castlepines
is Blowin Smoke!
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2013
- Location
- Colorado
I've tried beef short ribs only once, and while they had good flavor I wish the fat had been rendered out a lot more. Over the past couple days I've had a craving for beef back ribs. They're a bit leaner than shorties and still have a good beef flavor, so I'd read. Sounded good to me so off I went on the hunt for some. The ones carried at Walmart have a horrible reputation so I stayed away from those. In an effort to support local growers, I went to a nearby farmer's market but they had none. I called the local grocer down the street and asked if they had any beef back ribs...lo and behold he had one rack left. It was a 6-bone for $3.99/lbs, or $3.49/lbs if you used your loyalty card. Given the current prices for beef I didn't think that was too bad. At just over 4 lbs it was perfect for a hungry 2....or a VERY hungry 1. Home I went with it.
Trimmed it up some, pulled off the membrane from the back and coated the whole thing in Simply Marvelous Peppered Cow. Now, I have this habit of tasting all of the rubs I get right out of the bottle and then from there deciding what meats they would go best with. I know, it's weird. And I don't know what I was thinking here because all last night when I was planning this for today I kept planning on using the new Plowboy's Bovine Bold I bought recently. I thought it would go perfectly with beef ribs or a chuckie. But for some reason today I grabbed the SM PC and used that. I have no idea why that happened and after I'd done it I suddenly remembered that I wanted to use the Bovine Bold. Oh well. Next time it's going to be the Bovine Bold.
I'm working out of town right now but brought my smoker with me so lately I've been smoking for friends and coworkers. I told a friend of mine I was smoking up beef ribs today for my first time and to come in over after work today if he wanted to try some. He said he loved the pork ribs I made last time so he would definitely be over today. Cool.
I fired up the WSM, put in a mix of cherry and apple, and it settled in at about 260F so I went with it. After about 3 hours it was the color I like so I wrapped it in foil with some butter and cherry jam, put it back on the smoker and after a couple more hours it was almost probe tender. Took it out of the foil and put it back on the smoker to firm it up some while continuing to probe every 15-20 minutes or so. After another 1.25 hours at about 250F it was probe tender with an internal temp of around 195F. Perfect. Tented it with foil and let it rest for about 30-40 minutes until my friend got here and we were good to go. Steamed some broccoli then crisped up the edges some in a pan with butter and a garlic pepper season salt and we were set.
Admittedly, I'm my own worst critic when it comes to my BBQ. Even when things turn out far from how I wanted it, the girlfriend and kids still love it, however. And while I'm tough to please when it comes to my own BBQ, I am easily impressed when it comes to friends' and family's cooking. Yeah, I don't get it either. But I have to say, these actually turned out really well. The SM PC has a little kick to it right out of the bottle, and probably a little more chili powder flavor than I typically like on beef. But if there's one thing that I have noticed it's that the spiciness that you taste right out of the jar goes way down when you cook with it. I definitely have a place for spicy BBQ but wanted something more mellow today. I like balance in my BBQ: if I go with spicy rubs, I use lighter fruit woods over my usual hickory. If I use a heavier sugar based rub, I go with hickory and a sweeter finishing sauce. The mix of the SM PC with the cherry and apple wood, plus the butter and cherry jam foil, gave it a nice balance and wasn't spicy at all.
All told, I was happy with the cut I got from the grocery store (Giant Market) and with how this turned out overall. Next time, however, I'm going to use the Bovine Bold...if I remember. I took the pics using my iPad so I apologize for the lack of quality. And for whatever reason I can't seem to post more than one picture from my iPad so it looks like I'll just be posting the money shot. But here's the Pr0n you crave, you sick bastards...
Trimmed it up some, pulled off the membrane from the back and coated the whole thing in Simply Marvelous Peppered Cow. Now, I have this habit of tasting all of the rubs I get right out of the bottle and then from there deciding what meats they would go best with. I know, it's weird. And I don't know what I was thinking here because all last night when I was planning this for today I kept planning on using the new Plowboy's Bovine Bold I bought recently. I thought it would go perfectly with beef ribs or a chuckie. But for some reason today I grabbed the SM PC and used that. I have no idea why that happened and after I'd done it I suddenly remembered that I wanted to use the Bovine Bold. Oh well. Next time it's going to be the Bovine Bold.
I'm working out of town right now but brought my smoker with me so lately I've been smoking for friends and coworkers. I told a friend of mine I was smoking up beef ribs today for my first time and to come in over after work today if he wanted to try some. He said he loved the pork ribs I made last time so he would definitely be over today. Cool.
I fired up the WSM, put in a mix of cherry and apple, and it settled in at about 260F so I went with it. After about 3 hours it was the color I like so I wrapped it in foil with some butter and cherry jam, put it back on the smoker and after a couple more hours it was almost probe tender. Took it out of the foil and put it back on the smoker to firm it up some while continuing to probe every 15-20 minutes or so. After another 1.25 hours at about 250F it was probe tender with an internal temp of around 195F. Perfect. Tented it with foil and let it rest for about 30-40 minutes until my friend got here and we were good to go. Steamed some broccoli then crisped up the edges some in a pan with butter and a garlic pepper season salt and we were set.
Admittedly, I'm my own worst critic when it comes to my BBQ. Even when things turn out far from how I wanted it, the girlfriend and kids still love it, however. And while I'm tough to please when it comes to my own BBQ, I am easily impressed when it comes to friends' and family's cooking. Yeah, I don't get it either. But I have to say, these actually turned out really well. The SM PC has a little kick to it right out of the bottle, and probably a little more chili powder flavor than I typically like on beef. But if there's one thing that I have noticed it's that the spiciness that you taste right out of the jar goes way down when you cook with it. I definitely have a place for spicy BBQ but wanted something more mellow today. I like balance in my BBQ: if I go with spicy rubs, I use lighter fruit woods over my usual hickory. If I use a heavier sugar based rub, I go with hickory and a sweeter finishing sauce. The mix of the SM PC with the cherry and apple wood, plus the butter and cherry jam foil, gave it a nice balance and wasn't spicy at all.
All told, I was happy with the cut I got from the grocery store (Giant Market) and with how this turned out overall. Next time, however, I'm going to use the Bovine Bold...if I remember. I took the pics using my iPad so I apologize for the lack of quality. And for whatever reason I can't seem to post more than one picture from my iPad so it looks like I'll just be posting the money shot. But here's the Pr0n you crave, you sick bastards...
