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My First Try at Beef Back Ribs

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    My First Try at Beef Back Ribs

    Hello All –

    First post on the site, so bear with me. I’ve been BBQ’ing for more years than I care to remember, but after finding this site a year ago and wanting to get into smoking, I took the plunge this spring and purchased my Camp Chef DLX pellet smoker based on Meathead’s gold star recommendation – LOVE it. I've had great success (for a beginner) with pork ribs, sausage, and whole chicken, and even did pretty good with my first brisket. But I have never tried beef ribs, and last week I was in our local King Soopers (Kroger) and saw a single rack of center cut beef back ribs and decided to use them to learn on. They were definitely not as meaty as short ribs, but good enough for this.

    Did not find out (from the wife) that I was cooking them until the morning of the cook, so only got to salt them (1/2 tsp/LB) for 3 hours, than one additional hour with a commercial beef rub I had on hand (and yes it had salt, more about that at the end). Before salting I removed most of the membrane from the underside and very glad I did, as the one rib where I didn't get all the membrane off – that membrane was hard as shoe leather after the cook.



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    First picture is how they looked coming out of the refrigerator before going on the smoker. Smoker was set to “high smoke” which keeps the Camp Chef at is 225 degrees throughout the cook. Gave the smoker 25 minutes to come up to temp and stabilize before this picture was taken, using apple wood pellets for this cook.



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    Second picture just before going on the Camp Chef, very sunny day as you can see. Also, very dry day here in Denver (20% humidity) which probably contributed to the length of time to cook.



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    Third picture is the ribs on the smoker at the start, with Camp chef probe in meat, and my extra oven temp probe (I can speak about that when I do a write up on the smoker itself), with the built in Camp Chef oven probe at the far left. Put the ribs on rib side down, and never moved them. Spritzed them every so often with apple juice throughout the cook. After 5 hours the internal temp was only at 190 degrees. The natives (read wife) were getting restless, so at this point I cranked it up to 300 degrees, and after 20 more minutes the ribs reached 200 so I took them off.



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    Fourth picture ribs on side of smoker just after being removed.



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    Fifth picture on cutting board after cutting first two ribs.



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    Last picture, close up, not bad smoke ring for first try!


    Results: Ribs where incredibly tender and flavorful, with a great beef taste. Part of the great flavor I’m sure was the slight over salting due to using both a salt rub and a commercial rub with salt, although the rub (Bubba’s Bar B Q Beef Rub) did give it a great flavor on the outside, with just a note of sweat and a note of heat, which we both liked. Next time will definitely have to use a salt free spice rub (probably one of MeatHead's from the site) to go with the pre-salting of the meat. Overall there was actually a decent amount of meat considering they were close trimmed back ribs, and there was just enough from the one rack for the wife and I (with no leftovers).

    Bottom line, while I am still a pork rib lover, the beef ribs were absolutely great, and I will definitely be cooking them again in the near future! Thanks to MeatHead, Dr B., and the entire crew for your inspiration and great help and wealth of knowledge on the site that go me to this point!!

    Keep smoking!

    Jeff








    Attached Files

    #2
    I've always liked the back ribs I have done. Right now they are over $3/lb.

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome, those look better than my recent first attempt at em! Love the smoker too, hadn't seen one of those yet.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Jerod Broussard View Post
        I've always liked the back ribs I have done. Right now they are over $3/lb.

        True enough, though, still less then pork ribs, at least around here. As many on the site have said, seems like all meat is expensive right now.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by John View Post
          Welcome, those look better than my recent first attempt at em! Love the smoker too, hadn't seen one of those yet.

          Thanks. Overall very happy with the smoker (a few small issues I'll cover when I have time to write a review, but nothing that would keep me from it). Got a good deal, better than Amazon, by going direct to the manufacturer.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by JeffM View Post
            Hello All –

            First post on the site, so bear with me. I’ve been BBQ’ing for more years than I care to remember, but after finding this site a year ago and wanting to get into smoking, I took the plunge this spring and purchased my Camp Chef DLX pellet smoker based on Meathead’s gold star recommendation – LOVE it. I've had great success (for a beginner) with pork ribs, sausage, and whole chicken, and even did pretty good with my first brisket. But I have never tried beef ribs, and last week I was in our local King Soopers (Kroger) and saw a single rack of center cut beef back ribs and decided to use them to learn on. They were definitely not as meaty as short ribs, but good enough for this.

            Did not find out (from the wife) that I was cooking them until the morning of the cook, so only got to salt them (1/2 tsp/LB) for 3 hours, than one additional hour with a commercial beef rub I had on hand (and yes it had salt, more about that at the end). Before salting I removed most of the membrane from the underside and very glad I did, as the one rib where I didn't get all the membrane off – that membrane was hard as shoe leather after the cook.

