BBQ Tips

Authentic BBQ Meat

Baby back or loin ribs.

These terms are used synonymously, but officially, the difference is in size. A baby back rib is around 1 to 1 1/2 pounds. A loin back rib weighs 1 3/4 to 2 3/4 pounds. Most restaurants are serving loin back ribs because smaller hogs are not butchered as often. But the menu will them as baby backs because that's the term the customer knows.

A full spare rib is the whole rib including the brisket, the bony piece with the gristle. The St. Louis cut is the spare rib with the brisket removed.

Season them with rub, top and bottom and let them marinate up to 24 hours in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before putting ribs on the pit.

Pork Shoulder or Boston Butt

When prepping shoulders, cut off any skin, except for the skin on the shank bone-leave that on. Also leave a little bit of the fat cap on it.

On both shoulders and butts it's important to remove the blood vein and any blood clots about 1 inch in on the inside of both cuts of meat, where the piece of meat would've attached to the hog. Otherwise the meat next to that vein and blood clot will not taste as good.

Look the meat over carefully and remove any other blood clots or bruised areas that do not look appetizing. Trim any excess fat, but be sure to leave about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch of fat on the meat. During the cooking process, the fat that's left will render and absorb the spices and it will taste just like an outside piece of meat or crunchy bark.

Season all over the shoulders and butts liberally with your favorite dry rub. Again, you can do this up to a day in advance.

Brisket

In most places outside of Texas, brisket is considered a less desirable cut of meat because of the grain structure. It doesn't have as many end uses. Generally, brisket is not graded.

The most flavorful cut is the full brisket with deckle and nose on, but you have a lot of waste. If you're cooking the bottom flap only, you still need to have about a1/8-inch fat cap on the top.

When prepping brisket trim the fat down to about 1/8-1/4-inch all over. Push on the fat and remove the hard lumps of fat. Just as with the pork shoulders and butts, the fat will render and form a very tasty piece of outside skin or bark.

Season liberally with your favorite dry rub or a mixture of kosher salt, coarsely ground pepper, and a little cayenne for authentic Texas-style cooking.