Smoked baby back beef ribs: Some questions please

[jjdbike]

Hello folks,

I've done Dino ribs and loved them. They're a tad expensive and are a time commitment. I want to have some colleagues over for a BBQ lunch. I'm thinking about trying baby backs because they're less money and hopefully take less time.

I have a couple questions please:

• Do you keep or remove the membrane?
• 250 - 275, does it matter?
• After I get good color and solid back, when I wrap, does adding liquid or fat to the wrap do anything other than soften bark?
• Does approx 2 hours in smoke, 2 hours wrapped in foil, 10 mins uncovered to set sauce, hour rest, sound about right? By the way, I will be using the KBQ which dues to it's convective air flow, cooks about 20% faster than most offsets.
• It a long rest, e.g., 2 - 4 hours as beneficial w/ these baby backs as it is for a larger cut?
• I'm asking about timing as my get together is a noon lunch. Wondering of I need to start at O'Dark 30, or cook night before and hold in oven at 165.
• Any other tips or things I should keep in mind?

Thanks in advance!
JD

[STEbbq]

Oh god. Please remove! It will be noticeable if not!

Nope.

It definitely adds flavor so recommended.

I would say they could be done as early as 3 hours but most likely about 3.5 hours.

No difference with rest. Eat immediately!

Wouldn’t a noon lunch suggest you can make them starting at say 7 or 8am?

Buy small! 2.5 pounds to 2.7 pounds a rack as otherwise the thick loin meat will mess up the bend test and generally result in overcooking. Also, if you can find Prairie Fresh brand, those are recommended.

[STEbbq]

https://www.prairiefresh.com/where-to-buy/

[RonB]

I have never heard of baby back beef ribs, so I'm no help. However, if you meant pork,, I agree with the above post.

[jjdbike]

Oh god. Please remove! It will be noticeable if not!

Nope.

It definitely adds flavor so recommended.

I would say they could be done as early as 3 hours but most likely about 3.5 hours.

No difference with rest. Eat immediately!

Wouldn’t a noon lunch suggest you can make them starting at say 7 or 8am?

Buy small! 2.5 pounds to 2.7 pounds a rack as otherwise the thick loin meat will mess up the bend test and generally result in overcooking. Also, if you can find Prairie Fresh brand, those are recommended.

Thanks for the great advice! I now feel confidant in the upcoming cook.
Yes I believe they sell Prairie Fresh at my local Sprouts.
Best regards!
JD

[jjdbike]

I have never heard of baby back beef ribs, so I'm no help. However, if you meant pork,, I agree with the above post.

Thanks,
No I did not mean pork ribs. Perhaps they're just called beef back ribs. I'm talking about the smaller, thiner ribs cut off of prime rib.
Best regards,
JD

[STEbbq]

I assumed pork baby back, not beef back ribs. Those are pretty hard to find and very expensive for the amount of meat. My advice would still generally apply, but the cooking time will depend more on the size of the rack as I am not sure how small BEEF back ribs go.

[STEbbq]

You may find it cheaper to buy prime rib roast when it hits $7 to $10 a pound in the next few weeks and slice your own back ribs if the timing works.

[jfmorris]

Yes - just beef back ribs. Baby back = pork, for some reason.

[jfmorris]

Something to be aware of is that those store bought slabs of beef back ribs (not baby back ribs) have much much less meat than any pork rib I've ever cooked. Lots of shrinkage during the cook, and pretty much the meat is just what is between the bones. If you are feeding guys, you will need a lot more of those than you would need from similar sized slabs of pork ribs. There are usually 7 bones in a slab of beef back ribs, versus 12-13 in a slab of pork back ribs, also a factor to consider in calculating how many you need for your luncheon.

The only slabs of beef back ribs I've cooked that had much meat on top of the bones was one I trimmed myself from a full prime rib I bought at Publix last year, and I intentionally didn't trim all the way down to the bone when detaching the ribs. But you still just had 7 bones as servings...

[texastweeter]

Agreed

[Oak Smoke]

I’m interested in the outcome here. We switched butchers this year when we had our steer processed and I’m now the owner of some of these beef back ribs. How would you cook them?

[jfmorris]

Cook them just like you would a slab of baby back pork ribs.

[Troutman]

Beef back ribs are something I cook regularly. I don't wrap or spritz or do anything but salt brine and hit them with 16 mesh black pepper. Low and slow until tender, they are really easy to cook overall. If you think about the cut, it's simply the cull off of the rib primals after they cut up the ribeyes or rib roasts. The meat is relatively tender to begin with. Don't over think it, these are different from pork ribs.

[Bkhuna]

My hounds always got the rib bones when I did a standing rib roast. You can never pamper a good dog too much.

[jfmorris]

While I don't have the mad photography skills of Troutman, here was my last go at beef back ribs, back in March - these were ones I trimmed myself from a full rib primal, before cutting it down into steaks.

The beef back ribs I've seen for sale, which is rarely around here, usually don't have much if any meat on top of the bones.

