Beef Ribs
Let’s get this started out right and talk about beef ribs. When most people think about ribs they think of pork ribs, either baby back or spare ribs. But if you overlook beef ribs you will be making a big mistake. If you lined up all the cuts of beef in one place and wanted me to rank them (pretty much an impossible task since I change day to day) I would have beef ribs solidly in the top 5. Imagine the best part of the brisket, the fatty brisket point, stick a bone in it, and give it an awesome texture and you have beef ribs.
Where to beef ribs come from
The beef ribs we are talking about today come from the short plate of the steer, particularly bones 6, 7, and 8. These sit right below the rib primal which is where you get rib eye, prime rib, and some other awesome cuts. If you follow the bone from a bone in rib eye down you will end up at the short plate. Hack off about a 10 inch bone and you will have these great beef ribs.
There are other beef rib cuts like beef back ribs which are the bones further up towards the spine on the rib primal. In those ribs the meat primarily sits between the rib bones. On the short plate ribs the meat is on top of the bones and is much, much thicker as you will see later. You can also find chuck short ribs and they are, for the most part, a smaller version of the plate ribs. If you take the plate short ribs and cut them into pieces a couple inches long you have what is usually referred to as “short ribs”.
Generally the bones in a short plate beef rib are about 8-10 inches long and the meat starts out about 2-3 inches thick. A nice fat cap sits on top of the meat and there is a good deal of inter-muscular fat and connective tissue. A good rack of beef ribs will be about 5 pounds, maybe a bit more.
How to cook beef ribs
I suppose you could braise a cut like this but beef ribs just cry out for a nice long visit to the smoker. If you go to a good barbecue joint, particularly in Central Texas around Austin you will regularly see beef ribs on the menu. Some barbecue restaurants like Franklin BBQ only serve them on Saturday’s since they are so special.
Earlier today I cooked up two racks of beef ribs. This was my first time cooking beef ribs and also my first time smoking anything on my Weber Kettle. I will walk you through what I did and give you some insight into where I got my inspiration.
I got my ribs from a local butcher shop. Two racks came in at 10 1/2 pounds and rang up to $73.40 ($6.99 per pound). Here is what they looked like before cooking:
Beef ribs don’t really need much trimming or prep. Just unwrap them and you are good to go. If you happen to see any big hunks of fat feel free to trim that off but I didn’t see anything on mine.
Unlike pork ribs that usually need a fairly powerful rub and even a brine ahead of time beef ribs don’t need much added flavor. For these I rubbed them down with a little Frank’s Red Hot and then added some salt and pepper. The hot sauce is mostly used to help the salt and pepper stick and to add just a little bit of flavor. I used about 1/4 cup salt and 1/4 cup pepper on each rack and rubbed the seasoning into all sides.
For the smoker I just used my Weber kettle. I set up a “snake” of charcoal briquettes around the outer edge of the charcoal grate about 2-3 briquettes wide and 2-3 deep. I was able to get right about 7 hours of cooking out of this set up. Towards the end I added another handful of briquettes just as a precaution but I probably could have survived without them. Post oak is the traditional wood to use with beef ribs so I added 4 or 5 chunks around the first half of the charcoal. I lit about a half dozen briquettes in my chimney starter and when they ashed over I put them at the start of the snake.
In the middle of the snake I put a water pan filled with some apple juice. You can just use water but I wanted the apple to bring just a slight bit of sweetness to the party. After the briquettes were all in place and the snake started to burn I added the meat. Here is a quick video of the set up and what the meat looks like after being rubbed:
After this it was all about temperature control. I did some testing yesterday and found out that when the thermometer on my kettle read about 310-320 the temp at the grill grate would be right about 275-285 which is where I wanted to be. I had to fiddle with the top and bottom dampers a bit throughout the cook but for the most part I was able to hold my temperature.
