Beef Back Ribs

[JeffOhlhausen]

Hi,

Guess what was on sale last week? So off course I bought four and now my freezer is full. I'm wondering what the best way to prepare these is? My first thought was my 6 qt slow cooker but I haven't found a single recipe on time. Most suggest slow roasting at 200 or 250.

I'm looking for suggestions.

Thanks

Jeff

[Tonyy13]

Beef back ribs are similar to pork baby back ribs in that they should have a decent amount of fat, but also a good amount of connective tissue. They are similar to short ribs, which are the ribs that are coming from just above the eye of the meat (or the rib-eye). What I teach my students about cuts of meat like this is that becuase of the fat, they will be succulent, but you NEED to dissolve that connective tissue (made of collagen) into gelatin by either 1) slow roasting at about 200-225 for a while (I usually put stuff like that in the oven overnight while I am sleeping at my oven's lowest temp), or 2) by braising in a liquid. The gelatin will better dissolve if there is liquid, and if you slow roast, the meat's natural water content will suffice, but if you ask me, braising is the way to go. Go crazy, make a Japanese style braising liquid (stock, soy, citrus, kind of a ghetto ponzu), and when the meat is "fork tender", pull it out, and reduce the liquid till it's pretty syrupy. Or go Mexican with Mole. Or French w/ Red wine and veal stock. Pretty much up to you. If you do braise though, just make sure you get a good sear on those bad boys before they go in the liquid. Throw them in a 450-500 oven till they get sexy, or sear them up. Either way, flavor development is what you are going for, the darker, the better, just don't burn em (I'm a master at stating the obvious, I know).

Happy eating!

TA

Edited February 8, 2007 by Tonyy13 (log)

[ray goud]

Lora Brody.

"Slow Cooker Cooking"

'nuff said.

[Ira Dubinsky]

Hey there - looking for some advice on cooking beef back ribs.

I have done beef back ribs twice, both times started in my (homemade) smoker and then continued in a slow oven. Smoked them at 225-250 for about 2 hours and then another 3 hours in the oven at the same temp. They were great.

But I picked up Jennifer McLagan's "Bones" a few months back and have been dying to try a recipe from it. She suggests cooking beef back ribs with the same general approach you would use for the meat that used to be attached to them. In other words, she says to roast beef back ribs at a high temperature for a limited time and take them out when they're still a bit rare. Now I love the idea of rare tasty beef ribs - but has anyone tried this? Don't they need long, low, slow cooking to get tender?

I'm having some folks over for the Superbowl and will be home all day so I certainly can do low and slow (would be all oven as I can't smoke in our current deep freeze temperatures) but I'd like to try the faster roasting if I can feel confident about it being good.

Any dinosaur bones afficionados out there?

Thanks in advance... I have been lurking here for about 5 years, learned much, and always enjoy reading about what people are making. This is my first post.

i.

[rooftop1000]

DO you wants them to taste like "BBQ" or steak? I am cetainly not above enjoying the bones off a rib steak or roast, but I think I would prefer BBQ style.

What time is dinner?

tracey

[winewizard]

I just made some. I used a rib rub and roasted at 375 for 2 and 1/2 hours. Served them with a vinegar creamy slaw.

I then sliced some steak fries and roasted them in their own pan (seasoned with salt,pepper and some olive oil)for the last 45 minutes of rib cooking time...Enjoy they are a delight

[egale]

I too am sitting with beef back ribs in the freezer, wondering how to cook them. Beef back ribs are basically the bones from a standing prime rib roast with bones, aren't they? As such, I wouldn't think that they have that much connective tissue.... At least they didn't when I cooked them attached to the prime rib roast.

Ira Dubinsky's method of slow-smoking would work great I would think -- as indeed Ira reports -- as this is a great tried and true way to cook a standing prime rib roast.

The recipe in Jennifer McLagan's Bones, "Beer Glazed Beef Ribs", calls for marinating the ribs and then grilling them over high heat. I would imagine this method would work quite well also, as it would for rib eye steak (the "eye" of a prime rib roast).

So I would think that two good methods are 1) slow-smoking or 2) marinating and grilling. I'm not too sure about braising, to be truthful.

[psiweaver]

I would think that braising would make them very good as well. Generally any of the ribs are good with a little braising though I find that I prefer french or asian inspired braises in this case. I would think searing them then sous vide then sear would also bring you a very nice product. I think that it really depends on how you are going to eat them/ present them. I'm sure that you could make some amazing things out of them without even serving the bones. If your going for that i'm a man and eat meat that is attached to bones and get it all over my face thing. Then I would go for the roasting/grilling/smoking type path rather than the braise.

