St. Louis Style Ribs

[eyeguy 54]

grabbed 6 but no limit. probably grab 6 more wednesday. so now what ae the pros and cons st louis vs babybacks. I have only done babybacks.

[thirdeye]

grabbed 6 but no limit. probably grab 6 more wednesday. so now what ae the pros and cons st louis vs babybacks. I have only done babybacks.

Baby back ribs are the upper portion of the rib cage, folks refer to these more naturally tender cuts as "eatin' high on the hog". St Louis trimmed spare ribs are from the belly, just above the strip that bacon is made from. You need to work a little harder when cooking them.

Regarding St Louis cut:

Pros:

1. Less expensive than BB's.

2. Heavier in weight.

3. Have a more defined "pork" flavor.

4. Lay flatter on the cooker because the bones are not curved.

5. I think they take smoke flavor better than BB's do.

6. You will usually have one or two left over for a midnight snack. Hehehee.

7. Are great for showing off your cooking skills because most folks and restaurants serve BB's.

Cons:

1. Take longer to cook than BB's, because there is more fat to convert during the cook.

2. Require a little more rub and maybe a mop or spray once or twice during the cook (partially because they are larger, and partially because you are cooking longer).

3. They may be too long for some cookers, and need to be sized down or cut in half.

4. Require a bit more skill at the pit than BB's when you are first getting your pit temps and your tenderness dialed in.

[McGurk]

As usual, thirdeye nailed it. Longer cook but better result.

[eyeguy 54]

Thx! i cut the racks in half so no problem there. gonna do one tomorrow for a test. I'll do the 3-2-1 and see how they are. :>)

[hockeybc69]

Guess I better be getting my butt to Target in Monti tomorrow bright and early!!!!!!!!

[Leaky]

it's kind of wierd but in the fishing forums we talk about what's better--hard water or soft water and i always give a slight edge to hard water. when out there next to my grill/smokers and doing my preps or even thinking about what i'm going to make it makes me think--what do i like better: planning my meal, the prepwork, the whole process of the charcoal and wood chips and watching the meat occationaly, the smell of everything comming together, the smoke comming out of the vent [and little hole's here and there], watching the thermometer and the temp of the smoker ect. or eating the final product. very hard to decide that. that's why i love to cook and learn more as time goes on. good luck.

That is so true. Making soup on a cold & snowy/rainy Saturday kind of does the same thing for me.

[Chef]

It's the reaction from my kid's I like best. Leaky, +1 here as well...

[Leaky]

I found this interesting blog concerning enhanced meats. I think this guy nailed it and follows along thirdeye's comments. Will make me think a little harder about what I'm buying. From here on out, it's going to have to be a H@llofva deal (like $1.97 St. Louis Cut Ribs) before I buy any enhanced meats again. It's all about making maximum profits for the meat companies. I'm ALL FOR any company maximizing profits, but not like this. I got a chuckle out of his name for Hormel (Whore-Mel)

13 September, 2008Enhanced Meat

How closely do you read the labels in your supermarket? I read everything -especially the first time I buy something. I want to know what's in it, and whether there's something hidden in there that I refuse to buy (high fructose corn syrup, for example.)

I check the Country of Origin labels on seafood and produce, and I check cuts of meat carefully to be sure the store isn't getting deceptively clever when they put the label on the package. But now I find I have to look for fine print on nearly every branded piece of meat I buy.

Why? Because the major packing companies are all "enhancing" their meat - especially pork and turkey, but beef and chicken too - by injecting it full of specially-formulated saltwater. Sometimes, the meat you buy can be twelve percent added water - quite the profit engine for Hormel and Smithfield, when they can charge consumers upwards of $20.00 a gallon for water (which probably costs them less than half a buck per thousand gallons.)

The meat industry will tell you that they need to enhance their product because health-conscious shoppers demand leaner cuts. Without tasty saline solution pumped into the meat to replace the missing fat, they say that meat often comes out dry, tough, and flavorless. Water and salt is a cheap way for the meat packing companies to "help" people have juicier cuts of pork, beef, and chicken.

I would love to hear Hormel's explanation for why ground pork - which is already tender thanks to the grinding process and "juicy" thanks to the fat content - needs to be pumped up with saltwater to "improve" the tenderness and juicyness. (Twelve percent is actually pretty low for a Hormel product. Some of their Jenny-O brand turkey cuts and other Hormel pork products have been pumped up with 30 percent water!)

