Morini's Meat Market is my neighborhood butcher in La Grange Park, IL. That's Dennis Morini below. I asked him to order a rib section for me and then break it down while I took pictures. He is a patient man.
Below is the middle part of a rib section, about 16 pounds. That's the tender, lean loin meat on the left with the skin still on the outside and the rib bones on the inside. On the right is belly meat that can be used for rib tips and bacon.
Below is the same section, top view. The right side is the front of the animal, and the shoulder or butt was attached to the top right part. There are only 9 1/2 bones, fewer than a normal rib section. The triangular white section on the lower left is the diaphragm.
Dennis begins by removing the skin. I save it to make cracklins.
Below Dennis separates the ribs, at top, from the loin and belly meat.
On the left is the long lean boneless loin muscle cut from on top of the baby back ribs. On the right is the belly meat that is often used for bacon or ground for sausage or meat loaf. It can also be cooked in dishes.
Next the rib section goes to the band saw where the chine, the section of spine attached to the top of the rib bones is removed. I use it in making spaghetti sauce.
Below the band saw separates the curved back ribs from the straighter spare ribs.
The spare ribs can be separated into two sections. At top is the squared off section called St. Louis Cut (SLC). You can see the section of diaphragm on the lower left of the SLC. The bottom section is the rib tips.
On the left, below, are the nice, squared off, flat SLC, and on the right, the curved baby backs right at the point at which they were separated.
Nutrition information
Here is the nutritional breakdown of ribs, per ounce, according to the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP) in their superb book "The Meat Buyers Guide: Meat, Lamb, Veal, Pork and Poultry". I have averaged and rounded their data on St. Louis cut and baby backs because the numbers are so similar.
Let's face it. This is not health food. But ribs tastes soooooo good. The best advice: Eat ribs in moderation. Don't eat ribs every day. Just every other day (grin). And just a half slab. Treat ribs like a treat. Like dessert.
Party planning
When entertaining, I always cook more than I know I will need. I usually figure half a slab or one pound per person for a mixed crowd of males and females. Remember, about half the weight is bone. If it a lot of big guys are coming over for the game, I'll make more. There will probably be leftovers, but folks love taking leftover ribs home, and they are great warmed in the microwave. If the crowd is rowdy, I'll just keep the leftovers for myself.
Pork is not graded
Interestingly, pork is not graded by the USDA as is beef. Beef gets its grades (Prime, Choice, Select, etc.) depending on the amount of fat "marbled" in with the meat. Pork is not graded this way.
Pork grading involves two basic factors. Size and gender of the animal. Some of the terms that are used are:
Butcher Hog. Male or female raised strictly for meat. Weighs 195-320 pounds.
Barrow. Male butcher hog.
Gilt. Female butcher hog.
Sow. Female breeding hog. Weighs 300-700 pounds.
Stag. A castrated male hog. Darker meat. Weighs up to 700 pounds.
Boar. An uncastrated male used for breeding purposes. Darker meat. Weighs up to 1,000 pounds.
An average 250 pound hog will yield a 180 pound carcass after gutting and cleaning, and that will yield about 146 pounds of retail cuts, about 58% of the live weight. Everything but the squeal is used but, for some reason, pig’s feet, pork rinds, and snouts are not considered retail cuts.
The best advice I will ever give you: Develop a relationship with your butcher.
On spareribs, the amount of meat is determined by nature, all you get is the meat that is on the hog. But because the baby back ribs are cut from the loin meat, the amount of meat on the baby backs is determined by your butcher.
Most grocers and butcher shops get their baby backs pre-cut in boxes, and the amount of meat on the ribs is determined by the price the store feels it can charge, and what the competition forces them to charge.
Even if they get their baby backs pre-cut, many butchers also get whole bone-in rib roasts.
If you ask nicely, your butcher may be willing to custom cut the baby back ribs off the rib roasr leaving extra meat on them. Want baby backs with 1/2" of meat on top? No problem? Want a whole inch? No problem. Expect to pay more for these extra meaty ribs, but the result is worth it.
