1st attempt of slowing indirect barbecuing for short ribs:failed


 
C

Chueh

New member
Hi, All,

I have a Weber Silver. I should have had a backup meal prepared in case failing my 1st attempt to barbecue short ribs. My hubby and I were eating the carbon covered non-tender ribs 2 hours later than expected. Here is the story, and please make any comments and suggestions for me to save my hubby's life (he was nice enough to eat the ribs for this time, but either he dies of hunger or accumulates cancer cells for my attempts of slow cooking next times)!

*I did not clean out the old charcoals on the grate but only pushed them to one side.
*I used a chimney (thanks to all of you who recommended it). When the coals were all red and good, I dumped them onto the grate of the other side, with damp wood chips.
*Put the food grate on to heat up a little bit.
*Placed 4 beef short ribs above the old coals, closed the lid, and turned the lid vent open right above the ribs for some minutes, but noticed the smoke dissipating away.
*Put my hand over the grill yet not felt much heat... OK... I assumed that the coals for some reason put off (WHY???? not sure why? they were nice hot and red when I dumped them on the grate).
*Started all over again. Lit the charcoals from the chimney. When they were done, dumped them onto the other side with the old half-used charcoals.
*Placed the ribs right above the burning hot charcoals, because I just recalled that I did not sear them for the first time (not sure if I could re-sear them successfully or not, but tried it anyway).
*After 4 minutes or so, I turned the ribs to the other side right above the older coals with those heated up 30 minute earlier. And let them cooked for about 45-minutes or less (don't remember; busy watering my plants at the same time).
*Here was the PAIN: each time I started a new batch of coals, I had to take the food grate with the food out of the grill and put them aside, while heating up the coals by using the chimney in the grill. The food got cold sitting aside for 15-20 minutes. Any suggestion where to use the chimney. The grill is a perfect place to put the chimney in, but not ideal for adding more coals, particularly a small grill like that. I am afraid that high heat would burn almost anything, so where should I heat up coals with the chimney, other than in the grill?
*Started another batch of coals. I repeated this process 3 or 4 times, due to interruptions of heat lost and adds on of the cooking length...... anyhow...I don't remember the exact details in between, but I remember very well that the plastic handle of the chimney got burned all the way. When I put the chimney on top of the previous burned coals to get the new batch ready, the half-way un-burned coals caught fire from the the chimney....and I lost the plastic handle......Also the ribs were so fat (normally they were not as fat as those) that they kept dripping fat and made the flame...... that's how the outside of the ribs were all black carbon covered with the second or 3rd batch of the coals.
*Anyway.....the entire process took about 4 hours, yet the REAL cooking time was about one hour and a half maybe due to suspicions of heat interruptions of coals... We were so hungry, so we went ahead and ate them.

How long should I cook the short ribs??? The instruction does not mention "short ribs" but "rib" for 3 hours......

Any comments are welcome. Thanks
 
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Chueh, slooooow cook short ribs (beef ribs).
with the problems you were having with the charcoal, sounds to me like it was wet/damp/crappy coal.
start with new fresh coal.
using a Weber kettle grill, employ the snake method of smoking... view this video ▼


after spending your original 4 hours, you'd be eetin' some damgood beef ribs...
 
certainly, I used the SM twice today, very slow smoking bacon (140ºF) and spare ribs (245ºF)...and it works very well!
 
Chueh said:
Thank you. I did not know that I could use the snake method for only a few hours of cooking.
Click to expand...
At 225F - 250F it might be 3 - 4 hours or more to hit a 180F internal meat temp depending on thickness of cut.

A good thermometer system is needed to manage temps.

Avoid sugary sauces until the last portion of the cook or you might get a carbon coating on your food as the sugar burns.
I avoid sugary sauces altogether when it comes to beef.
 
