Eat Drink Man Weblog

The first step was research. I typed “Beef Ribs” into Google, and started reading. It turns out that hard-core beef-rib-enthusiasts smoke their ribs. I don’t own a smoker. So I turned to braising.

Smoking delivers a long, low-temperature cooking process. Low and slow cooking allows the connective tissues in the meat to dissolve, producing gelatin, turning a tough piece of meat into a tender one. In general, bone-in cuts have more connective tissue. So ribs have a lot to gain from low, slow cooking. And the easiest way to get low and slow in the home kitchen is braising.

Braising is just roasting with a small amount of liquid. Liquid is denser than air, making it a more efficient medium for thermodynamic transfer. And since most cooking liquids are mostly water, they turn to steam at 212 degrees. That means the liquid next to the meat stays at a low temperature. The result is a slow, steady heat transfer – ideal for producing gelatin.

Now that I had a plan, it was time to thaw the ribs. I put them in a sink filled with cold water. Again, water, being denser than air, moves heat around more efficiently than the ambient atmosphere. So meat in a bath will warm up far faster than meat on the counter. I had 9.35 pounds of meat, and it was good to go in just about two hours.

Thaw your ribs in the sink

I set my oven to 225, the temperature called for by the smoker recipes. Home ovens aren’t at their best at low temperatures. An oven thermometer will help you make sure your ribs are in the right ballpark.

It was time to brown the ribs. Braising doesn’t deliver the high temperatures required to brown meat. So in order to get those tasty, caramelized flavors into the final dish, I needed to sear the outside of the ribs.

I cut the ribs into small enough racks to fit in my cast iron skillet, and got my pan hot enough to deliver a quick burst of heat.

Cut your ribs into pan-sized pieces.

Unfortunately the curved shape of the ribs makes them difficult to brown. I just winged it. I didn’t get a terribly even sear. But the final dish didn’t seem to suffer.

Getting a sear on the ribs proved difficult due to their large size and curved shape. Next time I'll try pinning the ribs to the pan with weights.I put the browned ribs into my biggest baking pan. Next I needed a braising liquid. I grabbed honey-mustard-barbeque-sauce, steak sauce, chipotle Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and liquid smoke. I was just improvising with what I had on hand; any barbeque sauce would work. I also made three cups of beef bullion and cut up the spare onion-half I had in the fridge.Put your ribs in a pan and add a flavorful liquid of your choice.

In the end, the liquid came up about halfway up the ribs. I covered the pan with aluminum foil, and I left them to braise for five hours.

Cover and cook at a low heat for up to six hours.

When the ribs came out they were falling off the bone. Good news: they were super tender. Bad news: had I checked on them more vigilantly, I might have pulled them out of the oven while the meat was still attached. Full beef ribs cut an impressive figure on the plate. If my meat still clung firmly to the ribs, I would’ve finished them on the grill and then served two-to-three ribs per person.

Falling-off-the-bone tender.

I removed the meat from the bones, and tossed the resulting beef with barbeque sauce to coat. A dash of liquid smoke simulated the grilling I had intended. The end result: a mess of pulled delicious, tender pulled-beef.

If your ribs are too tender to serve on the bone, go for pulled-beef.

Serve with corn on the cob and your favorite cole slaw recipe, and you have a perfect summertime meal.