Oven Baked St Louis Style BBQ Ribs Recipe / Video

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This simple and easy oven baked bbq St Louis ribs recipe is easy to cook and delicious. Bake St Louis ribs in the oven at 250F for ~ 4 hours covered for incredibly tender ribs.

St. Louis Ribs Baked In BBQ sauce on a wood plate with an orange napkin.

St Louis style Ribs are a tough cut of meat. They need to be cooked for a long time (low and slow)in the oven to make them tender.

There is no way to cook st Louis ribs fast. The good news is that this St. Louis ribs recipe is super duper easy to prepare and to cook in the oven.

How To Cook St Louis Ribs In The Oven

If you know that your oven runs cooler than normal then raise the baking temperature of the St Louis style ribs to 275F. Conversely, if your oven runs hot, drop the baking temperature of the ribs to 225F.

Preheat oven to 250F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up.
Add a baking rack over the sheet pan to elevate the ribs. This is optional and allows the fat to drip off instead of cooking the ribs in it.
Remove pork membrane from bony side of ribs if applicable (see notes below).
Sprinkle ribs with seasonings and place on baking rack/sheet bone side up.
Cover ribs tightly with aluminum foil for 3 ½ -4 hours or until very tender.
Take St Louis ribs out, flip, and slather with bbq sauce
Bake uncovered an additional 20-30 minutes or until BBQ sauce is browning, bubbling, and caramelizing.

Because St Louis ribs take so long to bake / cook in the oven they should be covered tightly with aluminum foil for the majority of the time so they don't dry out.

Whole rack of ribs upside down cooked with bones stickiing out on a baking sheet and elevated rack with aluminum foil underneath. — *Whole cooked rack of ribs getting ready to be flipped and slathered in bbq sauce and put back in the oven.*

How To Remove The Membrane From St Louis Ribs

Pull any fat off the St Louis spare ribs that easily comes off with your fingers. If you can’t pull it off then it supposed to be there! Peel off any tough membrane - this is different than the fat, it's also called silver skin and is inedible.

The membrane is located on the bony side of the St. Louis ribs. Sometimes the butcher has already done this part.

The easiest way to pull the membrane off is to grab a couple paper towels or an old (but clean) dish rag. Grab a loose section or cut through the ribs silver skin (also known as the membrane). Grab an edge and give it a slow and steady yank.

Don't understand what the membrane is or having trouble pulling the membrane off the bony side of the St Louis spare ribs or don't know what I'm talking about? Watch the video above or skip taking it off all together. You've probably ate around it plenty of times or pulled it off after it was cooked.

If you want to watch a video of a successful and unsuccessful membrane "pull", check out my baby back rib video of how to get it off or when to leave it on.

3 pieces of bbq ribs of about 2 ribs each with bbq sauce baked on top on a dark green cutting board with napkins.

The Difference Between St Louis Ribs & Baby Back Ribs

St Louis pork ribs are below baby back ribs, near the pork belly. They are the "inside ribs". The bones are bigger and flatter than smaller baby back ribs which are located near the top of the ribs by the loin / spine / back. I like to call the baby back ribs "the outside ribs".

St Louis ribs also have a little more fat and flavor than baby backs. Baby back ribs are a little more tender, leaner, and therefore cost more cash.

Lastly, St Louis ribs take a little bit longer to cook than baby back ribs. But to be clear, ribs both need a long time to cook / bake / grill.

St Louis style ribs are meatier and tender but not falling off the bone like baby back ribs - you get to use your teeth a bit more to bite into the tenderness.

Crockpot St Louis Style Ribs Option

Don't want to mess with cooking St Louis ribs in the oven? Cut the rack in half or thirds to fit in the crockpot. Throw the ribs and sauce in a crock-pot. Set on low for 8 hours.

Oven Baked St Louis Ribs Recipe FAQ

How long do I cook St. Louis Style Ribs for?

Cook St. Louis Ribs for 3 ½ - 4 hours in the oven or until tender. Some ovens will have the ribs tender and ready at 3 ½ hours. Some ovens will take 4 hours.

What temperature do I cook St. Louis Style Ribs at in the oven?

