Refresher on Country Style Ribs w/pic

Rumrunner

Some you've seen/read and some new.[p]Country Style Spareribs were developed in the late 60's and early 70's by an enterprising butcher, meat cutter, teacher named Cliff Bowes from the Chicago (where else?) area. Markets had a hard time merchandising the Rib End of a pork loin....the chops looked terribly fatty and boney......and this cut would usually end up as a roast, ground up for sausage, and/or later being the bottom chops in a package of "Quarter Sliced Pork Loin". Cliff split the bones about an inch from the back bone and then split the meat into a tri-fold and scoring between the bones. Voilà! Country Style Ribs were born. It was a pretty impressive piece of meat in the display case. Later on, myself and other meat cutters, just split the rib end in two and cut into little 'chops' approx 1 1/4" thick. Now you couldn't keep them in the meat case at all and they became a rarity, except to a select few that would beg you to save "all you can get". The problem of having too many rib ends of pork was no longer a problem. In the mid to late 80's, to keep up withe demand for "Country Style Ribs", pork shoulder butts (Boston Butt) were split in two under neath the blade bone and cut into strips on the saw, some boneless some bone in. The ribs cut from the shoulder are 99% of the Country Style Ribs that you see today. They are by no means 'ribs', but a tasty cut for the grill. [p]Yesterday I had ordered 30 lbs of country ribs from Sam's and was pleasantly surprised when I went to season them. Twenty five lbs were actually from the rib end of the loin (on the right in the pic) and the other five lbs were from the Boston butt (on the left). Look closely and you can see the difference. On the left you can see the top part of the butt with the blade bone, the next piece is boneless. Some markets will merchandise these for more money, some won't. On the right, you can see the chine bone and the rib bone of the loin, the other piece shows the beginning of the blade bone of the shoulder. [p]The ones from the rib end can be grilled like a pork chop and the ones from the butt need a little longer and slower cook to come out good. [p]
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WooDoggies

Thanks for the refresher, Rummy.
When I get to the store, I alwuays forget what is what and after buying them, have to look up the type of country rib it is so's to cook it correctly...... it's so confusing![p]Friday PBR's
John[p]