Food fight preview: ribs

Barbecuing may be considered a warm-weather activity, but plenty of Chicago restaurants know how make tender and juicy pork or beef the whole year round. Tonight's food fight will be all about ribs.

While Chicago may not be known as the BBQ capital of the U.S., there are still plenty of places that know how to make ribs the right way. Some Chicago restaurants also create their own barbecue sauces in an attempt to differentiate their ribs from the pack.

The best ribs typically result from a slow-cooking process on a grill or in a smoker. This means that the succulent meat is cooked at low temp for a long period of time over indirect heat. The flavors come from the meat juices and fat, the rub, and the smoke from the grill/smoker. The process for making the ribs might be the same, but that doesn't mean there isn't variety, which mostly comes from the rub and sauce that is used.

Here's a rundown of the kinds of pork ribs available around not only the country, but across Chicagoland as well.

- Spareribs: The most basic of the ribs, this is what you'll typically find when ordering ribs at a restaurant in Chicago. The name comes from how the ribs used to be cooked - on a spit or a spear - as well as to where the meat is removed from the pig - a long cut on the belly-side of the pig from the breastbone to the bottom portion of the pig's ribs.

- St. Louis Ribs: These ribs are a version of spareribs, because they're also cut from belly, providing meat on both the top and bottom of the rib. The cut typically looks rectangular, since the meat is trimmed to leave only the center bone. The distinctive flavor of of St. Louis-style ribs comes from slathering the meat in a St. Louis-style barbecue sauce throughout the 'low and slow' cooking process.

- Baby-back ribs (or Canadian ribs): These ribs are taken from the vertebrae section of the pig and the meat is often lean and tender. Contrary to some myths, these ribs do not come from baby pigs; rather "baby" means that the ribs have been taken from market size hogs instead of sows. Additionally, "baby" also refers to the smaller size of the meat and length of the ribs.

When you have a hankering for ribs, what restaurant do you go to? Do you prefer spareribs or baby-back? What's your favorite barbecue sauce?