Everyone one loves a good rack of ribs but I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been left with disappointment whilst dining out when I get tucked in and there’s more bone than meat!
Beef ribs a.k.a Jacobs Ladder is extremely reasonably priced, packed full of meat cut from the rib and plate primals and a small corner of the square-cut chuck, far meatier than it’s pork counterpart. This is a relatively easy to cook or smoke recipe depending on your tastebuds.
What you need
Beef plate rib
A good helping of meat dust
Your favourite hot sauce
Let’s get going
Now you wanna be preparing the meat a good few hours before you get your grill on to give time for your spices to penetrate into the meat. Overnight is best but at least a couple of hours.
- Start by turning the beef rib over and removing the membrane on the bottom of the meat. I usually do this buy arming myself with a Sharpe knife and then pealing a corner of the membrane back, this should give you just enough purchase to pull it off in one go. Trust me you will want to do this as if its left on, it will become tough and very difficult to chew through. Once the membrane has been removed, trim off any big lumps of fat. I buy Irish beef ribs which doesn’t have a lot of fat running through them but if you do have lumps of fat on top ensure these are removed BUT ideally you want to keep a nice thin layer of fat as this will render down into the meat as it cooks giving it all its flavour.
- Time for your hot sauce. Franks Red Hot is my weapon of choice at the moment, mainly because it is Sugar free. Don’t worry I’m not watching my waist line, the fact that its sugar free means there is no danger of the sugar burning once the meat gets inside the BBQ. Rub the ribs over with a good glug of hot sauce for a nice kick. This will also help the seasoning stick.
- Dust with the seasoning from a height, on all areas of ribs. Don’t forget the bottom. , Doing it from a height prevents any clumps of seasoning on a certain area of the meat. Bosh, prep done.
- I use a weber Summit charcoal, it has a heat diffuser plate which you use if you want to smoke meat. You want your smoker to run at around 285f/140C, this meat can tolerate a higher temp as the bones protect the meat. As you cook the meat will literally raise off the bones. Make sure you have a drip tray underneath them this will catch all the fat that will render down. Save it, it’s liquid gold. I use it to make my roast spuds taste smokey and delicious.
- The meat needs a good six hours before they are done.
- Now I am split when it come to spritzing them with apple juice or like a apple cider vinegar solution so it’s up to you but using one or the other as a spritz every hours will keep the meat moist.
- At around 5 hours in, open check them If the meat has lifted from the bone they are nearly ready. At this point I usually take them off and wrap them in foil. This is know in the BBQ community as the Texas Cheat, but really does help.
- You want to be able to put a knife into the meat without any force, almost through to the other side. When you can do that they are DONE.
Eat, devour, consume Oh and again, keep the bones. They make an amazing smokey stock or if your full on savage a righteous smokey bone broth – keep that skin looking young and fresh.