June 07, 2009

Beef Ribs



This turned out to be a quest... apparently beef ribs are hard to find. :) I found them. Then I thought "You haven't ever cooked beef ribs before!" I think I can do better, but like I have often said... Barbecue is like sex... even the worst you have ever had is still pretty good. :)

Unlike pork ribs which are "king" in this area at least, beef ribs are rare. They come in different cuts, like pork, but one has little control on the product. The 2 racks I got were split in half and had several shiners. Shiners being where the meat was removed all the way to the bone. This means less meat on the ribs-- obviously.

In my opinion good beef needs little more than salt and pepper. I used a beef rub that was 3 parts paprika, 2 parts salt, 2 parts pepper, and cayenne to taste. Very tasty as it just accented the beef.

I decided to cook them as if my smoker was an ugly drum smoker. This would mean that I would run the smoker without a water pan and elevate the cooking grate as far from the coals as possible. This would still allow for the dripping to fall onto the coals and add to the flavor profile as they vaporized.

I mopped them hourly for 3 hours with a mix of beer, coffee, Worcestershire, beef broth, hot sauce, and apple juice. Then I foiled the ribs, gave them a good mop of the juice and put them back on for another 2 hours. I put them in a cooler at this point as we had a long way to go for dinner, but they went back on for an hour to finish. While they were off I did some smoked sausage as I have become somewhat addicted to smoked sausage and rat cheese ever since I went to the Rendezvous. :)

The missus made broccoli slaw and twice baked potatoes as well as some fantastic strawberry shortcake. Sorry... I couldn't put the bowl down long enough to take a photo.

I think the way to go is to cut your own. That way you get several nice rib eyes and a meaty rack of ribs. More to come... stayed tuned for the standing rib roast project. :)

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