Short Ribs - A new favorite of mine...low and slow...

[Alan D]

Haven't been around here posting in a while, but rest assured I'm still using my WSM and other Weber kettles and such...

I've often wondered why we don't see more low and slow short ribs, and that if they were cooked similar to brisket the collagen should break down at 190 degrees...I did try some short ribs, but didn't use a probe, and they were slightly tough and me and my wife had done some experimenting with it and saw that cooking the sliced meat in a skillet did in fact get the collagen to start breaking down and melting in with the muscle tissue...

I got around to finishing my experiment, and this time used a probe from the stoker into the largest piece of short rib. This is a 4 rib piece that I had the butcher cut down the middle across the bone (flanken ???). Both pieces weigh about 3.5 lbs. together and were a half a rack from the cow, at least how I understand the cut. They do have the thicker slab of prime meat as short ribs do. There were 8 short ribs, after done...

The seasoning was very simple, salt and pepper, and I didn't have a cracked pepper so used regular ground pepper.

I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to try this with just salt and pepper, as I just did a brisket for New Years and was thinking I would like the natural flavor of the meat, which is how me and my wife like prime steak cuts. He laughed at me and told me I might as well cook them in an iron pan if I was going to use salt and pepper...This meat just melted in my mouth...

You can see the collagen is melting in these photos. Both my wife and daughter have cooked short ribs in the dutch oven and pressure cooker, but this is the first time I've been able to acheive that same effect that happens to a brisket at 190 degrees when the collagen melts...

I just used salt and pepper, as I mentioned:

Tossed them in the WSM at 260, foiled them at 165, and took them to 192, it took about 6 hours. Oh, I will add that I didn't use hardwood lump, or any extra wood, but used the briquettes from Trader Joe's that have some wood in them, but the briquettes and not the lump. I most often use lump, but didn't want it for this, and I think it was a good choice.

This is what I ended up with!

 

[Curtis M]

Looks great... I'm doing some of those this weekend! I love the smoke ring and the fact one can see how 'tender' that really is!

Good job!

 

[RichieNJ]

Haven't been around here posting in a while, but rest assured I'm still using my WSM and other Weber kettles and such...

I've often wondered why we don't see more low and slow short ribs, and that if they were cooked similar to brisket the collagen should break down at 190 degrees...I did try some short ribs, but didn't use a probe, and they were slightly tough and me and my wife had done some experimenting with it and saw that cooking the sliced meat in a skillet did in fact get the collagen to start breaking down and melting in with the muscle tissue...

I got around to finishing my experiment, and this time used a probe from the stoker into the largest piece of short rib. This is a 4 rib piece that I had the butcher cut down the middle across the bone (flanken ???). Both pieces weigh about 3.5 lbs. together and were a half a rack from the cow, at least how I understand the cut. They do have the thicker slab of prime meat as short ribs do. There were 8 short ribs, after done...

The seasoning was very simple, salt and pepper, and I didn't have a cracked pepper so used regular ground pepper.

I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to try this with just salt and pepper, as I just did a brisket for New Years and was thinking I would like the natural flavor of the meat, which is how me and my wife like prime steak cuts. He laughed at me and told me I might as well cook them in an iron pan if I was going to use salt and pepper...This meat just melted in my mouth...

You can see the collagen is melting in these photos. Both my wife and daughter have cooked short ribs in the dutch oven and pressure cooker, but this is the first time I've been able to acheive that same effect that happens to a brisket at 190 degrees when the collagen melts...

I just used salt and pepper, as I mentioned:

Tossed them in the WSM at 260, foiled them at 165, and took them to 192, it took about 6 hours. Oh, I will add that I didn't use hardwood lump, or any extra wood, but used the briquettes from Trader Joe's that have some wood in them, but the briquettes and not the lump. I most often use lump, but didn't want it for this, and I think it was a good choice.

This is what I ended up with!

Looks awesome. I plan on doing beef ribs tomorrow. Did you feel that salt and pepper alone was sufficient? I've been reading different things.

 

[Mark R (LR)]

Looks like you nailed it! Now I'm going to have to see if I can find some of those around here. The beef ribs that I find around here have very little meat on them. I've never tried beef short ribs, but that looks fantastic. I know what I'm searching for during lunch today.

 

[Joe F]

One word comes to mind....

Scrumptious !

 

[Mike Cosgrove]

They look great, I do them low and slow also, works great.

 

[Len Dennis]

You know for how much we go on about spices and rubs, I personally think there is nothing better than sea salt and a smidge of ground pepper on beef ribs. Salt chunks just make beef ribs perfect.

Yours look perfect!

