When I was first learning the art of barbecue, I came across many recipes calling for St. Louis ribs. This was before YouTube was flooded with videos on the topic, so, being a complete novice, I searched for them all over New York City (in my naiveté, I didn’t think to just ask my butcher). I went from one place to another, finding nothing but spareribs, until I finally tracked them down at Whole Foods—let’s just say they weren’t cheap.
That was the one and only time I bought spare ribs pre-cut in a St. Louis-style. I figured if I learned how to trim them myself, I could save a lot of time and money, and still have more control over the final product. It turns out that trimming a rack of ribs St. Louis-style was an exceedingly simple task—just two cuts and done—and to this day, I always do it myself before seasoning and smoking.
