Our Ribs
Howdy.
Here's the scoop on how Jaymer-Que does ribs. If you like what you read, then please come try them.
Untitled from jaymer jaymer on Vimeo.
Preparation: We use an untrimmed spare rib, not a St. Louis trimmed rib. It results in more meat for you. We do not use a small "Danish" or true Baby Back rib... those are by definition less than 1.5 or 1.75 lbs for each rack. We use a Loin Back rib which is usually around 2.4 - 2.5 lbs minimum for each rack. We score the membrane on Spares and leave it in place for Babys.
Seasoning: We make our own dry rub out of 10 spices or so and liberally coat the tops (meat side) of our Spare ribs so this seasoning melts into the rib during its 4-5 hour cooking process. This "regular rub" is what gets used every day for Spares but Babys get extra speacial treatment. There is always a set of Babys that have regular rub on them, and then we try to vary the remainder so you have some variety to select from. It changes daily, so ask us what flavors of Baby Backs we have left when you visit or call. For people getting whole racks, we like to offer "half n half" -- so you can try 2 different rubs -- we'll give you 6 bones from each flavor to make up your whole rack. Variety is the spice of life!
Wood: We usually use Hickory but as of mid March 2010, we are using some Pecan as I have a big load of hickory getting seasoned.
Sauce: Over the past 5 years we have not sauced our ribs, but I found a championship sauce that we are buying (one that has won Grand Championships at BBQ contests) and we are saucing a few ribs each day. Check with the meat table to see whats available. Personally, I never liked getting my fingers all messy and sticky eating ribs, but this new product is incredible, so I hope you'll give it a try. Disclosure: Jaymer-Que has always maintained that "we don't sauce our meat" and we allow the customer to add their own sauce. Our plates are not served "smothered" in sauce to cover up the flavor of the meat... in most cases, our food doesn't need sauce... period! But you are free to select our homemade Mild, Zesty or Sweet sauce to accompany your meal. (As of Nov. 2010, I'm not using that sauce any longer. Ribs are back to Dry Rub only.)
Availability: Baby Back Ribs are more expensive to purchase than spares AND they are more lean. They don't hold up to reheating as well as the more marbled Spares do. For that reason, we generally (like 99% of the time) DO NOT SELL reheated Baby Back Ribs. Yes, customers have come in and purchased (usually at a discount) "pre cooked" Babys, but thats only because we blew through the fresh batch so quickly we needed to offer something in their place. We have Babys on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights only. Thursday is VERY limited qty. If I don't sell a rack of Babys, I lose money cause I don't sell that rib tomorrow, so we intend on selling out Babys each night. Spares are available all the time.
Reheat: Spare ribs, on the other hand, are reheated each day for lunch. A spare rib is perfectly suited to heat in an oven wrapped in foil. In fact, you can purchase our ribs cold to reheat yourself on Sundays or away at a special event. I'm not sure I'm aware of a BBQ restaurant that cooks spare ribs fresh each morning for lunch... since they have to be ready at 11am, you mean someone is coming in to load up ribs at 6am? I doubt it, but it may be possible, but not neccessary. Fresh Spares come off the pit daily around 4:30pm... sometimes earlier, sometimes later.
Bottom line is that we cook ribs with LOVE and with a purpose... to make a great product for you, the customer. We're not boiling, steaming or par-baking the ribs. We think we make ribs the way you'd cook them for your own backyard BBQ. Hope you'll come give us a try.