A better option: Just buy the whole bone-in rib roast and then ask the butcher to remove the baby backs leaving about 1/2" of meat on them. Then keep the de-boned loin meat for roasting separately. Yummmmmm!
More than you need to know about pigs
Kingdom. Animalia Phylum. Chordata Subphylum. Vertebrata Class. Mammalia Order. Artiodactyla Family. Suidae Subfamily. Suinae Genus. Sus Species. Scrofa
The family Suidae is made up of 16 species, and the common pork hog in your grocery case is Suidae Sus Scrofa. Suids first appeared in southern Europe and Asia and were found on Africa and the Phillipines. They are omnivores and, according to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ), in the wild they eat, fungi, leaves, roots, bulbs, tubers, fruit, snails, earthworms, small vertebrates, eggs, and carrion. They have a flexible, muscular snout, and in concert with their forefeet, they root and scratch for food.
Wild boars are hunted for sport around the world, and in parts of the US and Europe, their population is soaring and they are becoming a major problem for farmers, pets, and humans. They can be downright ornery and their tusks are potentially lethal.
Their stomachs have two chambers, but they do not ruminate. They have many different skin colors, tail lengths, and snout shapes. Their eyesight is not good because their eyes are on the sides of their heads limiting their forward vision, and their sense of taste is very advanced. Males often have long tusks, and fight violently for the attention of females. Dominant males can often service as many as eight sows. They are pregnant for 115 days, and litters of 5-6 are typical.
According to UMMZ, "A symbiotic relationship has formed between humans and Sus scrofa. The two components of this symbiotic relationship were, and still are, food and food. Sus scrofa used early gardens and garbage piles as food sources and humans took advantage of them as a food source."
In addition, in France and Italy they have been used to find truffles, rare, and highly prized mushrooms used in haute cuisine. In England have been used for hunting, and in ancient Egypt their hoofs created holes perfect in size and depth for planting seeds.
Recently pigs have become more popular as pets. According to UMMZ, domestic pigs are considered to be more intelligent than dogs and circus trainers have characterized Sus scrofa individuals as quick learners with substantial memories. It is also believed that pigs speak a rudimentary language composed of calls, snorts, sniffs, and whistles. Among the most famous pet pigs is Max, owned and beloved by George Clooney.
Fresh pork is available all year, but more hogs are slaughtered from October to February, so prices are a bit lower then. This is a holdover from the days before refrigeration when hogs were slaughtered in cool weather so the meat could be cured and stored in cool weather. Most pork today is slaughtered at between 6 to 9 months old. Ribs often go on sale for Father’s Day and the Fourth of July.
But beware, some unscrupulous butchers will, illegally, repackage and relabel older meat, so look at the stuff before you put it in your cart. Look for meat that is pale pink white fat. The darker pink the flesh, the older the animal. Brown meat or yellow fat usually means the meat is oxidizing and not fresh.
According to the 2002 hog census, not counting imports, there were 185 million hogs sold in the US for $12.4 billion. The number of animals is up from 143 million hogs in the 1997 census, but the dollar value declines from $13.8 billion. Pork prices are going down.
Unfuddling the different cuts of ribs and pork
"I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond." Mae West
The butcher's case is bulging with baby backs, spareribs, country ribs, rib tips, riblets, St. Louis cut ribs, rib chops, rib roasts, and the prices range from $2 to $8 a pound. What to buy?
It's hard to tell the players without a scorecard. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) specifies the names of some cuts, but others have evolved through common use and local misuse. Here's what you need to know for your next barbecue.
Starting at the top are the baby backs, closest to the backbone, nestled beneath the loin muscle. They are curved, round bones, close together, and most of the meat is on top of the bones, cut from the underside of loin muscle.
As you move further from the spine, the bones get larger, flatter, straighter, and wider apart with more meat between them. There is more fat marbling in the meat as you go further from the spine and closer to the belly. The front ribs are connected to the breast bone with a number of small bones and cartilage known as the rib tips. There are a number of other cuts, and they are all described below.
3 & down, 4 & over, etc. This is butcher talk for the weight of a slab of spareribs. A "3 & down" weighs 3 pounds or less untrimmed, with the tips attached. Most chefs prefer theirs 3 1/2 and down, from younger hogs.
