Beef 'n Pork ribs

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badss

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Sep 30, 2007
255
14
Hi all,
I am doing up about 10 lbs of pork side ribs and also bought some BIG beef ribs as well to try for the first time. Will the smoke and cook times vary greatly between the two or should I just watch for pull back as well on the beef like the pork as I intend to smoke them at the same time. Thanks all.
BADSS
 
In my experience there is not alot of difference. Watch for the pull back and check the temp. There are plenty of resources on this site that give you good estimates for meat temp.
 
whoa...not so fast, there!!!

I did some beef back-ribs and spares a couple weeks ago. Started with the intent of 3-2-1. They ended up as 2-1.5-(grill quick finishing with Ray's). They got done so much quicker than pork ribs I couldn't believe it. And, no I didn't have thermo problems or anything like that. Beef does not have anything needing to be rendered, like pork does.

Bottom-line. Beef is different. It cooks way faster. It tastes absolutely great. Be way conservative on your times. Smoking them in a pan might be the best way...like KickAssBBQ does.

And the thermo remark was for the smoking temp, not the meat temp. These are based on timing only, that IS like pork ribs.
 
Thanks guys...and you were right Steve....I think going forward if I were to do them again I would probrably cook just the pork or just the beef as the beef was good but not as tender as I would have liked and the smoke wasn't as infussed as it normally is with the pork just probrably due to not being in the smoke as long. Was worth the effort thou....nothing ventured ...nothing gained.

I kind of thought that this would happen and put the beef at the highest rack and was hoping with a lower upper temp that I would still get the tenderness of the pork...not so. By the way I was wondering if any of you or my Southern Bros and sisters in the US get a BBQ sauce down there called Bullseye ? Its a real hearty and full smoke flavoured BBQ sauce. Comes in Hickory, Bold, and they also make one for Chicken and ribs just can't remember the name for that one.

I was just wondering as I am going to try that sauce on the beef next time. I used Jeffs rub and sauce and it was good...the pork side ribs were the same nice tender mouth watering ribs. Outside temp was getting down there. Just above freezing so the smoker was working a little harder than normal. Thinking I am going to have to plumb this thing into my garage in order to keep smoking over the winter as we get down to -40 F . Door doesn't seal all that well and I get a lot of smoke coming out and with a hot rod and sleds in my garage, I don't want to smoke them up so I have to come up with a plan for that. I'll start another thread on that one as I could use some tried and true plans for that.

Thanks again.
BADSS

Thanks again
 
Badss, I agree that the beef will get done sooner. If you have the room I don't think you couldn't smoke them both together. Just keep your eye on the beef ones. I always thought that the top rack was the hotest because of the heat rising. When I do beef ribs I don't use the 3-2-1 method, I just spay them with apple juice and watch for the meat to start pulling back.
 
Hi Michael,
Do you use a rub or sauce on the end? I was thinking that if I marinated them first it would also soften them up a bit prior to smoking???
Ray
 
I'm not sure of what you mean. I slather them first with mustard, add the rub. wrap them with wrap and let them sit over night. 1 hour before I'm ready for themI take them out and just let them get to room temp. I rub them one more time and put them in the smoker. I just leave them alone for around 1 hour.Then I start to hit them with the apple juice. If I'm doing beef, I just spary them about every HR.1/2 untill they start to pull back. I'll mop them with sauce twice before I take them off.
 
Hi Machael,
What I meant was I use Jeff's rub and let them sit overnight. I then go ahead with smoke and do the 3-2-1 method on pork. However I have never done beef before so I used the same rub (Jeffs) and then tried the same method for pork but I put them on the top rack as I figured they'd cook quicker due to being a leaner meat with not as much fat and they still turned out to be a little tough, like you had to almost rip the meat off the bone...not at all like pork. Just wanted to know if you use a rub prior to smoking on beef as well or if you marinade them overnight to maybe soften them up ? I've heard of the mustard thing but doesn't or wouldn't this make the meat strong or real tangy?
Ray
 
Regular, plain, yellow, mustard leaves no taste at all, but gets the rub to stick a lot better. And it makes better bark on the final product.

I use Jeff's rub on the beef ribs. Salt and pepper wouldn't be a bad alternative.

BullsEye sauce is all over the place, but I've tried them all and my personal preference is to use either Sweet Baby Ray's (regular or hot) or Jeff's sauce.

My current view on beef ribs is that you treat them as beef, not pork.

What I mean by this is that most beef wants to be done medium or so. Most pork that we smoke is well-done in order to render the fat or collagen to get to the wonderful, sweet taste and texture. Loin is the exception in that it wants to be off the heat at 140-150. Beef, wanting to be medium or so, does not want to have the living hell cooked out of it; it just gets tough.

So I think of it like this: if pork ribs are 3-2-1, or 2-2-1, or 3-1-1 or whatever, beef wants to be medium. So be conservative; they come out awesome for me.

My next experiments on beef ribs will determine if there is a difference in smoke taste between smoking on the rack doing a 2-1.5-grill finish versus 3-1-grill ifinish in an aluminum pan with dark beer in the bottom, KickAssBBQ style.

The good thing is that you can usually eat your mistakes. The more that I keep my smoking log, the better I get.
 
Thanks for all the input Steve. So when you say conservative ....like what do you think the cook method would be like maybe 2-1-.5 or just wait for pull back, foil and what about using beer in the foil or would that be a no-no? Thanks Steve. I appreciate your input and I really want to get a grip on the beef ribs as I love beef! Thanks again.
Ray
 
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