The Worst Beef Ribs I Have Ever Cooked

[JoeSousa]

I was looking through my freezer recently and saw I had a nice rack of beef plate ribs in there (probably been there for about a year???) from an online retailer that I regularly buy from and really enjoy. So I decided to get them thawed and smoke them up.

I dry brined them with a pretty decent amount of salt (I prefer things a bit on the salty side) and a good dose of coarse black pepper:




They went on the SNS Kettle with some oak chunks. Nothing out of the ordinary from how I have cooked beef ribs at least a dozen times in the past.

After about 7 hours they were probing super tender and ready to come off the smoker. I gave them a quick wrap in some paper and put them in the cooler for an hour or so before it was time for dinner.





They looked like they would be delicious, barky, fatty, and succulent like all the other beef ribs I have had. But when I took a bite they barely had any flavor. Very little smoke, no salt, no peppery bite. It was like eating a very bland pot roast. The kids said it was good but my wife and I were both flabbergasted at the lack of flavor.

Always interesting when you cook something just like you have done many times in the past and the end result is nothing like the previous ones. This isn't the first time that has happened but it is always puzzling.

Oh well, at least I have a smoked turkey and ham ready to cook on Thanksgiving. Hopefully those are one of the cooks that turns out great and not disappointing like this.

[Huskee]

Weird. I have that happen to pork ribs once in a while, leading me to just not care much for pork ribs. I cannot explain this anomaly, except that maybe our tasters are just off somehow that night? I do know that I understand what you're saying.

[realdocBBQ]

I can't understand it, either. They sure looked good!

[LA Pork Butt]

I couldn’t tell from the dry brined pic, but could they have been lean? Fat is flavor. Were the select instead of choice or prime?

[JoeSousa]

Definitely enough fat. There was quite a large vein of fat as well as plenty of marbling. Not a noticeable difference from other racks I have cooked anyway.

[briano52]

You mention that the meat was in the freezer for about a year. Unless they were vacuum sealed with a good tight seal, they could have gotten dried out and possibly freezer burned. I have had that happen. I generally vacuum seal meat for "long term" storage. But even with a good vacuum seal, the texture and flavor start to go downhill 60-90 days out. There are exceptions, sometimes a year-old vacuum seal is still fairly good. But IMHO a paper wrapped frozen meat is rarely flavorful at the one-year mark.

[JoeSousa]

These were sealed in the packaging from the retailer. My guess is them being in the freezer that long did have some effect on the meat itself. The lack of salt, pepper, and smoke flavor is the most confusing aspect to me.

[briano52]

Hi Joe
When packages come from the store, they can be vacuum sealed or most often just wrapped in the plastic wrap with air in the package. There is a big difference between the two. A vacuum seal has most of the air sucked out. Ordinary plastic (kinda like saran wrap) has air in it. The ordinary plastic wrap does not protect well in long term storage, even when frozen. That is because there is a lot of air in the package that allows the dehydration effect to happen even during the frozen time. Actually, a tight paper warp is more protective than just putting the store wrapped (without vacuum sealing) in the freezer. Many frozen turkeys come vacuum sealed as they will be "fresher" when thawed and unwrapped.

Consider getting a home vacuum sealer. (Costco always had them). It will greatly extend the life of both fresh and frozen foods. It will pay for itself in very little time by not letting fresh foods and leftovers go bad. Hope this helps.

[JoeSousa]

It was vacuum sealed from the factory. And we do have a Vacmaster Pro-380 that we use for stuff around the house and for my wife's bakery business. I never plan on anything staying in the freezer this long so I never think to vacuum seal them when I get them. If I buy stuff in bulk from Costco or wherever we always vacuum seal before we throw it in the freezer.

[texastweeter]

And no other variable from how you cook it normally was different?

[JoeSousa]

Not too much different. The temp did get a bit high (~320) or so for an hour or so. I usually try to cook beef ribs around 285 so a spike like that shouldn't have too much of an effect on the flavor.

[texastweeter]

So if the only variable was the length of time it was frozen, assuming everything else the same, that's you abswer...unless you are getting sick. I came down with strep last night. Pounding the antibiotics and hot today's right now.

[WI Bubba]

This happens to all of us at one time or another. You do everything just like you always do, and for some reason, the result changes. I chalk those cooks up to, 'eff it, sometimes chit just don't turn out like you want then to. Luckily, it's just BBQ, and not something really important.

[DaveD]

I say aliens must have swooped in and taken your awesome ribs, substituting this sub-par rack when you weren't looking. Yeah, that's it, that's the ticket...

Very surprised you didn't get any smoke flavor given how much wood you had going in the kettle...! These look exactly like the plate I did a couple of weeks ago, which turned out fantastic. Weird!

[JoeSousa]

Yeah, all the chunks of wood in the bottom of my bag were on the smaller size so I threw a few more on than I normally would.

And yeah, must have been those dang aliens again.

[Johnny Booth]

Bad cooks are always from bad meat. Point blank and period. The cooks are always perfect! 😉

[Prof Bunky]

Bad cooks are always from bad meat. Point blank and period. The cooks are always perfect! 😉

Agreed. Sometimes it ain't you, it's the product. It's happened to us with spares and baby backs.

[Bkhuna]

The same happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Picture perfect, horrible flavor and texture. The were fresh, not frozen USDA choice.

It must have been an old milk cow.

[Simple_man]

You and the Mrs come down with covid? I had this happen to me about a month ago, couldn't taste anything for a week before it started coming back