Recipe Source: Perry Lang, Adam. Serious Barbeque. Hyperion, New York, 2009 pp. 186-187
Smoke and Spice, by Bill and Cheryl Jamison, is one of my favorite books on barbeque. It's so good, in fact, that my mother-in-law gets me a copy every Christmas. When I went to the bookstore to return this year's copy, I decided to pick up another BBQ cookbook with the proceeds. There were a couple I had in mind, but the store didn't have any of them in stock, so I started looking through the ones they had that I didn't already own. Serious Barbeque, by Adam Perry Lang, caught my eye. His recipes involved layering flavors in some interesting ways, all his recipes were designed to be made in a smoker rather than assuming readers would be trying to make them on a gas grill, and many of the recipes in the book weren't just rehashed versions of standard recipes I already had 50 times in other books. It also helped that there is a picture of him cooking on a Big Green Egg on page 3.
There were a lot of recipes I wanted to try in this book, but I decided to start with the 'Short Ribs with Fleur De Sel'. I've been meaning to try some short ribs for a while, the recipe looked tasty, and my butcher had some in stock. Unfortunately, there are two short rib recipes in this book, one of which called for boneless, and one with bone-in. I couldn't remember which was which while I was at the store, and bought the boneless. This recipe actually wanted the bone-in, but I didn't have the ingredients on hand to make the boneless recipe in the book, so I decided to just use the boneless ones in this recipe. I made a couple of other changes as well. First, I used a little less than 3 pounds of the boneless short ribs and halved all the rest of the quantities, as I was just making this for the two of us and the recipe called for about 10 pounds of bone-in ribs. I didn't have any garlic salt so I substituted garlic powder, and we didn't have actual Fleur de Sel, but we had some fancy sea salt of some sort so I substituted that. I also didn't see the point in adding canola oil over the seasoning, so I didn't.
Since the original recipe called for two 5-ish pound racks of ribs I didn't change the overall cooking time, since the cooking time for one or multiple chunks would be about the same, and the bone-in would cook faster than the boneless. The boneless short ribs were actually in several pieces in the package, so I just pressed them up next to each other in the smoker so they would cook as one larger piece and not dry out.
Despite having used the wrong cut of meat, I was pretty happy with how this came out. The meat was extremely tender, and the layering of flavors from the various seasoning steps really worked well, though it was a bit sweet. I was a bit leery of pre-slicing the meat before serving, but this allowed for the final layer of flavors from the cutting board to cover the meat, and made for a nice presentation. Next time we have company for dinner, I want to try this with the correct cut (bone-in) of short ribs and see how that compares.
Smoked Beef Short Ribs (Serves 2-3. Approx. Cost Per Serving Not Available)
Equipment Required
- Big Green Egg or other smoker
5 lbs bone-in beef short ribs, or 3 lbs boneless
Mustard Moisturizer
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Seasoning Paste
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Wrapping Mixture
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tablespoons beef base in paste form (such as Better Than Bullion)
1 tablespoon water
1/2 tablespoon butter, melted
Finishing Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh parsley
Sea Salt (recipe calls for Fleur de Sel)
Freshly ground black pepper
- At least 8 hours before you are ready to eat, set up your smoker for indirect cooking at 250 degrees. In my large Big Green Egg, I used my plate setter legs up with a drip pan inside. I added hickory wood chunks to the fire for smoke flavor.
- Moisten all sides of the meat with the Mustard Moisturizer.
- Sprinkle all sides of the meat with about 1/2 of the Seasoning Blend.
- Once your temperature is stable, place the meat in the smoker, bone side down if using bone-in ribs, and cook for about 5 hours.
- Lay down a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, turn up the edges, and pour on the wrapping mixture. Add the ribs, meat side down if using bone-in ribs, and crimp to seal. Wrap with another sheet of foil, and return to the smoker, meat side down. Cook for one hour.
- Remove the meat from the smoker, and raise the temperature to 275 degrees. Let the meat rest for 45 minutes.
- Remove the ribs from the foil over a dish to catch the cooking liquid. Dust all sides of the meat with the remaining Seasoning Blend, and return to the smoker, meat side up, for 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, strain the solids out of the reserved cooking liquid over a measuring cup. Allow the fat to rise to the top, pour off, and discard.
- Remove the meat from the smoker, and allow to rest in foil for 15-30 minutes.
- Drizzle your cutting board with the olive oil, and add the reserved cooking liquid, along with the parsley, sea salt, and pepper. Unwrap your ribs, place over the mixture, and slice perpendicular to the bone into 1/4 inch thick slices. Dredge the slices in the mixture, and sprinkle with additional sea salt and pepper to taste.