GRADES PF RIBS

Pork is not graded like beef. Where pork is concerned, fresh is best. I prefer spare ribs to babybacks. I think babybacks have benefitted from better marketing. I just bought some spares today and plan to "test" them Sunday evening about 6:30pm EST. I prefer light colored spares, which I assume has to do with their diet. I've found the darker spares from local producers to be a little dryer and stringy sometimes. The spares I buy usually come from Smithfield and are very consistent.

For me, and this is me, BB's have just gotten too out of line on price. When I see BB list for 5/6/7 per PD, then it's ridiclious. And I look at them and see they don't have much meat.

For me, to learn to cook, you're better off going with spares. They will take longer, but you get more meat for the price.

Just look for the "sell by" date. They're probably trying to move them out before the super bowl.

Eventually, you can smoke both BB and Spares and you decide which you like.