            Results: Ribs where incredibly tender and flavorful, with a great beef taste. Part of the great flavor I’m sure was the slight over salting due to using both a salt rub and a commercial rub with salt, although the rub (Bubba’s Bar B Q Beef Rub) did give it a great flavor on the outside, with just a note of sweat and a note of heat, which we both liked. Next time will definitely have to use a salt free spice rub (probably one of MeatHead's from the site) to go with the pre-salting of the meat. Overall there was actually a decent amount of meat considering they were close trimmed back ribs, and there was just enough from the one rack for the wife and I (with no leftovers).

            Bottom line, while I am still a pork rib lover, the beef ribs were absolutely great, and I will definitely be cooking them again in the near future! Thanks to MeatHead, Dr B., and the entire crew for your inspiration and great help and wealth of knowledge on the site that go me to this point!!

            Keep smoking!

            Jeff







            You did AWESOME on your cook, and AWESOME on your first post! Congrats, you nailed the pics! I highly recommend Meathead's Big Bad Beef Rub, especially if you like a peppery flavor. I've done beef back ribs, I remove the membrane too and I love them. I think short ribs might be more tender, but they were still bone licking good. As I've said here before I think I prefer beef ribs to pork....but it's a fine line. If you care to check out my post on beef ribs it's here.

            Keep on smoking Jeff, you're doing great!

            Comment


              #7
              Beautimous!

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Aaron 'Huskee' Lyons View Post

                You did AWESOME on your cook, and AWESOME on your first post! Congrats, you nailed the pics! I highly recommend Meathead's Big Bad Beef Rub, especially if you like a peppery flavor. I've done beef back ribs, I remove the membrane too and I love them. I think short ribs might be more tender, but they were still bone licking good. As I've said here before I think I prefer beef ribs to pork....but it's a fine line. If you care to check out my post on beef ribs it's here.

                Keep on smoking Jeff, you're doing great!

                Thanks much! Definitely read your post, it gave me a lot of inspiration and ideas for my cook. I did try the Big Bad Beef Rub a while back, and it was a little to peppery for us. I may go back to it again but try to tweak it a bit. Thanks again.

                Comment


                • Huskee
                  Huskee commented
                  Editing a comment
                  OK Jeff, have we had this conversation before? Apologies if we have, it's hard to keep everyone straight sometimes. One of our other mods, Jerod B, uses white pepper instead of black, and I think he cuts the amount down. No rules, just do what works for YOU, and eat goooood!

                #9
                Originally posted by Pit Boss View Post
                Beautimous!

                Thanks!! Wow my first gold "medal". I might have to quit while I am ahead - Lol.

                Comment


                  #10
                  Originally posted by JeffM View Post


                  Thanks!! Wow my first gold "medal". I might have to quit while I am ahead - Lol.

                  Keep smokin like that and I guarantee it won't be the last.

                  Comment


                    #11
                    Aaron
                    Nope, wasn't me. Thanks for the suggestion about white pepper. Will give it a try.

                    Comment


                      #12
                      Originally posted by JeffM View Post


                      True enough, though, still less then pork ribs, at least around here. As many on the site have said, seems like all meat is expensive right now.
                      Wait until we keep buying them, they'll be more than pork in a year or two. Darn butchers/ranchers/whomever is in charge of the supply:demand ratio pricing. As soon as something catches on the price goes up. My grandpa told me in the '40s butchers paid you to take briskets home. Now it's becoming as pricey as steaks. Let's switch to liver.

                      Comment


                        #13
                        Originally posted by Aaron 'Huskee' Lyons View Post

                        Wait until we keep buying them, they'll be more than pork in a year or two. Darn butchers/ranchers/whomever is in charge of the supply:demand ratio pricing. As soon as something catches on the price goes up. My grandpa told me in the '40s butchers paid you to take briskets home. Now it's becoming as pricey as steaks. Let's switch to liver.

                        And my father, who turned 100 last year, told me when he was young the only thing shrimp was used for was bait! Yeah everyone (except me) please start eating liver and leave the ribs and brisket alone.

                        Comment


                          #14
                          That's not surprising, shrimp look disgusting. I call them water spiders. If I had been one of the first humans to have caught one I promise I would not have fried it and eaten it. But I loves me some shrimp now. One of my favorite things to pig out on. Liver to the others!

                          Comment


                            #15
                            Jeff your article has inspired me to do beef ribs again. Great Job!!

                            Barry

                            Comment

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