Baby back ribs (a.k.a. back ribs, a.k.a. baby backs, a.k.a. loin back ribs, a.k.a. loin ribs, a.k.a. Canadian back ribs). Connected to the backbone, nestled beneath the loin muscle, are the most tender and leanest ribs, baby backs. No, they do not come from baby pigs. They are called "babies" because they are shorter than spareribs. A typical full slab has 11 to 13 bones. The slab is tapered at one end, with the shortest bones only about 3" and the longest about 6". They are usually curved like a hockey stick at the end where they meet the spine. Depending on how the butcher removes the loin meat that is on the humped side of the bones, some can have up to 1/2" of delicate, lean loin meat on the top. Usually about 1.5 to 2 pounds per slab, about half of which is bone, many hungry adults can eat a whole slab of baby backs. Typically $4 to 8 per pound. Because they weigh less than spareribs, they cook faster.
Baby front ribs. See photo of Meathead at right pointing out the baby front ribs on an attentive audience member at a recent seminar he gave at the College Football Hall of Fame.
Baby spareribs. These are not the same as baby back ribs. Nor do they necessarily come from young tender pigs. These are spareribs made smaller by removing the rib tips. These are more properly called St. Louis cut ribs (see below), but some butchers call them baby spareribs to capitalize on the popularity of baby back ribs.
Bone-in loin roast or bone-in loin rib roast. See rib roast.
Brisket. In beef, there are two large clods of tough, boneless meet on the chest called brisket. They are used to make corned beef, pastrami, many pot roasts, and great barbecue. But beef brisket is very different than the brisket in pork. In pork, the brisket is the same as rib tips.
Button ribs (a.k.a. Applebee's riblets). These are technically not ribs. They are a thin, flat strip of meat and round bone, perhaps 1/4" thick, about 6" long, and 1 1/2" wide, cut from the sides of hog's spine behind the rearmost (14th) rib. There are no ribs on the hog there, just little nubs, or "buttons" attached to the backbone. Applebee's restaurants calls this cut riblets, but they are not what had been called riblets in the past. Because Applebee's has made them so popular, they can occasionally be found in stores under the name riblets. See riblets.
Canadian back ribs. Another name for baby back ribs, they are called Canadian because Canadian bacon is made from the loin meat that was connected to the ribs before butchering.
Cheater rack. A nine-bone rack of ribs, less than the usual 10-13.
Chef's Bonus. These are the trimmins that, when thrown on the smoker, finish fast and keep the barbecue cook from dieing of starvation during long cooks. See flap and tips.
Chine. The backbone or spine. Sometimes refers to a split backbone, and sometimes refers to backbone still attached to baby back rib slabs and rib roasts. Many people think the chine is the breastbone, but they are on the wrong side of the animal. The confusion is probably because the keel of a boat is often called the chine, and the breast is often called the keel of an animal. But the keel of a boat is analagous to the backbone in that all the ribs are attached to it. In any case, the chine is the spine and not the breast.
Country-style ribs (a.k.a. Country Ribs). Country-style ribs are not really ribs. They are cut from the front end of the baby backs near the shoulder and a tray of country-style ribs in the grocery store will contain few, if any, ribs. In fact, if there are bones, more than likely they are from the shoulder blade. In the country rib above, there is a T-shaped shoulder blade bone in the center and a lot of fat and gristle. In the country ribs below, there are actually two small rib sections and a lot of great lean loin meat.
Country-style ribs are more like pork chops, more meaty and less fatty than real ribs, and should be cooked like chops, not ribs. Typically $3 to 4 per pound. Because they vary in size and thickness, they are hard to cook to an even doneness. They should be cooked to 135 to 140°F like pork chops. Depending on how they are cut, a serving will be one or two country ribs. For big hungry men, perhaps three. They respond well to brining before low and slow cooking.
Danish ribs. Small slabs of baby backs usually from Denmark, but not always. One guy I know says "I they're possum ribs. They look like baby backs, only smaller, thinner, and meatless!" Never heard a good word about them.
Double wide rib chop. A rib chop that is cut extra manly thick by including two bones. One is usually broken off or cut out. A serving is one chop.
