Well it was a while back but I posted about how to remove the silver lining off baby back ribs. I always found this extremely difficult until I figured out what I was doing wrong. I usually buy my meat at Costco but for some reason I bought some at Sams club and it came off effortlessly. The next time I was at Costco I spoke with a butcher and he informed me that their baby backs come with the membrane already removed and what was there was an inner lining. So for those buying babybacks at Costco, no need to remove as it has already been done. Or at least, that is what they told me.

Hmmmmm - I'd probably still pull it. I buy all my ribs at Costco (NJ) and I don't know if the membrane I remove is an "inny" or "outy", but I remove it anyway! It's thick enough that I feel it would stop anything (smoke, rub, sauce, etc.) from permeating the meat. I run a knife under the end (small pointed end), then pull it off with a paper towel, comes off very easily. I'm on the way up to my store in ten minutes, I'll question the butcher there. But if I recall, they also sell vacuum packs of the ribs (Swift brand), and I was told all they do is open the packages and rewrap in their own shrink wrap - no trimming, membrane pulling or whatever. Of course - this practice could vary store to store, or maybe region to region.

Thanks for sharing.

By the way - how do you compare Sam's ribs vs. Costco? Better or worse? Fattier, leaner, tighter trim? Taste? TIA!

Mike

The ones I have been getting are a 3 pack that are still packaged under the swift brand. I would have to say that the Sams are on par with the Costco or at least my results when smoking have been similar. I have tried to remove the membrane on the Costcos and just can't for the life of me get it to separate.

The ribs at my costco usually has the membrane already removed.

-Tom