Delayed Beef Rib Report

JSlot

I promised everyone a report on cooking the beef "plate" ribs but the dinner was delayed a few days. The report isn't so good, but I'm gonna work on them some more. I cooked the ribs indirect in a rack at ~275° for about three hours. They dried out way too much. I think they would have been fine cooked for that time at a lower temperature or removed earlier. I let 'em go that long because I read somewhere they needed to cook awhile to get tender. I think the quote was, "cook 'em until you think they are done and then cook 'em three more hours". Well, they were plenty tender, just too dry. I will modify the method and report back again.[p]On the positive side, I did some beef short ribs last night that were killer! Marinated in red wine, soy sauce, garlic, thyme and black pepper. Cooked indirect at 350° for 1½ hours. No searing, no turning and they were done perfectly all the way around. Tender, pulled from the bone easily, and a flavor that was unbelievable.[p]Keep the smoke risin',
Jim

Still Smokin'

JSlot,
I have great luck with beef plate ribs. I apply my favorite rub the night before. At 8:00 or 9:00am I fire up the egg to 220*. Let the ribs sit out during the warmup time. I add three thin fire bricks to the grate, add a drip pan and a rack(sprayed with pam, away from the flame). Once the grill returns to 220* I sit the ribs on the rack. Add very little wood, trust me, I regularly over-smoke them and I love heavy smoke. [p]Let them go till about 3 hours and rotate-flip the ribs. After 2 or so more hours check for doneness, make sure the outside is not starting to burn. Once they are cooked to your liking, take the temp., it will probably be around 160* or so. You want to cook to 195 or so. Wrap in loose foil with holes in the lowest part to allow fat to drip out. Cook additional 2 or so hours at 250*-270* estimating time to proper temperature. Roate the ribs at least once after covering with foil. Otherwise the portion closest to the firebricks may burn. Once brought in, let sit in foil for 20 mins. The long slow cooking will make the meat texture much more firm and less fatty, cooks out most of the fat. We usually skip the sauce because these are so moist and I use a brown sugar based rub. Similar texture to bback ribs.

JSlot

Thanks for the tips. I'll certainly give that method a try. I am a little concerned that I may not be getting the correct cut of ribs, but it's all I could find around here other than the short ribs. As I stated earlier, the butcher I got these from calls them "plate" ribs and there is very little, if any, meat on the flat sides of the bone. Most of the meat has been cut away and what remains is largely between the bones. This is much different than the short ribs which have 1" or more of meat all the way around the bone.[p]Jim

Marvin

JSlot,
My guess is that 'still smokin' is cooking a rack of short ribs, and you cooked 'plate' ribs. Around here short ribs are sold as individual small - about 3-4 inches - pieces. If you ask the butcher to not cut the ribs in half (which he does to make them short) and leave them attached to one another like pork ribs (with the chine bone removed), you will be able to do the lo-n-slo to get the rib temp to 195-200. Good luck.