Adventures in BBQ

Today we are doing the somewhat badly named Beef Short Ribs. These rib bones are about 6″ long and can be up to 2″ thick and can weigh over a 1 lb each. They also need a long slow cook to get all the fat and connective tissue to melt and soften up and become tasty. Read on to see how they turned out after the long cook.

Ribs smoking in the Weber Kettle

• Setup: Weber Kettle, with Smokenator. Setup for indirect 2-zone cooking with a Weber water pan on the bottom grate.

• Meat: Beef short ribs. These came from Gelsons and were cut into 3 individual short ribs for me by the butcher there (the ones they already had were already pre-cut into much smaller sections, which are intended for Kalbi (Korean-style) barbecue. While I would like to try this one day, today we were going for much more traditional Texas style which needs whole ribs). The original uncooked and untrimmed weight was about 2.55lb.
• Fuel: Kingsford Blue Bag briquettes with red oak wood chunks.
• Cooking temperature: Aiming for the Meathead/Amazing Ribs recommendation of 225 F grate temperature which  should give a cook time of 7 hours for my approximately 1.5″ thick ribs. The target for the internal temperature will be about 203F.
• Prep:
  1. Not a great deal to do with these beef short ribs as they had already been cutdown from the big chunk of ribs. I trimmed off a little bit of remaining silverskin but otherwise these were good to go.
  2. Made up the Dalmation Rub, a fancy name for the Texas-standard mix of ground black pepper and kosher salt (Black and white, geddit…?). This involved combining 1/4 cup of ground black  pepper and 1/4 cup of kosher salt together in a bowl and mixing together well.
  3. Slathered the ribs with a bit of water and then covered all over with rub.

Ribs before removal of the silverskin and coating in rub.

Trimmed ribs after rubbing with the Dalmation dry rub

Cooking Diary

• 9:15: Trimmed up the ribs.
• 9:20: Made up the rub and covered the ribs with it.
• 9:45: Added 14 briquettes to the chimney starter and lit with two of the Weber starter cubes.
• 9:55: Transferred the lit, partly-white briquettes into the Smokenator. Filled the water pan on the bottom grate and put the top grate. Threaded the Maverick temperature probes through the damper in the lid and fastened the grate thermometer into its holder. (The meat thermometer will have to wait until the arrival of the actual meat…)
• 10:20: Put the three short ribs into the kettle pointing towards the fire (not enough room to lie them perpendicular to the Smokenator) and put the meat probe into the middle, meatiest-looking rib. Added two large chunks of red oak.
• 14:00: Rotated the ribs around so that the other end is now nearest the fire. Raked the coals, cleared the ash and added some more briquettes.
• 15:40: Raked coals and ash, added briquettes. Spritzed the ribs and bones to prevent them burning.
• 17:00: One of the ribs (the one with the temperature probe in) has reached the target 203F temperature put probing the other two with the Thermapen showed that they were not quite their yet. Re-positioned the done rib further back and to the side and put the temperature probe into a different rib.
• 17:50: Probing the ribs with the Thermapen shows that they are over 200F in most places so I’ll declare them done, taken them out of the smoker and put them out to rest.
• 18:20: Rested the ribs for 30 minutes under foil to allow them to relax back before eating.

Results

Completed Beef Short Ribs before resting under foil

At seven and a half hours, this is definitely one of the longer cooks for a relatively small amount of meat. This proves ones again that it is the thickness of the meat that tends to set the cooking time, rather than the size or weight. I think that not removing the membrane on the back of the bones this time definitely helped hold things together and keep the meat on the bone compared to the previous time.

The more simple Dalmation rub seems to work well producing a good peppery finish that doesn’t overwhelm the deep beef flavor of the ribs. The bark although it isn’t burnt at all, still comes out very dark and somewhat crunchy. This may need an extra water pan up on the top grate near to or on the Smokenator itself (The Smokenator does have a space for an internal water pan but it is very small and needs very frequent refilling which means opening the lid at a lot. I also prefer to use the space for extra briquettes to extend the length of the cook and it makes refuelling and putting wood chunks on easier if there isn’t a pan in the way).  Even with the shrinkage during the long cook, they are still pretty filling. I managed two of the three ribs for dinner; the third will be taken into work for my lunch tomorrow assuming I can keep it out of reach of the many hopeful dogs at work…

Verdict on Beef Short Ribs: B

These definitely came out better than the previous attempt with a good moist beefy flavor despite being pretty lean ribs. The simple Dalmation rub gave a good peppery finish to the meat and tastes surprisingly good for being just 2 ingredients. I feel it would be worth trying again with a more complex rub and seeing what comes out in the final finish. I would still like to get a slightly softer bark on the finished ribs.