Cook St. Louis Ribs at 250F

Do St Louis Style Pork Ribs Have A Membrane?

Yup. See the section above and / or watch the video in this recipe.

Does the Membrane need to be Removed From St Louis Ribs?

Not necessarily. Watch my video on how to take the membrane off. Don't worry about it if it doesn't come off easily or you don't know how. Plenty of restaurants skip this step anyway.

Where is this "so called" Pork Rib Membrane?

It's the filmy silver skin on the bony side of the rib. It's tough to chew. If you don't remove it before cooking, you will probably see it and pull it off after cooking.

Should St Louis ribs be covered when cooked / baked in the oven?

Because ribs take so long to bake / cook in the oven they should be covered tightly with aluminum foil so they don't dry out.

Oven Baked BBQ St Louis Ribs

Print Recipe

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5 from 6 reviews

EatSimpleFood.com

This bbq St. Louis style spare ribs recipe is easy to cook and delicious. Bake St. Louis ribs covered in the oven at 250F for 4 hours.

Author: beckie
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 5 minutes
Yield: 6
Category: Appetizer, Dinner, Main Dish
Method: Baking, Oven, Slow Cooking
Cuisine: American
Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten Free, Keto, Low-Carb, Paleo

Ingredients

Ingredient List Ribs:

4 lb St Louis Style Pork Ribs
1 teaspoon tsp garlic salt
½ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup + BBQ Sauce or ingredients below to make it yourself

Ingredients List Barbecue sauce (or you can buy some). In a pot add:

1 ½ cup ketchup
1 ½ tablespoon brown sugar
1 ½ tablespoon sharp or dijon mustard
½ cup whiskey
⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup soy sauce
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (you can add more if you like it hotter)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 250F.

For the sauce:

Use a store bought bbq sauce (My favorite, hands down, is Sweet Baby Ray's Original) or combine all the BBQ sauce ingredients above in a pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, and cook uncovered ~ 30 minutes or until sauce is reduced & thickened (it will continue to thicken as it cools). Stir occasionally so it doesn’t burn.

For the St Louis ribs:

Pull any fat off the pork ribs that easily comes off with your fingers (if you can’t pull it off then it supposed to be there!). Peel off any tough membrane that is on the bony side of the ribs if it’s not done already (see video in post).
Lightly sprinkle ribs with garlic salt, onion powder, and black pepper.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place ribs (bone side up; meat side down) on a baking rack over the sheet (so the ribs aren't sitting in grease).
Cover with aluminum foil and bake ribs in the oven ~ 3 ½ -4 hours or until ribs are very tender.
Take ribs out. Flip and slather with barbecue sauce.
Bake uncovered an additional 20-30 minutes or until BBQ sauce is boiling and brown. Turn on broiler if needed, but watch carefully that it doesn't burn.

Notes

Don't have time for all that? Throw it in a crock-pot with BBQ sauce and set on low for 8 hours.
Don't understand what the membrane is? Skip taking it off, most people skip it anyway.

Things In My Kitchen:

Crock-pot - 6 quarts, programmable, affordable, and comes with a 2 cup "dipper" to keep your dip/sauces warm.
Silicone basting brush - Get the large. Heat resistant to 600F, cleans easy, doesn't clump.
12 x 17 jelly roll baking sheet – I use this for practically everything that goes in my oven. Great price and a 2 pack.

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What My Man Says

"This St. Louis ribs recipe is ridiculously easy and even if you change it up a bit, or don't follow it perfectly, the ribs will come out tasting great!"

"I tried to take off the membrane, but either it wasn't there (e.g. maybe the butcher took it off already?), or I didn't do it right, because nothing came off. I followed Beckie's advice not to worry about it, and nobody complained when they were devouring the ribs 😉 "

"My ribs were smaller - only 2½ pounds - but I didn't adjust the cooking time. The end result was absolutely delicious!"

Serving Suggestion

You could go light, with grilled corn on the cob, a corn and tomato salad, or cole slaw, or you could go big and serve oven baked St. Louis ribs with a delicious egg and potato salad. Enjoy!