smoked beef short ribs
I’ll just get this right out of the way. Smoked Beef Short Ribs are probably my favourite BBQ, ever. I’ll never forget the first time I made them though. I was so keen to eat them that I pulled them out too early, and they were mostly tough and sinewy. They aren’t that difficult to get right, but the MOST important thing is to not undercook them!!
There’s a few different kind of beef ribs that you can get depending on how they’re butchered.
- Back Ribs (AKA “Shiners”) – these are IMO the least desirable beef ribs. There’s just not that much meat on them usually. These are often braised and slow cooked.
- Chuck Ribs – these have much more meat than back ribs, but have a smaller bone. I don’t find them quite as juicy when cooked well, so my assumption is they have slightly less intramuscular fat.
- Asado Ribs – rather than the ribs being cut perpendicular to the bone, Asado Ribs are cut thinly across the bone. This cut is common in South America. Each Asado Rib portion will have several thin slices of bone through them.
- Wang Galbi Ribs – native to Korean BBQ, each bone in piece is filleted or flanked and then folded around the bone and then grilled quickly.
- Plate Ribs – now we’re talking!! Big dinosaur boned, juicy smoky and barky Plate Ribs (drool), my favourite style to smoke and what you’ll see on this post..
Beef Shorties = life
To get that almost black and crunchy bark, it’s simply salt and pepper that’s needed but I put a touch of garlic and onion powder on too. I’ll be smoking these on my Akorn Kamado charcoal smoker, and I’ll pair the lumpwood charcoal with pecan and sugar gum chunks for flavour. They are both mild flavoured but with enough chunks in there (the ratio was probably 3 charcoal/1 flavour wood) I should get plenty of smoke on these.
The smell of these smoking is just divine; be prepared for the entire neighbourhood to want to know what’s going on!