"Greasy" Beef Ribs

[Jason M. Park]

I just smoked a nice rack of beef ribs (my personal favorite) and got a complaint from my wife about the finished product being too greasy. The flavor, smokiness and tenderness was spot on, but after she said that, I did notice a rather greasy coating on them.

I trimmed the membrane off the bone side, as well as A LOT of fat from that side. Also trimmed fat from the front side. Sorry, no photo to show how much, but trust me, it was a lot. I used the "yum-yum" recipe in the cooking section here.

Suggestions?

 

[Rich G]

Jason-

I love beef ribs when I can find racks of them to cook up. My only suggestion on the greasiness would be to cook 'em a little longer to render out a little more fat. I don't mind a bit of "liquid flavor", so I don't notice much. My wife doesn't like 'em anyway, so she doesn't complain about them. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Good luck!

Rich G.

 

[Jason M. Park]

I think that might be the ticket, Rich. I'll tell you why...

The place I find good beef racks is my local Stater Brothers, they usually have real racks of beef ribs wrapped up and ready to go. However, the styrofoam tray that they wrap them up in is a bit too small for the full 7 bone rack, so they cut off the largest bone, and tuck it under the rest of the rack. I still get all 7 bones, but only the first 6 are intact.

Anyway, since I still want to cook them all, that leaves rib #7 all by it's lonesome. Since it's all by itself, it gets pretty "well done," all the meat will be shriveled up on one end of the bone, having pulled away from the bone elsewhere. That's usually when I pull the rest off as well, which is after about 5 hours. I guess I should not use the single loner rib as an indicator. Just pull that one off when it's ready and have a "pre-rack snack." That or ask the butcher to wrap me up a full 7 bone special.

 

[Pat Trammell]

Jason,

Hi! I for a long time had that problem, particularly with beef ribs. It is however, a cultural flaw. We didn't know there were beef ribs in Alabama until the very late 1980's (swine is our state bird). Anyway, what I have found is effective is to put them on hot coals for about five minutes before removing. This quickly renders the additional fat off.

Don't burn them or anything. Maybe 350 or so degrees. It has worked well for me.

Hope this helps!

 

[Guest]

Jason
Strictly anecdotal evidence......I smoked 3 racks of BB ribs last weekend. The first rack cooked for about 5 hours and were delicious. My wife and I really enjoyed them. But I left the other two racks in the smoker while we ate the first one. It was probably an additional hour or so...and they turned out considerably less fatty than the first one. So my experience is consistent with what others have posted about a slightly longer cooking time.

Peter