I have been working on beef ribs but have had very mixed sucess. I have been using the beef rib in a weber kettle recipe off the smoke ring home page. I have tried this 4 time on one occasion I cracked it and the ribs were fantasctic. The other 3 times the ribs were tough and fatty. I am cooking the ribs for about 6 hrs at about 225F to the instructions. Am I under cooking them? Do you find variation in quality of one set of ribs to another? Any help would be greatly appreciated
Help with Beef Ribs
- Thread starter JackW
- Start date
Larry Wolfe
Closed Account
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by JackW:
I have been working on beef ribs but have had very mixed sucess. I have been using the beef rib in a weber kettle recipe off the smoke ring home page. I have tried this 4 time on one occasion I cracked it and the ribs were fantasctic. The other 3 times the ribs were tough and fatty. I am cooking the ribs for about 6 hrs at about 225F to the instructions. Am I under cooking them? Do you find variation in quality of one set of ribs to another? Any help would be greatly appreciated </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Jack are you foiling the ribs? The time and temps you are cooking them is right on target, so I don't think that's your problem. I cook beef ribs, the same as I do pork spare ribs. I use a 4-1-1 method, 4 hrs in the smoke, 1 hour foiled (I don't, but some folks add a liquid at the foiling point) and then put them back on the cooker for another hour unfoiled to firm up and sauce. This should produce consistent tender moist ribs everytime. Hope this helps!
I have been working on beef ribs but have had very mixed sucess. I have been using the beef rib in a weber kettle recipe off the smoke ring home page. I have tried this 4 time on one occasion I cracked it and the ribs were fantasctic. The other 3 times the ribs were tough and fatty. I am cooking the ribs for about 6 hrs at about 225F to the instructions. Am I under cooking them? Do you find variation in quality of one set of ribs to another? Any help would be greatly appreciated </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Jack are you foiling the ribs? The time and temps you are cooking them is right on target, so I don't think that's your problem. I cook beef ribs, the same as I do pork spare ribs. I use a 4-1-1 method, 4 hrs in the smoke, 1 hour foiled (I don't, but some folks add a liquid at the foiling point) and then put them back on the cooker for another hour unfoiled to firm up and sauce. This should produce consistent tender moist ribs everytime. Hope this helps!
K Kruger
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
'Tough and fatty' is indeed undercooked.
Around here beef ribs are not as consistent from one rack to the next size- fat-coverage- and marbling-wise. I do not find 'quality' differences though.
Pork ribs I nearly always foil, beef ribs rarely but it can work. I do not foil by time, only by color (pork ribs I foil when deeply colored, beef ribs I'd foil after they'd been deeply colored for a while). If foiled, I unfoil when done--when a probe inserted between the bones goes in easily--not by time, and then return to the cooker for a few minutes to re-establish rub/exterior texture. If unfoiled then I just use the probe test to determine 'done' and pull them when they are. I do not recall ever having beef ribs finish in 6 hours--even foiled--but differences in rack size (or memory) might account for this.
Around here beef ribs are not as consistent from one rack to the next size- fat-coverage- and marbling-wise. I do not find 'quality' differences though.
Pork ribs I nearly always foil, beef ribs rarely but it can work. I do not foil by time, only by color (pork ribs I foil when deeply colored, beef ribs I'd foil after they'd been deeply colored for a while). If foiled, I unfoil when done--when a probe inserted between the bones goes in easily--not by time, and then return to the cooker for a few minutes to re-establish rub/exterior texture. If unfoiled then I just use the probe test to determine 'done' and pull them when they are. I do not recall ever having beef ribs finish in 6 hours--even foiled--but differences in rack size (or memory) might account for this.
Lou Tarnay
TVWBB Fan
I usually find that 7 hours (give or take a half hour, usually take) at 235 top vent temp. works for me. I usually cook beef ribs over pork. The pork ribs are always smaller, so it seems to help them to be at the lower temp of the lower grate. The beef ribs are done when the meet pulls back 1/2 to 1 inch from the end of the bone. This routine has never failed me. I had several rib failures prior to finding this routine though so don't be discouraged! I don't even use a thermometer for meat temp. on ribs any more.