I've been a long-time enthusiast of the "St Louis" cut sparerib, and only more recently have I started preparing baby backs. In my mind, if I was going to fire up the smoker I should get some ribs in there that would benefit from a long smoke. And spare ribs, being larger and served up at so many great barbecue joints around the country, seemed like the best choice. But now that I've been grilling baby backs for the past few years, I thought I'd smoke a few racks for the first time and have a smoked comparison of the spare v the baby...

I started with three racks of ribs:

The spare ribs are on the left (these are not st louis cut as they have the tips on them still), a national grocery store rack of baby backs is in the middle, and then a smaller set of baby backs from my brooklyn butcher is on the right. The spare ribs were from Pigasso, a small pork producer in the hudson valley. They are cut in a way which yields less meat than other spares out there, which is why i opted to leave the tips on. The middle set of baby backs are very meaty, with a lot of fat on the underside. These must be from one of the major hog factory/farms out there... something I've started to realize I need to stop supporting. And the baby backs on the right are from my local butcher in brooklyn. I don't know their origin, but will ask this week. They are the smallest of the three racks in today's smokefest, but with a decent amount of meat and nice level of fat.

I set up the smoker for the first time this spring, using cowboy charcoal and a few chunks of hickory:

Always an exciting day. Truthfully I've had the kettle and smoker out all winter, and have grilled and smoked in the middle of snow storms, but there is something so wonderful about seeing grass instead of snow that gets me excited every spring. My picture taking took a long hiatus through most of the cooking process this time around, but after rubbing the ribs with my latest (and keeper) rub creation, i smoked the ribs for the following amounts of time:

Spare's: 4.5 hrs. Thick baby back's: 3.5 hrs. Thin baby backs: 2 hrs. When i took them off the smoker, I had the folllowing: 

I dusted them all with a little shake (2 parts my rub with 1 part granulated brown sugar): And here's the final plate of ribs: My Analysis

I'm gearing up for the Grillin' on the Bay competition in a couple weeks, so analysis of every rib i grill and smoke must be documented!

First up, the spare ribs:

Incredibly rich, and very smokey. The flavor was good, but a bit overwhelming after 1 or 2 ribs. These were essentially pork "burnt ends" being super rich and chewy, while falling off the bone at the same time. I ended up pulling most of the meat off and saving for a batch of baked beans. 

Next up, the "thick" baby backs: 

Perfect smoke flavor on these ones, but the meat itself was lacking pork flavor. I'm off the generic super market baby back rib from now on... you figure their production methods are generally inhumane, and the meat itself is sub par. Never again! But I will reiterate that the smoke penetration was right on. Check this out:   Last up, the "thin" baby backs:

These were our favorite of the three racks today. I wished I had put these into the smoker when smoke levels were more saturated. They would have been better with a hint more smoke. But the meat itself had a wonderful pork flavor, and the meat was a good middle ground of falling tender but with a little tug to it. Lastly, the shake to meat ratio was right on. 

So I'm pretty sure I'll head back to my local butcher for my competition ribs, and they will definitely be baby backs this year. I'll go back to the spare rib this summer for some of the good ole barbecue smokefests I enjoy throwing, but for now, I'm all about the baby back.