Welcome to FudeHouse.
And Sweet y Salado.
I'm at Dickson's Farmstand Meats in NYC to talk about beef short ribs.
Where do they come from?
Yeah, the ribs ok, but let's break it down.
The short ribs that you and I love come from what is called the rib plate (beef plate)
or sometimes more specifically called the short plate.
Well, where's that?
Look here.
Let's isolate it in the beef carcass.
There are 13 ribs in a steer.
First, let's separate the hindquarter from the forequarter, and that always happens between
the 12th and 13th rib.
Next, we split the forequarter in two.
Now this is where it's get tricky with butchers in different countries with varying standards
and traditions.
In America, some people split the forequarter between the 4th and 5th ribs, others between
the 5th and 6th, and I'm sure there are even more variations therein.
It's all about your final plans with the meat you're cutting.
In either case, we're left with an arm chuck there, and a rib plate here.
Now this section here has a few cuts we all know and love.
Ribeye steaks up here.
And the extension of the brisket (deep pectorals) muscle down here called the Navel.
Get rid of those, and we're left...
with the short ribs.
Check it out.
Here's a full beef plate.
See ribeye here, the same rib bones in the RIB-EYE become the short ribs down here, and
then, into the navel muscle.
Oh, and, the skirt steak lives on the inside of the rib plate there.
Ok, a lot of info, I know.
But here we go: remove the skirt, split the rib section from the plate, when the rib bones
end on the underbelly of the steer, find the cartilage and remove the navel.
Edge it on the saw and there, finally, are your short ribs.
But that's just the beginning.
Now the fun begins.
How many different types of short ribs can we make from this?
(Let us count the ways)
On this plate we have 8 ribs.
Rib #5 - 12.
Keep in mind, that the muscles change throughout the animal.
So a short rib from this area won't look like a short rib from this area, but they will
be equally tasty.
The only ribs you can't use are the last ribs (#9-12) on closer to the top of the back (dorsal).
Don't worry, you'll never see these ribs in a butcher's case for sale -- there's just
no good meat in them, it's all fat.
They go to compost or to add fat to ground beef or sausage.
Let's cut our plate like this to make things easier on ourselves, no?
This, we'll save for tasty ground beef.
This section makes gnarly looking ribs but they are really flavorful.
The most traditional style of beef short ribs are what some people call English cut.
Cut between the bones, maybe about 5 inches long.
Each rib has one bone with meat around it.
This is English cut, and cut from this section it's English cut too, but we get that quintessential
short rib look.
Like this.
But now if you cut across the bones, you get Flanken cut short ribs.
In this case, instead of just one bone, each piece of meat has several small pieces of
bone.
See?
They taste the same, it's just about style and presentation.
Now there's a way we can take it even further.
If we cut our flanken ribs very thinly, and remove this top muscle here, called the Lifter
(latissimus dorsi), along with it's silver skin and fat, we get something called Kalbi.
A traditional Korean cut that takes sugary marinades really well, caramelizes on the
grill, and, since it's cut pretty thin, is very tender all things considered (no braising
necessary).
It ends up tasting like meat candy.
Crusty and caramelized, beefy and fatty, cook it to well-done and enjoy a really great tearing
action as you eat it with your fingers.
The best looking ribs all around, the ones you have to use for Flanken and Kalbi and
those picture perfect English cut, come from ribs 5, 6, 7, and 8.
And it's all because of this muscle here.
If there's nothing else you take away from ALL this information, you have to know that
this muscle is what makes your short rib so awesome.
It's called the serratus ventralis.
Quite possibly my favorite cut in the whole animal [forget tenderloin].
Big beefy flavor (beefy) and great intramuscular fat (marbling).
This is the muscle that you love so much when you bite down into those beautifully braised
short ribs.
So there it is.
The plate.
English cut.
Flanken cut.
Thin cut flanken.
And the muscle that runs through it all, the serratus ventralis.
For more information, talk to your local butcher.
Check out Dickson's Farmstand dot com
And for a cool Colombian recipe called Sancocho featuring short ribs, check out Sweet y Salado...