[ElsieD]

T-REX Barbecued oven-baked or Smoked Ribs

2 beef racks, about 7 ribs per rack

1 cup bbq sauce

½ cup pickling spice

Dry Rub:

2 T paprika

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 cup granulated sugar

½ tsp. chilli powder

¼ cup salt

¼ t cayenne pepper

Rub the rub all over the ribs. Lightly brush bbq sauce on top and bottom of ribs and sprinkle on pickling spices. Can refrigerate for a while.

BBQ: Place ribs over medium heat 5 to 6 minutes per side for rare. 9 to 10 minutes per side for medium, 12 to 14 minutes per side for well done.

Oven:

Place ribs on a cookie sheet in pre-heated 250 oven. Cook for 40 minutes for medium rare, 1 to ½ hours for well done.

Note: As the meat cooks it begins to shrink; the more the bone is exposed, the more the ribs are cooked.

[Dave the Cook]

I too am sitting with beef back ribs in the freezer, wondering how to cook them. Beef back ribs are basically the bones from a standing prime rib roast with bones, aren't they? As such, I wouldn't think that they have that much connective tissue.... At least they didn't when I cooked them attached to the prime rib roast.

. . . .

They do have a lot of connective tissue -- it's just that when you slice the roast, you sever those tissues into short fibers, so they seem less chewy.

McLagan has three rib recipes, two of which call for separate ribs, meaning those connective tissues will be pretty short. One also calls for ribs left over from a roast, which is why they can be done so quickly. Her third recipe -- using racks -- takes quite a bit longer: an hour, plus resting time.

Personally, I object to all of these recipes, and I think McLagan is plain wrong on a couple of points. Beef ribs, done properly, will not cook in half the time of pork or lamb; and they have just as much fat. I also disagree with her notion that you shouldn't cook them further than medium rare. At that point, they will be very tasty, but also tough and unpleasantly chewy (unless, of course, you've used individual ribs, which I think is sacrilegious). I also don't think it's a good idea to ruin that nice beefy crust with a wet sauce. Glazes can be okay, but with all that ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire and corn syrup, McLagan just drowns the beef with an uncomplimentary sweet and sour mess.

Here's what I do. Make a rub:

1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns

1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds

2 tablespoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons ground ancho

4 teaspoons packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon smoked salt

1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal; if you've got Morton's, use a little less; for table salt, use about half)

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Toast the peppercorns and cumin in a dry pan over medium low heat just until fragrant. Remove from the heat, allow to cool, then grind fine along with the brown sugar (in order to break it up). Combine the pepper, cumin and sugar with the rest of the rub ingredients in a shaker.

Shake the rub over the ribs and pat to help it adhere. Flip the ribs and repeat on the other side. Let rest, lightly covered at room temperature for an hour or so, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the oven to 375˚F.

Put the ribs meat-side up on a rack over a roasting pan or sheet pan. Put the ribs in the oven. After 15 minutes, turn the oven down to 250˚F. After an hour, flip the ribs and cook for another hour. Flip again, and check at 30 minutes. The meat should have started to shrink from the ends of the bones, and the rack itself should be getting flexible. The ribs are done when the meat has drawn back about an inch, the rub has become one with the meat surface to form a nice crust, and the rack is floppy.

Let them rest ten to fifteen minutes. Slice into two-rib portions, with a half-cut between the two for ease of eating. On this one point, I agree with McLagan: have plenty of napkins on hand.

[Anna N]

Here's something I don't quite understand about beef ribs. I buy beef ribs often, they are expensive and they are obviously the bones removed from an oven-ready rib roast. They are always sold as individual ribs. They are short, maybe 3-4 inches and thick and meaty. I grill them on the BBQ to medium rare and have never found them to be tough. On the other hand I have seen, but never purchased, racks of beef ribs. These look similar to pork spareribs, have long bones and very little meat. They look quite different from the ribs I buy and are usually much cheaper kg for kg. So, which ribs are we discussing here?

[egale]

Dave, I recognize the advice of a pro when I get it, and your recipe sounds a lot better to me than McLagan's. Just two questions:

1) Your rub sounds excellent -- and totally to my taste -- but doesn't the brown sugar burn? I was under the impression that it was better to use turbinado sugar for long slow cooks because it doesn't burn as readily (or so I've read and found to be true I guess).

