Smoked St. Louis Spare Ribs

One of the kings of bbq, the pork rib should be a staple of the backyard cooker. Debates between baby back and spare ribs aside, cutting up and cooking your own spare ribs is not as difficult as you think!

YouTube Instructional: https://youtu.be/UC3yTRSsGug

Ingredients:

~5+ Lbs pork spare ribs (untrimmed)
Dry Rub of choice (check out my SuperNova Coffee Rub!)

Bider:
Yellow French’s Mustard

Spritz:
Hard Apple Cider
3 Tbsp Melted (salted) Butter

BBQ Sauce:
Any BBQ sauce will work, but a KC style works best with my coffee rub!

Step 1: Trim the Spare Ribs

To get a nice St. Louis Cut of ribs, a little bit of trimming is needed.
Cut off the skirt on the back, and square off both the top and sides of the rack of ribs (this is a lot easier to see visually, check out my youtube video above for help trimming).

Step 2: Remove the membrane

Use a butter knife to get under the membrane on the back of the ribs
carefully push a finger under the membrane and slowly but firmly pull the membrane off. If you need better grip, grab it with a paper towel.

Step 3: OPTIONAL - salt the ribs

If you are using your own rub, salt the exterior of the ribs and put on a wire rack in the fridge. Allow the salt to sweat into the meat.

Step 4: Apply binder and rub

Apply a small amount of mustard as a binder all over the rack of ribs.

liberally apply your rub here and make sure to cover all sides.

put back into the fridge to rest until we are ready to smoke

Step 5: Preheat and Smoke at 225

Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees and put the ribs directly onto the metal rack.

Allow to smoke until the look a little dry

Begin spritzing only when the exterior begins to dry out

Step 6: Begin basting ribs in BBQ

When the ribs begin to bend about 45 degrees when picked up (around 4-5 hours) its time to start basting. Baste every 15-20 minutes with your BBQ Sauce of choice

Step 7: Pull the ribs

Around 6 hours into the cook, the ribs will begin to really bend when you pick them up. Internal temp will be around 195, and a prob inserted between the ribs should go in like butter cleanly. Also when you pick up the ribs, the top will greatly crack and the bones feel like they are just about to fall apart. This is your point to pull the ribs!

Enjoy!