Adventures in BBQ

In a timely overlap with the Formula 1 Grand Prix happening in Austin, TX, today we are trying barbecue beef short ribs for the first time. These will be cooked low and slow Texas-style for 6+ hours.

• Setup: Weber Kettle with Smokenator, no internal water pan for indirect cooking/smoking.  Weber foil pan filled with water on bottom cooking grate on empty side of the cooker.
• Meat: Beef short ribs, a 3-rib bone-in slab from Whole Paycheck Foods (my normal, wonderful supplier Shalhoob Meat Company did not have any in stock this week). The whole slab was about 6.3 lb before I started trimming.
• Fuel: Kingsford Blue Bag briquettes, red oak and hickory wood chunks for smoke.
• Prep:
  1. Removed all the fat and silver-skin off the top (the side away from the bone) and the fat off the bottom nearest the bone.
  2. Split the slab into separate ribs by carefully slicing down between the bones with a long filleting knife.
  3. Added some scores in the top side of the meat at right angles to the bone about 1″ apart – the theory is this will allow more surface area for the salt and rub to stick to but I think I need to make them more actual grooves in future
  4. Dry-brined all over with kosher salt with the ribs in a large foil tray and then covered tray with plastic wrap and into the refrigerator.

• Rub recipe:

The full slab of beef short ribs as unwrapped from the package.

The beef short ribs separated into individual ribs.

 Cooking Diary

• 3pm (previous day): Performed the prep and brining as above.
• 7:15am: Coated the ribs in vegetable oil and covered it with the rub on all sides, patting and rubbing to try and make sure it sticks and doesn’t all fall off when you turn it over…
• 7:30am: Coals lit (eventually) in chimney and transferred to kettle.
• 8:05am: Added several chunks of red oak
• 8:15am: Meat goes on, bone side down, thickest end towards the heat. Temperature spiked a little high initially – should have close down the vents (which were wide open to get things started) earlier.
• 9:00am: Added some hickory wood chunks and a little more oak chunks.
• 10:00am: Connected up the meat probe of my Maverick remote thermometer and found the thickest piece of rib to stick it in.
• 11:55am: Added some briquettes and cleared ashes.
• 12:30pm: Stirred ashes, added about a dozen more briquettes and a more hickory and red oak chunks.
• 2pm: Pretty close to done temperature (203F); much earlier than expected. Also running a bit hot so spritzed coals with water to try and cool things down a bit.
• 4pm: Things peaked at 205F internal temperature about 2:30pm and then headed back down again – weird. Pulled off and wrapped in foil.

Two of the finished beef short ribs after the cook was complete and after resting in foil. (One rib was sacrificed to the BBQ Gods earlier to try and see if they were done).

Results

Having never had beef ribs before now I wasn’t really sure what to expect. This may be one recipe mashup that didn’t work out so well;  the combination of the large amount of herbs and the long cook time (about 8 hours total)  and not wrapping in foil after a few hours (the so-called “Texas crutch”), lead to quite a burnt looking and crunchy exterior.

On the plus side, the meat was moist and juicy, had a pretty good smoke ring and came away from the bone well. On the negative side, I’m not sure all the internal fat melted and rendered out properly and there was a little too much salt in the rub, when combined with the prior brining.

Verdict: C+

Will need to try and seek out other examples before trying again. Will try and use a different style rub like Meathead’s Beef Rub next time or crutch and avoid putting so much color on the outside. Comments and other options/tips always welcome.

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