Flanken cut beef ribs?


 

W_Stewart

TVWBB Fan
I have a couple flanken cuts of beef ribs and plan to smoke them. Anything different to consider compared to other beef short ribs I've done? I'm not sure why people even cut them this way?
 
I've done whole racks of plate ribs before but I often struggle with the fact that I am the only carnivore in the house and can only eat so much from a cook. So I wanted to try a smaller amount after seeing a picture somewhere of someone smoking a slice of them and not a whole plate. The picture was one about 2" thick, not the korean style, so that is what I ha my butcher cut for me - 2 slices about 2" thick.

I guess they were thick enough that the meat still needed more or less the same amount of time, but by the time they were done and had rendered down they were fairly small. But enough for one meal which I guess was my goal. They were still pretty darn good, and I needed a test cook on something anyway after making some major modifications to my propane smoker. Yay - the modifications were a success.

But in future cooks I'll be doing a whole plate. I think they will stay juicier.
 
I have a couple flanken cuts of beef ribs and plan to smoke them. Anything different to consider compared to other beef short ribs I've done? I'm not sure why people even cut them this way?

Too late for you now but I was looking at a "Chinese Short Rib" recipe (crock pot) and came across this note in their description:
Notes

Make sure to get the English cut of short ribs, which leaves one large rib bone in each piece of beef; flanken-cut ribs should be avoided, since each piece of beef will have several cross-cut bones in it.

 
OK, talking about different things here. Full plate is 4 to 6 bones with a bunch of meat on top. Picture a 1/3 rack of really meat baby backs.

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You can smoke the plate whole, then slice into individual ribs,

Beef-Rib-Killen.jpg



or trim to individual ribs then smoke them. Either way, you have a full long bone with meat on the top of it.

beef-ribs-1.jpg





Flanken cut ribs are where they take the full plate, rotate it and run it through a saw cutting across the bones about 1/4 inch thick. You end up with a piece of meat that has 4 round little pieces of rib bone across the bottom.

beef-chuck-short.jpg




Another option is kind of an inbetween, which is beef short ribs. The full plate is cut into individual bones, then each of those bones is cross cut into smaller sections.

short-ribs.jpg






And yes, a single rib or two rib joint will take just as long to cook as the full plate as the thickness of the meat is what will determine the cook time in this case.
 
Flanken cut ribs are where they take the full plate, rotate it and run it through a saw cutting across the bones about 1/4 inch thick. You end up with a piece of meat that has 4 round little pieces of rib bone across the bottom.

beef-chuck-short.jpg

This is exactly what they sell at my butcher. I tried them once and while not my best cook, I would try them again. They did take a long time and I took them off too soon. Flavor was very good though. I wrapped them in foil (did the 3-2-1 method) but I should have put some liquid in the foil. Never had to do that with a chuck roast, but I think these needed that moisture more than a chuck roast. I also liked that it was a smaller cook and smaller meal. We don't eat a lot of beef, but I do still like it once in awhile.
 
This is exactly what they sell at my butcher. I tried them once and while not my best cook, I would try them again. They did take a long time and I took them off too soon. Flavor was very good though. I wrapped them in foil (did the 3-2-1 method) but I should have put some liquid in the foil. Never had to do that with a chuck roast, but I think these needed that moisture more than a chuck roast. I also liked that it was a smaller cook and smaller meal. We don't eat a lot of beef, but I do still like it once in awhile.

Marinate them then cook them on a grill. Cook time should be less than 10 minutes. Basically, treat like a steak.
 
Marinate them then cook them on a grill. Cook time should be less than 10 minutes. Basically, treat like a steak.

I'm open for anything, but I don't see how that would work. That's some pretty tough meat to be grilling. I assume there's a marinade that is going to break down the connective tissue? If not, what am I missing? If that were on the whole rib, I don't think they could be grilled.
 
I'm open for anything, but I don't see how that would work. That's some pretty tough meat to be grilling. I assume there's a marinade that is going to break down the connective tissue? If not, what am I missing? If that were on the whole rib, I don't think they could be grilled.

It definitely works. The marinade helps, but you can also just season and grill. it's really more to do with how thinly they are cut. A whole rib would need much more time.
 
This is exactly what they sell at my butcher. I tried them once and while not my best cook, I would try them again. They did take a long time and I took them off too soon. Flavor was very good though. I wrapped them in foil (did the 3-2-1 method) but I should have put some liquid in the foil. Never had to do that with a chuck roast, but I think these needed that moisture more than a chuck roast. I also liked that it was a smaller cook and smaller meal. We don't eat a lot of beef, but I do still like it once in awhile.

We get these local very easily, since there are a fair amount of Koreans in the area, and we now have an h-mart in Cupertino. My wife likes Korean food. I've done these on the kettle a number of times, always tasty. The Koreans refer to this cut as galbi. Marinade overnight if possible.

Most any butcher will cut them across the bones for you.

Trivia: In the south of Japan they cut the spareribs like this, and sell each section of a bone...wasn't very much, like 25-50 yen, but they charged per each piece when I was visiting family. My wife makes a dish called ton-kotsu, cooked in miso with daikon, stewed for about 4-5 hours. Very tasty, even a big hit in America.
 
Okay, after relooking at the picture, the ones I can buy are thicker. When I bought them, I looked up Korean BBQ and decided not to go with that. I think the ones my butcher cuts are about two inches thick. The ones in the picture look to be less than an inch, which is what I gathered from my reading. I guess I could still try high heat but I'm doubtful it would work on the ones I can get. Of course, I'd still have something pretty good to eat, just not great.

I remember a quote from my father in law (RIP), when I said something like "this meat is tough". He said, without hesitation, "Well then, we're just gonna have to get tougher." Kind of like "shut up and eat", but a lot better of a quote. :)
 
When I bought them, I looked up Korean BBQ and decided not to go with that.

Like most things in life, there are various grades that one can obtain, and that couldn't be more true of galbi. Our local butchers will cut it any thickness you like. In Korea they cut the galbi with scissors, when they cook it.

The Japanese have a similar style of what they cal Tepan-yaki. where they grill meat and/or have grills at the tables. I took my wife for dinner recently and we ordered a dinner of the Chef's choice. One dish was a shabu-shabu where the pot with broth in it to cook the meat was actually made out of some type of fire resistant paper. Very cool presentation where flame was used under a paper bowl of broth.

Anyway, 2" is pretty thick and more like a beef short rib, that's how I do mine but leave 'em whole. Some call them dino ribs these days. A short rib is typically cut across the bone in this flanken style.
 

 

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