Weight Loss Update And Ribs For Card Night

A second three-month period has gone by since I began taking Zepbound so it was time for another doctor visit and I'm happy to report that I'm down another 30 pounds for a total of 60 and I'm excited to see where I can be by year end.  The first shot below is after the first 30 lbs. and I'm wearing a 4X shirt (all given away) and the second shot is now and I’m wearing a 3X shirt – I should have tucked them both in.

It won't be long before I have to retire some shorts (this pair now for sure) but since most of mine have draw strings, I can use them for a while longer.

Ribs

I don’t know how many racks of pork ribs I’ve cooked in my BBQing days but I’ve never done beef short ribs and have always wanted to make some like I’ve had in Texas but the ribs in the store always had very little meat left on them as it went with rib roast at a much higher price.  They looked like this.

I always thought the Texas BBQ joints had their beef ribs special cut with a lot of the rib-eye meat left on them, then I discovered that they were actually using short ribs and after a little more research, it seems that beef chuck short ribs (2-5 on the cow) are the ones to get.  

So, I drove about five miles to the local Hyde Farm store where they raise, slaughter, and butcher their own beef and I put in a special order for the cut that I wanted. 

Since not everyone prefers the beef ribs, I also cooked the two racks of pork ribs that I had in the freezer – leftover, properly reheated pork ribs still go down very easy.  To prep, I removed the membrane from the pork ribs and seasoned them with Head Country Original Rub.

The membrane didn’t want to easily come off of the beef ribs so I left it on and I left on the fat cap on the other side but I scored it (maybe too deep) so the rub could get to the meat.  I'll likely regret both of these decisions.  Rather than make up a batch of beef rub, I just used Montreal Steak Seasoning as we like it on beef.

I used my RecTec smoker running at 240F and I’m not sure what the pellets were made of as they had been there quite awhile.  

I wanted the meat to be done and resting in a 145F oven by 4pm and I was confident the pork ribs would take 5-6 hours at 240F using the 3-2-1 method so I put them on at 10am.  Since this was my first time with the beef short ribs and I knew they could take 10 hours, I put them on at 8am, knowing I could continue cooking them while we played cards if need be and still eat at 6pm.  

After a few hours of cooking.

Pork ribs about to be wrapped.

Pork ribs finished.

Ready to slice and serve.

Beef ribs ready to slice.

The top one is what I expected 

But what I got was one good one and three that were mostly fat so Hyde Farm is fired.

Bev made refried beans and slaw to go with the ribs and this is my plate.

The Verdict:

Both side dishes were very good.  Bev thought the ribs were a perfectively cooked fall off the bone version but I thought they were a little dry and overcooked - I think the 3-2-1 pork rib cooking method is designed to work best with a pit temperature of 225F so I’ll use it next time knowing the beef ribs will take longer.  The beef ribs were moist, tender and tasty but I will do several things differently next time.  First of all, get them from a different source and remove both the membrane from the back and the fat cap from the top.  Then I will use a good beef brisket rub to season them and wrap them in foil at 170F internal temp as is done for brisket.  I can sure tell I’m getting old and haven’t made BBQ in a while but I hope to do better.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/27/26 event date