Oddly enough over the years I somehow neglected Pork Spareribs. Like most, I have smoked my share of Pork Baby Back Ribs but never Spareribs!! All that changed when I saw Spareribs at Costco were $1.40 less per pound than Baby Back Ribs. My first batch of Pork Spareribs provided a valuable education in the art of smokin' a rack.
Should have researched how to trim Spareribs for a St Louis style rib before cooking. I have since learned that along with removing the skirt meat from the bone I should also have removed the brisket (rib tips). The resulting St Louis style ribs would have allowed the ribs to smoke/cook more evenly. Here is what the finished product would have looked like: The top piece of meat is the skirt meat, followed by the brisket or rib tips, and a rack of St Louis style spareribs.
As they say ... Hindsight is 20-20 !! Removed the skirt meat, slathered the spareribs with Carolina Treet Cooking Barbecue Sauce, and seasoned them with Plowboys BBQ Bovine Bold. Not the best looking racks when you keep the rib tips connected. Have no clue why I cut the racks in half!
Trimmed excess fat from the skirt meat, used some Annie's Roasted Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil for glue, and seasoned the pork with Head Country Championship Seasoning. Waste not - want not!
Smoked the Pork Spareribs for an hour at 180ºF with Hickory before bumping the temperature to 250ºF until the Pork Spareribs reached an Internal Temperature (IT) of 180º-190ºF.
Removed skirt meat after 3 hours at 250ºF when the IT reached 180º. Fabulous tasting tidbits ... Perfect for an Hors d'oeuvre ...
Hickory smoked (180ºF) for an hour, followed by 5½ hours at 250ºF brought the IT of the Pork Spareribs to ~185ºF ... pulled and foil tented the ribs for 20 minutes.
The money $shot ... Pork Spareribs, Briskets (Rib Tips), and skirt meat ... Turned out scrumptious ... served with baked beans and cole slaw!! Note the nice rack of what would have been a St Louis style sparerib. Removed the Brisket after the fact. Next time - St Louis style ribs.
