Short Ribs - how to smoke?

[wklkjn]

Hi again!

I found a bunch of great deals at Costco tonight.

Vacuum packed, 3 full Baby Back Ribs to a pack - Swift Premium brand - $2.99 / pound.

Got some nice thick Ribeye steaks for $8.99 / pound.

But the thing that caught my eye was the packs of "Beef Chuck Short Ribs" Boneless, USDA Choice.

I bought a pack of 6 strips, fairly thick, maybe 10" long each.  The pack of (6) weighs 2 1/2 pounds and is all meat, nicely marbled.

So, I smoked pork shoulder and beef brisket with great success.

I'm open for suggestions on how to smoke this.

I'm sure it will go quicker than a brisket because the pieces are much smaller, so I don't want to end up with beef jerkey!

I'm looking for tender, moist, fall-apart short ribs slathered in BBQ sauce.  :)

Any suggestions?

Thanks!!!

 

[ristau5741]

I doing some myself for the first time this weekend, I just plan on a little salt and pepper on the ribs a few hours before I put them on,

bring the smoker temp up to 240, insert the temp probe and wait until meat about 190 degrees.  I'm guessing 5-7 hours as they are bone in.

p.s. Jeff had a chuck roast burnt ends recipe in the newsletter a few months back, I'm finally going to have a go at making burnt ends at the same time.

 

[ristau5741]

Ran the short ribs with the chuck roasts, the short ribs turned out to be about 2" x 2" bone in blocks of meat. I gave a two hour lead time to the chuck roasts, probes in the roasts, at 230 - 240 degrees, after about the 7 hour mark the roasts hit 180 degrees, and I pulled them out, moved the temp gate to the ribs and they were at 205. a little well done. but were still quite good.  I think next time they will need 5-6 hours.

The short ribs were salt and peppered with a little garlic and herb rub, let sit in fridge overnight. used mix of mesquite and hickory for the smoke.

Also used the roast marinade as a mop during the cooking, after slicing the roasts, mixed them in home made bbq sauce and my own rub recipe. put the ends back in the smoker for another two hours. the burnt ends came out excellent.

 

[wklkjn]

So I'm sorry I didn't take photos but the short ribs came out pretty good.

Not as tender as a brisket, but pretty tender all the same.

I smoked with hickory and pecan, about 260 to 270 degrees.

These short ribs were boneless, 

I did not wrap them in foil, I thought they would cook so fast that I would need to get them through a stall period.

They hit 195 at 2 1/2 hours so I pulled them, rested them for 10 minutes, and then we just cut them up on our plate like steak.

Very good.

I would say, if you want a fast alternative to brisket, these can be smoked from scratch on a weekday after work.

I got a newsletter email from Jeff on a meatloaf with great instructions.

I'm going to try that this weekend.

 

[ristau5741]

sounds like they turned out mighty fine.

reviewed my smoker logs, just wanted to correct misinformation  short ribs were in 5 1/2 hours, not 7 like I said. forgot to include the lead time with my math. the chuck roasts and ribs we done about the same time  180 on the CR and 205 on the SR. so next time I'll try 3-4 hours on the SR not 5-6 hours like I recommended.

 

[regular guy]

There are 3 types of beef ribs that I see. Usually you'll find Beef Back Ribs which look like this :

2_zps7c57f42b.jpg

• regular guy
• Oct 13, 2016

Then you have Beef Chuck "Plate" ribs which look like this :

sr08.jpg

• regular guy
• Oct 13, 2016

Then there's regular old short ribs which have very little meat on them. I was looking for pictures of regular short ribs but all I have is pics of them in a pot getting braised. None smoked.

I know your post said Short Ribs, I just want to make sure we're talking about the same style of ribs. Either way I'll cover how I do both back and chuck ribs.

With Beef "Back" ribs, I smoke them at 225°ish for about 3 hours then wrap in foil for 2 hours with a little beef broth to keep them moist since there is not much fat. After 2 hours on the smoker I unwrap and return to the smoker and check for internal temp AND tenderness. If the meat thermometer slides in easily in various points, it's done. I find it usually to be in the 190° to 195° range.

The Chuck "plate" dino ribs I let ride a little hotter at around 240° to 250° until it reaches the color that I like. That usually is about 3-4 hours. I spritz it a few times along the way with a mixture of ACV, apple juice and water, just to keep it from getting crunchy. Once it gets to the color I like, I wrap it in peach butcher paper and start to probe it about 1.5-2 hours later. I probe through the paper, I not only am looking at the internal temp, I am feeling for tenderness. There is a membrane located in the middle of the meat and when the probe goes through it like butter, they're done. Usually in the 200° to 205° range. There is PLENTY of fat in there so it is very forgiving and hard to ruin. It can take a high internal temp unlike the back ribs.

I won't get into rubs but salt pepper and granulated garlic are key players for me when it comes to beef. 

I merely glanced at the other posts (guilty) so if I am repeating someone else's advice, forgive me :)

 

[wklkjn]

Good question, Regular Guy.  All I know is the butcher label on the pack said 'Boneless Short Ribs'.

Looking at your two photos, I'd say the ones I had looked most like your top photo of the beef back ribs.  They were definitely not as thick and round as the 'chuck' photo.  And they had nice marbling too.

They were pretty good.

I'd like to try them again with bones in them if I can find them.

The beef brisket was great, but 12 hours of dedicated time is tough for me.