Memorial Day’s Weekend: Prepping Brisket and Spare ribs

Brisket is the lower part of cow’s chest. Usually brisket is cooked using smoking method, or roasting inside an oven.  The brisket we were cooking this Memorial weekend was a brisket flat.  I could not find a whole brisket at my Sam’s Club, they only had the brisket flat. So, brisket flat we got.

Since the meat is relatively huge compared to a regular size steak, it is recommended that you season the brisket the day before you plan on cooking it.

We started by trimming some of the fat cap on top of the brisket. You want to leave in about ¼ inch thick of fat on the brisket. You want the fat to render during smoking, and the flavor of the fat to be absorbed into the meat.

My hubby tried this the last time we did brisket, and he decided that he likes using mustard as a tenderizer, as well as helping the seasoning to stick onto the meat. So we squirted some mustard onto the brisket.

Then the massage parlor was opened. Rub and smear the mustard all over.  Anybody interested trying this massage parlor?

Then, flip the brisket and do the other side.  Same here, squirt some more mustard.

And rub a dub dub…

Then get your Brisket rub, and pour some on the brisket. Don’t by shy, you will need a lot of this rub.

Smear the rub all over the brisket.

Flip it over, and pour some more rub.

Smear the rub again.

Then, you are done! Easy right?

Now wrap your brisket, and put it away on your refrigerator shelf.

Next we were ready to prepare the spare ribs.  With the spare ribs, you might have to do some extra work.

See how beautiful this rack of spare ribs looks? Spare ribs is just the rib cage of an animal called pig. So, don’t think about Ms. Piggy here when you are messing with spare ribs. Turn off those tender instincts. You’re dealing with food here, not Ms. Piggy.

Now turn the ribs over, and you see there is some shiny white membrane on the ribs.  This is called membrane.  Ha… Some people smoke ribs with membrane as is, some people remove them.  We are the latter group.  Membrane makes it tough to eat and you kinda have to fight with it and also prevents the seasoning from getting into the meat.  So, to prevent any caps coming off and you have to go to a dentist to get it glued back on, we removed them.

Now get a butter knife. At the edge of the ribs, right between two ribs, start shimmying your butter knife and try to get your butter knife under the membrane.

Once you got your knife under the membrane, work your way through to the upper part of the ribs, while detaching the membrane from the rib.

Once you are able to remove the membrane to the outer edge, grab a paper towel, hold the membrane with the paper towel, and start pulling the membrane off the ribs. The paper towel just gives you traction. The membrane was slippery as an eel, not that I ever touched an eel. It just sounds good. 🙂

Check out this video, this was how I learned to de-membrane ribs.

Now, the same deal as with the brisket. We used mustard to make sure the seasoning sticks to the ribs. We squirted the mustard on one side.

Sprinkle the rib rub.

Flip it over, squirt some more mustard on the other side.

Sprinkle the rib rub a dub dub…

Then you are done! Wrap it in plastic, and put it in the refrigerator and let the magic work!