The Brontosaurus Rib (aka beef rib)

[Sum1]

Here's a recipe for a damn good beef rib that I've been experimenting with for some time, using my little #1.

Begin the prep the night before you plan on serving these babies.

Ingredients

3 large beef ribs, as meaty as you can get, with some of the fat still on them. Each rib can serve 1 hungry guy.

1 cup beef broth

Beer/water

Rub:
2 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoon coarsely grounded black pepper
2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

Directions

Place the rub ingredients in a small bowl and mix with your fingers until well incorporated.

Apply the rub to the ribs on all sides, pressing into the meat.

Refrigerate overnight.

When ready to smoke, place a tray with water or beer on the bottom shelf of the smoker. Better yet, fill up your Sasha Flavor Savor with water or beer and hang it on one of the racks.

Wood: Use around 2-2½ oz of hickory or oak (1 block of Smokin-It wood is perfect).

Note: After trying various types of woods, I concluded that the wood chunks sold by Smokin-It work the best for our machine. I’m not sure why they work better than chips (such as Western chips, which I've used countless times). Perhaps it takes longer for the solid blocks to burn, and the result is a deeper flavor? I'm not sure, but I think they do work better. 
[The Jack Daniel’s chips are awesome, but I use them to smoke whole chicken, not for beef ribs and other applications].

Temperature and time: 225F, for 8 hours.

[I tested beef ribs on both 250F and 225F, checking them at various hours - 6, 8, 9, 10 - and concluded that for meaty ribs, 8 hours on 225F yields the best result. The meat is still somewhat red, yet very soft, and the exterior is nicely smoked with great flavor.]

When the smoking is completed, place the ribs (which by now should have shrunk significantly), in a sealable container, a pan with a tight lid, or thick aluminum foil.

Pour in the beef broth, cover, and let the ribs steam for 1 hour, softening them further.

Then eat to your heart’s content!

Notes

This recipe is based on a recipe in Steven Raichlen’s superb book, “Project Smoke”, with some modification to fit my palate (he doesn’t advocate preparing it the night before and his rub is too hot for my palate). Besides, he suggests 225-250 for 8-10 h, while I concluded that with the Smokin-It machine, the best is 8 h @ 225F.

The attached photo is from today’s smoking. Usually I buy from my butcher a full bone rib (Paisanos Butcher Shop, one of the best in NY!!). This time they accidentally sent me a rib that was cut in half (short ribs), and I think it came out even better!

You might want to experiment with a full-length rib vs. a rib cut in half. One advantage of buying ribs that have been cut is that you can then choose the meatiest cuts. If you buy an uncut full rib, you might end up with one that is very meaty on one end but on the opposite end is not, resulting in an uneven rib.

As an aside, I’ve gone through several smoking books - including: Aaron Franklin's "Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto”, Jeff Phillips’ “Smoking Meat: The Essential Guide to Real Barbecue”, Myron Mixon’s “Smokin' with Myron Mixon” and some others - and hands down, IMO, “Project Smoke” is the best of them all. I’m going through it slowly, but so far, except for one recipe, they’ve all been fantastic. I particularly appreciate that the recipes tend to be Paleo friendly (unlike Mixon’s recipes that involve way too much sugar etc.), and they let the meat shine rather than drowning them with sauces (as Mixon does....). If you have to coat your meat with a sauce, you either have very poor meat, or you're doing something wrong.

I just found Raichlen’s article about beef ribs. This can help you chose the right one. Honestly, I don’t know which I use. I think I use the ones he calls “beef plate ribs". http://barbecuebible.com/2014/05/23/big-bad-beef-ribs/

Enjoy!

Zvi

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[EFGM]

Thanks, I'm going to try this. Never tried Beef ribs before.

[Nimrod]

Zvi,
Welcome to the forum!
Great looking beef ribs you got there and good info on your methodology 

[Sum1]

Thanks all.
Doug, if you prepare the ribs, please let me know how it came out and if you can, please upload a photo. I'm curious to see if the recipe/method works for others too.
Thanks again.

[SconnieQ]

The only time anyone here uses chips is for short smokes, like fish. Or for cold smokes like bacon, etc. Use chunks for Pork, Beef, Turkey, Chicken etc. You can vary the size of the chunks depending on the length of the smoke.

[EFGM]

Doug, if you prepare the ribs, please let me know how it came out and if you can, please upload a photo. I'm curious to see if the recipe/method works for others too.
Thanks again.

Will do, your rub is very close to what I use on Brisket.

[Sum1]

The only time anyone here uses chips is for short smokes, like fish. Or for cold smokes like bacon, etc. Use chunks for Pork, Beef, Turkey, Chicken etc.

Kari, that's what I've been doing recently. I just had this idea to try one of the chunks that was provided with the machine, and the result was much better. For the first time, the food tasted more like a traditional smoker. So I ordered from Smokin-It several bags of various woods, and been using them for longer smokes with much better outcomes. Using the chips might be the reason that so many recipes that I've tried didn't turn out well, even though on paper (and based on people's reviews) they seemed great. I'd have to go back to them and reevaluate things.

I'm just curious why that would be the case. Is it that chips burn faster due to their size, so the smoke is given off only for a short period, while the chunks burn slower so the smoke lasts longer? If that's the case, would a higher weight of chips/larger quantity be comparable to a smaller chunk?

[SconnieQ]

Is it that chips burn faster due to their size, so the smoke is given off only for a short period, while the chunks burn slower so the smoke lasts longer? If that's the case, would a higher weight of chips/larger quantity be comparable to a smaller chunk?

That's right. Chips will burn faster than chunks. No matter how many chips you use, the chips will burn/smoke for a shorter amount of time. More chips means more smoke in a short amount of time. More chips does not mean longer length of smoke. For example, 2 ounces of chips will produce a different kind of smoke than a 2 ounce chunk. 2 ounces of chips will produce a shorter period of heavier smoke. A 2 ounce chunk will smoke gradually over a longer period of time. Chips also can dry out easily, and tend to combust more easily, which might not give you a good flavor profile.

[DivotMaker]

Fred and Barney would be proud, Zvi!  Nice-lookin' ribs! 

[Sum1]

Kari, thanks for the explanation. That's what I thought..

Tony, haven't forgotten the discussion about the curing salt, I'm still checking it out..

[Pork Belly]

Nice looking ribs. while I admit the Steven Raichlen can seriously cook and I used to enjoy his show, I won't follow him or let him profit from my cash.

I was following him on Facebook and questioned him why he was posting Pray for France type material yet he was silent as American Police officers were killed in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

He refused to offer sympathy for American fallen stating "Well there is lots of violence in the world"

Don't mean to hijack your thread, I thought others might be as annoyed as I was with him.

[DivotMaker]

Nice looking ribs. while I admit the Steven Raichlen can seriously cook and I used to enjoy his show, I won't follow him or let him profit from my cash.

I was following him on Facebook and questioned him why he was posting Pray for France type material yet he was silent as American Police officers were killed in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

He refused to offer sympathy for American fallen stating "Well there is lots of violence in the world"

Don't mean to hijack your thread, I thought others might be as annoyed as I was with him.

+1... but I wasn't going to bring it up.    None of my $ either!