There are two ways to make BBQ Beef Short Ribs, Chicago Style (left) and Texas Style (right).

Barbecue Beef Short Ribs

People make pilgrimages from all over the world to the tiny dusty town Taylor, TX, home to 15,000 people, the National Rattlesnake Sacking Championship, and a classic old American pit stop, Louis Mueller's Barbeque.

More than a few wayfarers come to Taylor just to worship the beef short ribs at Mueller's. The meat on these 6" long "Dino Ribs" is at least 1" thick with each bone weighing anywhere from 1/3 to 1.5 pounds! They are smoky, tender, juicy, cooked thoroughly, and sold by the pound.

There are plenty of fancy French influenced restaurants in this world who made their reputation on short ribs braised in flavorful liquid for hours, and every Korean restaurant serves Kalbi, marinated slivers of short ribs, but smoke roasted low and slow is pretty much a Texas exclusive. But with a decent cooker (even a Weber Kettle will do), and a good meat thermometer, you can serve tender, juicy, flavorful, shorties better than most pit stops in Texas.

But first, read my article, The Zen of beef ribs, and my Meat temperature guide. Then read the recipe below and start cooking.

The problem with beef ribs

When buying beef ribs, stay away from back ribs. They rarely have enough meat to be worth the effort. Buy short ribs. You can buy slabs with more than one bone connected, or individual bones, or even riblets, 2-3" long. Some grocers will have one or the other or even all of them.

Beef short ribs have little in common with pork ribs. They have much more flavor, meat, fat, connective tissue, and they can be much tougher. But if cooked properly, they don't have to be tougher.

What short ribs do have in common with pork ribs, is that they are best cooked at low temps so the connective tissue and fat can melt, and the protein doesn't knot up and get even tougher. One nice feature of short ribs is that they have a built in heat shield, a thick bone.

But short ribs have a lot of fat and connective tissue. Undercooked fat is waxy. But when it melts at about 130-140F, much of it drips off and what remains lubricates the muscle fibers, and carries flavor to the taste buds. Connective tissue (collagen), when undercooked is tough and sinewy, but when it melts at about 160-170F, it forms a succulent gelatinousness that also, pardon the pun, beefs up the flavors and rounds out the texture.

Texas style

Texas barbecue is all about smoke roasting and the goal is to get the meat to the temp where both fat and collagen have melted. They treat the meat just like pork ribs, pork shoulder, and beef brisket, by taking it up past well done, as high as 190F. The sweet spot seems to be 180-190F.

At that temp much of the fat renders off, the melted collagens replace the water as moisturizer, and the seductive flavors of smoke and spice rub carry the tune.

Texas barbecue restaurants have to balance quality with the realities of a production environment. Mueller's and many of the best are still using old-fashioned brick pits burning post oak. They have to cook everything from pork ribs to sausage to brisket, and if there's a line waiting to be served. To handle commercial production demands Mueller's cooks at 275-300F for 1.5-2.5 hours in racks of four ribs.

To make killer style Texas style beef ribs at home, I recommend you cook a bit lower and slower to keep shrinkage down, at 225F, and bring the meat up to about 180F internal, a process that can take up to five hours depending on the thickness of the meat.

Chicago style

I call this alternative method Chicago style because that's where I live, and in Chicago beef is never cooked well done.

Here's the problem I struggled with in developing this technique. Beef is most flavorful, tender, and juicy when cooked rare to medium rare, in the 125-140F range. Now that's just not the guy on the bar stool next to you starting an argument. It's a fact measured by food scientists with instruments that can test for moisture content and resistance and other stuff that beef eaters can tell with just one bite.

At about 160F beef is well done, starts to dry out, and turns gray. But there is a sweet spot at about 150-155F where short ribs are still tender and juicy and pink. Beyond this they begin to lose moisture and toughen and they don't get back to soft for an hour or two and another 20F when the collagen has dissolved.

Chicago style ribs are done in 1-2 hours. The only downside is that not much fat renders out, so your guests will have to trim it as they eat. But they won't complain.

BBQ Beef Short Rib Recipe

Here's how to make big, rich, juicy succulent BBQ Beef Short Ribs both ways.

1) Begin by removing the fat and the very tough silverskin from the top of the meat. All of it. No need to remove the membrane from the exposed side of the bones as you do with pork ribs. Then cut slabs into individual bones if they did not come cut up. Inevitably some bones in a package have little meat and lotta fat. Trim them anyhow and cook them. There are several nice bites of meat on the sides of the bone, and they will finish in about an hour and you can munch on them while you wait for the thicker slabs to cook through.

2) Lightly coat the meat with vegetable oil so the oil soluble spices in the rub will dissolve and penetrate a bit. Flavor the meat with a rub that contains salt but very little sugar. Try my Big Bad Beef Rub. Lawry's Seasoned Salt is good too. Meathead's Memphis Dust is too sweet. Do the tops and sides, and coat them generously. If you can, let the rub sit on the meat in the refrigerator for an hour or three or even overnight.

3) If you wish, you can tenderize the meat with Jaccard. The narrow blades sever long tough strands and do a pretty good job.

4) Setup your cooker for indirect cooking and preheat to 225F, hot enough to kill bacteria but not too high to evaporate all the moisture.

5) Put the meat on, bone side down, and add the wood. Oak is traditional in Texas and it makes sense because it is mild, but other woods work fine. I like cherry. Beef ribs seem to absorb smoke more quickly than other cuts, so remember, as always, go easy on the wood on your first cook. Too much smoke will ruin the meal. Add no more than 2-4 ounces on a tight cooker, double that if it leaks a lot. Put the lid on.

You will not need to add more wood and you will not need to turn the meat over. Cook bone down all the way. Keep the lid on and resist peeking until about 3/4 of the way through the cook based on the guide below. The exact length of the cook depends on variables such as the composition of the meat (each steer is different), and if you chose Texas style or the Chicago style.

• 1" thick meat should hit 150F (Chicago style) in about 1 hour and 180F (Texas style) in about 3 hours.
• 1.5" thick meat should hit 150F in about 1.5 hours and 180F in about 3.5 hours.
• 2" thick meat should hit 150F in about 2 hours and 180F in about 4 hours.

Skip the sauce. A lot of folks like barbecue sauce on everything they grill, but sweet tomato based sauce just clashes with smoky beef. Save it for pork. I serve my beef ribs nekked. If you must use a sauce, try what they use in Texas, a thin beef stock based sauce, like my Texas Barbecue Mop-Sauce.

6) When the meat is done, take it out of the cooker and let it rest about 10 minutes so the pressure inside will go down and the moisture will not run out when you cut it. Serve with Grannie's Texas Beans and your favorite coleslaw.

This page was revised 4/6/2009

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