Thanks, Whore-Mel, but I'll brine my own meat.

Every major packing company is doing this. Most of them have special brand names for their enhanced products:

John Morrell Tender N Juicy

Hormel Always Tender

Farmland Extra Tender

Smithfield Lean Generation

Purdue Tender & Tasty

But regardless of whether or not these tampered-with meats have a special brand identity, Federal law requires that they be clearly labeled on the package with information such as the percentage of "enhancement" added and the ingredients.

The only way we, as consumers, have of fighting this trend is through our wallets. Read the labels and refuse to buy enhanced meat. And, because some supermarkets are buying enhanced meats and repackaging them without the labels, ask the butchers at your local markets if the meat they are selling is enhanced. And don't be afraid to report violations of the labeling law to the USDA.

Posted by Dave at 05:00

[reinhard1]

Leaky, this guy who wrote this blog makes a personal opinion, and the profit issue is certainly there. but this has been done for years and is approved by the government and inspected in as far as contents and amount injected. chicken breast, corned beef, any marinated meat item is all enhanced and profit is there for the taking.

when i was working we talked about this all the time. i see the blog was dated 2008. this has been going on way before that. think about when you buy corned beef and start out with 3 pound and end up with half that amount. you can call it enhanced, injected, marinated or whatever but you are paying for the extra liquid. if you realy want to get mad, think about what water costs you in the stores. per gallon, quart or those fancy plastic bottles. that is more profit to me than any piece of meat.

Third Eye likes to do his own thing with pork and other meats as he said and does it well. i think we all do. but when you have a deal on ribs like we have this week, i will not add salt to the ribs to my rub mix and enjoy every piece i eat .

for example i bought non-enhanced pork loins for the canadian bacon, because i knew [and Third Eye reminded me] that there would be salt in the enhanced pord and it would mess up my "cure" amount. so personaly that's how i deal with the meats. buy it when on sale and adjust the salt if i need be or by non-enhanced for items where i need and want to do my own thing in preperation. good luck.

[Leaky]

RH - Good stuff as usual.

[eyeguy 54]

I'd go nuts if I started reading labels. Rinsed and smoked, out of the foil and just popped back on with a little sweet and zesty. wifey is making vegies and these will be dissapearing soon. :>)

[Leaky]

YUM!

[pike79]

The price was right on these two I bought them for $60 each at 60 pounds a couple of months ago. I'm feeding them corn that I picked out of my food plots. Fun little project.

[reinhard1]

well they will bring you some nice meals in the future. i was born on a farm in Germany. however i dont know a thing about raising anything, just eating the harvest . i remember the men would kill the pigs and proccess them quickly. we were poor but ate good, so rich in many other ways. good luck with the project and let us know how it turnes out. good luck.

[McGurk]

Did you name them "Lunch" and "Dinner"? My parents had pigs on the farm for the first few years of my life, and they were a pain. It makes them taste all the better now, though!

[mainbutter]

Just a note on profit margins:

Keep in mind that the retailers are also getting the short end of the stick on "enhancements". Target is one of the cheapest out there when I do my comparison shopping, and I shudder wondering what their grocery (particularly meat and produce) profit margins are.

I've never done ribs before, any tips for someone without a smoker?

[pike79]

McGurk, we actually named them Bacon and Sausage. It's a shared project with my dad, he is a retired farmer plenty of expirence. Still deciding how much of the butchering and proccessing we are going to leave up to the pros. I plan on trying some of the recipes in the library of links, that will definetly be helpful.

[Leaky]

Mainbutter - There have been plenty of times that I just seasoned Babybacks the night before and wrap in siran wrap. Then cut in half,add a splash of apple juice or a very thin cover of BB sauce, wrap tight in tin foil and threw in the oven bone down @ 300 for a couple of hours. Take them out, sauce them, and finish on the grill or under the broiler. They turn out just fine.

[chaffmj]

Mainbutter what kind of a grill do you have? You can turn out good ribs with a gas or charcoal grill.

With a gas grill if you have two burners (I have never owned a gas grill so I am just going by what I was told) turn one off, put the ribs over that one and put wood chips in tin foil over the side that is on.

For a weber type grill coals go on the side and the ribs go down the middle. Throw some wood chips on top of the coals and you are good to go.

I take them out of the rack and lay them flat to add sauce.

