Beef Ribs

[addicted-to-smoke]

Dog was outta bones, so this happened.

Seasoned with Weber Steak and Chop, cardamom and coffee sprinkled over olive oil that was smoothed over the meat first.

My intention was to use a snake but screwed that up, using too few to build and too few to start and re-start. Never got above 180 on the grate. I decided I wasn't in a snake mood, realized I'd be rotating the meat due to its size/length and so, twin baskets on either side made more sense even though I'd have to spend the day replenishing them. So I lost an hour dicking around with all of that until the baskets settled into about 220 with only a few in each.

But at the 2nd or 3rd replenish realized I probably should cook these hotter and went with more, and rocked it at 285 for quite a while. The truth is that the meat saw wild temp swings throughout the day. I'd let it sag, I'd let the new coals go to 300 or 320 knowing that in about 20 minutes they'd be down to where I wanted them anyway, as a way of countering episodes of 170 degree heat. It's not a technique I'd recommend but I made it work.

I'd say they cooked for 5 hours, longer if you count the first hour I wasted cooking then at less than 200. Spritzed with water a time or two at the end. I wrapped them at hour 6 in some leftover kraft paper. At about the 7th hour I pulled them and into a towel in the cooler, where they sat for about 45 minutes.

Meat had a good crust and tender/juicy inside. Dog got the best deal by far, as none of the ribs hardly had any meat however. A long 7-bone pack like this won't feed a family of four; each person needs 2 of them ... the carnivores (wife and daughter) had 2 or 3 apiece.

seasoned



done



planked mashed taters with cheddar, parsley, onion powder, that sort of thing

[1buckie]

What a dinner !!!!!

Sometimes it kinda pays off to start out a little slower with low heat.....stuff like this can tighten up & not end up tender if ya go too fast.....that looks just right to me !!!!!

[austin87]

Killer plate! Love the planked mashed taters...

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Looks good to me.  I'm starting to wonder why 225-250 is the golden rule for smoking.  Most meats can take higher heat (especially fatty pork butts and shoulders) and if you do dip below 225, like to 170 like you experienced, it is still hotter than the meat and therefore still cooking, so no harm no foul.  And unless you have a crowd (you want to impress) watching you smoke something who cares how you got it done as longs as it got done.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Looks good to me.  I'm starting to wonder why 225-250 is the golden rule for smoking.  Most meats can take higher heat (especially fatty pork butts and shoulders) and if you do dip below 225, like to 170 like you experienced, it is still hotter than the meat and therefore still cooking, so no harm no foul.  And unless you have a crowd (you want to impress) watching you smoke something who cares how you got it done as longs as it got done.

My confession re: temperature is that I was nearly done watching, at 20 mins into this episode: http://www.pbs.org/food/features/bbq-with-franklin-season-1-episode-9-pickin-beef/ and 285 pops up on the screen.

I don't feel 220 is a tremendous variance from 285 even though beef isn't as forgiving as pork. What Franklin says is that he cooks beef ribs hotter than brisket because of the bones. At the end he cautions cooking too low or fat won't render well, and too hot releases bone marrow that'll make it gamey.