Need help with Baby Back Ribs 2837

jmcquown

The fascination came about when restaurants found that they could turn out this modified cut of rib almost 3X faster than the traditional spare rib. Not only that, but a baby back rib requires no extra handling by way of trimming. It wasn't more than a few decades ago that the babyback (aka loinback) was a throw away with very little demand. But, with quite a bit of restaurant industry hype --- and the adoption of the term "babyback" --- what was once a throwaway started to become thought of as the caviar of the bbq world by customers wanting "BBQ". This hype then spilled over to the backyard grill wizard who, like a lot of us consumers, will believe the hype.

As it stands, the restaurant industry buys up over 98% of the babyback rib production. The premium cost of babybacks is driven by that demand. I personally don't like to sell babybacks at my bbq joint 'cause the customer will get 30 to 40% less meat than with the same order of spare rib (quarter slab plate, half slab plate, or a full slab). As a business owner, I love to sell baby backs because I make up to 50% more from the customer, than if they were to order spare ribs. What's hilarious is that despite letting the customer know all this, the less knowledgeable (you know the type, they're the ones that think Tony Roma and Applebees are the gold standard for ribs) still want the babybacks. I give 'em what they want. Interestingly, the ratio of babybacks to spares is decreasing. I'm ordering far fewer cases of raw babybacks than when we first opened. But we have quadrupled the number of cases of spares that I order each week.

Dave www.davebbq.com