PitMasters Mayhem in May 2013

[thelawnet]

Just been to the butchers. I asked for meaty ribs:


Each rack weighs 6 pounds....

[Eddie]

They do look like some lovely ribs, but you might have to trim the belly off. I don't want to be a kill-joy, but they have to be spare ribs, not belly ribs.

Well not long to go now, caravan all loaded up and just waiting on the kids to get back from school.

Eddie

[MrJaba]

Sorry, I forget, which is which again?? :S

[thelawnet]

They do look like some lovely ribs, but you might have to trim the belly off. I don't want to be a kill-joy, but they have to be spare ribs, not belly ribs.

Eddie

Yeah the top one looks quite belly-heavy especially. Will trim and some at point this evening I think.

I'm not sure if I will stick one in the freezer actually, there is 8.3kg at the moment, and I'm not sure if they will cook very well with all three racks on my one rib rack.

[Eddie]

Sorry, I forget, which is which again?? :S

It will be a friendly atmosphere, if you need any help that won't be a problem. When I first competed, I could not believe the help people were willing to give.

Eddie

[thelawnet]

Sorry, I forget, which is which again?? :S

I don't think belly rib is really a cut of pork as such.

But the belly sits on top of the spare ribs, so depending on how your ribs are butchered, they will contain some belly attached to the rib.

This was sold to me as belly @ £6.85/kg. In Morrisons ribs are £5/kg at the moment, they were £4/kg last year though, and IME they butcher them very close to the rib, I typically find a rack weighs around 1.5lbs on that basis, so you've basically got bones with meat between them, but not much meat ON the bones, IYSWIM.

The butcher said that these are bacon pigs and hence a bit meatier in this area. Not sure how much difference that makes.

I found this image on Wikipedia, apparently this is a 4lb rack (US pork I would think). http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... reribs.jpg

And here's a British butchery demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic73UAJRQDY separating pork belly from ribs.

[MrJaba]

Ahhh I see, so belly ribs is just spare ribs + belly meat! That was a really useful video, and quite scary how sharp that knife must have been!

Thanks guys

[RobinC]

Good luck to all those competing this weekend

[keith157]

Yes in deed on this international Star Wars Day, May the Fourth be with you.
Back to ribs, please take care with asking an English butcher who isn't into BBQ for spare ribs, you may well get a shock. If you look at the picture at the top of this Morrison's recipe it shows what I mean; http://www.morrisons.co.uk/market-stree ... -Rib-Chop/ The English spare ribs is part of the shoulder and comes from the end of the loin near the shoulder and just to confuse the issue those are apparantly called Country Style Ribs in parts of the US. The meatier ribs with a quantity of belly on them, but not skin, are usually called King Ribs, so just make sure your butcher knows exactly what you want.

[thelawnet]

Thanks very much to Toby for being a great host.