Ribs and Rib Tips

• The two most common rib cuts are back ribs and spare ribs. The back ribs, as their name suggests, are cut from high on the rib cage close to the backbone. These have smaller bones, with thicker meat covering them. Spare ribs, or side ribs, are cut from the side of the rib cage where the bones are bigger and the meat thinner. At the narrow end of a rack of spare ribs is a section where the meat contains cartilage, rather than bones. That section is sometimes trimmed away, to give the spare ribs a more symmetrical appearance, and sold separately as rib tips.

Dry Rub, Slow Roast

• Rib tips are just as tough as regular ribs but cook in less time because they're thinner. The cartilage that fills the cut contains lots of collagen, a natural connective tissue that becomes moist gelatin as the rib tips cook. One of the simplest ways to cook the rib tips is by coating them with a dry rub and then slow-roasting them. Leave the tips whole or cut them into smaller portions, then cook them at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for three to five hours or until they're perfectly tender when tested with a fork.

Rib Tips in Sauce

• A more common option for baking rib tips is to cook them in a sauce. This is an especially useful technique, because you can change the meal completely by simply changing the sauce. Arrange your rib tips in a casserole dish or roasting pan, and add enough of your favorite sauce to cover the ribs. Barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, tomato sauce, chili verde, honey-garlic sauce and many others are all appropriate choices. Bake the rib tips at 300 to 325 F for two to three hours, until they're tender and well infused with the flavors of the sauce.

Rib Tips as Ingredient

• A less-common alternative is to treat the rib tips as an ingredient, rather than the featured attraction in their own right. Consider adding them to a long-cooking casserole or bean dish, where their deep flavor and collagen will enrich the final result dramatically. Slow-cooked Southern recipes for collards or green beans are also a good place to use rib tips, or a slow-braised sauerkraut in the European style. As long as the dish's cooking time is roughly the same as for the rib tips themselves, you should have no difficulty.