Beef,...to brine -or- not to brine?

[carlmal]

A guy here at work said he brines his beef short ribs.  He said he had some ribs that were dry, but no more.

I've never had dry beef ribs, more likely to be greasy from not cooking long enough.  My pork ribs get the brine treatment and turn out amazing.

I have two racks of baby-backs that I am going to brine when I get home and thought "what the heck", maybe I'll try throwing the beef in there as well.  I will pull the beef out after 4 hours and air-dry in the fridge overnight, and pull the pork out in the morning.

The two beef plate ribs cost me $68, so I don't want to screw them up, but I can't see how spending 4 hours in a brine could ruin them.

Let me be all Shakesbeerian: "Beef,...to brine -or- not to brine? That is the question".

[TedEbear]

I've never heard of brining ribs but I do not think it would hurt anything.

[Habanero Smoker]

If I could get my hands on some beef plate, I would either be making beef bacon, or pastrami. :)

[carlmal]

Well I let one of the beef plates brine for 14 hous alongside the baby backs.

You know what?  There wasn't a whole lot of differnce from the unbrined, though we both preferred the brined.  Brined was a nicer texture, a bit more tender, and because we were afraid of double salting, a bit under-salted.

It was tough conditions here today, around freezing with a 12mph breeze, so even with the Bradley Digital 4-rack set at 280F, it would hover around 208F.  So we foiled the pork after 4 hours of smoke and the beef after 5 hours and moved to he gas oven @275F for final cook, uncovering and glazing the pork for the last hour.

Beef was bang-on, pork was a bit mushy, but the sticky, toothy mahogany bark made up for that.

We ageeed, it was one of our best cooks, especially jugglng two kinds of meats.

Have a great weekend everybody, and don't be afraid of brinng that beef.  I am voting YES!

Cheers

[cherrybergher]

glad you had success

[Edward176]

Brine beef is something I would have never considered, till now. What IT till you cook the beef to? Or did you just go by time?

[Piker]

Please would you tell me what a beef plate is. I am thinking it is the same as brisket but am not sure. This Piker

[Habanero Smoker]

Beef plate is from the belly of the cow, it's the equivalent to pork belly, and contains a good amount of fat. It is attached to the brisket on one end, and underneath the ribs. A whole untrimmed plate will sometimes come with part of the ribs still attached.

I just wanted to add, if you are in a deli and you see that they have plate pastrami buy some or ask to sample it. It costs a lot more than brisket pastrami, but the price is well worth it.