Last week I bought a rack of spareribs from Hi-Vee grocery. They looked good, good price too! But when I opened the cryovac pak I was hit with a sulphur-rotten-eggs smell. I called their meat dept. and was told it was safe, just rinse off and procede with my cook! Not in this house! Rotten is rotten. There was no cook by date on pkg. So I did some looking around. Cryovac pork may be in the sealed bag for 21 to 30 days! That's right 3 weeks to one month! No more!
One of the still-family-owned groceries we frequent still has a butcher shop and we do buy meat there often, so went there for ribs. I had a talk with the head butcher about my stinky ribs and he told me to call him whenever i wanted great ribs and i promised him i would, and i left with a nice rack for a nice price. Got spareribs trimmed St Louis-style with flap and breast bone for less than cryopacked! Fresh packed ribs are on the shelf 3 days, not the 21 - 30 days in cryo! One more thought....cryovac'ed ribs always taste hammy too, I guess from sitting in saline for so long.
So you guessed, today is rib day here. Doing them a bit different than I usually do, so we will see how these turn out.
Smoking naked for 2 hours at 175F then mustard and rub applied at 225F for 2 hours.....to be continued......
Oh the rub is Sparky's Voodoo Rub!
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