Pork ribs

Pork ribs are a type of food dish popular in North America and Asian cuisine. Pork and bones from a pig's ribcage are cooked by smoking (cooking), grilling, or baking together (usually with a sauce, primarily barbecue sauce), and then served.

Cuts of pork ribs

There are several different types of ribs available, depending on the section of rib cage from which they are cut. Variation in the thickness of the meat and bone as well as levels of fat in each cut can alter the flavor and texture of the prepared dish.

Baby back ribs

Baby back ribs, sometimes called loin ribs or simply back ribs, are taken from the top of the rib cage between the spine and the spareribs, below the loin muscle. They have meat between the bones and are shorter but meatier than spareribs. The rack is shorter at one end, due to the natural tapering of a pig's rib cage. The shortest bones are typically only about 3" (7.6 cm) and the longest is usually about 6" (15.2 cm), depending on the size of the hog. Whilst a pig has 15 ribs, a rack of baby back ribs contains a minimum of 8 ribs but can include up to 15 ribs depending on how it has been prepared by the butcher.

Spare ribs

Spare ribs are taken from the belly side of the rib cage, below the section of back ribs and above the sternum (breast bone). Spareribs contain more bone than meat and also quite a bit of fat which can make the ribs more tender than back ribs. St. Louis Style spareribs are spareribs where the sternum bone, cartilage and rib tips have been removed. Kansas City style ribs are trimmed even more closely than the St. Louis style ribs, and have the hard bone removed.

The origin of the name “spare ribs” is not clear. Charles Perry of the Los Angeles Times has suggested: "In 17th century England, spareribs were also called spear-ribs or even ribspare, a clear tipoff that this wasn't a native English word. It was borrowed from the German rippespeer, which is smoked pork loin."[1]

An alternative explanation is that these ribs are ‘spare’ in the sense that they are a secondary set of ribs branching off the primary set of ribs, which are attached directly to the pig’s spine.

Rib tips

Rib tips are short, meaty sections of rib that are attached to the lower end of the spareribs, close to the pork belly. Unlike back ribs or spareribs, the structure of the rib is provided by dense cartilage and not bone. Rib tips are cut away from the spareribs when preparing St. Louis Style spareribs.

Other cuts & preparations

Button Ribs

Button ribs are flat, circular shaped bones located at the sirloin end of the loin. They are not actually ribs, as they are not taken from the rib cage. The button ribs consist of the last 4 to 6 bones on the backbone that do not have actual ribs connected to them. The meat on the button ribs consists of meat that covers each rib and connects them together.

Country style ribs

Country style ribs are cut from the blade end of the loin closest to the pork shoulder. They are meatier that other rib cuts, but also higher in fat.

Riblets

Riblets are prepared by butchers by cutting a full set of spare ribs approximately in half. This produces a set of short, flat ribs where the curved part of the rib is removed.

McRib Sandwich

The McDonald's McRib sandwich was introduced in 1981. It is an oblong shaped, boneless pattie formed from ground pork meat. The patty is pressed on the top to resemble a slab of ribs. It was removed from the menu in 1985, but it has been provided temporarily on various occasions since then.

Pork Ribs in popular culture

In the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the character Fat Bastard sings part of the advertising jingle for Chili's Baby Back Ribs: "I want my baby-back, baby-back, baby-back, baby-back, baby-back ribs....Chilliiiiiiis baby back ribs"
The Chili's jingle is also quoted in television sitcoms Will & Grace, The War at Home, The Office, The Jamie Foxx Show, and Scrubs.
An episode of Boy Meets World is entitled "She's Having My Baby Back Ribs"
The McRib was introduced in 1981 and was a regular item on the menu for several years. In late 2005, the global fast food giant McDonald's announced the 'Farewell Tour' of the McRib sandwich.
In episode 1412 of The Simpsons, Homer gets hooked on the Krusty Burger rib sandwich and travels around the country following the sandwich as it appears from town to town.
In episode 5x24 of Scrubs entitled My Transition, Ted's acapella band sings The Chili's jingle at Turk and Carla's baby shower in the hospital's cafeteria. The band sings the jingle a second time to the duct tape bound doctor who botched Dr Cox's vasectomy.

External links

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