Korean Grilled Short Ribs
I've never purposely bought beef short ribs. Like, in my whole life.
But when we buy a quarter of a cow, we sometimes get cuts of beef that are wholly unfamiliar to me. Short ribs are one of those cuts.
A couple of you said that they're pretty expensive to buy, so my apologies for posting this recipe on a blog about frugality. While they might not be a very frugal purchase, for those of us who buy portions of a cow, it IS frugal to use up all the beef we bring home.
So, that's why I'm posting it.
Having no idea how to prepare these bad boys, I browsed through my Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
and came across a recipe for Korean Grilled Ribs.
This recipe calls for taking the meat and excess fat off of the rib bones, which is (not gonna lie) kind of a laborious process. The recipe then calls for cutting the boneless meat into slices and then pounding them to an even thickness.
This probably works great if your ribs are the predictable, uniform sort they sell at the store, but the ribs I had were very not uniform.
So, I deboned them as best I could and sliced and pounded them. But as you'll see in a later photo, my finished meat wasn't exactly neat and tidy.
Anyway, after you debone the meat, you make a marinade by blending up a pear with a number of other ingredients. This is a great use for a pear that's gone a bit mushy, by the way.
The meat needs to be marinated at least 4 hours.
Heat the grill until it's very hot (15 minutes or so), and then grill the meat until it's browned on both sides, turning it often.
All six of us thought these were really good...I think the marinade was key. The pear gave the meat a nice subtle sweetness, and I'd definitely consider using the marinade for other cuts of meat.
I still have more short ribs, and I think I'm going to try a slow-cooker recipe next. And then I think I will have successfully used up all the rib packages in my freezer. Sweet.
Printable Korean Grilled Ribs (no picture)
Printable Korean Grilled Ribs (picture)
Korean Grilled Short Ribs
1 medium pear (ripe), peeled, halved, cored, and roughly chopped
6 medium cloves garlic, peeled
4 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
½ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
6 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 scallions, green and white parts sliced thin
5 pounds bone-in English-style short ribs, meat removed from bone, trimmed of excess fat, sliced widthwise at angle into ½- to ¾-inch-thick pieces and pounded ¼ inch thick
Vegetable oil for grill rack
Combine pear, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and vinegar in a food processor and process until smooth. Stir in the scallions.
Pour a third of the marinade into a pan or bowl, add the meat, and top with the rest of the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Heat grill on high for 15 minutes. Place ribs on grill, and cook, flipping frequently, until both sides are well-browned.
____________________________
Today's 365 post: I didn't take any pictures at all yesterday.
Joshua's 365 post: The club is now open!
You may want to try this recipe. We love their recipes & cookbook.
http://beta.primal-palate.com/recipe/braised-short-ribs/
Anne
Hi, Kristen! The short ribs look yummy and I am definitely looking forward to trying them. But, I also wanted to share something that may be helpful to your family in the future. We also purchase a portion of beef yearly. The locker that processes our meat lets us tell them how to cut it up and perhaps yours will also. There are cuts that just aren't our favorites--therefore, we tell them how to cut it up. There are numerous cuts you can select from for each section. So, maybe this may be something that will let you get meat the ways you normally use the most. Meant this to be helpful and not bossy! Hope you took it that way. But it you hadn't got the short ribs....we all wouldn't be blessed with this luscious looking recipe:)!
Agreed! We order beef and port annually, and always get a call from our farmer before the animal goes to the butcher so we can provide our cutting instructions. We don't eat ribs often, and they frequently languish in the freezer until we are almost out of meat. We never waste them, but it's more of a challenge for us to find a recipe and prepare them well. This time, I asked to have the meat from the ribs included with the ground meat. I can never have too much ground beef or pork!
This recipe looks delish though! I'm definitely doing to try that marinade on another cut of meat. 🙂
That's a good idea-I didn't know they could do that with the rib meat!
The last two times we've gotten beef, it's already been butchered by the time we heard about it, but if I get a chance to ask ahead of time, I'll keep this in mind.
