The Right Cut of Pork Ribs

For more uniform cooking, start with spareribs that have been trimmed of the brisket bone and extra meat.

While developing our recipe for Chinese Barbecued Spareribs, we started by using full (or whole) racks of spareribs, which are cut from the underside of the pig near the belly. The whole rack contains the brisket bone as well as the surrounding meat. After several tests, we switched to St. Louis-cut spareribs (the same ribs, the same part of the pid, but trimmed). Why? The brisket bone and extra meat on the whole racks made the ribs cook unevenly; the fatter side took almost an hour longer to tenderize, leaving the slimmer side overcooked.