Quest for beef ribs.


 
Dustin Dorsey

Dustin Dorsey

TVWBB Hall of Fame
Beef short ribs are my holy grail. I've had them a various BBQ joints over the years such as Franklin BBQ and I've been dying to make them at home. I just can never find them not cut flanken style or taken off the bone, etc. I wanna do some like the awesome post by Enrico or William Landreth.

Generally, they have them cut into a section of 3 bones in the post and when I've seen them online. My butcher at a supermarket says he can cut them however I want and I had a hard time conveying what I want. I'm gonna go by saturday. Any tips on what I should tell the butcher?


Thanks!
 
I have been able to ask for them at the butcher section of our local HEB's. Sometimes they have them, other times they have already sliced them up. I need to get some more. Those I have bought were package 4 bone racks. Ask for a "short rib plate"...
 
Show him a picture of what your looking for. Sometimes in my neck of the woods the call them braising ribs.
 
Great beef ribs are like unicorns or leprechauns ...you know in your heart that they exist , but seeing them in real life is so rare. :cool:
 
whole rack cut in half lengthwise



comes out like this



serve like this



or ask for English cut. That's individual bone serving size







Maybe show him the pictures.
 
Well I got some. They come in sections of 4 ribs. I took off the membrane which was a massive chore. There was still a fat cap, and it looked like it had some really thick silverskin under it so I trimmed most of it off. That may have been a huge mistake. I trim briskets to where there is a 1/4 to 1/8 inch of fat on top. 2 of the bones were super meaty and 2 were only meaty on 1 side. I seasoned them with just salt and pepper. I got my butcher paper in so I may wrap them in a few hours. We'll see.
 
I just got four HUGE racks yesterday from our local HEB. These things barely fit in the large size Foodsaver bags. I did have to ask the butcher for them...

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Well I cooked them but they cooked weird. I'm going to have to try them again. I cooked them up to 165 internal and wrapped in Butcher paper. Then put them back on and somehow the temp started dropping to about 154 before rebounding. I have no idea what happened there. They turned out OK but I have no pics.

What's also weird is they cooked really fast to about 160 and then started cooking SLOW.
 
I don't wrap them. Let them go naked until 200.
I tried wrapping and they came out like pot roast.
 
I did another batch this last weekend. Same weirdness with the temp when I wrapped with butcher paper. Temp dropped a few degrees and I just took it off. Then internal temp rebounded and they cooked a lot better. I pulled them off at 190 and I should have kept going to 200 just to render more fat. At 190 they were plenty tender and moist though. I left a little fat cap on and I'm not going to do that next time. They are rich enough with the rendered fat in them, and the fat cap is just over the top too rich. I really enjoyed them though. Next time I should easily nail it. They are pretty easy to cook.

It's weird to me how different from brisket they are. They seem to stall at a higher temp and cook very slow at the end. The temp ramping up to 150 flies by very quickly. It might be worth it to cook at lower temps to get a better smoke ring at that point and then ramp it up. Ever since I quit using water in the pan I can't get a decent smoke ring with my WSM to save my life.
 
Here a rack I did on the WSM at around 275* for 6 hours. Plenty of smoke ring and I don't use water in the pan. I really don't pay attention to the IT. After 5.5 hours, I start sticking a toothpick between the bones checking for tenderness...

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Ribs look great, Terry! I think my biggest problem was not taking off the fat cap. I think mine could have gone to a higher internal temp. I'm normally a probe tester for brisket but due to the fat content of beef ribs you aren't in as much danger of drying them out. At least that's my thought.
 
I agree with the "Unicorn" post. Good beef ribs are hard to find and what you find in one place may be a lot different from another. I've learned to stay away from the overbutchered skinny's in the cryovac's. I've done a few like Terry above and they are great when cooked right. They have a really tough membrane and can be really chewy if you don't cook them until tender. The inside fat layer on the loin side is really hard to render but, unlike pork backs, you can render it without drying out the loin meat.
 
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