Baby back ribs substitutes

The natural substitute, cut from the belly side of the same animal. A rack is longer, flatter and heavier at 3 to 4 pounds, with more fat between the bones and more connective tissue. That means richer, more succulent meat and more forgiving cooking, but a rack that is not ready when the recipe says it should be. St. Louis style is simply a spare rib rack trimmed square, and behaves identically.

Best for

smoking and barbecue, oven-baked ribs, when you want richer, fattier ribs, feeding a crowd

At 275 F, baby backs take roughly 2.5 to 3 hours and St. Louis ribs take 3.5 to 4. If a recipe gives you the 3-2-1 method it was written for spares, use 2-2-1 for baby backs. Buy about 1 pound of raw spare ribs per person versus ¾ pound of baby backs.

Not ribs. These are strips cut from the pork shoulder, usually boneless or with a piece of shoulder blade, so they are chunks of well marbled meat rather than bones with meat between them. They take a rub and a barbecue sauce well and turn meltingly tender, but you cannot pick them up and there is nothing to gnaw.

Best for

oven and slow cooker barbecue, braising, budget cooking, pulled pork style dishes, when you only need the flavor, not the rack

Cook them to 195 to 205 F, the same finish temperature as real ribs, which usually takes 2.5 to 3 hours at 300 F covered. They are cheaper per pound than either kind of rib and there is no bone weight, so buy about 2/3 as much.

Cut from the same place on a cow, next to the ribeye, so the format is familiar: a rack of curved bones. The meat is deeply beefy and much more mineral than pork, there is less of it because butchers trim closely toward the ribeye, and it needs longer. Barbecue sauce that tastes right on pork can read as too sweet on beef.

Best for

smoking, beef barbecue, Korean and Asian braises, when pork is not an option

Plan on 3.5 to 4 hours at 275 F. Lean on salt, pepper and garlic rather than a sugary rub, and expect noticeably less meat per bone than you get from baby backs.

The richest option here by a distance. Short ribs are thick blocks of heavily marbled meat on a short bone, so instead of a rack you get individual meaty pieces that turn unctuous and almost gelatinous. They are excellent, they are just not really ribs in the barbecue sense, and they cost considerably more.

Best for

braising, smoking, red wine and soy braises, special occasion cooking

They need 3 to 4 hours braised at 325 F, or 6 to 8 hours smoked. There is a lot of fat to render, so skim the braising liquid or chill it and lift the cap off.

The cartilage-heavy strip trimmed off a spare rib rack to make it St. Louis style, sold cheaply on its own. Loaded with flavor and gelatin, and very good tossed in sauce, but they are full of soft cartilage rather than proper bones, so the eating experience is chewier and messier and there is no rack to slice.

Best for

smoking and burnt ends, appetizers and snacks, budget barbecue, sauced and tossed dishes

They cook faster than a full rack, about 2 to 2.5 hours at 275 F, and they benefit from being sauced and finished hot at the end to caramelize.

Structurally close, a fatty rack of small bones that cooks low and slow. The flavor is unmistakably lamb, rich and slightly gamey, and there is a great deal of fat to render. Wonderful with cumin, coriander and chile, unconvincing with a sweet American barbecue sauce.

Best for

Middle Eastern and North African spicing, cumin-and-chile grilling, slow roasting

Render the fat properly by cooking low, around 300 F for 2 hours, then finishing hot and dry. Underrendered lamb fat is unpleasant in a way pork fat rarely is.