Ed Wagner (9/17/2014)

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Sean Lange (9/17/2014)

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Greg Edwards-268690 (9/17/2014)

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Fine line with falling off the bone and a very slight tug off the bone but it comes off clean.

I can see where the 'one bite' can lead to sensory overload.

When you see them take a second bite, is the ones I'd like to try.

KC neighbor lives (and sometimes dies) by spare ribs.

I tend to like St. Louis cut on them a lot more - gets rid of the 'extras' so you can just eat.

We did a friendly contest last year.

Everyone said baby backs, he brought spare ribs.

Then got inventive with some kind of raspberry sauce.

He kind of died a bit that day - even his wife voted for someone else.

And didn't even cook in this year's event.

For those not having a smoker, but a grill, I find steaming baby backs in an oven (about 275 for about 3 hours), then finishing on the grill a good alternative.

Baking dish, rack to hold them above the water (or apple juice), with some liquid smoke and some tabasco, works well.

Cover dish with foil, and be sure to check the liquid hasn't boiled off once in awhile.

Works great in our cold winters, where my smaller smoker doesn't work very well.

Wow raspberry sauce does not sound great to me. But as I said earlier I don't like to put sauce on ribs. I want to taste the ribs. Also I consider sauce as a condiment, not an ingredient. Way too often I see bbq slathered in sauce which kills the awesome flavor of the bark. I have had many people come over ribs and say "I will try these without sauce but I usually like lots of sauce" to then hear them say "you are right, these don't need any sauce".

The two things I do not like about spares. They are really fatty and the big chunks of cartilage are just nasty.

The raspberry sauce doesn't sound good to me either. Then again, I don't really like the sweet sauces either. I'm with Sean on the rub...that's all you need. If you wanted to make sauced ribs, then I'd only do it as a glaze during the last 10 or 20 minutes of smoking. Any fruit-based sauce will have a much higher sugar content and anything longer than 20 minutes would cause all that sugar to caramelize too much. Caramelization is a good thing, but not at that level. I generally save any sauce as a dipping-type sauce on the table for those people who really need it. If smoked properly, I find that sauce isn't needed at all.

I don't do spare ribs at all. There's too much waste and not enough meat. The cartilage at the end is a complete waste. You're better off to go with a pork shoulder.

The next time I'm over at my friend's house, I'll get a picture of his smoker. It's quite an elaborate setup and produces fantastic BBQ. I can't do the smoked macaroni and cheese like he can because mine's powered by propane and gets too hot. Of course, he uses lots of heavy cream and several different cheeses and the fat does an amazing job of soaking up all that smokey flavor. Like most pitmasters (amateur and professional) he has his own rub mixture.