The CHOW Blog

The difference between baby back ribs and so-called St. Louis ribs is not in the method of preparation, but in the cut of meet, hill food says. St. Louis ribs are spareribs that have been trimmed down to remove the "rib tips," mike0989 says; spare ribs are located near the belly of the pig, where the flavorful bacon comes from. (Rib tips themselves are beloved by Chowhounds like lemons and hill food, who consider them a delicious treat.)

Baby back ribs, on the other hand, come from the back side of the pig, near the loin, mike0989 says. mike0989 prefers St. Louis ribs, as they are more substantial; either baby back or St. Louis ribs can be interchanged in recipes, adjusting the cooking times as needed. But baby backs won't stand up to long smoking and actually do better with less cooking, 9lives says, which may be why they are more common at chain restaurants.

Discuss: St. Louis vs. baby back ribs

Photo by Chris Rochelle / CHOW.com

Unlike regular scissors, which only have two blades, herb shears have six or even ten blades spaced evenly apart, and can quickly snip even segments of herbs. But are they a useful tool you'll reach for again and again, or should you just stick with knives and scissors?

While they're not at all necessary, some cooks who lack confidence in their knife work might find these unitaskers useful, kaleokahu says. They effortlessly create unerringly fine cuts at perfectly uniform dimensions, if that's important to you—well, effortlessly if you don't count the cleaning, kaleokahu says. mbCrispyBits, however, finds they make the process of snipping up herbs less messy than using a cutting board.

A few drawbacks: if the herbs are wet from washing, they will stick to the shears, HillJ says. A few turns in a salad spinner and some time on dry paper towels can help with this, but even herbs that are dry on the outside will stick to the many blades of the herb shears if they release moisture during the cutting, HillJ says. Ultimately, HillJ finds them to be a big waste of time and money.

Most Chowhounds opt to use a cutting board and a sharp knife to chop herbs—and some, like Isolda, use a pair of single-bladed scissors to snip chives and other herbs. Tinkerbell likes the effectiveness of an ulu (a curved-bladed knife with a curved bowl to chop in) for quickly chopping herbs with a rocking-back-and-forth motion.

Discuss: Are Herb Scissors Necessary?

Photo of herb shears and freshly snipped herbs by Flickr user mkreul under Creative Commons

The pleasures of a sharp knife have motivated lots of home cooks to learn how to use a sharpening stone. Chowhound ukjason uses a well-soaked 1,000-grit water stone, carefully holding the knife at a 15-degree angle while honing. Still, even with a stone, ukjason can't get the blades as sharp as those on new knives fresh out of the box. Is it possible to achieve factory-level sharpness at home?

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with ukjason's sharpening method, tanuki soup says on Chowhound. But with practice and a few tweaks, anyone should be able to become a honing master. READ MORE