Rib Tips

Like slab ribs, great rib tips go through a three-step process. Season, smoke, serve. It's in that second step where restaurants put their stamp.

Barbara Ann's uses the traditional combination of hickory and oak to smoke. George's Rib House in Harvey cooks with charcoal instead. The BBQ Pit in Highland Park uses both hickory and charcoal -- hickory for flavor, charcoal to better control temperature -- and cooks at a low 225 degrees. Ribs 'n' Bibs in Hyde Park heats their tips to 400 degrees using hickory and oak. Brothers' Ribs in Palatine (also in Lake Zurich and Mundelein) uses hickory wood, and slow cooks their ribs in a convection smoker for up to three hours.

Fat Willy's Rib Shack in Logan Square has perhaps the area's most unorthodox preparation. Owner Bo Fowler brines her rib tips in a tub of spices, fruit juices, honey and garlic before smoking the meat with indirect heat using hickory and applewood -- a Southern style of barbecue. After four hours of cooking, the pork is slathered with sauce and grilled to caramelize the exterior.

They arrive plump, if not outright chubby; arguably the largest rib tips in all of the North Side. They're glazed with the tomato, honey and pineapple-based BBQ sauce, a light enough coat so it accents the star of the show, rather than drowns it. As for the star itself, the tips have a superb charred flavor reminiscent of a back yard cookout. Smoke-pinkened meat, a visual trait BBQ aficionados crave, goes beyond a ring of smoke in these tips -- it's infused with hickory smoke, and you can tell. And taste, too.

But to find the finest rib tips, your senses will invariably lead you to the South Side.

Uncle John's BBQ is a corner takeout joint in a residential area at 69th and Calumet. Although barely a year in business, pit master Mack Sevier, with his ever-present Kangol hat, is a grilling veteran. He spent a decade running the aquarium-style smoker at Barbara Ann's.

Sevier's secret is inside the pit: a trio of hickory, oak and marbury oak. The resulting smoke -- a masculine and saline perfume -- penetrates every morsel of hot link, slab rib and rib tip he serves.

The marriage of meat and smokiness is so sublime that adding their sweet and warm barbecue sauce, as good as it may be, would be superfluous, like inserting an extra harp into Beethoven's 9th. (If there's anything better at Uncle John's, it's No. 19 -- "Fresh Pork" -- a stunning smoked on-the-bone bacon.)

jellobee wrote:"different woods"...

while much has been written about the differing sweetness levels of various fruitwoods, methinks the ordinary human beezer is utterly incapable of discerning any odiferous application of burning hardwoods to their meats...

that is, unless, one chooses to burn off a noxious and bitter texas weed, otherwise known as mesquite.

regional caches' aside... ol' hickory will always come thru.

Head's Red BBQ wrote:are the tips cut up already? i find thsoe dry out easier than if you just cook the spare trimmings whole. I cook whole with rub ..then chop up and throw tips in foil pan with some sauce ..cover pan with foil and throw back on the smoker for awhile..i like my tips a bit more "gringo" than my ribs..

adipocere wrote:i was wondering if the moo & oink's were meatier.

adipocere wrote:

Head's Red BBQ wrote:are the tips cut up already? i find thsoe dry out easier than if you just cook the spare trimmings whole. I cook whole with rub ..then chop up and throw tips in foil pan with some sauce ..cover pan with foil and throw back on the smoker for awhile..i like my tips a bit more "gringo" than my ribs..

no they were whole. still have a couple pounds left!


jim

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Moo and Oink, the store, is gone.

Moo and Oink rib tips in the freezer section remains. Lewis Market on Grand (do not go to the on on Lewis) in Waukegan has a 10# box on sale for $12.99.

I will admit I am accustomed to buying this cut where I can look at the meat first. Encased in a box is not how I usually buy my pork products.

What has been people's experience using the boxed frozen rib tips?

While this is a retread of question of sorts, in the past those ribs were from the original purveyors. Same box, different owners may or may not affect the standards, whatever they may be.

Thanks!

Regards,

budrichard wrote:The little, 5#, piglets used in Spanish restaurants are simply not available here.
So much for US mass production!-Richard

Cathy2 wrote:I have cut my own tips when making St. Louis ribs. I have to admit, sometimes I like the rib tips more than the ribs, which is why boxed rib tips seem awfully attractive.

Regards,

budrichard wrote:I did find one pig farmer near Fox Lake Wisconsin on whose farm I hunted that saved 6 piglets from vaccination and sold me one but the processor he used skinned that piglet and at around 15 #'s was not suitable for my small pig desires. So I gave up!-Richard

jerryg wrote:I have been using "Aunt Bessies" rib tips for years and never been disapointed. Try Ultra foods for the 10 lb boxes.These are made up as slabs ,the only way to grill them.

Cathy2 wrote:I plan to smoke rib tips Friday for a program on Saturday.

G Wiv wrote:Proper size rolling papers are essential!

2-hours is unrealistic. 5 +- ballpark. Tips are done when the tip of a knife is easily inserted into flesh between cartilage

Leave whole to reheat, intact meat, be it ribs, tips or prime rib retains moisture better than cut.

G Wiv wrote:Start using your WSM more often, the more you use the fewer questions you will have.

Cathy2 wrote:I have a friend who has a WSM stored in his garage without once being used. He has lots of questions and never quite pulls the plug. The challenge of being a perfectionist!