Bison Shortribs Attempt

The_Flyin_Hawaiian · April 2018

So I had family in town this past weekend and they wanted to try something different. I enjoy a good bison burger and I love ribs so I thought I would try some bison short ribs. I gathered what little advice I could find on the internet and made an attempt.
For the rub I went with my normal go to rub for 2 (paprika, brown sugar, cumin, garlic/onion powder) and the other I did just some oregano, salt and pepper.
I smoked them at 225 for about 2 hours then foiled them up and added some olive oil, water and bacon grease. Cooked for another 2 hours then cooked them with no foil for another 15 min glazing with olive oil to attempt to combat the low fat of the meat.
End result was ok. Flavor was great but I don't think I left them in the foil long enough. They were juicy but not tender. Maybe do a 1.5-2.5-.25 if I try again. I did like the oregano, salt and pepper rub more. Wasn't over powering of the bison flavor.

Theophan · April 2018

Gosh, I'm puzzled. My only suggestion is that with this type of meat you never use time as the way to tell when they're done. You just keep testing whether they're done by poking them with a fork or a toothpick. Trying to decide how much time to give them is a recipe for disaster, in my own opinion.

But I'm still puzzled, and I hope some short rib experts will comment. I wouldn't have thought that would have been long enough to get them done, and usually if that kind of meat isn't tender, then it wasn't done, so I agree with you, they almost certainly weren't done and needed longer. But WOW there was a lot of meat pullback, and I've had short ribs that were very tender and clearly done with less pullback from the bone. So I don't get it. I agree with you, the likeliest answer is they needed more time, but I'm sure puzzled about how much that meat shrank in that amount of time and that very low heat. Hope someone else has some interesting answers.

gdenby · April 2018

"Juicy but not tender"

The problem, in short, is that the meat was well cooked, but the connective tissue was no broken down.

The last times I cooked both bison spares and shorts, my results were much the same.

Bison can be really hard to cook, compared to beef. A bison cow can be heavier than a bull cattle. They will have lots and lots of connective tissue.

They usually have to graze on grass, 'cause they con't tolerate grain like cattle. So the exercise makes the ligatures really strong. And being grass fed, they are lean.

Based on the roasts that I've done in the past few years, I'll suggest an SV water bath for at least 24 hours, at 140F. Then to the Egg for smoke and browning.

Also have to suppose poking them all over to mechanically tenderize would help.

The_Flyin_Hawaiian · April 2018

Interesting @gdenby I will have to try that next time because i really liked the taste. Yeah this was my first attempt at it so I wasn't sure how it was going to go.

Bison Shortribs Attempt

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