I cooked by far and away the largest brontosaurus beef short ribs I've ever seen over the Labor Day weekend. First off I've posted several beef rib cooks in the past so one more wasn't really something I intended to do, but after procuring cooking these I just couldn't help myself. Beef short ribs are, next to maybe Picanha, my favorite cut off the cow. I go into beef nirvana everytime I eat them.
A little back story to go along with this. All of the beef ribs sold in my local HEB are back ribs, or those ribs cut off the top of the rib cage within the 7 bone rib section, immediately attached to the prime rib or ribeye cuts. Tasty but not really a lot of meat on the bone and that by design. If I go to a butcher or a Whole Foods I can get plates but they are almost always cut from the chuck section or the first 5 bones of the forward rib cage. Now don't get me wrong these are excellent as well and chuck ribs when cooked are nearly identical to the big shorties, they just have a smaller rib bone. They are usually sold in 4 rib plates.
That leaves the quest for the big, bad, beefy short ribs that come from the bottom of the rib cage cut from ribs 6 thru 12. Generally you see them in a 3 bone or even 2 bone configuration since they are so large and beefy. Again these are sometimes hard to find in my area and I generally just break down and order them online from the likes of Crowd Cow or Matador Prime.
This time; however I wanted to try the offerings from Porter Road, said to be the biggest and baddest out there. I tried to order them a couple of times and each time they claimed they were out and put me on a waiting list. When they got some in they'd send me an email that said hurry we have some. I'd pop on line immediately only to find out they were sold out again. Not to be deterred on the third try I called them right away. I dropped a hint about my AR affliction and after what was the strangest phone conversation, the guy says he has to check and he'd call me back? OK, so about 15 minutes later he calls me back and says how many do you want? Thinking they sold 4 bone plates I just said to send me two plates. No problem he says.
Well to my surprised what showed up was half a figgin' cow. I got two six bone plates, nearly all the short ribs from an entire cow. Whooo hooo it was like Christmas and Easter all rolled into one. So over the holiday I thawed one of those babies and went to work on it. So enough jibber jabber, here's the monster in question,
Not only are they big but check out the amount and thickness of the meat on these things. Generally when I buy plates I usually get a good inch to maybe an inch and a half of meat. Not these, they were easily 2" consistently across the plate....
So I cut the slab into 3 - 2 bone sections and dry brined for about 48 hours. Of course as every true Texan will attest, the only way to season these bad boys was with lots of pepper and a bit of granulated garlic powder....
So on they went into the smoker at 275*. It was hot outside, like 105* with the humidity factor over the weekend, so the smoker was running hot. Here's the ribs half way through the cook. I generally spritz once an hour to encourage bark formation. Note also the pull away and puff up of the meat. Generally that occurs during the cook and peaks on a normal plate at maybe 3-4 inches max. Oh no not with dino ribs, these bad boys were puffing to 6 inches or more....
With the smoker running hot, I was able to get to probe tender in right at 5 hours. Generally it takes at least 6 for beef ribs so I thought these would take forever. Just the opposite occurred. I temp'd them at the end and they were riding at around 203* or so, but again butter smooth probing was what I was after. No wrapping involved....
I'll let the ribs speak for themselves. Again the biggest, baddest beef shorties on planet Earth. Huge shout out to Porter Road. These things are the real deal, can't wait to cook the next rack.
(And by the way, the final picture was the one I had for dinner.
Trout is out !!!)
A little back story to go along with this. All of the beef ribs sold in my local HEB are back ribs, or those ribs cut off the top of the rib cage within the 7 bone rib section, immediately attached to the prime rib or ribeye cuts. Tasty but not really a lot of meat on the bone and that by design. If I go to a butcher or a Whole Foods I can get plates but they are almost always cut from the chuck section or the first 5 bones of the forward rib cage. Now don't get me wrong these are excellent as well and chuck ribs when cooked are nearly identical to the big shorties, they just have a smaller rib bone. They are usually sold in 4 rib plates.
That leaves the quest for the big, bad, beefy short ribs that come from the bottom of the rib cage cut from ribs 6 thru 12. Generally you see them in a 3 bone or even 2 bone configuration since they are so large and beefy. Again these are sometimes hard to find in my area and I generally just break down and order them online from the likes of Crowd Cow or Matador Prime.
This time; however I wanted to try the offerings from Porter Road, said to be the biggest and baddest out there. I tried to order them a couple of times and each time they claimed they were out and put me on a waiting list. When they got some in they'd send me an email that said hurry we have some. I'd pop on line immediately only to find out they were sold out again. Not to be deterred on the third try I called them right away. I dropped a hint about my AR affliction and after what was the strangest phone conversation, the guy says he has to check and he'd call me back? OK, so about 15 minutes later he calls me back and says how many do you want? Thinking they sold 4 bone plates I just said to send me two plates. No problem he says.
Well to my surprised what showed up was half a figgin' cow. I got two six bone plates, nearly all the short ribs from an entire cow. Whooo hooo it was like Christmas and Easter all rolled into one. So over the holiday I thawed one of those babies and went to work on it. So enough jibber jabber, here's the monster in question,
Not only are they big but check out the amount and thickness of the meat on these things. Generally when I buy plates I usually get a good inch to maybe an inch and a half of meat. Not these, they were easily 2" consistently across the plate....
So I cut the slab into 3 - 2 bone sections and dry brined for about 48 hours. Of course as every true Texan will attest, the only way to season these bad boys was with lots of pepper and a bit of granulated garlic powder....
So on they went into the smoker at 275*. It was hot outside, like 105* with the humidity factor over the weekend, so the smoker was running hot. Here's the ribs half way through the cook. I generally spritz once an hour to encourage bark formation. Note also the pull away and puff up of the meat. Generally that occurs during the cook and peaks on a normal plate at maybe 3-4 inches max. Oh no not with dino ribs, these bad boys were puffing to 6 inches or more....
With the smoker running hot, I was able to get to probe tender in right at 5 hours. Generally it takes at least 6 for beef ribs so I thought these would take forever. Just the opposite occurred. I temp'd them at the end and they were riding at around 203* or so, but again butter smooth probing was what I was after. No wrapping involved....
I'll let the ribs speak for themselves. Again the biggest, baddest beef shorties on planet Earth. Huge shout out to Porter Road. These things are the real deal, can't wait to cook the next rack.
(And by the way, the final picture was the one I had for dinner.
Trout is out !!!)
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