I don't feel beef short ribs are that expensive. My husband and I sell all natural grass fed beef at a local farmers market and they are only $4lb. Thanks so much for the recipe I'm always looking for different things to do with the ribs. The best recipe so far is to smoke them. AMAZING! That is of course if you have a smoker. 🙂
I'll bet that if you skipped the laborious de-boning step, browned the meat in a skillet, tossed it in a slow cooker with that wonderful marinade, it would be moist, delicious, and just fall off the bone. And this is coming from a 30-year vegetarian, but I do feed a lot of meat to my carnivorous husband and sons! They always ask me how I make meat taste so good, when I never eat it. I go by smell...and I can tell that marinade would smell wonderful.
Perfect timing! We just received our first 1/4 cow delivery two days ago and I realized that I was going to have to be searching some recipes to make sure I could handle some of the less familiar ones properly. Looks delicious! Yay!
That does sound quite tasty. I think you're right that the marinade is key. You can transform just about any cut of meat with a good marinade. I buy beef roasts when on sale (not always a good cut for steaks), then cut them into steaks myself, and marinate. They are as flavorful and tender as more expensive steaks, and I think it's due to the marinating.
We love the flavor of toasted sesame oil. I often find that the flavor gets lost in the cooking, so will sprinkle extra on at serving time.
I get frustrated with CI for all the recipes that call for boneless short ribs. I have never - not once - seen this cut and sometimes get ribbed (sorry!) for even asking. "You know why there's called short RIBS, right?" So here's a recipe that takes less labor, or a lot less if you skip the degreasing step.
Wine Braised Short Ribs (for 4)
Based on Bon Appetit Jan 2000; by Renoir chef Alex Stratta, who serves this dish over mashed potatoes flavored with horseradish.
The original recipe also calls for far too much liquid. The first time I simmered down the stock and wine; in the future use less. I also had the time to cool completely, debone and chop the meat (getting rid of gristle and fat); and strain the sauce. This is more work for the cook but greatly decreases the mess at the table.
No matter how fancy you do or don't get with straining and such, make this 2 days ahead. It's gotta sit to taste its best. Letting it sit also makes it easier to defat.
The punch line? I consider this a terrific recipe for gravy. The sauce tasted wonderful but I don't like short ribs. I had gravy over very rich mashed potatoes and my friends happily had the beef.
4 lbs. beef short ribs
1 c. carrots, chopped
1 c. onion, chopped
1 c. celery, chopped
8 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 c. honey
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1 c. very condensed chicken stock
(or 1c. regular stock for a less intense sauce)
3-4 c. dry red wine
1/2 T. thyme
1 bay leaf
2 T. butter, room temp.
3 T. flour
Brown ribs, remove.
Saute veggies and garlic till soft.
Add honey and vinegar, simmer till almost gone.
Add ribs, stock, wine and spices.
Bake at 350F till meat tender, 2-3 hrs.
Remove ribs, let cool.
Defat, strain.
With your fingers, thoroughly mush together the butter and flour (you've just made burre manie, or manipulated butter), add to sauce, heat gently and stir till thickened
Add back ribs.
Heat, serve.
I know, right? Ribs are kinda supposed to have bones in them!
I'm wondering if you used the bones for making beef stock after you cut the meat off? I've never had short ribs and am trying to picture if there were any little shreds of meat still left on the bones.
I think that would have worked, but I marinated them instead and then tried grilling them. But the bits of meat that clung to the bones weren't at all tender or tasty, so broth would have been a better idea.
Thanks for this recipe. We never found a great way to use the short ribs that came with our 1/4 cow, so last time I asked the farmer to just integrate it into more ground beef. This year, I'll go ahead and get the ribs and try this recipe; I kept trying to make them like pork ribs, and they just didn't make the transition for some reason.
I have made these and they are yummy! I like to serve them on a bed of rice noodles with similiar accompaniments to a Vietnamese salad( cuke, lettuce, diakon, carrots, cilantro , fish sauce and chili sauce!)
Short ribs are some of my VERY favourites and I love Korean food. Can't wait to try this out. I've got a quick recipe for coffee rubbed ones in case you want to give them a try in the slowcooker and want a 'never fail'.
Where did you purchase the bulk beef from? This is something my family is interested in (we are located in Southwest VA) but I have no idea where to start!
Check Local Harvest (http://www.localharvest.org/) maybe? Also, are there any farmer's markets near you? You can often find out who sells local beef by visiting there.
