How to Clean and Prep Pork Ribs Before Smoking

Before you start smoking bbq ribs like spare ribs or baby back ribs a common question that you may ask yourself is “Should I wash these ribs first?” In fact, this is one of the most common questions I get from people who are new to grilling and smoking with a pellet grill. It’s a great question and I will dive into all the details in this article.

The short answer is NO! You do not have to clean ribs before smoking them in a pellet grill. In fact, the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) strongly recommends against washing meat, including ribs, before cooking.

This is a completely unnecessary step and can actually cross-contaminate surfaces and utensils in your kitchen. The USDA specifically states on its website “While washing meat and poultry to remove dirt, slime, fat or blood may have been appropriate decades ago when many slaughtered and prepared their own food, the modern food safety system doesn’t require it. Meat and poultry are cleaned during processing, so further washing is not necessary. Never use soaps or detergents on your meat or poultry products. They can contaminate your food with chemicals and make it unsafe to eat.” So listen to the USDA, no need to clean or wash pork ribs before smoking them on your pellet grill.

Dont Wash Your Ribs in Your Sink

If your ribs are frozen the first step is to defrost the ribs. Check out my article on How to Defrost Ribs for the quickest and easiest way to defrost ribs. If they are not frozen your first step is to take the ribs out of the packaging.

After you take your ribs out of the packaging, you may be tempted to run the rack under cold water in your sink. Maybe you have seen other people do this or you just think it’s a good way to get the residual liquid off the ribs before you place them on a cutting board or baking tray.

But if you wash ribs in your sink you can accidentally transfer any bacteria that is on the meat to your sink. Now you may be thinking if there are bacteria on the ribs, I don’t want to eat that. But cooking the ribs until they are done will kill bacteria that may be present in your food. However, if that bacteria is washed from the ribs onto your sink, the bacteria will live and multiply on your sink, since your sink is not going in the pellet grill.

How to Prep Ribs Instead of Cleaning

Now that you know that there is no need to clean ribs, let’s dig into the few steps needed to get your ribs ready for smoking on your pellet grill.

In the food industry, this is called prep. It involves all the steps to prepare a product, which is another food industry term that refers to a type of meat or vegetable that you are preparing to be cooked. In this case, we want to get our ribs from packing to the pellet grill.

All the steps in between are considered the prep.

Prep Step 1 – Open the package and drain the excess liquid

If the ribs you purchased are vacuum sealed in plastic wrap you will need to open the plastic and drain out any excess liquid from the packaging. Next, take the individual rack of ribs and place them on a large cutting board. Try to drain all liquid immediately down the sink drain or into your garbage to minimize cross-contamination.

Prep Step 2 – Pat Dry Both the Sides of the Ribs Dry with a Paper Towel

Use a few paper towels or a lint-free cloth to pat the ribs dry. Use the paper towel to remove any excess liquid from the meat side and the bone side of the ribs.

Prep Step 3- Remove the Rib Membrane

The membrane is a silvery white skin attached to the underside (bone side) of pork ribs. This membrane does not soften or render down when it’s cooked. It just comes out tough and chewy, like a sheet of plastic. Some people, including some famous pitmasters, don’t spend the time to do this step. I feel that it doesn’t take long and results in a better product, so I recommend that you always remove the membrane on pork ribs.

Check out my detailed How To Remove Pork Membrane From Ribs for an in-depth explanation and photos of this process.

In a nutshell, you need to pull the membrane off of the bones. The steps include the following:

1. Grab a few paper towels (paper towels are key) and a sharp knife

2. Use a paper towel to pat dry the bone side of the ribs so that their is no moisture on the rib membrane.

3. Start at one corner and try to separate a small bit of the thin silvery skin from the rib bones using the knife. You need to peel back just enough to get a firm grip with the fingers.

4. Use the paper towel to firmly grab onto the freed corner of the membrane. The paper towel will you give extra grip to hold onto the slippery membrane. Pull up and away on the membrane. Continue lifting the membrane to the opposite side of the ribs to completely remove the membrane. If you are lucky the entire piece of membrane came up. More than likely a portion still remains on the ribs and you will need to repeat the process.

5. Throw the membrane away.

This process really only applies to pork ribs including baby back and St Louis ribs. If you are interested in learning more about the various types of pork ribs check out my article Different Types of Pork Ribs – Everything You Need to Know

If you were smoking beef ribs, I would recommend that you keep the membrane on, but rather slightly trim it. Beef ribs are a little bit different than pork ribs, so you have to cook them for much longer. The meat on beef ribs shrinks much more than on pork ribs, and the membrane actually helps the meat stay on the bone. For beef ribs, most people tend to keep the membrane on.

This is mainly because beef ribs shrink a lot when smoked. The membrane actually helps to keep the meat on the bone rather than completely falling off. Read more about beef ribs and smoking beef ribs on a pellet grill in my article Beef Ribs – Everything You Need to Know.

Prep Step 4 – Trim the Ribs

Depending on the cut of pork ribs you purchased you may or may not have to trim away some excess fat and meat. If you bought a whole rack of ribs that were not processed or trimmed you will need to separate the rib tips and do a lot of trimming. But typically untrimmed ribs are much cheaper, so you can save a few bucks if you do the trimming yourself. Check out my article How to Trim Spare Ribs to learn how to do this. It’s not hard at all, and only takes a few minutes.

If you are working with baby back ribs there typically will not be any need to trim, as they are usually ready to put on the pellet grill right out of the package.

But if you are working with St Louis Ribs I recommend that you trim some of the fat on the meat side. Also, you should trim off one or two of the smallest bones, but not more than that. The meat between the last two bones is very thin and will just burn off during the cook leaving a charred end that is not edible.

There also may be a flap of some skin and cartilage on the bone side of the ribs that you can trip off. This is another small portion that will burn during the cook and is will not be edible, so trim it off.

Prep Step 5 – Apply the Rub

At this point, you can apply a dry rib before they go on the smoker. Now that your ribs are prepped you can follow any of the rib recipes you have been dying to try. You can get creative and add any spices or dry rub to create a unique and delicious flavor. I also always like to add a binder like mustard or olive oil to the ribs before adding a dry rub. Check out my No Wrap Ribs or Honey Garlic Rib Recipe.

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