Expert: John Langenfelder - 4/9/2008

Question
I love the taste of beef ribs off of the bbq.  However, I find that they are very fatty, even after I par boil them in seasoned water for an hour prior to grilling.  Is there a trick I can do in order to match the restaurant type of beef rib that seems to be way less fatty?  Thanks for your help!!

Answer
parboiling???  did you keep the broth and throw the ribs away....

Restaurants are getting trimmed ribs.  Have you tried trimming some of the fat off?  By bbq, do you mean grilling them or slow-cooking (that's bbq).  Grilling them should cook off some of the fat?  Do you like them rare or more to medium/well-done.  Rare won't cook off much fat.

Do you buy choice or select ribs?  Choice ribs will normally have more marbling of fat, select (might well be what restaurants get) would contain less.  Why you may say?  Beef comes in 4 USDA grades: prime, choice, select and good.  choice and select is what you normally see at the grocery store.  If you don't see it marked then it wasn't graded by the USDA.  I believe that Safeway sells their own brand of meat with their own inspectors.  Beef is graded by the marbling of the fat content.  More marbling of fat (not necessarily more fat) yields a higher grade meat.  Select is generally less marbling of fat.  This may yield less fat on the ribs.
I hope this helps.