Dinosaur Beef Ribs

[tinyfish]

Some nice looking rib cooks. 

[Syzygies]

Ok, the two data points here: Hector, 10 hours @ 235 F. Dave, 8 hours @ 285 F. As an experiment I was following Aaron Franklin's protocol for short ribs, a departure from my typical instincts aligned with Hector. He got beautiful sliced ribs, I got pulled beef with bones.

Or, more simply, I overcooked these ribs. The "burnt ends" on each tip veered dry, my guests tore through the bark and the meat between bones. They did not share my disappointment.

To balance the meal, hedge my bets and feed everybody, I also had a large prime Chateaubriand steak, sous vide 90 minutes @ 132 F. When I took the ribs off to rest, I cranked the KK up to 350 F then roasted the steak a generous number of minutes on each side, indirect same setup as the ribs. Had I done nothing, this would have sliced like restaurant prime rib, no sign of fire. It seems to be an unquestioned religious tenet that one should sear a sous vide steak briefly over direct flame at a very high heat. I don't actually enjoy the surface damage that induces; my approach here is a third way. The meat looked done with surface color and gentle sear marks from the grate, tasted of fire, and sliced up to a plate of medium rare goodness counterbalancing the ribs. I'll do this again and take pictures, highly recommended.

For the record, 7 lbs of generously cut beef back ribs, and 2 lbs of Chateaubriand steak, served six adults with hardly any leftovers. This was part of a full meal with appetizers, sides, desserts and too much wine.

I reflected later on my mistakes and the zen of barbecue. With a busy day and a "fly by wire" BBQ Guru setup, I did not handle the meat very much, and I should have. It then took me by surprise how completely the ribs fell apart.

The meat can take frequent prodding, and the KK is stable enough to easily recover. Cooking indoors, I taste and prod everything at all stages. I can tell when fresh pasta is done without tasting it, by the exact tension as I stir the cooking water. The best pit masters (a level to which I have no right to aspire if I cannot learn this lesson) experience meat the same way. This is not a last-minute check for doneness, this is a continual opening of a door of perception. Imagine that one is serving guests that day, but also training for a future game where one will be presented with many pieces of partially barbecued meat, and asked to assess each piece with no context of cooking history. If one can learn to see this, one realizes that one was cooking blind before.

I'd liken this to playing darts. The difference between math and games is that in math one gets to redesign the rules. One could imagine that a gift for barbecue is a knack for knowing cooking times looking at each piece of meat, like being able to throw a dart from a distance and hit the bulls eye. However, if one can redesign the game, one does far better to walk up to the target and push in the dart without a throw. This is continually handling and observing the meat as one cooks.

Of course, one does need to play conventional darts, because we need to pick start times and temps for a rough target serving time. And the KK is remarkably stable, it steers like a freighter ship. Agile adjustments in temperature aren't really an option, at least downward. Recall how one finds camp along a river, bushwhacking in the woods: One deliberately aims to miss one way, so one knows which way to turn reaching the river. Here, one should start aiming to overshoot the target serving time, with temps like Hector, and know that there is potential goodness in Aaron Franklin higher temps. Observing the cook all day, decide exactly how to climb the temp to stick the landing at meal time.

I'll try again, and that's my game plan.

Edited May 31, 2016 by Syzygies

[CeramicChef]

@Syzygies - too much wine?  I've never had that happen in my life!

I understand that you may have been a bit disappointed with your cook, but Friend, from the cheap seats here in OKC, I'm not seeing much wrong.  In fact, next time you screw up a cook like this, box it up and ship it too me, COD!  I'll happily eat every last morsel!

Kudos on a fine meal that your guests loved, and that's the important thing, right?  Be well.  Enjoy your summer break.

[MacKenzie]

It sure looks good from here.:)