Finger meat. The meat between the ribs.
Flap (a.k.a. skirt, a.k.a. Chef's Bonus). There is a flap of chewy meat from the diaphragm on the concave side of the spareribs and St. Louis cuts from the head end of the slab. Many cooks remove it and cook it as a snack, toss it in with the tips, or grind it into sausage.
Frenching. Getcher mind outta the gutter. Frenching is the trimming butchers do to rib roasts in order to make them look pretty by bearing the rib bones. In the process they will often cut out the wonderful meat between the bones and toss it in the scrap pile for sausage! Arrrrggghhhh! I like to leave the meat on and just cover it with a few layers of heavy foil to keep the bone tips from burning.
Gristle. What some folks affectionately call rib tips.
Half slab. A slab of ribs cut in half containing 4-6 bones. See slab.
Kansas City cut. Not a commonly accepted term, it is usually used to refer to what is otherwise known as a St. Louis cut. Sounds like a little Missouri rivalry to me.
Light Sparerib. Comes from smaller and younger pig, 3 pounds and down with breast bone (rib tips) on.
Loin. The loin of the pig is the long strip of tender, lean meat that runs on either side of the hog's spine and on top of the ribs. It is not the groin area! That is the loins (with an "s") as in "gird ye loins for the battle men." It is usually used in reference to people. One rarely discusses the loins (with an "s") of animals. At least I don't. The tenderloin is a narrow baseball bat shaped muscle that lies just below the loin starting just behind the last rib. The loin and tenderloin are the tenderest and most desireable parts of the pig because they are muscles that doesn't do much work. Because it is the top of the back of the pig, the expression "living high on the hog" came to mean living the lux life. Poor people, serfs, servants, and slaves ate the tougher cuts, the muscles that worked hard, from lower on the hog, such as the ribs.
McRib sandwich. Introduced in the early 1980s, the McDonald's McRib sandwich is an oblong ground pork pattie smothered with a ketchupy barbecue sauce, topped with pickle slices and onion slices, served on a kaiser-type roll. The patty is pressed on the top to look as if it has bones in it. I'll never know why they put in the ridges because, with all the sauce, pickles, and onions, even if you took the bun off you'd never notice the corrugations. Of course McRib probably contains no rib meat (too expensive). When I complained to a friend that the name is misleading and it should be changed, he said "Yeah and they oughta change the name of Girl Scout cookies for the same reason." McRib is not always on the menu, a marketing move that creates demand for the sandwich. A friend calls their seasonal appearance "McDonald's answer to soft-shell crabs." McD's even has a humorous website devoted to McRibs called the Boneless Pig Farmers' Association of America! If you try a McRib sandwich, get lots of napkins.
Membrane. Each slab has a meat side and a bone side. The meat side is convex (curving towards you), and the bone side is concave (curving away from you). The bone side has a membrane called the pleura covering it. It can be leathery and almost unchewable when cooked, and it can prevent flavorings and smoke from penetrating. Many butchers remove the skin. If the membrane has not been removed when you bring home a slab, you should remove it yourself. Click here to see how to skin 'n trim.
Middlings. Early American cookbooks refered to spareribs as middlings, presumably because they came from the middle of the hog.
Rack. When referring to pork ribs, a rack is the same as a slab. When referring to lamb ribs, a rack also includes the loin meat and is essentially the same as a rib roast.
Rib chops. A rib chop (at right) is a pork chop cut from the rib roast. They are typically about 3/4" thick, lean, and each has a baby back rib attached. Because they are so lean, they are great for stuffing, and benefit from brining. A normal serving will be one chop. Hungry people might eat two. The one at right has been "Frenched" which means it has been trimmed so the bone is exposed like a handle. I like to eat these like lillipops.
Riblets. Riblets are made by taking a full length slab or ribs and cutting them with a cleaver or a band saw so the bones are only half as long as normal, perhaps 2-4".
This is done to make smaller portions or to remove part of the curve of baby backs and produce a flatter slab. Usually served as appetizers, for a main course a normal serving would be 10-12 riblets. Some people refer to pork rib tips as riblets. This is incorrect. Applebee's restaurants have a menu item called "riblets" that are technically not riblets. Technically they are button ribs.