I was able to resist peeking for the first few hours which was harder than you would think. I am used to cooking steaks and watching them closely but every time you open the lid you disrupt the temperatures. So I waited. And waited. And waited. After about 4 1/2 hours I couldn’t resist and here is what I saw:
The meat had a great color, the meat was shrinking from the bones, and everything looked pretty much how I hoped. Now I just needed to be patient and contain my excitement for another 3 hours or so. After this I also started spritzing the beef ribs with some apple juice about every half hour. This adds a bit of moisture and make sure they don’t dry out. Towards the end I also rotated my grate to move the meat away from the coals a bit.
When trying to determine doneness of beef ribs it is mostly about feel. You want them to be fairly loose and almost jelly like. Every rack will be different but for if you are just going by temperature you want to hit somewhere between 195 and 205 degrees. A skewer or the probe of your thermometer should be able to go through the ribs with very little resistance. My beef ribs were done just under 8 hours. These were some fairly thick slabs to begin with so if you have thinner ones they will probably be closer to 6 or 6 1/2 hours.
Here is what the finished product looked like:
For my first time cooking beef ribs I was very pleased with how these were looking. They had some great color on them, a nice bark, and I could tell they were very moist and juicy on the inside. But I had to wait before cutting into them. You can wait as long as you want but I cut these about 30 minutes after taking them off the heat and there was very little juice loss. After the first cut I knew I nailed it. These were looking better than I could have hoped.
And did I mention how thick these beef ribs were and how much meat was on them?
During cooking the meat had shrunk up from the bone and had gotten much thicker than when I started. The thickest rib was probably a solid 4-5 inches thick. The fat in the ribs was rendered beautifully. The meat was tender and moist and I couldn’t wait to dig in to these ribs.
The flavor of these ribs was on par or better than any other beef rib I have eaten. There was a nice peppery bite on the outside but not overwhelming at all. Some bites that had the perfect amount of fat, salt, pepper, meat, and smoke were among the best single bites of food I have ever eaten. And that isn’t an exaggeration.
An area for improvement next time would be a couple more chunks of wood early on. I like my barbecue fairly smokey. Some bites didn’t quite have that smokey richness I was looking for. But that is nitpicking.
Cooking beef ribs with this method is fairly straight forward. Start with a good rack of ribs, take your time, and keep your temperatures on point. Don’t try to rush things, and you will be rewarded with an awesome meal.
Even my little girl (just under 2 years old) loved them:
When it comes to smoked meats it is hard to beat Aaron Franklin from Franklin Barbecue in Austin, TX. That is where I got most of my inspiration. Here is a quick 4 minute video showing how he cooks his ribs:
If you would rather read the recipe you can find that here: http://andrewzimmern.com/2015/04/21/aaron-franklins-beef-ribs/. You can also find this info in his book Franklin Barbecue: A Meat Smoking Manifesto.
Where to buy beef ribs
You probably won’t find beef ribs at your local grocery or warehouse store. If you are in Texas they might have them but I have never seen them at my local grocery store.. This is where it pays to know your local butcher. If your local butcher doesn’t have them they can probably get them. Ask for plate ribs or short plate ribs and they should know what you are talking about. The ribs I bought cost $7 per pound. With two racks (6 ribs) we fed 4 adults and 4 young children but we all ate way, way too much. You could probably easily feed 8 people who ate normal portions. The biggest rib I cut was 1 1/2 pounds and that was a lot of very rich, flavorful meat.
If your butcher doesn’t happen to have beef ribs you can get the best quality from Snake River Farms. They sell some American Wagyu beef ribs that look insane. They do cost $250 (about $17 per pound) so just over twice what I paid at the butcher. For a special occasion they could be worth it. I will have to give them a try someday after I get a couple more cooks under my belt.
Don’t be intimidated by a cut like beef ribs. I was able to turn out an awesome rib my first time cooking them. Pick some up from your butcher and give them a try and I think you will be impressed.
Like what you read? Be sure to share it with your friends and come back tomorrow to learn about another cut of beef.
