Cutting Pork Ribs: Spareribs

Cutting pork ribs- spareribs to be exact? Easy Peasy.

You will notice (hopefully, it's a bit small) that the rack below is a whole rack of "4 and down" pork spare ribs. It has the tell tale rainbow arch of the brisket portion (small cartilage bones)next to the tip of the knife:

If we remove this-- in effect "squaring off" the rack, we end up with "St. Louis cut ribs." See the picture below:

Why is this popular? Well, what you are left with is the leanest, meatiest portion of the rack. You then simply cut straight down to separate the ribs.

Or almost straight.

As you get to the smaller ribs, the bones curve. I recommend turning the rack over as shown below, so you can follow the bones more easily:

One nice thing about making your own St Louis cut spare ribs, is that the ribs will be a bit more "even" and if you have kids at your house the brisket bones- some times marketed as "rib bits" are a perfect size for kids. See the little "cubes" on top of the main rack below?

Q: What if you don't want to make your own St. Louis cut?

(I am in this camp as I am like Jack Sprat's wife. I love all things fatty and chewy, and those little pieces of brisket cartilage are right up my alley.)

A: Simple, you just leave this cartilage section on. Some restaurants do this as it gives a bigger rib and more implied value. It should look like this on a typical "1/3 rack" rib plate with two side dishes. A bit blurry as it was cocktail hour at the photo shoot!:

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