Saturday morning after I rolled out of the rack later than normal, the lovely Mrs. informs me we have to go shopping and I will need to toss some sort of protein on the kettle. I told her it was not a problem, as I am sure I can come up with something. While I was waiting for her to apply her war paint I perused my collection of BBQ (or barbecue depending on your location) recordings to maybe come up with a new idea. For whatever reason I settled on BBQ with Franklin's episode, Picking Beef. The last segment of the episode he is talking to a butcher about the different type of beef ribs and he settles on the short ribs from the plate. I am sitting there drooling as I have not had breakfast and my stomach was grumbling louder than a midnight thunderstorm when it hits me...BINGO!!! Short ribs for dinner (supper depending on your location)!!! After eating an early lunch (dinner depending on your location), we went to the butcher shop, Just Good Meat, and lo and behold as soon as I walked in, there they were staring right at me. Since there was just going to be the two of us for dinner I decided on a nice 4 bone set. While I was there I decided to grab a nice 5 pound flat of corned beef for next weekend's pastrami cook. But I digress...after getting kicked to the curb with my short ribs I fired up the SnS with 14 KBB briquets and prepped the short ribs with salt and a mixture of a couple of leftover rubs, BBBR and Close to Katz's pastrami. Before laying down the seasoning, I took an idea from Aaron Franklin slathered the whole shebang with some hot sauce. (Note to self - buy some sort of rubber gloves for the kitchen...just sayin'). With the ribs getting happy in the fridge and I went out to see how the coals were burning and they were about ready for some company. As luck would have it the water was boiling in the tea kettle so it was time to get this party started.
To get this party started I filled the SnS with charcoal, water and 3 nice chunks of cherry out of my box from http://www.fruitawoodchunks.com/ . After watching Aaron Franklin smoke his short ribs at 275*, I figured I might as well too. After 25+ minutes with all the vents wide open, my Thermoworks DOT was only reading 238* so I thought what the heck, if that is where it wants to run for the day so be it. I went ahead and tossed on the short ribs, adjusted the vents so the bottom was about half open and the top vent was about 1/3 open. After the first hour the temp had jumped up to 249*, not a problem as I was wanting to hit 275*. To make a long story short, my temps ranged from the starting point of 238* up to 273*, mostly hanging out in the mid 260's. Total cook time came to 6.5 hours and because I got nervous at the 5.5 hour mark with only having about 25 briquets left, I tossed in some lump charcoal to give me some extra heat and some peace of mind I could hold my current temps until the short ribs were ready. An hour later they were probe tender and ready for our dinner plates.
Now let me preface this by saying, until 3 weeks ago I had not eaten short ribs since I was a kid and granny fried them on the stove in bacon grease. Needless to say, I can understand why her and grandpa had dentures. Talk about eating the rubber soles off of my tennis shoes (sneakers depending on your location), yowzer. 3 weeks ago my buddy invited us over for dinner and he had made braised short ribs and that were melt in your mouth to die for good, with all of the talk in The Pit about short ribs and Aaron Franklin's demonstration, I had to give them a shot. We were amazed at how good they were! This is definitely a keeper for the future. The one thing I would due differently next time is to plan ahead so I have more time to cook so we are not eating at 9:00 in the evening.
To get this party started I filled the SnS with charcoal, water and 3 nice chunks of cherry out of my box from http://www.fruitawoodchunks.com/ . After watching Aaron Franklin smoke his short ribs at 275*, I figured I might as well too. After 25+ minutes with all the vents wide open, my Thermoworks DOT was only reading 238* so I thought what the heck, if that is where it wants to run for the day so be it. I went ahead and tossed on the short ribs, adjusted the vents so the bottom was about half open and the top vent was about 1/3 open. After the first hour the temp had jumped up to 249*, not a problem as I was wanting to hit 275*. To make a long story short, my temps ranged from the starting point of 238* up to 273*, mostly hanging out in the mid 260's. Total cook time came to 6.5 hours and because I got nervous at the 5.5 hour mark with only having about 25 briquets left, I tossed in some lump charcoal to give me some extra heat and some peace of mind I could hold my current temps until the short ribs were ready. An hour later they were probe tender and ready for our dinner plates.
Now let me preface this by saying, until 3 weeks ago I had not eaten short ribs since I was a kid and granny fried them on the stove in bacon grease. Needless to say, I can understand why her and grandpa had dentures. Talk about eating the rubber soles off of my tennis shoes (sneakers depending on your location), yowzer. 3 weeks ago my buddy invited us over for dinner and he had made braised short ribs and that were melt in your mouth to die for good, with all of the talk in The Pit about short ribs and Aaron Franklin's demonstration, I had to give them a shot. We were amazed at how good they were! This is definitely a keeper for the future. The one thing I would due differently next time is to plan ahead so I have more time to cook so we are not eating at 9:00 in the evening.
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