Baby Back & St. Louis: Ribs through the Years

“Barbecue, as I remember it growing up, was Baby Back ribs cooked on a huge 72-inch Weber Grill by my father “Chef Larry Raymond”. He and my uncle, “Sweet Baby Ray,” had it down to a science; they used 52 charcoal briquettes on each side of the grill, added a handful of soaked hickory woodchips on each side of the fire, and stood the 16-slabs of baby back ribs up on rib racks in the middle.

They cooked them for two and a half hours while rotating them from top to bottom and from the inside out. After they were finished, they knocked the coals down and spread them out under the grill grate, then they brushed the ribs with Sweet Baby Ray’s and cooked them until they were bubbly and caramelized. 

This is still what I remember when I smell charcoal burning and see baby back ribs smoking on a grill. Having grown up seeing, smoking, and eating baby back ribs I just didn’t think there could be a better alternative. But the slightly larger, meatier, and more flavorful cousin, the St. Louis Spare Rib, may be just that…

  

STL-style ribs are cut from the spare rib. The brisket bone and meat are cut off, leaving a long square slab of ribs. Here at Sweet Baby Ray’s we buy 2-and-down STL ribs, which means they will not be more than 2 pounds per slab, and they will have approximately 12 bones per slab. They are meaty and have a slightly higher fat content than baby back ribs. 

The bones also differ. STL rib bones are larger, wider, and flatter than baby backs. When you slice in-between the bones of the STL rib you will notice that most of the meat rests on top of the bone rather than in-between the bones, as it is with baby back ribs. Almost all the meat in baby backs are in-between the bones.