Spare Ribs...Competition Style

Let me toot my own horn for a second when I say I have gotten really good at cooking ribs.  However, I am constantly looking for a bit of a challenge.  I have read a lot about peoples experiences with competition ribs and what is involved with making ribs look as good as they taste.  One of the common practices amongst competition bbq'ers is trimming the ribs. This is done to make the ribs look perfectly rectangular when done.  When trimming spare ribs you end up with a nice hunk of meat trimmings that cook just as well as the ribs.  I decided to give trimming a shot with my most recent rib cook.

Prep:
After removing the membrane for the slabs, I cut off the sternum bone and rib tips leaving a nice rectangular slab of ribs.  I rubbed the ribs and tips with Conecuh pork rub MBH bought be and then cut the slabs in half.



Trimmed and ready for some rub.



Cooking:
I set the egg up for indirect cooking at 225º and used soaked apple wood chips for smoke.  I place the halved slabs on the lambda rack and employed the 3-1-1 cooking method as I have previously.  I employed the same method for the rib tips. After the ribs and tips were done cooking I let them rest for an hour and a half before cutting into more manageable groupings for serving.


I don't know why but it will only let me post the meat tower pic this way. (weak)



Served up.



Though it is not easy to see here, the ribs had a pretty decent smoke ring.
I might throw in a wood chunk next time to get an even more well-defined smoke ring.



I added a little Williamson Bros BBQ sauce and enjoyed some baked beans.



Notes:
Next attempt at competition ribs will require a bit more of a challenge.  One of the presentation techniques used is to ensure the entire slab of ribs is intact.  This means I will have to lose the safety net of the lambda rack and halved slabs for the full slab flipping method.  Look forward to a post on this in the near future.  In all, the ribs were very good.  The tips were excellent as well and some favored them over the ribs.  Maybe one day I will be good enough to enter a BBQ competition...one day.