Rib tips....what do you do with them?

I know MANY people love them but personally I dislike them and only use them to test new rubs on. I wouldn't serve them to my family or friends. They're too tough (think pig brisket) with too much cartilage and fat to make them edible, IMO. The ribs are the show so I trim off the tips and toss them. If I made sausage I would keep them but I don't so unless I have a rub to test out, into the bin they go.
I know some teams that cut them up and feed them to the peoples choice crowd. I'd never feed people something under my team banner that I'd never eat myself.

Other than sausage, what do you do with your rib tips?

Cured overnight, smoked and gave to the cafeteria lady. She chopped them up and put in a big vat of ham and beans..

I'm with you, not worth the work to do anything with them. They do make our Labs very happy though.........

My Queensland Healer loves them, but I'm with Scooter, the ribs are the show and I always have plenty.

Hmmm, this has the makings of a really good topic

I guess I'm opposite on this because I like them just as well as the St. Louis trimmed rib section.

They are part of the rib, so I cook them up same as the ribs. Sometimes I'll save them until I have 5 or 6 tip sections then cook them up. Sometimes I don't even trim them off and just leave the spareribs their full length. They always seem to disappear just as quickly as the St. Louis cut ribs.

Squirt's idea of curing and smoking them for beans is another use for them I never thought of. I like that idea a lot so its now on my list!

Toss them in the trash....

They do make great sausage. We do that about 1/2 the time...

But you are looking at them in the wrong light. Instead of saying "they arent good, so I dont serve them...." Sounds to me like a mission to figure out how to make them awesome.

Think about a brisket... takes tons of time to cook one and make it yummy. Why not give the rib tips a little love and make it a mission to learn how to cook them and make them outstanding? We tackled the rib tips last weekend in our class with a similar mission.

Here is a quote from someone that posted about my classes last weekend: "... The final class of the day was the rib class where he blew me away with how good his rib tips were using just a simple rub (can't remember if it was Plowboys YB or Cimeron Docs). His comp. ribs were good but not spicy enough for me and too sweet. I'm going to try to cook a slab next time combining my Slow Burn pig candy recipe and his technique. Way too hot for comps I realize, but then again, I am not a comp. cook..."

I bet if you took those rib tips as a challenge you would come up with some awesome stuff

I asked the guy who got my 'brake job ribs' (he got a bunch of tips as well - and more today), and he said his wife tosses them in the crock pot before she leaves for school, then pulls them that evening and uses the meat for smoked pork fajitas.

Another great thing to do with them, is plop them into a pot of marinara, and let them braise until they fall off the bone. Tender and delicious that way too.

Andy, can you share how you cooked your tips in the class? I understand if you can't, just askin.

I just remembered I had this pic.

Here's some of the rib tips from the http://www.pelletsmoking.com/pellet...-onion-bourbon-peach-ribs-moms-day-1702/Onion:

Scooter, no magic. They have alot more fat in them, so you have to cook them longer. (which is why we all like to cut them off our spares, so they cook evenly!) Kinda like a brisket point, that you put back on to continue cooking... you need to let the rib tips continue to cook. I usually let them run at 250 for 4-5 hrs then wrap. once they are soft and the fat is like jello, off to the grill they go for a quick hit finish. If I dont mind about adding more time, I just let them run.... unwraped. dry crispy outside, soft juicy inside. Delish!

When we cater if the customers are drinking we use rib tips for the guys that hang around the smoker
A trip to Flavor town as Guy would say