Making lemonade


 
J

JayHeyl

TVWBB Pro
Today I had my first smoking total fail. I had wanted to do beef ribs but it turns out they're nearly impossible to find around here. Next time I think I'm going to have to go to an actual butcher shop. I'd have done that this time but there aren't any nearby and I really wasn't expecting so much difficulty finding beef ribs. So at the fifth store on my search I decided to throw in the towel and picked up about eight pounds of the boneless short ribs they had on sale.

I've never done boneless short ribs before but after checking around they didn't look like they'd present any special difficulties. I trimmed off the big chunks of fat and sprinkled on a rub. I filled the charcoal ring on the WSM about half full, burying two chunks of hickory and two of oak, then dumped about 30 lit coals in the middle. Based on what I'd read I was figuring it would take about four hours. The WSM ran 250F-275F after it came up to temp. About two hours into the cook I thought I'd take a look. I had a WSM full of burnt ends. Most of the pieces I checked were 205F or higher. I pulled it all off and let it rest while I made the sides I'd figured I had plenty of time to work on. When it was time to eat the ribs were nearly inedible. Tough, dry, chewy. Generally awful.

After dinner I sliced all of what remained crosswise into fairly thin pieces. Then I made a simple sauce and poured it over the chopped up ribs and let it sit while I finished the dishes. Of course I had to give it a taste before I put it away. Not bad at all. Actually bordering on good. And a vast improvement over the plain ribs. I think after the sauce and meat meld a bit more it could be quite tasty.

I'm still disappointed with the results from the cook but at least I was able to make something halfway decent from that colossal fail.
 
Most grocery stores sell either short ribs or Korean style ribs. They cut them from what is usually called flanken ribs. They usually receive them whole and cut them down. Talk to your meat department and see if you can buy the uncut cryovac packet. There are usually 3 to 4 ribs and about 10-12" long. Usually one rib is enough for anyone.
 
I did 40lbs of beef ribs on a smoker and being it was a southern pride the temps stayed very stable at 225,6-7 hrs the best I remember with a salt/pepper/garlic/chili powder rub,I ran them long enuf to render most of the fat out. finding good ribs is tough around here.I'm building a pull behind pit to do some small whole hog cooks on in the fall and will be searching for some cases of Beef ribs that still have meat on them and not just a touch between the bones,
 
Howdy neighbor!
Did you try Priscos? They have a decent meat counter. There was also a place on Church street called aurora meat packing ( I think they changed names?) They had a great variety of cased meat.
My local Mexi/Montgomery market carries some nice beef ribs also. And you could also call GFS on Ogden.

Tim
 
JayHeyl,
I feel your pain. I did an expensive brisked on the 4th of July that I thought I did 'right', was careful to watch the temp (another issue in another thread regarding Thermapen 'problems'), but the brisket was a fail as it was dry and crumbly.

It was a sad dad that day.

Fast forward to today, and I am planning on doing beef ribs! So imagine my interest in this thread.

As others suggested - ask the butcher if you don't see actual beef 'ribs' out in the display cases. I found the smaller individual beef short ribs that had been cut down, but not full on ribs. So I asked the butcher and he came out with a cryopack that had 2 4-rib sections in it. It was labeled as Beef Chuck Short Ribs, not Back Ribs.

I think I paid 3.99/lb

I'll start another thread on this, but yours has me worried as I was going to use a method close to what you posted.

Guess I'll watch these really close today, so thanks for the warning, glad you were able to salvage your cook for something tasty.
 
timothy said:
Howdy neighbor!
Did you try Priscos? They have a decent meat counter. There was also a place on Church street called aurora meat packing ( I think they changed names?) They had a great variety of cased meat.
My local Mexi/Montgomery market carries some nice beef ribs also. And you could also call GFS on Ogden.

Tim
Click to expand...
Hi, Tim. I did try Prisco's. They've done away with the manned meat counter and have just a standard refrigerated display case now. Selection was disappointing. Frankly, I see no reason to shop at Prisco's anymore. The meat counter was the only reason to go there.

La Chiquita did have some packages of small, individual ribs in the case. I figured they might have some in the back but when I went to the manned counter there was a long line and just one butcher rather slowly waiting on customers. I waited for five minutes while he cut up about 25 lbs of tripe for a woman and finally decided I didn't want to spend the rest of the afternoon there.

I read online that the packing plant on Church St. closed its retail store.

Next time maybe I'll try Dave's in Yorkville. The reviews online were a bit spotty but they've apparently been there a long time so they must be doing something right.
 
Dave's has a good shop, mostly expensive but you can find deals. If you don't mind traveling up 47 to Elburn, Reams is a pretty good shop also.
That stinks that Prisco's closed the meat counter. I haven't been there in a while but the piedmonte<sp? beef was outstanding.

Tim
 
Was going to start a new thread but found this one from last year and figured I'd tack on the end.

On my last trip to Costco they had some prime chuck short ribs in cryo-pak so I had to give them a try. Only $3.99/lb. Overall, this attempt with real ribs went much better than last year's try with boneless. I followed the chuck short ribs guide in the cooking section here. Trimmed most of the heavy fat. Wonderfully marbled meat under all that fat. Fresh ground about a quarter cup of pepper a few days in advance and let it "age". (If I take the top off my pepper grinder I can fit the cordless drill on the stem and create a Tim Taylor "More Power" grinder that will produce a lot of ground pepper in no time at all.) I mixed about an equal amount of kosher salt into the pepper. I coated the ribs with a bit of Cholula and then liberally applied the salt/pepper mix and let it sit on the counter for about an hour while I got the smoker going.

This was my first dry pan cook with my "new" WSM. I'd done dry cooks several times before years ago in California but not since getting the new WSM last year. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to maintain my target temp.

The online guide said 275F-300F for 6-8 hours. I was at 295F-305F for the entire time. I must have had scrawny ribs because the two racks in the pack I bought came to less than 9 pounds and were done in under four hours.

As to the results, I was... whelmed. The texture of the meat was fantastic. Very tender but still with enough chew to know you were eating something. Good beefy flavor. On the negative side, the salt/pepper rub was way too much. When you got a bite of crust it was very salty and overly spicy from the pepper.

Next time I'll take a different approach. I think I'll dry-brine it a couple days in advance and then wipe off any remaining salt before cooking. Pepper will be applied in great moderation. I'll also start with a lower temp to give the ribs more time to take on smoke, probably ramping up to 275F after a few hours at 225F. With nicely marbled prime ribs like this I think it's probably best to let the beef and the smoke do most of the talking. Rubs/sauces, including salt and pepper, should play very minor roles at best.

Comments, opinions, suggestions welcome.
 
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