 

[Gene B]

Well fellas I'm back to posting and found this because I'm also doing some 'Boneless Chuck Beef Spare Ribs' for the second time in 3 weeks. Get the meat from Costco Industrial Outlet here in San Diego. I did these 3 weeks ago but took them off about 10 degrees too soon, and they were slightly tough. The one piece I left on longer was steak-tender and so were all the leftovers that got reheated. I will use some rub and I'm also going to try the foiling as mentioned in this post. Turns out my wife's friend is asking her husband for a WSM for Mothers day and wants me to 'teach' her how to smoke meat. She and my wife are both 1st grade teachers so I guess I get to 'teach' the teacher'. I will tell her to join this Site and to read carefully. It's always fun to eat your mistakes...just as in homebrewing when you get to drink the mistakes. I also bought a piece of 'Choice outside skirt beef- not peeled'! now what the heck am I supposed to do with that? time for 'search'...to be continued.

 

[Mark R (LR)]

I don't have pics, but I got a small pack of beef short ribs (the individually cut, short riblet version) and threw them on toward the end of a brisket cook just as a quick experiment. I just hit them with salt & pepper and put them on the smoker at around 260 for 3 hours. When I took the brisket off, I checked them. One was tender, the rest were not. I was hungry and wanting a snack while I rested the brisket, so I went ahead and pulled them. The tender one was great (and the ones that were still tough were strictly my fault).

I can't believe I've never seen these before the Throwdown. These look like the perfect "guy" appetizers ... beef popsicles. I'll have to see if I can get one of the local butchers to let me buy them in slab form instead of cut into individual riblets.

 

[Mark Q]

No pictures either, but I did some of the individual bone in short ribs today also. Wegman's had them marked down for quick sale in the Cryo-Paks so I loaded up. I did some baby backs at the same time. I gave the baby backs almost an hour head start and then threw a bunch of these on. I didn't mess around with foiling or anything like that. I put them on the cooker and let them go. The thicker ones went on the top rack and the thinner ones on the bottom. I used the same rub as the baby backs and equal portions of hickory, apple, and oak smoke wood. After almost 4 hours cooking around 240 or so I sauced them up good and let them go another 20 minutes or so. At that point I could tell we were in for a tasty treat. The were excellent. Real tender and excellent smoke flavor throughout even though I didn't add any more wood when I put them on. I can't believe how good they were.

I think they were a little more tender than usual because they were close to the end of their shelf life. I like cooking steaks near the end of their shelf life as well. Beef tends to get more tender as it ages and the tough connective tissue breaks down. I'm definitely going to be keeping my eyes open for more of these tasty little morsels. It does take a few of them to make a meal, but they're worth it. If you see them try them - you won't be disappointed.

 

[ChuckO]

Nice cook, real nice cook

 

[Joe F]

Haven't been around here posting in a while, but rest assured I'm still using my WSM and other Weber kettles and such...

I've often wondered why we don't see more low and slow short ribs, and that if they were cooked similar to brisket the collagen should break down at 190 degrees...I did try some short ribs, but didn't use a probe, and they were slightly tough and me and my wife had done some experimenting with it and saw that cooking the sliced meat in a skillet did in fact get the collagen to start breaking down and melting in with the muscle tissue...

I got around to finishing my experiment, and this time used a probe from the stoker into the largest piece of short rib. This is a 4 rib piece that I had the butcher cut down the middle across the bone (flanken ???). Both pieces weigh about 3.5 lbs. together and were a half a rack from the cow, at least how I understand the cut. They do have the thicker slab of prime meat as short ribs do. There were 8 short ribs, after done...

The seasoning was very simple, salt and pepper, and I didn't have a cracked pepper so used regular ground pepper.

I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to try this with just salt and pepper, as I just did a brisket for New Years and was thinking I would like the natural flavor of the meat, which is how me and my wife like prime steak cuts. He laughed at me and told me I might as well cook them in an iron pan if I was going to use salt and pepper...This meat just melted in my mouth...

You can see the collagen is melting in these photos. Both my wife and daughter have cooked short ribs in the dutch oven and pressure cooker, but this is the first time I've been able to acheive that same effect that happens to a brisket at 190 degrees when the collagen melts...

I just used salt and pepper, as I mentioned:

Tossed them in the WSM at 260, foiled them at 165, and took them to 192, it took about 6 hours. Oh, I will add that I didn't use hardwood lump, or any extra wood, but used the briquettes from Trader Joe's that have some wood in them, but the briquettes and not the lump. I most often use lump, but didn't want it for this, and I think it was a good choice.

This is what I ended up with!

This is a fantastic looking cook !

Being a student of fast cooking Flanken Style short ribs, I would call the above, Full Monty Short Ribs.
I must try this !