we talking about having a big fat cap on them? Pictures would make this so much easier

I didn't know I had to trim them Steve, until after when I saw pics of ribs on google, because this was my first 'go' at Ribs. To be honest I didn't even know if I had bought the right thing and just assumed Belly = Spare
I now realise that I should have trimmed them and did trim them when they were cooked so I would know what to take off when I do them again.
I only have a 'cooked' pic and that doesn't really show the depth of these beasts. Didn't have fat on the ribs themselves but I left the top bit where the tips are on. (I now know I shouldn't have). Think I will need to get another rack and examine them better now I know a bit more.

[Steve]

Dude, there's no issue with cooking untrimmed ribs

You wouldn't do it for competition but there's some good eating in the dog meat. We trim them down St.Louis style for comps because it makes them look pretty, eliminates the little bits of bone found in the tips and allows them to fit in the box I usually cook up the dog meat for brunch at the same time during comps.

The main thing is to take the membrane off the back of the ribs as it can be chewy when cooked and it acts as a barrier to the rub getting into the ribs. There's usually a flap of meat on the back too, trim this off even if you aren't trimming the ribs down.

The rack you had sounds very thick indeed but that's not necessarily a bad thing, the only problem you'd get would be if you had a thin end that cooked a lot quicker than the thick end leaving you with either an undercooked or overcooked end.

The best thing you can do is get into the habit of photographing your meat ( ) raw and unprepped, prepped and then finally cooked, even a camera phone pic will do and post them up here with your questions.

Also remember there's no real right and wrong unless YOU think your food tastes like sh1t, if you enjoy eating it, then it's a success. There's people with polar opposites of opinion on how BBQ should be cooked but no one will ever shout you down or be rude because they don't agree with your process (if they do I have the power to ban them from the forum - mwuhahaha ) Your posts read like you're embarrassed about doing things wrong, don't be. Read and digest people's opinions, try things out, if you like them do them again, but most of all enjoy cooking and eating that's all that matters.

[esselle]

Cheers Steve,
One thing I did remember to do was take the membrane offer, after haveing seen it done on youtube
I will get another rack from there and post the pics of before and after.