1. Removing the membrane from the bone side of the slab is the most important step for tender ribs. All the sauce and spices you rub on ribs wo n’ t penetrate this tough layer. For both back and spareribs, slip the tip of your boning knife under the membrane at the smaller end of the slab and cut a small tab. Grab the tab with a kitchen towel and carefully start pulling it away from the bones. You may get it off in a single strip, but this takes practice. Pull up all the pieces of membrane carefully and yo u’ re done.

2. Next, trim away any little pieces of meat or vessels hanging off the end bones, as they will burn during cooking.

3. Finally, trim off any large areas of fat. Leave any small patches attached; they will slowly melt during cooking. Your ribs are prepped and ready to cook. Although some recipes call for washing and drying the slabs, this is not n ecessary. Neither is giving them a vinegar bath . Some of these instructions are left over from days when the pork industry was less structured and pork was considered a trap for trichinosis. Modern processing has all but eliminated this threat in toda y’ s markets.

Sausage and Bacon

No discussion of pork could end without including sausage and bacon. As described earlier, hogs contribute more to the food chain than any other type of meat. Again, there are few world cuisines that do n’ t grind, stuff, cure, smoke, or wrap scraps of pork for sausages or bacon. The variety is too wide to cover in a manual of simple guidelines, but here are some things to look for and names to know.

Sausages come fres h — uncooke d— or air-dried, cooked or smoked, and dry- cured salami types, and while there may be a mixture of meats, the most common are of all pork. Some examples follow.

Fresh

American breakfast links Bratwurst

British bangers Bulgarian loukaniko Chipolata Cotechino

Serbo-Croatian cevapcici Linguica

Merguez