2) What do you think about smoking the ribs (at the same temperatures) on a Big Green Egg instead of cooking them in the oven? This would mean cooking them at the low temperature first, and then raising the temperature at the end. (It's a lot faster to raise the temp on a Big Green Egg than it is to lower it.)

Thanks for the post,

Ellen

[vice]

Here's something I don't quite understand about beef ribs. I buy beef ribs often, they are expensive and they are obviously the bones removed from an oven-ready rib roast. They are always sold as individual ribs. They are short, maybe 3-4 inches and thick and meaty. I grill them on the BBQ to medium rare and have never found them to be tough. On the other hand I have seen, but never purchased, racks of beef ribs. These look similar to pork spareribs, have long bones and very little meat. They look quite different from the ribs I buy and are usually much cheaper kg for kg. So, which ribs are we discussing here?

When I see racks of beef ribs in a grocery store, more often than not they've had most of the meat between the bones carved away. I assumed they use the trim for stew meat or grinding. Why a customer would want what amounts to a second-use rack is beyond me though.

[Dave the Cook]

There's a decent photo of back ribs here. Some misguided meat peeps cut them into individual ribs. Don't bother with those, and don't bother with the ones vice describes, where the meat has been carved out for whatever reason. (And complain to your meat peep -- they do listen.)

I could see taking the smallest two or three (connected to each other) and making a meal of them; you're getting rib-steak meat there.

Ellen: sugar (any sugar: white, brown, turbinado, muscovado, demerara, dried cane juice, whatever) burns at 350F. That's why my recipe starts out there and descends. The oven is such an inefficient heating vessel that the sugar in the rub doesn't get hot enough to burn; with luck (and a well-calibrated oven), it just caramelizes a bit. Having said that, I don't think you'd be risking too much in reversing the operations (or subbing turbinado, or both). There's a chance that the sugar will combine with meat juices and roll off, but I think it's minimal, and well worth trying. If the result lacks a bit of balanced sweetness, just up the sugar next time. You'll still have a delicious rib.

[Ira Dubinsky]

Dave, your comments confirmed what I suspected: that the best way to deal with beef back ribs is low and slow as I have done before. I'm planning to do a chinese-inspired rub (five-spice powder, etc.) and roast for 3-4 hours at 225-250. I may do a light soy-ginger glaze at the end. Thanks and Cheers!

[egale]

Dave, I'd like to thank you too. Your advice gives me the confidence I needed to try my ribs low and slow on the Big Green Egg -- using your rub. I've been getting into ancho chiles big time lately anyway. And I didn't know that all sugar burns at 350F! That is valuable knowledge to have.

Thanks for the expert advice.

Ellen

[Paul Bacino]

Thinking of Sous vide a small rack Beef Ribs, any ideas on time and temp would be helpful?

I'm going to low and slow a batch, but want to try something different with that small rack.

Using a modified rub from above:

The Rub:

2T Fresh Ground Ancho chili ( toasted-- cooled and ground )

1T Malbar Pepper Whole ( toasted--cooled and ground )

1T/1t Piloncillo/ Mexican Brown Sugar ( this shit is a bitch to grind )--I pounded it in a double zip bag,Double towel and Hammer--finish with Mortar and pestle

2T Sweet Paprika

1t Smoked Paprika

2t Cumin

1t Smoked chardonnay salt

[Paul Bacino]

I wet aged these Wagyu Beef Ribs " 60 plus days"

Made a dry rub and will smoke them tomorrow

[gdenby]

It is polite to share. Send me one of those as soon as it is done.

Or, at least show as much as you can. Details. please. I suspect I will gain a pound just looking at the pics of the finished ribs.

[Paul Bacino]

So.. Finished Rib Dinner tonight was awesome!!I I use a 3/2/1 approach

I used Dave's Base Recipe!! To work off of

1 T Whole Blk Tellicherry Peppers

1 T Whole Cumin Seeds

Both Toasted and ground

add

2 T Mild Chimayo chili powder

2 T Ground Ancho

1 t Piminton Smoked Paprika

That is the 3

I then add 2 T Brown sugar and 1T Chard Smoked Salt

I did this 24 hrs in advance to cure.

I then Smoked my ribs for about 3 hrs using Post oak, then cooked on my electric smoker for 2 more hrs. Spritzing occasionally with veal stock.

The last two hrs I placed in a Romatoff @ 425. cooled and dressed with sauce. I only cook with dry rubs.. sauce is always a dressing!!

[SylviaLovegren]

So.. Finished Rib Dinner tonight was awesome!!I

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Now look what you've done! I've got drool all OVER my keyboard. Edited March 4, 2013 by heidih
Fix quote tags (log)