Swift Premium Baby Back Ribs

Product: Pork Loin Back Ribs
Manufacturer: Swift Premium
Price: ~$3.69/lb

So back in September or October of 2013, I ventured into the wonderful world of smoking...BBQ smoking, not cigarette smoking! Those days are long behind me...

Anyway, I started smoking because I inexplicably wanted to go back to grilling with charcoal, after years of using a standard propane gas grill. And after grilling with charcoal for a while, you get tired of just cooking steaks. I wanted to venture out to larger meats...and ribs! Long story short, after making my own mini Weber Smokey Mountain (mini WSM), I bought my first bona fide smoker, the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain. What a beast.

Now, whenever I host my friends for dinner or for a get-together, I'm always cooking ribs on that thing. I love ribs. I don't know what it is about it, I just can't have enough. But as an unexpected effect of making my own ribs, I can't order them in restaurants anymore. My own ribs taste so much better! I don't think it's necessarily due to my recipe or anything like that. But most places don't put in the care to smoke properly (or at all) and put in the prep work necessary for juicy, flavorful ribs. So I'll always prefer my own ribs over anything served at a restaurant.

When you think ribs, most people don't realize that there are two different types of pork ribs. The first is baby back ribs, or loin back ribs. These ribs are located towards the back of the rib cage. They have plenty of meat on them, but they tend to be leaner and are very easy to dry out during the cooking process. The other type of ribs is the spare rib. These ribs are located more towards the front and bottom of the ribcage. Most spare ribs are cut into "St. Louis style" spare ribs, with this style served in many BBQ joints. Without going much further with the innuendos of pork ribs, I'll just end this portion stating my preference for baby back over spare ribs. Yeah, others say spare ribs have more fat, tastes better, but I just can't get over the bits of cartilage and bone in spare ribs. When I bite into my ribs, I just want meat.

Typically, in my novice few months of smoking, I've purchased my ribs from Smart n' Final. Specifically, I mosey on over to the Farmer John's brand and give it a go. I know Costco's meat quality is usually above average. Their beef is USDA Choice and above. But I have no idea how to select quality pork meat. So far, Farmer John's has done me no wrong. Then I was at Costco the other day and noticed their ribs.

Under the Swift Premium label, Costco sells both baby back ribs and St. Louis style spare ribs. They're a little bit on the pricey end here in Southern California (running over $3.50/lb) but that's just Costco for you. I picked up the baby back cryo-pack and noticed they come 3 racks to a pack. And let me tell you, these are BIG racks. I normally get racks that are ~2.5lbs each. The 3-rack package was over 10 lbs. That's well over 3lbs each. You usually don't want racks to be too big for a number of reasons. For me, smaller racks allow the spices to penetrate better and flavor is more consistent bone-to-bone.

Despite the larger size, these ribs turned out to be quite tasty. The meat itself came out a little darker than what I'm used to with Farmer John's. Not sure why that happened. And as stated above, these larger racks had chunks of meat that didn't allow much of the seasoning to penetrate through.

I can't say that I'll exclusively deal with Costco for my ribs, seeing how local markets tend to have sales every now and then. And with the summer BBQ season right around the corner, I expect many of these local vendors to have specials very soon. So, I don't see myself buying ribs from Costco, unless it's during the off-season and I'm cooking for a group. One thing I will give to Costco though...their ribs come with the membrane already off. That's a bit of a plus in my book.

Check out the amount of meat on the rack in the back!

Beef Ribeye Steaks

Product: Beef Ribeye Steaks
Manufacturer: Kirkland Signatures
Price: ~$8.99/lb.

I love steak. I love grilling. At heart, I'm a charcoal guy, but for year-round grilling convenience, I use the Weber Q that my wife bought for me last Christmas. And as an annual tradition for my family, we had some nice Christmas steak for our holiday dinner.

If you've never bought steak meat at Costco before, I highly recommend it. It can be intimidating, I know. I mean, there's so...much...meat... But if you're cooking for a crowd, or want to freeze some for later, Costco is the way to go. What's so great about buying meat from Costco is not just the selection, or the amount of meat, but the quality as well.

Costco primarily serves up USDA Choice beef. Along the USDA rating scale, only "prime" rated beef is better. Sure, USDA Choice can be found in most supermarkets as well, but, trust me, there's a world of difference in taste and quality between Costco's and supermarket's USDA Choice offerings. First of all, Costco's meat looks fresh. The kind you find at supermarkets aren't as thick, and they have that unnatural "pink" color, most likely produced by pumping the meat with carbon monoxide. Again, trust me in that if you want good steak for grilling, go with Costco. The marbling and flavor are so much better...

So for my holiday steak dinner, I decided to purchase a four-steak pack. Learning from previous dinners, I knew not everyone can finish a whole steak so I opted to cut the steaks in half. My family would then be able to enjoy their dinner without meat overload...which I personally don't have a problem with. With the original size of the steaks as they are, no one would have complained with half cuts.

When I prepare my steaks, I like to use a dry rub. I don't bother with fancy marinades or beer soaks. Just some kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, maybe some other seasonings, minced garlic, and olive oil. That's it. The trick to good steak is how you grill it anyways. I would have also included pictures of how they turned out (they turned out fabulous, by the way) but we ate them too fast. Heh.