Beef Short Ribs -- The Topic

[Dave the Cook]

No, no no! You break down the bread to get the cook sauced.

[Andy Lynes]

Mario Batali's recipe is a cracker, and apart from FG's article, Think Like A Chef by Tom Colicchio is the place to read about braising techniques I think.

[johnjohn]

I have a stupid question - does the way the short ribs are cut make any difference (besides cooking time). I have seen them served a number of different ways - 1 inch pieces with a bone in a stew, long slabs of meat with one bone, 4 inch rectangle with two bones, etc...

johnjohn

[tissue]

My ribs come out tasting ok but the braising liquid turns greyish-purple from the wine that I've added. Can someone help me? I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Is it supposed to be that color?

[Suzanne F]

My ribs come out tasting ok but the braising liquid turns greyish-purple from the wine that I've added. ... I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Is it supposed to be that color?

No, not really

Do you get a good sear on the meat, and deglaze the pan before you continue cooking? That will help get that lovely brown caramelization on the meat and into the "fond" (the juices from the meat that form the base of the sauce). Do you reduce the sauce -- even if it's just by cooking the dish uncovered -- so that the wine gets concentrated? That will darken it some. And one more question: might you be using too much wine? Believe it or not, that IS possible! If that's the case, you might not be able to cook it down enough without overcooking everything else.

Hope this helps! Looks are SO important

[Ron Johnson]

Mario Batali's recipe is a cracker, and apart from FG's article, Think Like A Chef by Tom Colicchio is the place to read about braising techniques I think.

Those two would be my recommendation as well Andy. I have used both of their recipes and now use a hybrid version of both whether I am doing short ribs, lamb shank, or leg of lamb.

[bushey]

I love braised short ribs and use a recipe I got from chefshop.com. The original recipe is for oxtail, but a note says short ribs can be subsituted and it's become one of our winter Sunday staples. It's a basic braising recipe -- will check it later tonight and if there's anything extraordinary about it I'll send you the recipe. I serve it atop pureed parsnips and potatoes (from Bittman's How to Cook Everything) and the combination is sublime.

[MartyL]

Mark Bittman has a good recipe in that big yellow book of his. I adapted it recently with Short Ribs Flanken and it came out great.

Basically, you season the ribs with S&P (about 3 lbs) and give them a good sear in a little neutral oil on both sides (about 10 minutes per side), on high heat but being careful not to burn. Then you remove the ribs to a plate and drain all but a couple of tablespoons of fat from the pan. Then saute some diced onions in the fat for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Return the Ribs to the pan on top of the onions, pour in about a cup of red wine, add bayleaf and choice of herbs, and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to as low it can go, cover the pan, and simmer for about 1.5 hours or more, until the meat is just about falling off the bone.

It is important to turn the ribs every now and then while simmering and to add more wine or stock if the pan looks dry at any point.

After you take the ribs out, try to skim as much of the fat as possible from the reduced braising liquid in the pan. (This is easier if you refrigerate it overnight first). When reheating, stir a couple of tablespoons of dijon mustard into the braising juices. You can strain the sauce if you like, but I don't bother.

The ribs and sauce go great with polenta.

[wingding]

If you can get a hold of the French Laundry Cookbook,there is an exhaustive,wonderful,recipe for braised ribs.-a good lesson in technique...tastes good too.

[mikey]

I made a large batch yesterday, and they turned out well. Braised in wine with mirepoix & garlic. I used the oven-browning method(40 min @ 450) and braised in a 300 oven. Do I remember a TV chef "trussing" the ribs to keep bone and meat together? (This is not overly important to me, I can overlook an untidy appearance in my own cooking.) Thanks for all the info.

[Suzanne F]

Do I remember a TV chef "trussing" the ribs to keep bone and meat together? (This is not overly important to me, I can overlook an untidy appearance in my own cooking.)

But when you do osso buco, it really helps to tie them up. The meat gets sooooooooo soft that otherwise the pieces just fall apart when you even breathe. Don't you just LOVE cold weather????

