‘Brisket on a bone’ in a fraction of the time
Don’t have the time or desire to wake up before dawn to tend the flames for a long brisket cook? There’s a replacement beef for that.
The beauty of cooking with beef short ribs is that you prepare them like a traditional Texas brisket, but they can be finished in a fraction of the time and are just as tasty. In fact, they are often labeled “brisket on a bone.”
“They will give you some of the best flavor that you will ever have off the pit,” said Ernest Servantes, a New Braunfelsbased competition-barbecue champion who has been featured on the Food Network. “Beef ribs are more forgiving because they have so much fat and are so much smaller. You really can’t screw them up. But they also feed a family with some practicality.”
Beef ribs used to be considered a bit of a novelty throughout the Texas barbecue scene. Iconic joints such as Louis Mueller Barbecue in Taylor and the original Black’s BBQ in Lockhart featured the large beef ribs on the menu, but they were few and far between and almost impossible to find in the Houston area.
Nowadays, many pitmasters feature the large bones, which are often labeled “Dino-ribs,” on the menu as a weekend special. The ribs often weigh more than a pound individually and can extend to lengths of a foot or more. It’s some Instagram-worthy beef for sure, but it can put a dent in your wallet, often selling for $20 or more per pound.
The ribs do well with a proper, equal-parts-salt-and-pepper rub and take on the same coloring as brisket, with a noticeable smoke ring and jiggle when properly cooked.
“I always say to start with the ribs, then go to the brisket,” Servantes said. “The biggest problem with brisket is people will say, ‘I was going good until about 3 a.m., then I hit the wall.’ With the ribs, you can start them at 6 a.m. and have them ready for lunch.”
Local grocers tend to keep a large supply of beef ribs in the meat case. They are the same ones sold in the barbecue joints but cut into smaller chunks and packaged with four to five pieces in each unit, often sold for just $5 to $6 per pound.
Smoking them is a simple process. Remove the thick silver skin from the bone, season liberally with a salt-and-pepper rub and let the smoker take care of the rest at a constant 225 degrees with your wood of choice. I tend to lean toward hickory, but the oak, pecan and mesquite camps also have legions of advocates.
As the ribs cook, the meat will slowly recede and expose more of the bone. Once they hit an internal temperature of 165 degrees, a nice little trick is to move them into an aluminum pan with a braising liquid, cover and continue to cook for an additional hour or so. When the beef ribs hit a 200-degree internal temperature, the fat totally renders and they become squishy like a sponge.
The end product tastes like perfectly finished burnt ends — the best part of the brisket — and the bone adds a layer of flavor to the beef that will make it a household favorite without the red-eye requirement from the pitmaster.