Pork and Beef ribs

OK, First things first, I ordered a cajun bandit door for my WSM 22.5 and it came in a week and a half ago. So last weekend was my first smoke with the new door. I did some st louis ribs. I very impressed with the cajun bandit door. Right of the bat, I noticed all the smoke I wasn't loosing. I also was able to control temps better. Thank you cajun Bandit!

Now, on to my question.....

I's going to smoke some more ribs this weekend coming up. My brother made his own beer so I want to pair his home made beer with my home made ribs.

I am going to do the st louis ribs, but I also wanted to do some beef ribs. I've never done beef before.

I'm sure this has been done so I'm looking for input. What are the pros and cons of doing beef and pork at the same time? With the pork, I will do a 3-2-1 recipe and with beef I'm pretty sure it's a straight cook time with no wrapping. I can't imagine it would, but does one affect the other in any way?

Just as there are two types of ribs on a hog, (loin back and spare), there are also two types of ribs on a steer. Both are located on the Rib primal with the "back ribs" from the 7-bone rib sub-primal and the "plate" or "short ribs" from the short rib primal. These two types of ribs cook very differently due to their location on the animal and the type of meat they are comprised of.

The back ribs cook up more like a ribeye which makes sense because they are the bones that are attached to the rib roast we are all familiar with. I've always thought these ribs were great when cooked as part of the roast but tend to be disappointing when cooked alone.

The plate or short ribs are lower on the animal and the meat has much more connective tissue so they cook up more like a brisket. These are the money ribs and the ones that will make you do cartwheels when you eat them because they're just so damn good!

I like to cook plate ribs on my 22 about 285 with a basic beef rub over a layer of Worcestershire as a simple binder. I do not wrap them and you'll know when they're done because the meat will offer little resistance when a probe is inserted into the meat from above. I also do not remove the membrane which is much tougher material than on the corresponding spare rib on a hog.

I have never tried a beef/pork combo cook but don't see why it would be a problem. The only decision, in my mind, is do you want the beef based with pork fat or vice versa ! ! !

Also, I would stay away from beef back ribs. I've never seen any that have enough meat on them to make it worth your while. I've been getting Beef Chuck Ribs at Restaurant Depot, but I've just found out that Sam's will sell uncut Beef Short Ribs prior to the cutting them up Flanken Style. There are two racks, four bones each, cryovacced together. I am planning to give those a try next time around.





BD

Mmmm Beef ribs, one of my favourite.

I find beef ribs cook very differently to pork ribs. 3-2-1 method is awesome for pork but not so much for beef. I've found beef ribs to take 8-10 hours. I do like to wrap them after the stall with some beef broth but as above advise - they are done when they probe tender.

Good luck with your cook. Hope the beer is good too