Kamado Joe Beef Shorties (Beef Ribs)
My lovely wife picked up some beef shorties from the local Coles store last Thursday. I have been wanting to give beef ribs a go for a little while as I have not done any low and slow beef on the Kamado Joe. I was a little sceptical as to what the quality would be like, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the look of them. Pretty meaty, with a reasonable amount of fat. For this cook, I didn’t trim too much, just the really hard fat that doesn’t add too much to the end product.
Before the grand unveiling of the ribs I need to prep the Kamado Joe and I had a couple of little helpers that had been pestering for something to do. So with the addition of some oversized latex gloves, I let them clean out the last cook charcoal. I knew that I was going for a reasonable length cook ( ~5hrs to so) so wanted to ensure that I wouldn’t have any issues with maintaining temp. Out with the old an in with the new.
Earlier in the morning, I picked up some new “chunky” lump from a new store I wanted to try. So glad I did, Gidgee lump that is of a really decent size. The price wasn’t too bad either 🙂 But like most trips to the BBQ store, you end up coming home with a few necessary extras…
Prep of the ribs was a basic trim off the hard fat. As I had 2 packs, decided to try out 2 flavour combinations. One was with the newly acquired Lane’s BBQ-Ancho Espresso (hands down my favourite to date). The second pack was a combo of Lane’s BBQ Garlic², STUBBS Steak spice rub, salt and pepper.
The Ancho Espresso is on the left, a nice dark colour. The BBQ Garlic² is on the right.
While prepping the ribs, the Kamado Joe was lit and warming up, aiming for around 130°c (275°F). I’ve learnt to not stress over the temps too much, as long as you are close all is good. At the end of the day, it will be the internal temp, probe tenderness or something else that determines when you are done. In this game, it is certainly not done just because you have cooked for X number of hours and X deg. Low and Slow is not a strict science, it is an art that has a big degree of gut feel, intuition and common sense.
All up this cook went for around 5½ hours, maintaining the 130°c (275°F) target temps. The final call to pull them off was based on the probe tenderness.
In hindsight, I should have let them rest for a while longer, but we were both starving !!! They were tender and juicy, just not as “buttery” feeling as I had pictured.
Lessons from this one – longer cooking time, would probably improve the mouthfeel. For the longer cook, I would probably wrap/boat for a portion ensuring they stay moist. All in all definitely something on the to-do list again and a reasonably cost-effective meal (as long as I don’t go to the BBQ shop first ) hahahaha.
Highly recommend the Lane’s BBQ-Ancho Espresso – super delicious flavour profile!
All washed down with my new favourite Australian Pale Ale…
Thanks for stopping by..
Joe On !!!!!
