joker smoker wrote:none of the ribs that I've ever seen in supermarkets at around £2 a rack are worth cooking. you're just using up your rubs and fuel to cook and season a bunch of bones.
I've historically been of the same opinion - although this weekend's ones from Waitrose were surprisingly good. I like plenty of meat, taste (and fat too), and while these were baby backs, they were well worth cooking, and well worth £2. My picky kids voted with their bellies and the dog didn't even get a look in.
Might have been a fluke...but I'll try them again just to be sure.
From a 10 kg box of meaty spares costing approximately £26 I usually get 5 good racks. I then trim into a St. Louis cut and cook both the slabs and the rib tips. After 3 hrs smoke I will probably foil the slabs and chop the rib tips into chunks. I then pan the tips with apple juice and glaze and put the slabs back in the cooker for an hour and the chunks for 2 hours. I serve 1/2 rack glazed or dry along with about 4 rib tip chunks for £11.50 served with fries and coleslaw or rice and beans. To serve the 1/2 rack and rib tips alone though I'd need to charge £10. It is fair to say that ribs don't give me the best profit margin on my menu but they need to be there and they encourage customers to try other less familiar items on the menu.
joker smoker wrote:From a 10 kg box of meaty spares costing approximately £26 I usually get 5 good racks. I then trim into a St. Louis cut and cook both the slabs and the rib tips. After 3 hrs smoke I will probably foil the slabs and chop the rib tips into chunks. I then pan the tips with apple juice and glaze and put the slabs back in the cooker for an hour and the chunks for 2 hours. I serve 1/2 rack glazed or dry along with about 4 rib tip chunks for £11.50 served with fries and coleslaw or rice and beans. To serve the 1/2 rack and rib tips alone though I'd need to charge £10. It is fair to say that ribs don't give me the best profit margin on my menu but they need to be there and they encourage customers to try other less familiar items on the menu.
By adding the relevant sides (which are very low cost) you are providing an entire meal and gettting your profit back from the meat
And John (jokersmoker) does some mean brisket and pulled pork to die for
I have to say though.....most UK punters don't have a clue what ribs are even meant to be like and they tend to be happy to pay well over odds for crappy ribs as long as they are smothered in sickly sweet sauce - and probably boiled too.
Just my observations from watching people in restaurants....no idea how this applies at outdoor events, but in my experience, the British aren't yet too switched on about what constitutes good BBQ.
Half a rack of halfway decent ribs, couple of good sides and some decent sauce on the side should blow away the average UK fast food punter.
