Beef Ribs in Pork Country

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hickorybutt

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Jan 4, 2014
436
40
Cincinnati, OH
Living in Cincinnati, I've grown to expect pull pork and ribs slathered in sweet sauce since we're not too far from Kansas. I personally like smoked beef over pork (although I do love pork as well).

My in-laws have a grass fed beef farm down in GA and they just gave us a qtr. cow for my wife's birthday (might as well be my birthday too!). I have 2 racks of beef back ribs that I just tossed on the smoker. We'll see how they turn out. Being grass fed, the fat marbling isn't that great. But since it is all natural I expect what fat the ribs do have to render down very well.

Here's my stockpile in the basement (along with some pork):

Ribs are thawed and ready for trimming:


"Rubbed" with black pepper, salt, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper:

On the smoker, larger halves closer to the firebox:

Just cruising right along now about an hour in:

I'll just sit right here and have another beer:

More to come. These are my first beef ribs by the way, so I'm excited. I'd really like to try short ribs next if I can find some up this way.
 
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Reactions: disco and gary s
Hey, hickory, you aren't the only one excited! I love beef ribs and I am looking forward to seeing yours. As for the marbling on grass fed, It may not have as high a fat content but I think it has a great flavour. I am jealous of your 1/4. Would your inlaws be willing to adopt a fat old Canadian?

Disco
 
Hey, hickory, you aren't the only one excited! I love beef ribs and I am looking forward to seeing yours. As for the marbling on grass fed, It may not have as high a fat content but I think it has a great flavour. I am jealous of your 1/4. Would your inlaws be willing to adopt a fat old Canadian?

Disco

I'll have to see Disco. I had to work a blue collar 40 to get them to adopt me!

The ground beef I've had has been excellent. The grass fed does have excellent flavor...
 
I'll have to see Disco. I had to work a blue collar 40 to get them to adopt me!

The ground beef I've had has been excellent. The grass fed does have excellent flavor...
Har, I guess I will have to settle for store bought beef then. 

I look forward to seeing your finished ribs.

Disco
 
Just about to go in foil. I was hoping for some better bark by now (2.5 hours in), but I think the bark will start to take hold in the last hour when I take them out of the foil.

I'm also beginning to think that I have one rack of short ribs and one rack of back ribs. If you look at the two halves on the right, they look more like shorties. Both racks were labelled as "spare ribs". Oh well. I'll cook them to tenderness either way and they'll be delicious.

 
Hey HB, looking good, keep those pictures rolling. Like your stockpile !!!

Gary S
 
Very nice ribs. My freezer done run out of beef ribs.
 
I've tried to do grass fed beef ribs twice now and they always come out super tough.

I have tried high temp, low temp, foiling, adding moisture and so on. What was your temperature and duration of cook?

Any other tips you can offer would be great.

Thanks
 
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