Not a whole lot of detail but I am at work so if you have any questions I can answer them later.

[Leaky]

McGurk, we actually named them Bacon and Sausage. It's a shared project with my dad, he is a retired farmer plenty of expirence. Still deciding how much of the butchering and proccessing we are going to leave up to the pros. I plan on trying some of the recipes in the library of links, that will definetly be helpful.

Bacon and Sausage? Bwhahahahahaha! Have fun raising and eatin!

[thirdeye]

Leaky, this guy who wrote this blog makes a personal opinion, and the profit issue is certainly there. but this has been done for years and is approved by the government and inspected in as far as contents and amount injected. chicken breast, corned beef, any marinated meat item is all enhanced and profit is there for the taking.

when i was working we talked about this all the time. i see the blog was dated 2008. this has been going on way before that. think about when you buy corned beef and start out with 3 pound and end up with half that amount. you can call it enhanced, injected, marinated or whatever but you are paying for the extra liquid. if you realy want to get mad, think about what water costs you in the stores. per gallon, quart or those fancy plastic bottles. that is more profit to me than any piece of meat.

Third Eye likes to do his own thing with pork and other meats as he said and does it well. i think we all do. but when you have a deal on ribs like we have this week, i will not add salt to the ribs to my rub mix and enjoy every piece i eat .

for example i bought non-enhanced pork loins for the canadian bacon, because i knew [and Third Eye reminded me] that there would be salt in the enhanced pord and it would mess up my "cure" amount. so personaly that's how i deal with the meats. buy it when on sale and adjust the salt if i need be or by non-enhanced for items where i need and want to do my own thing in preperation. good luck.

Right, there is nothing illegal about producers enhancing meat, I think the rules for disclosure (and some definitions used by USDA) have changed in the last few years and that is why the labels have changed. Butterball turkeys for example have always been enhanced. And they are great turkeys.... When you buy one the large print on the label says "Fresh Turkey". The small print says "Ingredients: Whole Young Turkey. May contain up to 4% of a solution of Water, Salt, Spices to Enhance Tenderness and Juiciness". If you don't read the small print, or assume "fresh" means "natural" you have been slightly decieved (legally of course)

Even though this seems like a contradiction of terms at least Butterball is only using 4%, verses 10% or more used by other producers. And the reason they can call it "fresh" is because by definition it has never been below a certain temperature. In other words, "fresh" meats can be lightly frozen but not hard frozen. And "fresh" and "natural" have different USDA definations.

As far as corned beef goes, it has been processed via injection/wet curing. Just like you can say a ham or bacon has been processed. It shrinks so much because they use brisket, which has a 50% to 55% yield whether is has been corned or is raw. Now... here is another example, have you ever seen a ham that says "water added"? That one has been processed (cured) and then enhanced by adding the water.

[Leaky]

When I mix my rubs together, I make big batches as to not have to do it each time I smoke some pork. Now I'm going to do 2, one of which will be with significantly reduced Kosher Salt. I just finished putting a batch together that I'm rubbing on an 8lb Hormel Pork Butt for tomorrow's smoke - ala 100% Natural. (Would have never paid attention to this before).

The other batch of rub I put together will work just great with the 6 slabs of Hormel Ribs (enhanced)I'll be cooking over the next couple of months. Dang, for some reason that doesn't sound like enough. For $1.97, I better go get me a few more.

Putting a Rhubarb Cake together as well. Boy does it pain me to have to buy some in the store. I'm sure if I took the time to go meet my neighbor 4 driveways down, who has more than they could ever eat in 3 years, I wouldn't have to buy it. Maybe next year. Or just plant one. They grow like weeds.

[reinhard1]

thanks for further explaining the "enhancement" of our meats. we can do our part here on HSO to explain what it is, but we also tell people how to prepare it [such as not using additional salt or a limited amount because of the added sodium]. i would bet you are going to be "playing with fire and smoke" sometime this weekend . have a great weekend with your family and friends!!. good luck.

[thirdeye]

Yes, getting the word out includes tips on buying as well as preparing. I got into my first enhanced ribs without realizing and we all agreed they were borderline salty. I normally don't sauce mine but I took the sauce I had prepared and added some good honey to it... this evened out the saltiness.

[delcecchi]

Let me know how you like the cake. If you were near me I would give you some rhubarb. Maybe you should just mention it at work, church, bait shop, vfw, where ever you hang out.