I got some great looking native breed short ribs from Taste Tradition and decided to see what could be done with them using our Grid Iron Original Meat Rub.
Short ribs are from the plate area of the cow and some butchers will know them as plate ribs. You can order them either as a single rib, a rack (Jacob’s ladder) or cut into individual pieces. Being a relatively well worked part of the animal, the meat on the ribs has plenty of flavour, but benefits from slow cooking until it falls from the bone.
My choice for these ribs was to give them a generous coating of rub, before browning them in some beef dripping. I was lucky enough to have some that I’d picked up from Town End Farm Shop that had been made from fat trimmed from their native breed Longhorn beef. Not essential, but it just seemed to complete the circle of using good quality beef and not wasting any part of the animal.
The next stage was to add some chopped onion, garlic (left whole, just squashed), carrots and some mushrooms. These were quickly fried in the pan before adding 500ml of beef stock and a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme. The thyme came from Alison Dodd at Herbs Unlimited near Thirsk. It’s grown on their own farm in season along with an incredible array of speciality herbs and edible flowers, in the winter they import some good quality traditional herbs to keep up continuity of supply.
So that’s it for preparation… simple! Now into the oven with a lid on for around 2 – 3 hours at 170c or until the meat’s melting away from the bone.
The perfect accompaniment for the ribs is a nice creamy horseradish mash and a chilled craft beer.
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