Fantastic!! About the sauces....... I read that using RUB to start the barbecue and marinate until the last. So.....I was afraid to put anything on the meat all together at the beginning, since I was not sure if there were certain herbs in the rub burn quickly (e.g. garlic as being one). So... Joe, basically, if sauces are not sugary, then they are OK, such as vinegar. I heard that rub salt would toughen the meat.....Please clarify these issues, if you please! Thanks
 
The most basic rub is salt and pepper.
The next step up might be Montreal Steak Seasoning.
After that the various beef rubs that are often used on beef brisket.

I like to use a rub only so the the smoke and bark can stand on their own.
Sauce can always be served on the side.
 
Sounds to me like you probably had the vents at the bottom of the grill closed or blocked. A full chimney of charcoal, piled up on one side of the grill, should burn for up to a couple of hours.

I always just incorporate my old charcoal (left over from the last cook, assuming it's not wet) into the new pile -- usually just grabbing it and putting it in the chimney. Once lit, push all that over to one side, put the ribs on the other side (not over any charcoal), and put the lid on. There should be no reason to ever use the chimney a second time. If your fire starts to go out as the charcoal is all burned up, just add some more briquets on top of what is left of the old fire. It'll light by itself. Make a big fire. There is no advantage to skimping on the charcoal with a Weber, since you can close the vents, put the fire out, and reuse any unburned charcoal the next time. I am often able to nearly fill a chimney with just the old charcoal. I believe that trying to cook with a tiny fire is probably the biggest mistake people make when learning to Weber...

I would NOT sear beef short ribs that are going to be indirect cooking for 2+ hours. They will get plenty dark just from the indirect cooking. I don't put any sauce on my ribs on the grill. I put it on when I serve the ribs, but you can sauce them for the last few minutes if you like, but never over the fire as the sugar will char quickly over direct heat.

Cooking time is going to depend on how hot the fire is. With the vent open, the ribs could be done in an hour (indirect method). If you throttle the fire back by closing the bottom vent 1/2 way or maybe even 3/4 closed, it could take 4 hours. In any case, I would leave the top vent open and control the fire temp with the bottom vent. They should be edible at any point between 60 minutes and the time they are overcooked.

-------------

For practice, you might want to start with simple indirect cooking of a boneless pork roast or chicken breasts. Fire on either side, meat in the middle not over any charcoal. Lid on. Vents fully open. Should take anywhere from 45 minutes to 75 minutes. This would be indirect roasting at probably 350 degrees. I suggest practicing with this because 90% of the stuff you cook on a Weber will be done this way (high heat indirect roasting) or direct grilling over the fire (like a steak or hamburgers). Very few things benefit from long slow low temperature cooking -- mostly just the traditional BBQ cuts like ribs, pork butts, etc.

Low and slow will be the same idea, except that you will try to throttle the fire back to 250 degrees by closing the bottom vents part way. The added complexity (compared to simple indirect roasting) is that you will have to learn how far you can close the bottom vent on your grill and not put the fire out. It doesn't have to be very precise. You could turn out awesome ribs with a fire temp anywhere from 225 to 300 degrees. The cooking time will be shorter with a hotter fire, but the ribs will still be darn good.

Once you control the fire well enough to cook something like ribs for 4 hours without overcooking them, learn to go really easy on the wood smoke. When something is cooking for that long, a little bit of smoke goes a long way. When I do ribs (4 to 6 hours) or pork butt (8 to 12 hours), I don't want wood smoke billowing the entire time. It's just too much, IMO.
 
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Here is a pic of my indirect set up for low and slow.



I light 3-4 coals at on end with a welding torch, bottom vent is about 1/8 open and the top vents are about 1/2 open. This will run 4-8 hours depending on how well I pack the lump in.
 
Harold C said:
Once you control the fire well enough to cook something like ribs for 4 hours without overcooking them, learn to go really easy on the wood smoke. When something is cooking for that long, a little bit of smoke goes a long way. When I do ribs (4 to 6 hours) or pork butt (8 to 12 hours), I don't want wood smoke billowing the entire time. It's just too much, IMO.
Click to expand...
Since the beginning, there have been a lot of people smoking meats and fish in the PNW.
The age-old rule of thumb is to stop trying to infuse smoke after the first 3 hours.
Some adhere to an even shorter window.
 
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