Beef Back Ribs

danguba78

I picked up some beef back ribs at Costco on Saturday.  First time ever egging beef ribs of any kind, so I didn't know what to expect exactly. I smoked them over post oak and cherry with a homemade rub of S&P, mustard/garlic/onion powders, and paprika. Ran about 250° grate temp at felt level using AR. Start to finish was about three hours, but figuring out if they were done was a bit trickier than with pork ribs because the bend test didn't work because so little meat was there and my other go to, the bone wiggle (that's what she said) was inconclusive  

What meat was there was pretty good, there wasn't much of it. Most of what you see on top of the bones is rendered fat and rub, not meat.  The meat was between the bones. It took a decent amount of work to separate the succulent meat from connective tissue--it reminded us of picking Maryland crabs. (Lots of work, lots of waste, only no hammer involved.)

 I don't know if I'd get the same cut again--I'd try for something that had more meat. Of course, these cooked in about three hours and cost about $3/pound, so it's not like this particular cut has no benefits.  Thanks for looking. 

lousubcap

Great result right there.  For the future, I use the tooth-pick test for the win with any rib protein.  Insert into the "between rib" meat and no resistance means you are there.  FWIW-

Shiff

Yours look very good. I do understand your comment about not much meat on beef back ribs. I switched to cooking chuck short ribs or plate ribs and they  have much more meat.

drumdudeguy

They cut the ribeye steaks off these ribs and leave very little meat. I had a similar experience recently and will not buy them again, 

YukonRon

Looks very good to me. Thank you for posting.

bigegger

good job! thanks for the post

jak7028

drumdudeguy said:

They cut the ribeye steaks off these ribs and leave very little meat. I had a similar experience recently and will not buy them again, 

Danguba78 - drum is right.  Butchers will pretty much cut off as much meat as they can so they can sell it for $8-$15/lbs as a ribeye instead of $4-$5/lbs as beef ribs. 

Don't give up on beef ribs, just switch over to chuck or plate ribs like Schiff said.  

Pretty much all I see in regular grocery stores in my area are ribs like you bought, they are the most common, which is why a lot of people wont eat beef ribs.  A lot of work for not much meat in return.  

fishlessman

i think the trick is to find bigger ones with more meat which you wont find too often. i like the short ribs too but cook them more often like steaks, cant get enough med/rare shortribs. found some incredibly marbled boneless ones last week

Shiff

I do prefer Plate Ribs or Chuck Short ribs, but if you have a Restaurant Depot near you, they usually have beef back ribs with more meat on them.  Not as much as Plate or Chuck ribs, but more than your average butcher will leave on the bones.  RD also has boneless chuck short ribs which cook up very nicely - kind of like a brisket with burnt ends but not as thick a cut of meat.

danguba78

Thanks for all the tips. I'm off in search of meatier ribs.