In veal and lamb, riblets can refer to the ends of the ribs. Then there are the riblets by Gardenburger (at right) described thusly on their website: "Juicy and tender veggie riblets with a slow-cooked, hickory-smoked flavor. And don't forget the smoky BBQ sauce. Cowboys never ate this good." If they did, they would be called soyboys.
Rib roast (a.k.a. bone-in pork loin rib roast, a.k.a. bone-in loin rib roast, a.k.a. center cut rib roast, a.k.a. prime rib of pork). This is the whole pork loin muscle, up to 2' long and 6" thick, with the baby back ribs attached. You can buy the whole roast or sections. Sections of 5-8 bones are typical. The loin meat is lean and tender, so it should be not cooked to the high internal temps as rib slabs. Most sources say the internal temp should be 160°F but that's a recipe for cardboard. You can take it off at 135°F and let the temp rise to 140°F as it rests for about 20 minutes to allow the juices to re-absorb into the meat fibers. Trichinosis is killed at 140°F, but not to worry, there are only about 5 cases of trichinosis a year from pork in the US and most of them come from uninspected homegrown hogs. At 140°F there will be a hint of pink, and the meat will be moist and juicy. See standing rib roasts. A rib roast can be cut into chops with a bone in each and these are great grilled, especially if brined for an hour first.
Rib tips (a.k.a. brisket, a.k.a. coastal cartilages, a.k.a. breaks). Rib tips are strips that have been cut from the lower ends of the spareribs when making St. Louis cut ribs. They typically run 8 to 12" long and 1 to 3" wide.
Eating rib tips takes a bit more gnawing than other cuts because they are chewy and the small tubes of cartilage in them go every which way. In some regions, tips are a delicacy and preferred over other cuts, and in some regions nobody wants them. Many butchers just remove them and chop them for stir-fry or grind them for sausage. Go figure. When served, they are usually chopped with a cleaver into chunks about 2" square. Two full strips trimmed from a slab of spares, will fill a normal person. Many people think rib tips and riblets are the same thing. In fact, many websites will tell you they are. They are not. The picture here shows a spare rib and the cartilage from the tips attached. When butchered, the tips are cut at this junction.
Shiners. Rib bones showing through the meat on top of the slab after the slab has been butchered. More common on baby back (loin) ribs than on spareribs. In the photo at right, the baby backs on the top have been cut generously with extra loin meat left on. The slab below has been cut too close to the bone, leaving two shiners showing on the right.
Short end ribs and long end ribs. In many rib joints you can order a half slab, and you never know which end you'll get. In restaurants in Kansas City you can usually specify the end you want. On a slab of spareribs, the bones on one end are longer than on the other. The first six ribs from the shoulder back are the long end ribs. The short end has the last seven or eight bones. The short end is slightly meatier and slightly more tender. The short end typically costs $1 more there.
Short ribs. Short ribs are sections of beef ribs, not pork, that are not necessarily short. They are called short because they are cut from the "short plate" which is roughly the same cut as St. Louis cut in pork, from the middle of the side down towards the breast, but not including the breast bones and cartilage, or the ribs connected to the tender and expensive loin meat near the spine. That leaves a section than can be as long as a foot. They are usually taken from the second rib to the 10th rib, and contain 2-5 bones. If you have a good relationship with your butcher, you can order short rib sections with 12" ribs and 18-24" long including as many as 8 bones. The meat is very flavorful but very tough. And it is attached to the bone by a tough, thick layer of connective tissue. Short ribs are usually braised low and slow in liquid, but they can be grilled successfully at low temperatures, especially if tenderized with a blade tenderizer like the Jaccard.
Short ribs come in two cuts: English and flanken. English cut, the most common, has a bone section usually 3" to 5" long, 2-6 bones wide, and is 1-2" thick. They are occasionally available without the bone. Click here for a good recipe for braised beef short ribs. Flanken cut is less common, but popular in Asian butcher shops. Flanken ribs are typically about 6" long, 1" wide, and 1 -1.5" thick. They are cut across the grain so there are several connected rib bones sections, each about 1/2" or less long. Korean bulgogi and kalbi are popular recipes for thinly sliced, marinated, and grilled short ribs, flanken cut.
