I'm attempting beef ribs for the first time


 
Lynn Dollar

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
Been at this a while, but never smoked beef ribs. I never gave them much thought till seeing what Aaron Franklin does with them, and what he does looks darn good. I might copy his method, if possible.

I went to a local butcher today and bought his " short ribs " which he said were from the plate, not back ribs. He had cut them into single ribs or I could've bought them connected , with four ribs.

I bought four single ribs, since I'm new at this and not even sure how many should make a meal. This will be only for my wife and I, should I smoke all four ribs or just two ? I think just doing two gives me a chance to learn before I waste four ribs :)

I have no game plan for how to smoke them, or even whether to use my Kettle, the 22 WSM or the 18 WSM. I'm leaning to the 18 WSM, as I've never done a cook longer than 2 hours on the Kettle.

I'm open to any and all advise and suggestions. Other than what I see Franklin doing, I'm also thinking about Meatchurch's Holy Cow for a rub.
 
Short ribs are a loosely used term. Do they look like this
DSC_3055Asian-Style-Flanken-Short-Ribs.jpg

If so, they are called flanken ribs.

Look like this
01APPE5-articleLarge.jpg

what I (and most others) call short ribs.

Our flanken ribs were on sale so that's what I got. Made this Chinese Short Rib recipe which was really good (did them in a slow cooker) using flanken ribs (this recipe uses short ribs)
https://damndelicious.net/2016/03/23/slow-cooker-asian-short-ribs/
 
No, they look like giant St Louis cut spare ribs. About 8" long.

I hope , after smoked and they pull down on the bone, they look like this

spring-creek-beef-rib.jpg
 
I've done four-rib racks a few times. Low and slow. Simple salt and pepper rub. I do NOT recommend the approach of dumping a ton of pepper on them. I thought that was absolutely awful. Just use what you think would be a normal amount of pepper on your food.

For smoke wood I'd suggest a mix of cherry and oak.
 
I've never had much luck with them, what I'd try is trimming most of the fat off the surface or trim it to very little, because biting straight into fat can be too rich. I'm with you on that Holy Cow. I'd probably put down a light dusting of kosher salt and then the Holy Cow. I'd also cook them maybe at 275 to render more fat. Once I got them plenty tender but they were way too damn rich. I've had the beef rib at Franklin and I'll tell it's probably the single best BBQ thing I've ever eaten.
 
Do yourself a favor and cook these for sure! I love beef ribs as much as brisket. Here was my last beef rib cook (for a large plate of 4 ribs) on the WSM:

On 10:30 AM / off 6:00 PM-ish (7.5 hours) to reach internal 203 degrees. Ran smoker 250 to 275; at higher end and a little above last 45 mins to hour to push past a 187 degree stall

I used MeatChurch but can't remember if it was the Holy Cow or the Holy Gospel, I use both and they are always awesome awesome awesome.
 
Well, they're on the smoker. I used Franklin's salt and pepper on two of them, and MeatChurch Holy Cow on the other two.

I'm using the 18 WSM, but I got it wide opena and can't get it to run any hotter than 264, I'm trying to get to 285 . I used a water bowl but only put a small amount of water in the bowl.

Will see how long it takes.
 
It doesn't matter how much water you put in the bowl unless it's so little it boils dry. If there's water in the bowl, it will absorb heat energy to turn that water to steam. If you're shooting for anything north of 240F, I strongly recommend running with the bowl dry. You're going to have a very tough time getting it above 240F and you're going to burn a lot of charcoal doing it.

At Thanksgiving I had a lot of trouble getting the smoker up to 325F like I wanted. Ended up the only way I could keep it there was to prop the lid open a little to let more air through. It's counter-intuitive, but it works. With all three bottom vents wide open, the bottleneck in air flow is the top vent. It's simply not big enough to run that hot when it's cold outside. You could be having a similar issue.
 
Agree with@JayHeyl, use an empty (foil wrapped) pan for anything above 240º-250º. Lynn, I think you;re going to really love the Dino Bones. I usually get Chuck Ribs from Restaurant Depot. Plate Ribs (Short Ribs) come from a different part of the cow, but both are really, really good ! ! !





BD
 
Here's the real enigma, its now spiked to 305 per my Maverick remote. I've added water and shut off one vent.

But my Tel Tru at grate level, says 285 . Both have been tested in boiling water, recently.

qH5uKTR.jpg



And here's the ribs at 2 1/2 hours, they're lookin good , I'm surprised they are this far along , so soon

UTzqkrR.jpg
 
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I just pulled em at 3 hours. Thermopen said 203 to 205, cept the largest one was 195. They were very soft , Thermopen went in easily. I was expecting a 6 hour cook.

Since I've never done this before, I've no idea what happened.

Maybe the beef ribs I bought were not real meaty, I've no idea, as I've nothing to compare.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
I just pulled em at 3 hours. Thermopen said 203 to 205, cept the largest one was 195. They were very soft , Thermopen went in easily. I was expecting a 6 hour cook.

Since I've never done this before, I've no idea what happened.

Maybe the beef ribs I bought were not real meaty, I've no idea, as I've nothing to compare.
Click to expand...

Maybe they are cooking faster separated like that. They look good so far! I've had them take 10 hours but I believe I was cooking a lot lower.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
Maybe they are cooking faster separated like that. They look good so far! I've had them take 10 hours but I believe I was cooking a lot lower.
Click to expand...

That's my theory also.

The butcher was selling them separated, I really had no choice. He showed me some connected, 4 ribs together. But I had to buy two of them and the bill was $60. I might do that next time, depending on how these taste.

Franklin beef ribs have three together. I've seen others like that. I gotta wonder if that's a different cut.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
That's my theory also.

The butcher was selling them separated, I really had no choice. He showed me some connected, 4 ribs together. But I had to buy two of them and the bill was $60. I might do that next time, depending on how these taste.

Franklin beef ribs have three together. I've seen others like that. I gotta wonder if that's a different cut.
Click to expand...

Well, there are chuck spare ribs and plate spare ribs. My butcher sells them separated like that, too.
 
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