membrane on ribs

[Smoker Tom]

I bet you are right on, I believe that Frank has talked to him in person. And said he is pretty allright.

[alleyrat58]

Myron's book is really good also. I think you get a good feel for what he is like in person from the book. I think he is intimidating but from all accounts of anyone who has ever talked to him, he is open and helpful - except on a comp Saturday morning, but hey - I'm not very nice then either

[Rick]

GUILTY! - see politician thread ...

[GvilleDave]

On the topic of membrane removal - Does removing the membrane cause the ribs to fall apart if they are being hung from a hook in a vertical smoker? I see the wisdom in removing but always thought the membrane helped keep my ribs from becoming a pile at the bottom of a vertical smoker...

[SoloQue]

There are actually two layers of skin, I try to always leave the transparent bottom layer behind. I do this just because I read somewhere quite a while back that the inner layer does in fact help secure the bones. I think a person would have to be pretty intentional if they wanted to remove that inner layer as well when taking off the outter silver membrane.

[Frank_Cox]

There are actually two layers of skin, I try to always leave the transparent bottom layer behind. I do this just because I read somewhere quite a while back that the inner layer does in fact help secure the bones. I think a person would have to be pretty intentional if they wanted to remove that inner layer as well when taking off the outter silver membrane.

a lot of meat would come off as well if you tried to remove the second layer.

[alleyrat58]

On the topic of membrane removal - Does removing the membrane cause the ribs to fall apart if they are being hung from a hook in a vertical smoker? I see the wisdom in removing but always thought the membrane helped keep my ribs from becoming a pile at the bottom of a vertical smoker...

I generally cook spares (trimmed down to St. Louis cut) and I cook them until they are just past done. In my experience, as the ribs cool they will tighten up a bit leaving me with a competition perfect rib. (my scores disagree with the competition perfect part of that...) Most of the time if I am not careful handling the ribs they will fall apart on me. I couldn't imagine hanging them from a hook and having them stay together.

That said, I think it has less to do with the membrane and more to do with the general tenderness of the ribs, but, of course, I have never left the membrane on either.

[k.a.m.]

Baby backs yes spares Hmmmmm. Sometimes