[Jim Dixon]

I ate some recently at Wildwood (here in Portland) that had been braised, then boned (the bones were slipped out to leave the meat intact), wrapped in caul fat, and slowly roasted again to allow the caul to melt...really tasty.

Jim

[Huevos del Toro]

Would someone please enlighten me on the difference between English style and Flanken style? I think it's the cut but don't know the details, or advantages of one over the other.

[Dave the Cook]

I think of an English-style short rib as a good-sized hunk of meat attached to a length (two to four inches) of rib bone. It has a good bit of external fat; the meat hunk is layered with fat and connective tissue as well. My mom used to grill or broil them medium rare (chewy, but great beefy taste), but most people braise them. The big challenge with these is rendering all the fat.

Flanken are cut across the rack 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick. In this way, more of the marrow is exposed; the rib cross-sections are joined by a segment of meat and connective tissue. To me, they don't seem to have enough meat to be worth bothering with, but that's just my opinion. A lot of people like them.

I think that most of time you see a reference to short ribs, the English style is what is being discussed. If flanken are the topic, the term is usually explicit in the name of the dish. It seems to me that you used to see English short ribs all the time at the grocery store. These days I see more flanken, and when I asked the "butcher" at Kroger about the other kind, he was stumped. I had to draw him a picture to get him to understand.

[mamster]

Around Seattle, at least, you also see flanken-style short ribs frozen and sliced thin on a deli slicer for making Korean barbecue.

[Dave the Cook]

Around Seattle, at least, you also see flanken-style short ribs frozen and sliced thin on a deli slicer for making Korean barbecue.

So that's what they're for! Thanks, Mamster.

This makes sense, especially in light of the demographics in the areas where I've seen them. But I do wonder why I never see the thicker cut that HdT found in other parts of the city.

[Suzanne F]

I second the thank-you! I'm only used to using flanken to make soup. And for some reason we've never ordered bulgogi or any other Korean bbq. But it makes perfect sense -- I always wondered how they could grill those huge hunks of meat and bone.

[Jinmyo]

Korean short ribs are called kalbi. And yes, that's the cut.

[Suzanne F]

Oop, sorry. Never had that, either.

[tissue]

Korean short ribs are called kalbi. And yes, that's the cut.

I like the other way they cut kalbi. Where they cut around the bone. I don't know the proper term for this...

I really like to munch on the meat close to the bone...

[Jinmyo]

You just take the flanken cut and give it a good slice along the bone before marinating.

[Akiko]

WAH!,

So is it possible to make kalbi out of English cut Short Ribs?

I just came back from the butcher who only had English cut Short Ribs today and the cut looked so beautiful (even though I've never seen it), I bought two big steaks. One I will try to do a steak with... but the other, can I cut the meat into strips and still have kalbi?

[tissue]

Yes you just have to marinate it before grilling...

I'm trying to find a picture of how it's supposed to look when sliced the way I described... but I can't seem to upload it onto the site. Maybe it's because of firewalls at work. Hmm

[SobaAddict70]

Lunch at our Marriott cafeteria on Friday was actually pretty good: braised short ribs with tomatoes, herbs and red wine; orzo cooked in roasted vegetable stock, and zucchini/tomato gratin. (Yes, they produce some winners on occasion. Don't tell them I said so. )

Absolutely delectable. Mmmm--mmm-mmm. It got me to thinking that I might do that either tomorrow night or more likely dinner during the week. However, I don't have any ideas besides what's in my cookbooks, as this is not an item I prepare very often.

I was thinking along the lines of what I usually do for lamb shanks -- brown first, mirepoix in butter and EVOO, add browned bits, deglaze with wine (or maybe beer), add stock, return ribs to pot and braise, etc. But there has to be something more interesting than that -- not that this is boring mind you. It's not jazzy enough I guess.

So any ideas out there? And what do you do usually? Discuss.

SA

ediot: dinner during the WEEK, not the weekend.

Edited January 25, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[Jinmyo]

Well, Soba, that's about it.

Sometimes instead of stock I'll juice tomatoes (or use tinned), onions, celery, and peppers.

After the straining and de-fatting I'll often braise wild mushrooms and so on.

Braising isn't jazzy. It's more like Bach.