I've had luck getting lamb and pork this way too.
Hey, one of the best parts of short ribs is gnawing the meat off the bones!
Save yourself the time and effort next time!
Beef and Barley Soup
Cut the ribs into the individual pieces. Coat on both sides with salt, pepper and granulated garlic.
Put just a little olive oil in the bottom of stock pot. Sear the pieces of meat in the pot.
Take the meat out of the pot.
Add: diced onion, chopped carrot, chopped celery, chopped garlic, about a cup of pearl barley, sliced mushroom and reconstituted dried ones if you like and a couple of bay leaves. Add a couple of hearty shakes of Worcestershire sauce.
Bring to a boil and simmer for half an hour. Put the meat back in and simmer for another hour or so making sure that there is enough liquid in the pot.
Cool the soup. Fish out the bay leaves and the ribs. Discard the bay leaves. By this time the meat will fall off the bones so you can shred it and add it to the soup.
MUCH better the next day....but you will probably need to add water and maybe some seasoning to it.
Also Google "flanken" which is the Yiddish word for these ribs. They are very traditional in Jewish cooking back from when this was a cheap cut of meat.
Glenda, that sounds so good right now. You're making me hungry! I love beef and barley soup.
That recipe does sound yummy!
We do a half cow over here, and things like short ribs end up being dealt with last. Any cut that I don't feel like messing with (short ribs, spare ribs, and soup bones) get oven roasted, then boiled in the crock pot for a day or two. I use the meat for beef hash and then pressure can the broth. 🙂 (Oh, and freeze the bones for the dog.)
Thanks for the great looking recipe! We too purchase a quarter of a cow, and my few attempts at cooking the short ribs have been unsuccessful. We will definitely be trying this recipe! Thanks!
I just made this marinade today for tri tip and it smells heavenly!
WOW, you have cooked Korean food! I am so glad it turned out great. Korean food seems to be little bit strange to ppl who don't have any Korean around. It took so long for my husband to get used to it. (In case you didn't know, I am Korean. =D)
You mentioned about using Pear marinading meat, I wanted to say more of the way Koreans do. We(Koreans) uses Pear or Kiwi for marinading meat instead of adding more sugar. It not only give sweetness but also tenderness. Kiwi could be used for quick marinading. You aren't supposed to marinade too long, otherwise it will make the meat too soft to cook. (The Actinidin in Kiwi will dissolve the collagen proteins in gelatin very quickly.) If you don't have neither(Pear or Kiwi), you also can use an apple with more sugar for longer period.'
I can send one of my recipe using short ribs in crock pot to your email, if you want. It doesn't require deboning, though my husband says he prefers no bone. He doesn't like the meat wrapped around the bone, which is kinda chewy and is a bit strange to eat to him. I got to find it first though..
Btw, I have been subscribing your blog for so long, never said anything before. BUT! Since I ma here talking... Thanks for sharing your ideas! I am a big fan of you!!!
Grill short ribs, turning once, to desired doneness, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.
I am going to as a couple off friends if they would like to get together and purchase at least 1/2 a cow and plot it up. Most of us are small familys. It's 2 of us in our household. My son and me. So an entire cow, even half would be a bit much. But honestly, what they charge for good cuts of beef, I might as well buy a cow...or at least raise one to butcher...don't think our apartment owners wouldn't like that. But growing up and spending summers with my dad's family in South Carolina, cooking good down home southern cooking, I learned from the best. But beef short ribs are expensive and ox tails are too. I also used to buy little packs of lamb shoulder for really cheap. And when some of those chefs that went to culinary school if England, France...put some fancy sauce on it and the cheapest cuts skyrocketed to unaffordablity. Same thing with chicken wings. Used to be the cheapest part of the chicken. And then some bar owner threw some sauce he concocted, dumped it on some wings and the Buffalo wing was born. With that catching all the attention, prices of chicken wings hit space. Most of the affordable grocery stores get ground beef with so much fat in it, it looks almost white and by the time you cook off all the fat, you've poured off almost half a pound of that ground beef that you pay for by the pound. Hopefully now that the vegetarian/vegan revolution has emerged, meat prices will go down some for us carnivores. We have become a minority.