Are Spare Ribs Beef Or Pork?

Last updated on September 6th, 2022 at 07:24 pm

When you hear the word ribs you probably think of delicious, melt in your mouth falling off the bone barbeque on a beautiful summer day. There are several different types of ribs that you can purchase from your local butcher or supermarket. Some cuts are beef while others are pork. 

You’ll want to know which ribs come from what animal, so what about spare ribs?

Spare ribs come from the lower portion of a pig, behind the shoulder and include between 11 and 13 bones. 

Spare ribs are used in a wide variety of dishes around the world and are prepared in many different ways. In the United States of America spare ribs are typically slathered in a barbecue sauce and then cooked over a grill. 

Many people will prebake the ribs before grilling them since it takes a long time to cook ribs otherwise.

How Do You Know If Ribs Are Pork Or Beef?

There are a few different kinds of ribs that you can purchase from the grocery store or your local butcher. How can you tell if your ribs are beef or pork though? 

There are several different things that you can look at to see if the ribs that you have are pork or beef. 

To tell whether ribs are pork or beef you will want to look at the cut of ribs, the size of the ribs, and the amount of meat to fat. Beef ribs and pork ribs tend to go by different names as well. 

If you learn which cuts come from which animal that will help you to know what kind of ribs you have. 

The cuts of ribs that are pork are:

• Spareribs
• Baby back ribs
• St. Louis ribs
• Kansas City ribs
• Rib tips

Spareribs are cut from further down the pig’s belly and run into the breastbone. 

Baby back ribs are cut from the highest point of the pig’s rib cage near the spine. 

St. Louis ribs are a rack of spare ribs which have been trimmed down. These usually resemble a rectangle. 

Kansas City ribs are nearly identical to St. Louis ribs but they will still have the cartilage attached. 

Rib tips are the pieces that are left over when spare ribs have been trimmed down to St. Louis ribs. 

The cuts of ribs that are beef are:

• Plate short ribs
• Back ribs
• Chuck short ribs. 

Back ribs are cut from high up on the steer, just behind the shoulders. 

Chuck short ribs come from high up on the steer and just below the chuck. 

Plate short ribs come from the lower part of the steer’s rib cage which is called the short plate. 

If you are uncertain of the name of the cut of ribs that you have then you can also look at the size of your ribs. Ribs that are cut from beef will be bigger than pork ribs. 

Most often beef ribs will be between 8 and 12 inches long and will be weighed in pounds. Pork ribs are typically 3 to 6 inches long and are often weighed in ounces. 

Since beef ribs are so much larger than pork ribs they do take longer to cook. 

Next you will want to look at the meat to fat ratio of your ribs. The amount of meat can vary from animal to animal however typically pork ribs will be leaner than beef ribs. Ribs that are cut from a pig usually have more meat than they do fat. 

The meat that comes from a steer will have fat marbled throughout the meat.

What Is The Difference Between Spare Ribs And Beef Ribs?

Spare ribs are pork while beef ribs are beef. Spare ribs will have less fat on them than beef ribs while beef ribs have fat marbled throughout the meat. 

Beef ribs are bigger than spare ribs because spare ribs come from a pig so they will be smaller in size than ribs that come from a steer. If you want a leaner rib you will want to go for spare ribs.

What Meat Are Spare Ribs?

Spare ribs are pork. They come from the ends of baby back ribs which run along the pig’s breastbone. Spare ribs have more meat between the bones and will have less meat on top of the ribs. 

There will be some marbling throughout the meat in spare ribs. This will give you more flavorful and tender ribs. 

A rack of spare ribs can typically be between two and half and three and a half pounds with straighter bones, around a half of the weight of your rack of ribs actually comes from the bones.

Are Texas Roadhouse Ribs Beef Or Pork?

Texas Roadhouse prides itself on having “legendary food, legendary service”. The food served at Texas Roadhouse is freshly made from scratch with hand-cut steaks and fall off the bone ribs. The bread served at Texas Roadhouse is baked fresh daily. 

This restaurant serves good meals just like grandma used to make. What kind of ribs do they use? 

Texas Roadhouse uses “American-grown USDA #1 inspected fresh domestic Pork Loin Back Ribs.” All the ribs that are served in Texas Roadhouse are pork. 

If you don’t have a Texas Roadhouse near you, you can make their ribs right at home. They sell their dry seasoning blend on their website. All you need to make Texas Roadhouse style ribs at home is liquid smoke, dry seasoning, water, barbeque sauce, and ribs. 

The first thing you need to do is take a deep baking pan and add some water and liquid smoke. Mix the water and liquid smoke well. Use a shaker to thoroughly coat your ribs with your dry seasoning then place your ribs into the pan. 

Set the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. It will take your ribs about 3 hours to slowly bake in the oven. After three hours check to see if your ribs are done. They are done when the center bone pulls freely away from the meat. 

Remove the ribs from the oven and prepare your grill. You can use any barbeque sauce that you like. Baste your ribs with the barbeque sauce and place them on the grill. 

You will want to place your ribs on the grill vertically. The underside of the ribs should be down to the grates. 

You will allow the ribs to cook until they are sizzling hot. Now, flip your ribs over and baste the other side with your barbeque sauce. Heat this side of your ribs until they are hot and sizzling as well. 

Now you will flip your ribs over once more and repeat the basting process on the top side of your ribs. Once that side is sizzling you will flip them one last time and baste the bottom side of the ribs with the remaining barbeque sauce. 

Once that side is sizzling your ribs are ready to eat.