Everything tastes better when you eat it with your fingers. Yes it may get messy, but the primal feeling of eating sans silverware can be invigorating.

Envision a large platter with a heaping rack of Flintstone-esque ribs and just think about the tender meat falling away from the bone.

The sweet spicy smell of caramelized barbecue sauce and the glistening crust of the slab beckon you to gnaw at the bone like a caveman.

Oh yeah it's just that good and remarkably easy, just remember that the main ingredient in making a flavorful and moist rack of ribs is patience.

First things first, what kind of ribs should we purchase and what cut? Beef and pork ribs are the most readily available and the purchase price of ribs is comparatively low compared to other cuts. Beef ribs have the bones included in prime rib and are removed by the butcher for boneless rib roasts. They are as tasty and as tender as prime rib meat and can be cooked similarly as spareribs.

Short ribs are larger, meatier and more tender than pork but usually require more time to prepare either by marinating or by braising. Braising is a method of cooking in which the meat is browned then cooked in a covered vessel with a small amount of liquid over low heat for a significant amount of time. The liquid can be further reduced for a sauce and added to the finished plate. Short ribs are fatty, but keep in mind that “fat is flavor.” The short ribs will lose some of their fat through the rendering process and also while they're braising which is why you want to keep the liquid.

Short ribs are available in either a flanken cut (plate) or an English cut (plate or chuck).

The former is a separated piece of rib with a bone running the length of the cut and the latter is a section of rib cut across multiple bones (three or four). The flanken cut is a tad stringier but a lot cheaper and easier to find. Besides the cut of the ribs, the orientation of location of the rib is very important. The short ribs can be cut from any part of the length of the cow. The ribs that need to be braised come from the chuck section (shoulder) and more tender ribs come from the short plate (belly). The ribs that can be grilled will need to be marinated overnight in order to be tenderized by the acid in the marinade. To grill an English cut short rib from the plate section, you will need to butterfly the rib to a quarter inch thickness.

The short rib meat can be used in a sandwich, as a ravioli filling or in a spring roll wrapper. Its tenderness and yet heartiness really lends itself to multiple uses and cooking mediums. Baby back ribs and country style ribs both come from the loin section (running along the spine) of the pig while spareribs come from the belly. The loin ribs have more flavor, more meat and usually cost more, but under the right circumstances, I think spareribs can really hold their own. Baby back ribs come from the upper end of the rib cage closest to the backbone and the country style come from the blade end of the loin section going towards the shoulder. St. Louis style ribs are spareribs that have the brisket and skirt meat removed making the rack appear more rectangular, whereas Kansas City style ribs are trimmed and de-boned further. Seeing as I don't have a smoker or a rotisserie, I opt for the gas grill in the summer and the electric oven in the winter. When cooking on the grill we need a constant low temperature with the lid closed and preferably having only half of the burners on. Cooking on the non-lit burners of the grill is called indirect cooking. I bought the cheapest rack of ribs I could find ($1.97 per pound at megamart), rubbed them with some spices or you could marinade if you prefer, let them sit for an hour at room temperature, then put them on the grill at 300 degrees. I cooked them for an hour and a half, flipped after the first 45 minutes and then mopped them with some barbecue sauce and flipped again. Every half an hour later I flipped and re-mopped. The bones of this particular rack started to come loose after a total of two and a half hours. The meat pulling away from the bone is the telltale sign of doneness. After the ribs came off the grill, I wrapped them in aluminum foil and let them rest for half an hour. Cooking in the oven is basically the same except we cover them with foil for the first hour to roast, then remove the foil for the remaining time. Rather than buying wood chips, that most would never use, you have the option of adding liquid smoke to your marinade or sauce for the smoky flavor. Cooking ribs does take a bit of time, and they aren't something that you could just whip up after work, but on a Saturday or Sunday while playing with the kids or doing chores, you can save money by not having to go to the local rib joint or buying pre-made ribs at the store. They are also really good leftover on a Monday when you don't feel like cooking for Fred, Pebbles and Dino.

Valerie Usowski, an Auburn native, is the banquet manager at the Auburn Holiday Inn and a Culinary Institute of America graduate.