Wagyu beef back ribs

I saw some 100% full-blooded Wagyu beef back ribs on the Lone Mountain Wagyu website
and decided to splurge a bit.

Superb marbling.

The ribs were seasoned with Himalayan pink salt, cracked black pepper and garlic and onion
powder.  They went on the BGE at 235 degrees with mesquite and cherry.

I used sourdough starter to make sweet yeast dinner rolls:

The ribs were coming along nicely, so I prepared some tomatoes that were stuffed with
spinach, onions, smoked cream cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper.  They 
were topped off with Italian bread crumbs.

About 3 hours in

When the ribs were done, I FTC’d them and placed the stuffed tomatoes on the Egg for about
an hour.  Time to pig out.

Smoked tomatoes are a favorite of mine and these did not disappoint.  The rolls were buttery,
yeasty, fluffy, cloud-like nuggets of carbohydrate heaven. They had extra brown sugar added
to them, so they were sweet with a slight sourdough finish.  I’m very glad that I kept the rib 
seasoning simple.  These were the best beef back ribs I’ve cooked to date.  The meat was 
very beefy, juicy and tender.  All that being said, they were rather expensive, so I doubt I will 
purchase them again.

For dessert, I chose to make a smoked lemon-lime caramel custard bread pudding with smoked
vanilla bean gelato.  For the gelato, I made a typical french vanilla anglaise – two cups of 
evaporated milk, one cup of heavy cream, 3/4 cup of sugar and the seeds from 3 Indonesian 
vanilla beans.

I used apple wood chips in the Smoking Gun to add a bit of smokiness to the gelato.  It was
then chilled and later churned in my Gelato pro.

For the bread pudding,  I made a simple syrup using lemons that had been previously smoked
and some lime juice in which palm sugar was added and then reduced. 

Coconut cream, palm sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla and coconut extracts and 3 eggs were 
used in making the remainder of the bread pudding’s custard base.  The lemon-lime syrup 
was folded into the custard and some of the sourdough rolls were shredded into this mixture.

The bread pudding was placed into jars and cooked sous vide for 2 hours at 170 degrees. 
They were then fried in butter on all sides to improve the external texture and color and
topped off with a hefty scoop of the smoked vanilla bean gelato.

The bread pudding packed a real citrus punch with a velvety smooth texture and the smoked
gelato reminded me of toffee and roasted marshmallows.  

The leftovers I made from this cook made all the effort I put in truly worth it.  I made some
sous vide egg bites using Wagyu rib meat, homemade, dry cured beef naval pastrami, sweet
onions and cheese.  They were served on some sourdough rolls that had been split, buttered
and pan fried.

The next morning I used some leftover bread pudding to make a Belgian waffle, topped with 
smoked maple syrup and served with a sous vide egg bite.

I really wish I hadn’t thought to try this. I can’t go back to regular Belgian waffles now, not
after this.  It tasted like a citrus Liege waffle.  A sweet, crunchy exterior due to the caramelized 
sugars, with a light and fluffy custard interior.  The smoked maple syrup to top it off was divine.
I’m glad I’m out of bread pudding or I might have been eating that for every meal.  Good eats.