Slab. A slab is a row or ribs held together by muscle meat, fat, and cartilage. The meat is both between the bones and on top of them. A slab is usually 10-13 bones, depending on how it is trimmed. A half slab is a slab cut in half. Doh! A cheater rack is only nine bones.
Spareribs (a.k.a. spares, a.k.a. side ribs). Spareribs are not like spare tires. They are not extras, leftovers, or an inferior cut. Nor are they so named because the meat is scanty. They contain excellent meat, usually richer and more flavorful than baby backs. Many chefs prefer spares to baby back ribs.
Spares are cut from the ends of baby backs, further down the side of the hog, they run all the way down to the breast bone, and that's why they are also called side ribs sometimes. Look at a slab of spareribs and you will notice that along one edge the ends of bones are showing and you can see marrow. This is where they were cut from the baby backs. The other end, with no bones sticking out, is from the chest. It is flap of meat, small bones, cartilage, and gristle called rib tips. The bone side of spareribs usually has a meaty flap that is part of the diaphragm called the flap meat. It has been removed in the photo at right.
USDA says a slab must have at least 11 bones and there is usually more bone than meat in a slab of spares with more meat between the bones and less on top of them than baby backs. The bones are straighter and flatter than baby backs, and the meat has more fat between muscle fibers, called marbling. The bones, connective tissue, and the fat make the meat very flavorful. spareribs are typically $2 to 6 per pound, they generally run 2.5 to 3.5 pounds, half of which is bone and cartilage, and can usually feed two people.
Spares are a little less expensive than baby back ribs because they have more bone and because demand for baby backs has grown significantly since a certain restaurant chain began promoting them with a catchy jingle (sing along with me now: "I want my baby back baby back baby back ribs").
So how did spareribs get their name? According to Charles Perry of the Los Angeles Times, "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."
St. Louis cut ribs (a.k.a. SLC a.k.a. barbecue cut, a.k.a. Kansas City cut). Take a slab of spareribs, lop off the gristly rib tips (in the picture above, they are along the bottom), and what remains is a flat rectangular slab called the St. Louis cut (in the picture above, the SLC is at the top) and a flap of meat that is usually removed and set aside for grinding. Because the 10 to 13 rib bones are straight and flat, they are the best cut for recipes that require the ribs to be browned in a frying pan on the stovetop. Some butchers call SLC spareribs, but because the tips have been removed, technically they are no longer spares. They are also sometimes called barbecue cut, or Kansas City cut. If your butcher doesn't know what St. Louis cut means, get a new butcher or simply ask for spareribs with the tips removed. Then again, you may want to remove them yourself and cook them too. Typically $3 to $7 per pound, a standard 2 to 3 pound slab can serve two people or one really hungry big man. When smoke roasted at about 225°F, they take five to six hours to reach perfection.The picture at right is a half-slab of SLC at Super Smokers in St. Louis. Don't ask me how SLC got it's name. I've heard several stories and I don't think anyone knows for sure. Probably invented by some butcher in St. Louis where it became popular.
Standing rib roasts (a.k.a. crown roast). There are two ways to make this festive meal for a crowd. The traditional method is to take a rib roast and bend it into a circle with the loin meat in the center and the bones facing out. The cavity this creates is often filled with a bread stuffing or even pork sausage meat. A more recent variation on the theme is made with a slab of baby back ribs wrapped around a hunk of loin meat (shown here). When the meat between the bones is trimmed out it is called Frenching. Depending on how it is trimmed, there's usually enough meat for at least 10 people.
Click here to view a site from the University of Nebraska Lincoln that has some really helpful pix and a really cool 3D visualization of a hog carcass and from where the different cuts come. Here is their site for beef.
Click here to see the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Institutional Meat Purchasing Specifications (IMPS). This 40 page brochure in pdf format is the official source.