Note this was a bigger prime rib primal than many I see.



And they went 5 hours or so unwrapped, low and slow, then rested for an hour in cambro before serving.



I always love the smoke ring on these things!

[Troutman]

Jim cheats, he uses curing salt and Dye #5 to achieve that crazy smoke ring

[jfmorris]

Troutman haha right! I don't got time for curing ribs...

[jfmorris]

Troutman just the wife and I ate those ribs. I can imagine some folks who don't understand smoke rings seeing all that pink and thinking they were rare or undercooked, versus having cooked to 195F+.

Looking at these pics - I do get much more smoke ring on the kettle than I get on the kamado, cooking temp being the same. The difference is the SNS versus kamado mode with deflector, I think.

[jjdbike]

Beef back ribs are something I cook regularly. I don't wrap or spritz or do anything but salt brine and hit them with 16 mesh black pepper. Low and slow until tender, they are really easy to cook overall. If you think about the cut, it's simply the cull off of the rib primals after they cut up the ribeyes or rib roasts. The meat is relatively tender to begin with. Don't over think it, these are different from pork ribs.

Nice!
Thanks!
By low and slow, do you mean 225?
JD

[Troutman]

No generally speaking I cook at 250-275*F. You can do 225*F but I like to cut the time with a little more heat.

[jjdbike]

While I don't have the mad photography skills of Troutman, here was my last go at beef back ribs, back in March - these were ones I trimmed myself from a full rib primal, before cutting it down into steaks.

The beef back ribs I've seen for sale, which is rarely around here, usually don't have much if any meat on top of the bones.

Note this was a bigger prime rib primal than many I see.



And they went 5 hours or so unwrapped, low and slow, then rested for an hour in cambro before serving.



I always love the smoke ring on these things!

Nice, is that a kettle?
What temp do you call low and slow? 225 or 250?
JD

[jfmorris]

Yes - that is my 2007 Weber Performer Deluxe (22").

I can't recall the exact temp, but these days I tend to run 250 for most low and slow cooks, or 275 if I want to shave more time off the cook.

I mostly know the timing on this cook from months ago by looking at timestamps on the photos from putting the ribs down on the grill to seeing them on the cutting board.

[jjdbike]

Thanks again gents!
JD

[jjdbike]

Oh god. Please remove! It will be noticeable if not!

Nope.

It definitely adds flavor so recommended.

I would say they could be done as early as 3 hours but most likely about 3.5 hours.

No difference with rest. Eat immediately!

Wouldn’t a noon lunch suggest you can make them starting at say 7 or 8am?

Buy small! 2.5 pounds to 2.7 pounds a rack as otherwise the thick loin meat will mess up the bend test and generally result in overcooking. Also, if you can find Prairie Fresh brand, those are recommended.

Thanks once again gentelmen.

Thinking through this 12:00 meal time on Saturday when I work till 3:30 Friday and that I'm preparing oder food items too.

• Seeing that I will have other food items, smoking several racks of less meaty ribs in order to shorten cooking time doesn't seem like a bad idea.
• Should I smoke into the dark Fri night to nearly tender, i.e. 185 fish, then wrap and hold in 165 oven overnight and back on smoke before serving to tighten up bark and tack up sauce? I know that works great for brisket, but would you worry about these drying out?
• The very easiest thing to do would be smoke the weekend before, vacuum pack and freeze, reheat in Sous Vide Sat morn, then back on smoke to firm back and tack sauce.

Your thoughts?
JD

[STEbbq]

I vote for the sous vide approach you outlined above. Virtually foolproof and delivers great ribs to the table on time.

[jfmorris]

Is that 3:30am Friday? If so, ouch! If not, I would put the ribs on at 6am the day of. Regardless, smoking to done then doing the sous-vide reheat in vacuum sealer bags is also a good plan. I wouldn't even bother to put on smoke to firm up - just use your regular grill or the oven.

[jjdbike]

Yes I may do the souse vide method and smoke them this coming or next weekend.
Thanks!

[ssandy_561]

JD if you are set on smoking beef back ribs by all means go for it. There is some great advice above.

If you want to just smoke beef for colleagues may I suggest Chuck Roasts.

As mentioned above most beef back ribs usually have very little meat on them and I always find them not a good bargain once you factor in that half of the rack is usually bone.

In my experience I also find that since the meat is usually very thin the beef back ribs can dry out if they are cooked too long and/or cooked at too high of a temperature.

I’ve cooked some great racks in the past but I’ve also cooked some not so great racks in the past.

Now with a Chuck Roast you can cook it to 190° and slice like a brisket or cook it probe tender (~203°) and shred it.

I also find Chuck Roasts get an incredible bark on them that I like better than the bark on beef back ribs.

Also it seems during December Chuck Roasts always seem to go on sale around me.

[jjdbike]

Yes I love smoking chuckies. I had one in the freezer that I made some chili out of last weekend.
I also have some pulled smoked chuck beef BBQ in freezer.
I could just thaw that and have beef bbq sliders.
Thanks!