Pastrami St. Louis Cut Ribs

Feb 19 2016

When I saw this recipe at Bon Appetit, I knew I had to try it. I love pastrami but never thought of trying it with pork ribs. I was waiting on a nice day to come along to try these. It was about 60 deg. today but sure was windy, gusts to 44 mph. I think the wind finally settled down some at 12:00 AM.

I changed the rub and the cooking method; if you want to check out the original recipe it is at bonappetit.com courtesy of Vine Street Cafe, NY.

Most all the meat I get comes from my butcher and is from local beef and pork. His spare ribs are just that, spare, he does not leave much meat on them. I wanted some more meat on these so bought some St. Louis Cut spare ribs by Tyson from Walmart. They had a 7% salt and water solution added so they are really brined. The rack was 4.5 pounds.

Late Thursday afternoon I rinsed the ribs and dried well. I cut the flap meat off and pulled the membrane. I cut a couple of ribs off to square them up. I added the rub to both sides; a little lighter on the bone side. I had them on a sheet pan and covered well with plastic wrap and in the fridge overnight.

I was having some twice baked potatoes and slaw for my sides. I was afraid the wife and daughter would think the ribs were too hot with the pepper so I did some bone in country style ribs. I used Penzey's Galena St. rub and some sweet BBQ sauce on them.

I made up my slaw at noon so it had time to meld the flavors. It was kind of a cross between Billy Merril's recipe with my touch.

I got my Traeger fired up at 195 deg. And got the ribs and flap meat on at 1:00 PM. Grill level was at 210 deg.

2:00 added the Country style ribs and went to 225 deg. grill level.

3:00 double wrapped the St. Louis ribs in foil and went to 250 to 260 deg. grill level.

4:30 unwrapped the ribs and went to 275 deg. grill level

5:00 sauced the St. Louis and the country ribs.

5:20 Sauced the St. Louis ribs and flipped and sauced the country ribs. Went to 300 deg. grill level.

6:00 all was done so pulled and took inside to serve.

While the ribs were cooking I baked six potatoes with potato rods in my induction oven at 350 deg. for one hour. I cut off the tops and scooped out the potato, added about 6 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, mashed and added back to the skins. At 5:30 I added some shredded 4 state cheddar to all and bacon to 3 of them. They went into a 320 deg. oven until I brought the ribs in.

It was good, the wife and daughter didn't think the pastrami ribs were too hot but only ate one and had one of the country ribs. I thought the pastrami ribs were good, something different, I would do them again maybe not real soon; but it was a new adventure in having something different!

Click Here for printable recipe

For the rub

The ribs

Flap meat trimmed and membrane pulled

Rub on bone side

Rub on meat side

Wrapped for the fridge

After 2 hours

Potatoes ready for the oven

All done

Resting a bit

My supper