Click here to see The Revised USDA Nutrient Data Set for Fresh Pork June 2006. This 25 page pdf document includes tables for most major cuts of pork and their nutrient contents including calories, protein, water, carbs, fiber, sugars, sodium, cholesterol, etc.
New old hog breeds
A few decades ago, pork farmers decided that they wanted to sell pork as the "other white meat" and market it as lean meat. So they settled on breeds like the American Yorkshire that have less fat woven in with the muscle. In recent years some farmers have been bringing back herds of "heritage hogs" including Berkshire, Duroc, Tamworth, Chester, Gloucestershire and several others. They often have more fat, darker meat, and more flavor. Because they are not common yet, the meat is more expensive, but you can expect to see these and other specialty breeds in the market soon. I've seen Berkshire at several farmers' markets already. Click here for more info about these Heritage Hogs.
Tell Meathead what you think, or ask him a question
But please, please, please read this first:
1) Please use the sitemap or the search box, at the top of every page. There's a good chance the answer is already on this site.
2) Please read this article about thermometers.Chances are your thermometer is the problem! I cannot help you troubleshoot unless you tell me that you are using a digital oven thermometer at meat level (not in the lid), and/or a digital meat thermometer. You simply cannot believe your grill's built-in bi-metal dial thermometer. They are often off by as much as 50°F!
3) Please tell me everything I need to know to answer your question.
4) Please don't ask me "What grill (or smoker) should I buy?" Read my Buyer's Guides and follow the links. I've shared just about everything I know on those pages. I cannot pick the right cooker for you any more than you could pick the right car for me. But I've explained everything you need to know to make your decision.
AmazingRibs.com is all about the Zen of barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking, with great BBQ recipes and techniques: Barbecue baby back ribs, spareribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, steak, burgers, chicken, smoked turkey, lamb, barbecue sauces, rubs, and side dishes, with the net's best buying guide to barbecue smokers and grills. It is written, photographed, illustrated, and coded solely by Meathead.
My philosophy about food is simple. First of all it must taste great. It must be easy to make and emphasize fresh seasonal products with a minimum of processed ingredients. I think that people need to know why as well as how, and that there are no rules in the bedroom or dining room.
About Product Reviews and Meathead's Hot Stuff Awards. Meathead's Hot Stuff Awards are highly recommended products that I have tested personally or that have been tested by reliable sources. Awards are based on features, quality, and value. Rest assured that when I recommend a product, it is really because I like it, not because someone has paid me to say so or because the company is an advertiser or sponsor. I purchase most products I review although occasionally suppliers send me samples.
About links on this site. Other than clearly marked ads, links and recommendations on this site are all products, services, and websites I truly admire, and are never paid endorsements. Your suggestions are always welcome. If you would like me to link to your website, click here to read my links policy first. Advertising policy. I do not accept ads from products that I review such as grills, charcoal, etc. Click here for more on my advertising policy.
Meathead's Personal Privacy Promise.I promise to never sell or distribute any info about you individually without your express permission, and I promise not to, ahem, pepper you with email or make you eat spam. Click here for more details of my privacy promise.
Disclaimer. The information on this website is for educational purposes only. All material within comes without warranties of any kind. I am human, and capable of mistakes, so I make no guarantees as to the accuracy, completeness, or safety of the information. Under no circumstances am I liable for any damages that result from use of the site (so you can't sue me if you burn your tongue on hot ribs, or get a tummy ache, OK?).
GrillGrates are the best new product I have tested in years and the best thing to happen to beef since salt and pepper. The base superheats, eliminates hot spots, smokes, and blocks flareups. This is the concept behind the expensive new infrared grills. Click here for more about GrillGrates.
The Smokenator:
A Necessity For Weber Kettles
If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the amazing Smokenator and Hovergrill. The Smokenator turns your grill into a first class smoker, and the Hovergrill can add capacity or be used to create steakhouse steaks. Click here to read more.
ThermoWorks Pocket Thermometer - No More Guessing
A good thermometer is why I never serve overcooked or undercooked food. No more guesswork. This one has a very thin tip with a tiny thermocouple so it gives an accurate reading in just six seconds. I cannot recommend it more highly. It will improve your cooking overnight. And it is inexpensive. Click here for more about thermometers.
