A Texas staple, beef ribs are not as popular in the Midwest where pork ribs seem to reign supreme.
To be honest, I don't think I had ever eaten a beef rib until the day I smoked these. I found some inspiration after reading Aaron Franklin's Meat Smoking Manifesto. Franklin Barbecue is probably the most famous BBQ place I can think of. Based in Austin, Franklin's style of BBQ is 100% Texas: mostly beef (brisket and ribs) cooked over a wood fueled flame. Real Texas BBQ also isn't the slathered in sauce, but usually served as a side with other simple accompaniments like pickles and coleslaw that never outshine the star of the show, the unctuous, tender, slow-roasted beef.
READ THIS BOOK WITH CAUTION: After I read just the first two chapters I was so pumped up on the idea of cooking on a real "stick burner" that I found one on LetGo for $50. I'm certain it's not the highest quality offset smoker and it has a fair amount of rust. But it's solid, gently used and you will see a post or two soon about my restoration and modifications based on some of Franklin's recommendations in this book. But, I digress...let's talk BEEF RIBS.
While it's not so difficult to find beef short ribs at a local store, beef back ribs, especially in slab form are not plentiful in the Chicago suburbs. Fortunately, I have a subscription to a local farm share with The Conservation Foundation and every few weeks they invite other organic, farm-to-table partners to sell their goods to the shareholders. As luck would have it, just as I'm reading through Franklin's book I get an email that Huffendick Farms, a family owned farm and butcher shop is taking orders to pick up with next week's share. Huffendick is a small organic farm that humanely raises animals, which they butcher themselves and sell in their marketplace in Plainfield, IL. While beef back ribs were not listed on their price sheet, I reached out to Debra at the farm and she was able to hook me up with two slabs. It wasn't an inexpensive purchase relative to what I buy at the store, but I know the quality it was worth the extra cost. See for yourself:
They are GORGEOUS.
I'm trying as best as I can to cooks these ribs "by the book", however, I'm using a pellet smoker so I'm already skirting authenticity on the true Texas style. I set the Pit Boss to 275° and load the hopper with cherry pellets and let it heat up while I season the ribs.
According to Franklin, he lightly brushes some hot sauce on the ribs and rubs them with a 50/50 salt and course ground pepper mix. I diverted slightly from this.
I used some Clancy's Fancy hot sauce, a Midwest original made in Ann Arbor, Michigan along with Whiskey Bent The Rocks red meat rub. This rub is mostly salt and pepper but with a few extra spices added. It's been a little hard to find with the pandemic lately, but I'm sure it will come back online soon.
I poured some of the hot sauce on a plate and brushed on a light coating, just enough for the rub to stick, and then put a decent, but not too heavy-handed coating of The Rocks on the ribs.
Here's what I WISH I did beforehand: removed the membrane.
I don't know why, but I assumed you didn't have to do this with beef ribs like I do with pork ribs. It wasn't terrible, but it would have been a lot better with the membrane removed. My advice would be: If you're going to spend the time and money on beef ribs, remove the membrane.
Franklin's book said he smokes his ribs for about 8 hours until the internal temperature between the ribs is about 190°.
My smoke only took about 4 hours.
You can see that the meat is pulling away from the bone and the thermometer went into the meat like a hot knife through butter. I'm guessing my ribs cooked up faster due to the big temperature fluctuations that are typical of pellet smokers when the fuel automatically reloads.
Since these were done 4 hours before I expected them to be, I wrapped them up in foil and then in a towel and placed them in my designated "meat cooler" for the next few hours.
The Results
They came out with a great smoke ring, nice bark and melt-in-your-mouth tender!!
I'm looking forward to getting that stick burner up and running so I can try this again with a little more authentic Texas flair.
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