Spare ribs

Terminology

• Pork spare ribs are also popular in Chinese and American Chinese cuisine; they are generally called paigu.
• In County Cork, Ireland, pork or beef spare ribs are boiled and eaten with potatoes and turnips. This dish is called bodice locally.

  Preparation

In Chinese cuisines

• In Chinese cuisine, pork spare ribs are generally first cut into sections, then may be fried, steamed, or braised.
• In the Cantonese cuisine of southern China, spare ribs are generally red in color and roasted with a sweet and savory sauce. This variety of spare ribs is grouped as one of the most common items of siu mei, or Cantonese roasted meat dishes.
• In American Chinese cuisine, pork spare ribs are generally cooked in char siu style, and often feature as a part of the appetizer dish called pu pu platter.

  In American South cuisine

• Pork spare ribs are taken from the belly side of the pig's rib cage above the sternum and below the back ribs which extend about 6" down from the spine. Spare ribs are flatter than the curved back ribs and contain more bone than meat. There is also quite a bit of fat which can make the ribs more tender than baby back ribs.
• *St. Louis Cut ribs are spare ribs where the sternum bone, cartilage, and the surrounding meat known as the rib tips have been removed. St. Louis Cut rib racks are almost rectangular.
• Beef short ribs are taken from the belly side of the cattle's rib cage above the sternum. Beef spare ribs tend to be longer, wider, and sometimes more curved than their pork counterparts, and are cut from the prime rib rump, of which the thicker boneless part becomes the ribeye steak, and the upper tips of the ribs are then cut off and become short ribs.

  Consumption