This link takes you to Amazon.com and tags anything you buy with my affiliate code so I get a small referral fee. It works on anything from grills to diapers and it has zero impact on the price you pay. Low prices, fast delivery (often free), good refund policies, and often there is no sales tax, are the best reasons to buy from Amazon.com, but clicking on that link before you shop helps me devote more time and money to you. Thanks!
Baby front ribs. See photo of Meathead at right pointing out the baby front ribs on an attentive audience member at a recent seminar he gave at the College Football Hall of Fame.
Country-style ribs (a.k.a. Country Ribs). Country-style ribs are not really ribs. They are cut from the front end of the baby backs near the shoulder and a tray of country-style ribs in the grocery store will contain few, if any, ribs. In fact, if there are bones, more than likely they are from the shoulder blade. In the country rib above, there is a T-shaped shoulder blade bone in the center and a lot of fat and gristle. In the country ribs below, there are actually two small rib sections and a lot of great lean loin meat.
Country-style ribs are more like pork chops, more meaty and less fatty than real ribs, and should be cooked like chops, not ribs. Typically $3 to 4 per pound. Because they vary in size and thickness, they are hard to cook to an even doneness. They should be cooked to 135 to 140°F like pork chops. Depending on how they are cut, a serving will be one or two country ribs. For big hungry men, perhaps three. They respond well to brining before low and slow cooking.
Frenching. Getcher mind outta the gutter. Frenching is the trimming butchers do to rib roasts in order to make them look pretty by bearing the rib bones. In the process they will often cut out the wonderful meat between the bones and toss it in the scrap pile for sausage! Arrrrggghhhh! I like to leave the meat on and just cover it with a few layers of heavy foil to keep the bone tips from burning.
McRib sandwich. Introduced in the early 1980s, the McDonald's McRib sandwich is an oblong ground pork pattie smothered with a ketchupy barbecue sauce, topped with pickle slices and onion slices, served on a kaiser-type roll. The patty is pressed on the top to look as if it has bones in it. I'll never know why they put in the ridges because, with all the sauce, pickles, and onions, even if you took the bun off you'd never notice the corrugations. Of course McRib probably contains no rib meat (too expensive). When I complained to a friend that the name is misleading and it should be changed, he said "Yeah and they oughta change the name of Girl Scout cookies for the same reason." McRib is not always on the menu, a marketing move that creates demand for the sandwich. A friend calls their seasonal appearance "McDonald's answer to soft-shell crabs." McD's even has a humorous website devoted to McRibs called the 
Membrane. Each slab has a meat side and a bone side. The meat side is convex (curving towards you), and the bone side is concave (curving away from you). The bone side has a membrane called the pleura covering it. It can be leathery and almost unchewable when cooked, and it can prevent flavorings and smoke from penetrating. Many butchers remove the skin. If the membrane has not been removed when you bring home a slab, you should remove it yourself. Click here to see how to 
This is done to make smaller portions or to remove part of the curve of baby backs and produce a flatter slab. Usually served as appetizers, for a main course a normal serving would be 10-12 riblets. Some people refer to pork rib tips as riblets. This is incorrect. Applebee's restaurants have a menu item called "riblets" that are technically not riblets. Technically they are 
Rib tips (a.k.a. brisket, a.k.a. coastal cartilages, a.k.a. breaks). Rib tips are strips that have been cut from the lower ends of the spareribs when making 
Eating rib tips takes a bit more gnawing than other cuts because they are chewy and the small tubes of cartilage in them go every which way. In some regions, tips are a delicacy and preferred over other cuts, and in some regions nobody wants them. Many butchers just remove them and chop them for stir-fry or grind them for sausage. Go figure. When served, they are usually chopped with a cleaver into chunks about 2" square. Two full strips trimmed from a slab of spares, will fill a normal person. Many people think rib tips and 
Standing rib roasts (a.k.a. crown roast). There are two ways to make this festive meal for a crowd. The traditional method is to take a 
With a $25 donation you'll get a 100% cotton brushed twill adjustable low profile cap with the AmazingRibs patch sewn on. I'll even toss in a small bag of 
