Help Me Decide: St Louis or Baby Back

[GrillMeister]

I used to do St. Louis, but now do pretty much baby backs only.

 

[dflaher]

Check out Malcolm Reeds YouTube or Heath Riles. Heath is a rib expert. His technique is much hotter and faster than your plan, but your plan will work just fine. He cooks at @275. He just reduces the time in each stage of cooking. That’s pretty much what I subscribe to as well. That said, I've done 321 at 225 or lower and it worked just fine. Just takes six hours as opposed to 3.5 hours. Cheers!

Thanks. I have found/read that those higher temps recommended by Malcolm and Heath apply better for stick burners (or at least non-Traegers). For me I like to keep temps less than or equal to 225, at least until the meat hits 165 or so. Just seems like the Traeger produces better smoke at/under 225, or so it seems when I do butts or briskets.

 

[JPSBBQ]

Thanks. I have found/read that those higher temps recommended by Malcolm and Heath apply better for stick burners (or at least non-Traegers). For me I like to keep temps less than or equal to 225, at least until the meat hits 165 or so. Just seems like the Traeger produces better smoke at/under 225, or so it seems when I do butts or briskets.

Yeah, I was just pointing out that they use the higher temps in case watched the videos. Didn’t mean to imply you need to go that direction. Lots of ways to get where you’re going. Cheers!

 

[SmokinFool]

I always use Spare ribs and turn them into St. Louis Style ribs and use the 321 method. I have my own rub and my own BBQ sauce and they always turn out great. So Great that is what my family wants me to fix for Thanksgiving this year. No Turkey or ham. Ribs with Homemade potato salad, Crockpot beans, and Beer bread and Bourbon Pecan pie.

 

[Outta The Box BBQ]

That is not always true, baby backs can have more meat over the rib area. Compared to a FULL RACK of ribs, the FULL RACK has more meat but you said STL style, STL style cuts OFF the top meat, usually trimmed down by cutting away the hard breastbone and chewy cartilage so your Bbacks will be more meat and more tender.

Thanks everyone thus far. I was leaning toward the St Louis but now thinking I might try BBs. Still undecided though.

Regardless, I will cook using 321 method, yellow mustard then a homemade rub consisting of brown sugar, paprika, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. Smoke that for 3 hours at 200-225, than wrap in brown sugar, honey, butter, and apple cider for 2 hours, then an hour"ish" with some BBQ sauce till ribs are at 203 or so. Will BBs cook faster than St Louis style?

I have a Thermapen MK4 for measuring internal temp, but a Fireboard is on my Christmas list.

If I go the St Louis route I'll look for those little bones and trim them off. I plan to buy the rack at Costco (Swift brand) and I'm not sure how they will be trimmed.

I've found Prairie Fresh spareribs to be the only true full rack (meaning brisket flap and rib tips included). I then do my own St Louis trim as some, including Costco, St. Louie's aren't trimmed as well as they should be hence the cartilage bits. Swift from Costco are usually very good - especially for baby backs. Babies are the easiest to cook and cut for serving IMHO. Try to find the flatter bones as baby back ribs can be quite curved. For you rub, be careful not to get too much sugar or the ribs can be pretty dark.

 

[davwhite]

Personally I don’t like the St Louis ribs because of the little bones on the end. My fam likes the baby backs better.

Hey Timmy, I was watching a Meat Church video on cooking the St.Louis ribs and he sliced down the side and took them off before the cook for the same reason.

 

[Timmy]

Hey Timmy, I was watching a Meat Church video on cooking the St.Louis ribs and he sliced down the side and took them off before the cook for the same reason.

I also saw somewhere that they made a burnt end type cook with the cut off pieces.

 

[Dan-H]

Another use of the trimmed pieces is stir fry in a wok. I'll even cut the one short bone and strip the meat for stir fry.

The other factor for me is the cost. Baby backs have bee almost 2x the cost of St. Louis right now. This is a temporary thing I think.

 

[Walleye Hunter]

Why not make some of each and see what you think?

 

[Timmy]

Why not make some of each and see what you think?

BOOM! There ya go!

 

[dflaher]

always use Spare ribs and turn them into St. Louis Style ribs

I have watched a few videos on how to cut/trim spare ribs to create St Louis ribs. Definitely a cost savings in doing so, especially if you save the trimmings for a later cook. I may try that next time.

I ended up going with the Costco St Louis ribs. I trimmed them a little on the ends, removed the membrane, and they came out great. Ended up cooking them 3 1/2-11/2-1. They didn't come out "fall of the bone" but were very tender. Sorry - I did not get a final pic as it was too dark, but here's them at the start.

 

[Timmy]

I have watched a few videos on how to cut/trim spare ribs to create St Louis ribs. Definitely a cost savings in doing so, especially if you save the trimmings for a later cook. I may try that next time.

I ended up going with the Costco St Louis ribs. I trimmed them a little on the ends, removed the membrane, and they came out great. Ended up cooking them 3 1/2-11/2-1. They didn't come out "fall of the bone" but were very tender. Sorry - I did not get a final pic as it was too dark, but here's them at the start.

Nice!

 

[JPSBBQ]

I have watched a few videos on how to cut/trim spare ribs to create St Louis ribs. Definitely a cost savings in doing so, especially if you save the trimmings for a later cook. I may try that next time.

I ended up going with the Costco St Louis ribs. I trimmed them a little on the ends, removed the membrane, and they came out great. Ended up cooking them 3 1/2-11/2-1. They didn't come out "fall of the bone" but were very tender. Sorry - I did not get a final pic as it was too dark, but here's them at the start.

Home run! Sounds like you nailed it actually. Fall off the bone ribs just fall apart when you try to cut them. What you just described sounds like perfection. On the first run no less. Bravo!

 

[Slimpicker]

3 1/2-11/2-1. They didn't come out "fall of the bone" but were very tender.

Fall off bone comes with longer foil wrap time and almost NO last step... nothing wrong with 'fall off', it's no different than wanting your pulled pork to be tender n juicy...

I do "pulled rib meat" as much as I do straight ribs, just no bones to mess with.

Anyway, you did good and you learned, that's all that counts.

 

[trevpipes]

Having some out of town family coming in and I'm planning to smoke ribs this weekend. Struggling between which cut to do. I've read that St Louis has more meat and bone, and should take a little longer to cook, while back ribs are more tender but less meat.

Any thoughts? I plan to use the 321 method. Thanks.

Where I live, the 3-1-1 method works way better. If I do the 3-2-1, I can grab the rack after its done and shake all the damn ribs out of it. (way too much fall-off-the-bone, and I prefer a slight chew-off-the bone)