BBQ short ribs, feedback please!

[Polarbear777]

Beef ribs are my favorite thing to cook.

[Polarbear777]

Exactly. Let them stall long enough to get bark then wrap. The cambro hold at the end makes a huge difference. I won’t do beef ribs without the hold.

[DWCowles]

#1) beef short ribs need to go higher than 203. I let mine go until probe tender which is usually at 210.
#2) I always wrapped them around 175
#3) When they are done wrap in a towel and place in a cooler or a cambro if you have one. You can also leave them wrapped in the foil and placed in the oven with the oven temp at its lowest temp.

[MeatMonster]

Yep 2inch

[HorseDoctor]

Really good primer on beef ribs by Aaron Franklin at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFVu_XwLrew&t=103s He's using plate short ribs. If you get chuck short ribs, they are usually a little thicker and take a little longer to cook.

[wssrstrm]

Test your thermometer calibration by making an ice bath, the way Thermoworks describes it here

Thank you!

[wssrstrm]

Here's a few shots of some of my keepers!

One other question for you! Would you say the ribs in your photos are like 2" thick?

[jfmorris]

Test your thermometer calibration by making an ice bath, the way Thermoworks describes it here:

https://www.thermoworks.com/thermapen101_creating_an_icebath

Test both your smoke probe and your instant read this way. Just remember to NOT fully immerse the probe for the Smoke, as it is not water tight where the wire enters, and getting it wet will mess the probe up. The ice bath is a better test than boiling water, since the boiling point varies with elevation, although that is another test you can do - stick the tip of each probe in a pot of boiling water. It will read close to 212, depending on elevation.

[MeatMonster]

Hi rubbed and salted (and spritzd). It's really fun working out all these details, I try and out do myself every time, I love the challenge! Good luck next time you do a batch.

[wssrstrm]

Hi definitely keep an eye on probe tenderness as well as temp. Did you salt, if so for how long before smoking?

The thing with short ribs is that there can be a relatively narrow window of success cooking wise. So honestly I have had a few casualties especially in the early days.

Although many folks don't crutch I usually do as I would rather risk softer than dryer.

So make sure and salt at least 12hrs beforehand, make sure and probe occasionally from internal 185F onwards and if in doubt crutch!

Wow! Those are some beautiful keepers for sure. Are these *only* salted? The one place where I diverged from the meathead recipe is that I used the same rub I use for brisket, resulting in a super black bark. Is it better to do ribs w/o bark?

I did indeed dry brine these. Half of them got a full 24 hours and the other half got about 18 hours because I had to run some errands in the middle of my prep. I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt per trimmed pound of kosher salt, as Meathead specifies in the recipe.

[wssrstrm]

Hmmm. Maybe these particular ribs would have benefited from being crutched a couple of hours in? That would have preserved moisture, and kept them from drying out. I followed Meathead's directions on brisket, and wrapped that at 150F or so, and it was a phenomenal piece of meat - plenty of bark, and the flat was not dried out. Maybe these needed that type of treatment.

I always crutch my brisket too! But Meathead specifically says not crutch the short ribs or they turn into pot roast.

I think you're on to something here, tho:

The Thermoworks meat probe, assuming its the 4" straight probe I have, only senses the temperature in the very tip of the probe. That skinny part where the probe narrows down, and really just the last 1/8" or so of that. Now, I can see if most of the length of the probe is sticking out, that that part would heat up and conduct temperature back towards the tip. I've never put a probe in ribs, but have had no issue with only a couple inches of the probe being in the meat. These must have been super short if you could not get much of the probe in, coming in from the end, between bones.

My instant read and my probe were giving me very different readings. I didn't assume either one was broken. Instead I assumed that the probe was giving the wrong reading because so much of it was exposed to the ambient air inside the grill because the ribs were so short.

Maybe my instant read is broken tho! and the probe was giving me the correct reading because only the tip takes the temperature! If that's the case, I would definitely have overcooked the bajeezes out of these ribs. That would explain quite a bit.

Need to figure out how to test my instant read, I guess!

[MeatMonster]

Hi definitely keep an eye on probe tenderness as well as temp. Did you salt, if so for how long before smoking?

The thing with short ribs is that there can be a relatively narrow window of success cooking wise. So honestly I have had a few casualties especially in the early days.

Although many folks don't crutch I usually do as I would rather risk softer than dryer.

So make sure and salt at least 12hrs beforehand, make sure and probe occasionally from internal 185F onwards and if in doubt crutch!

Here's a few shots of some of my keepers!

[wssrstrm]

Thanks for your response, HorseDoctor. Definitely will try again taking these suggestions into account.

Grass fed beef is very often quite lean. May taste good in some uses but often does not lend itself well to low & slow BBQ. Much similar to how venison (also very lean) does not lend itself to L&S BBQ. It just does not have the fat/marbling that keeps it from getting dry.

This makes a lot of sense. Wondering if you or others here on the forum have any tips/suggestions about sourcing Prime and Wagyu beef from animals raised humanely and without additives and hormones? Are there go-to vendors out there with a good reputation for their farming practices?

[jfmorris]

Hmmm. Maybe these particular ribs would have benefited from being crutched a couple of hours in? That would have preserved moisture, and kept them from drying out. I followed Meathead's directions on brisket, and wrapped that at 150F or so, and it was a phenomenal piece of meat - plenty of bark, and the flat was not dried out. Maybe these needed that type of treatment.

The Thermoworks meat probe, assuming its the 4" straight probe I have, only senses the temperature in the very tip of the probe. That skinny part where the probe narrows down, and really just the last 1/8" or so of that. Now, I can see if most of the length of the probe is sticking out, that that part would heat up and conduct temperature back towards the tip. I've never put a probe in ribs, but have had no issue with only a couple inches of the probe being in the meat. These must have been super short if you could not get much of the probe in, coming in from the end, between bones.

[EdF]

Guess you're going to have to practice - and eat more short ribs!