Bring me your short rib wisdom!
May 21, 2011 11:19 PM   Subscribe

What do I do with beef short ribs?

I bought beef short ribs and would like to cook them. What do I do? What should I cook with them? I have at my disposal wine, porter, a charcoal grill, a can of tomatoes, purple cabbage (coleslow?) and asparagus.

I don't have a slow cooker, but do have a dutch oven but worry about cooking it in cast iron.

I think I want to end up with something sort of sticky and falling apart.

I seek your wisdom!
posted by A Terrible Llama to Food & Drink (11 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Dutch oven is the prototype slow cooker. On the grill you just keep the fire going and the pot will cook like a roaster. Dust a little salt, pepper and flour on the ribs and brown them in a bit of oil in the slow cooker. When they are brown, take them out temporarily, pour some wine and the juice from the can of tomatoes into the cooker, scrape and stir until the mixture is blended and simmering, put the ribs back in, add the tomatoes and cover; put it on low heat to simmer for an hour to an hour and a half.

Be sparing with the salt at the beginning, although you need some on the meat to begin with, but taste the gravy for seasoning near the end of the cooking time and adjust then. You can make slaw with the cabbage or add the cabbage to the pot to slow cook along with the meat and tomatoes. I like ribs with cabbage. This is just pot roast so you can use herbs, garlic, onion, etc., to season it as you like.

Steam the asparagus separately and dress with a little lemon and butter, or just put the stalks on top of everything in the pot for the last ten or fifteen minutes. You can add wine, broth or water if it gets too dry during the cooking time. The two necessary things are keep it moist and cook it covered for a long time.
posted by Anitanola at 12:19 AM on May 22, 2011


Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!

(I know you said you have some stuff, but I'm hoping you have staples like sauce and juice, too).

Put ribs in Dutch oven (or a roasting tray, casserole, whatever). Pour over a 15-20oz bottle of smoky bbq sauce cut with a half cup of citrusy juice. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 320oF for 2 hours for bitey toothy, 3 hours for super tender, 4 hours for falling off the bone. Take the foil off for the last 15 mins or so and brush with the sauce.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:48 AM on May 22, 2011


I stand by this amazing recipe, which calls for a slow-cooker and a whole slew load of condiments. However, I'm sure it can be easily adapted for other cooking methods. I did have to go out and buy a few odd things (e.g. chili sauce) the first time I made it, but that wasn't a problem, since I ended up making the same dish over and over again about seven times last winter!
posted by whitewall at 2:33 AM on May 22, 2011


I like to braise them simply. Preheat your oven (assuming you have one) to 325F or so. Film the bottom of the dutch oven with oil and set it on med-high heat on the stovetop. Salt and pepper the ribs, then brown them on all sides in the dutch oven. When brown, add enough flavorful liquid (wine, stock) to not quite cover the ribs, and stick the whole thing in the oven, uncovered. Cook for a couple of hours, until tender. Add (hot) liquid as needed to keep the meat mostly submerged.

Near the end of that process, blanch some vegetables. When the ribs are done, set the meat aside, skim fat from the liquid in the pot and reduce the remaining liquid into a sauce. Serve in wide bowls, with sauce poured over meat and veggies.
posted by jon1270 at 4:16 AM on May 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Braise the short ribs in the dutch oven for a long time over low heat and the meat will be fork tender and falling off of the bone. It will also be crazy delicious.
posted by mmascolino at 10:53 AM on May 22, 2011


How are the short ribs cut? Are they on the bone? Are they sliced at all?
posted by thebestsophist at 12:07 PM on May 22, 2011


If you want something sticky and falling apart, you should cook it on low temperature (100-110°C) for 2-3-4 hours. "Braising" is the term you are looking for.
posted by leigh1 at 12:14 PM on May 22, 2011


There's a restaurant here in Austin that makes "Chicken Fried Beef Ribs". Info (but not recipe) here: http://wayoutwestaustin.com/?p=2656

If you're looking for something different, this was pretty fantastic, and the meat was falling-off-the-bone tender.
posted by Mad_Carew at 1:08 PM on May 22, 2011


Eat them!
posted by Renoroc at 5:29 PM on May 22, 2011


Response by poster: Well, that turned out ridiculously good. I can't mark best answers because I think I took a little from everyone, then hit Google for good measure, but if anyone is interested here's what I wound up with (they were about three inches long each, four of them).

I covered them with flour then browned them in bacon fat, removed them from the fat and sauteed onions and carrots until just turning brown then added the meat and vegetables with a rosemary spring and about a cup of red wine and half a cup of beef broth to a risotto pan and put them in the oven, covered, at 300 for about four hours.

After four hours, I took the meat out of the pan, and put the broth/red wine mixture on the stove to reduce. The ribs went in another pan with a fifty/fifty mix of maple syrup and soy sauce to glaze, and then under the broiler once the broth/red wine mixture had reduced as much as it could reduce (it was almost a jam).

And then served the braising liquid on the side, and a pint of Sierra Nevada.

So. good.

Thanks everyone.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:41 PM on May 22, 2011


If you ever get them again, give kalbi a shot! It's one of my favorite dishes of all time.
posted by ignignokt at 11:47 AM on May 24, 2011


« Older Making a buck on the road   |   Meeting a celebrity? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.