April 18, 2011 | Meat & Poultry, Technique
I love when Foodbuzz gives us the opportunity to create a dish for one of their product sponsors, and when I found out that Colorado’s own New Belgium beer was providing a stipend to create a recipe using one of their beers, I was all over it!
I knew I wanted to use something a little more unique than the popular Fat Tire, so selected their 1554 black ale for my recipe, figuring it would give great depth of flavor to the ribs.
I recently got a surplus of grass fed beef short ribs from a Colorado rancher, so selected them to use. (Want to try grass fed beef? Click on the link on the right sidebar for Sun Prairie Natural Beef – my readers even get a 5% discount!) I like to cook the ribs, with just salt and pepper, at about 450 degrees for 20 minutes to really sear the outside of them.
Then into a Dutch oven they go with onion, carrot, the beer and beef stock. Make sure they are fully submerged by at least an inch, as the long cooking time for this type of braise will evaporate much of the liquid.
After 3 to 4 hours, they were tender enough for the bones to fall off, but not nearly tender enough to break down the connective tissue.
So I put the ribs into a smaller casserole dish, strained out the solids and returned the liquid to the ribs along with some chopped parsley.
In fact, they had been cooking so long there wasn’t much liquid left, so I added another bottle of beer. And there’s the lesson – if you want to know when short ribs are done, they are done when they are done. You can’t predict whether that will be 2 hours or 6, so plan ahead or cook the day before.
The last thing you want to do with short ribs is try to serve them too soon. You’ll be fighting your way through fat and gristle, and just won’t enjoy them. But if you let them go low and slow, they’ll eventually end up tender like this. You can either serve them with the jus as is, or thicken it up like a gravy. And try serving some Crispy Spaetzle alongside them – it’s a perfect side dish for this meal.
- 4 pounds beef short ribs
- salt and pepper
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 6 cloves of garlic, halved
- 3-4 bottles 1554 Black Ale (New Belgium)
- 2 cans beef stock
- Season ribs with salt and pepper and roast in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove ribs and place in a large Dutch oven along with the remaining ingredients; cover and place in a 300 degree oven.
- Cook until connective tissue has dissolved and meat falls from the bones, about 4 hours, but perhaps longer.
- Remove ribs to a platter and strain out other solids, reserving jus to serve with ribs.
As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a stipend to create this recipe and post.
I love short ribs but considering the required cooking time…maybe they should be called Long Ribs?
Sound wonderful and love the idea of using a local beer; I’ll have to try these.
Can this be modified for a pressure cooker?