Pork ribs are a cut of pork popular in North American

North American cuisine

North American cuisine is a term used for foods native to or popular in countries of North America, such as Canadian cuisine, American cuisine, Mexican cuisine and Central American cuisine...

 and Asian

Asian cuisine

Asian cuisine styles can be broken down into several tiny regional styles that have roots in the peoples and cultures of those regions. The major types can be roughly defined as East Asian with its origins in Imperial China and now encompassing modern Japan and the Korean peninsula; Southeast Asian...

 cuisines. The ribcage of a domestic pig

Domestic pig

The domestic pig is a domesticated animal that traces its ancestry to the wild boar, and is considered a subspecies of the wild boar or a distinct species in its own right. It is likely the wild boar was domesticated as early as 13,000 BC in the Tigris River basin...

, meat and bones together, is cut into usable pieces, prepared by smoking, grilling

Grilling

Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat quickly and meat that has already been cut into slices...

, or baking

Baking

Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, quiches, cookies and crackers. Such items...

 – usually with a sauce, often barbecue

Barbecue sauce

Barbecue sauce is a flavoring sauce or condiment ranging from watery to very thick consistency. As the name implies, it was created as an accompaniment to barbecued foods. While it can be applied to any food, it usually tops meat after cooking or during barbecuing, grilling, or baking...

 – 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. The inner surface of the rib cage is covered by a layer of connective tissue (pleura) that is difficult to cook tender; it is usually removed before marinating or cooking.

Baby back ribs

• Baby back ribs (a.k.a. loin ribs, back ribs, or Canadian back ribs) are taken from the top of the rib cage between the spine and the spare ribs, below the loin muscle. The designation "baby" indicates the cuts are from market weight hogs, rather than sows. They have meat between the bones and on top of the bones, and are shorter, curved, and sometimes meatier than spare ribs. 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 inches (7.6 cm) and the longest is usually about 6 inches (15.2 cm), depending on the size of the hog. A pig side has 15 to 16 ribs (depending on the breed), but usually two or three are left on the shoulder when it is separated from the loin. So, a rack of back ribs contains a minimum of 8 ribs (some may be trimmed if damaged), but can include up to 13 ribs, depending on how it has been prepared by the butcher. A typical commercial rack is 10-13 bones. If there are fewer than 10 bones, butchers call them "cheater racks".

Spare ribs

• Spare ribs
  Spare ribs
  Spare ribs are a variety of pork ribs and beef ribs, cooked and eaten in various cuisines around the world. They are the most inexpensive cut of pork and beef ribs. They are a long cut from the lower portion of the pig or cattle, specifically the belly and breastbone, behind the shoulder, and...
  
  , also called "spareribs" or "side ribs", are taken from the belly side of the rib cage, below the section of back ribs and above the sternum (breast bone). Spare ribs are flatter and contain more bone than meat. There is also quite a bit of fat which can make the ribs more tender than back ribs. The origin of the name "spare ribs" is not certain, but could be related to the spare amount of meat after the belly is removed.

• St. Louis Style
  St. Louis-style barbecue
  St. Louis-style barbecue refers to various pork dishes prepared in and around the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Although St. Louis is typically not included on the list of major styles of barbecue in the United States, the city was recognized by Kingsford as "America’s Top Grilling City" in its...
  
   ribs (a.k.a. St. Louis Cut) spare ribs are St. Louis Style when the sternum bone, cartilage
  Cartilage
  Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...
  
  , and rib tips (see below) have been removed. The shape is almost rectangular.

• Kansas City style ribs are trimmed even more closely than the St. Louis style ribs, and have the hard bone removed.

Rib tips

• Rib tips are short, meaty sections of rib that are attached to the lower end of the spare ribs, between the ribs and the sternum. Unlike back ribs or spare ribs, the structure of the rib is provided by dense costal cartilage
  Cartilage
  Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...
  
  , not bone. Rib tips are cut away from the spare ribs when preparing St. Louis Style spare ribs.

Other cuts and 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 button and connects them together.

• Country-style ribs - Country-style ribs are cut from the blade end of the loin close to the pork shoulder. They are meatier than other rib cuts. They contain no rib bones, therefore are not technically ribs.

• Rib roasts - Rib roasts (a.k.a. bone-in pork loin rib roast, bone-in loin rib roast, center cut rib roast, prime rib of pork, standing rib roast) is a whole pork loin with the back ribs attached. They can be up to 2' long and 6" thick. They are sold whole or in sections.

• Rib chops - Rib chops are pork steaks
  Pork steak
  Pork steaks are cut from the shoulder of the pig. This is the same cut of meat most commonly used for pulled pork, and can be quite tough without long cooking times due to the high amount of collagen in the meat...
  
   or chops that include a back rib bone and the loin meat attached. They are lean and tender.

• 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. Another product (imprecisely) called riblets is actually the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae.

• Rib patties - The meat from the ribs are taken off the bone and ground to make rib patties. The popular McRib
  McRib
  The McRib is a barbecue pork sandwich periodically sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's. It was first introduced to the McDonald's menu in 1981....
  
  patties contain pork meat mostly from non-rib sections of the hog.

• Christmas ribs - About 53% of Norwegian families eat oven-cooked rib at Christmas Eve . Normally referred to as 'ribbe' or 'juleribbe'. Traditional recipe includes steaming half an hour before cooking in the oven to achieve a crisp surface.