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Dinosaur Bones (aka Monster Beef Ribs)

Monster beef plate ribs are one of my most indulgent meals that I chase down a couple of times per year.  The feeling of plowing into a single rib that can feed 1-2 people is a very primal moment for most people.  Combine that with a beautiful bark and soft juicy salty meat in the middle and you’ve got yourself some BBQ heaven.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Beef
Keyword: Fun
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 4 people
Author: Russell Bird

Instructions

Preparation

  • Preheat the Smoker to 225 degrees
    I find that when you take beef ribs out of the vacuum sealed pack, they often are covered in a little bit of grit, which I have always assumed is bone fragments from when they are sliced. So, the first thing I do is give the ribs a quick rinse with water then pat them dry. I do not remove the membrane on beef ribs because I find that when I do that the bones can fall off when done, I like to make sure the bone remains on the meat. Once the ribs are dry, I rub them all over with the steakhouse flavored grilling oil. The grilling oil acts as a binder for the rubs to stick. Next apply a liberal coat of the White Lightning and then the Fergolicious SPG LUV rub. Let the rub setup on the ribs for about 30 minutes before putting them on the smoker.

Smoke the Ribs

  • Get the ribs onto the smoker, bone side down at 225 degrees. Place a thermometer into the rib meat to track the internal temperature. These will be finished when they reach 200-205 degrees. Throughout the cook if you find any parts of the meat are getting too dark on the outside, you can spray them with apple cider vinegar to reduce the cooking speed, but when I did this rack, I did not need to do that.

Wrapping the Ribs

  • About 2 hours before the time I wanted to eat dinner, the ribs were sitting at 180 degrees internal temperature and I was afraid they would take too long to reach temperature, so I decided to wrap them in foil. Wrapping the ribs in foil helps to speed up the cooking process by trapping in the heat and helping to tenderize it by steaming in its own moisture. I did not add anything to the foil and within 1 hour the ribs were upto 205 degrees.

Resting the Ribs

  • I pulled the ribs off the smoker at 205 degrees and let them rest on the counter for 30 minutes. Then it was time to add some sauce. I like slicing my ribs and then finishing because you can apply sauce to the sides of all the rib bones.

Finishing

  • Shake some Happy Endings on the Ribs and let sit for a minute.
  • For the sauce, I like to mix a couple of different flavours together to make the sauce really pop. For this sauce we mixed the Hive on Fire Hot Honey with the Blues Hog Smokey Mountain BBQ Sauce. This mixture gives the sauce a little more sheen and that pop from the heat in the honey, a killer mixture.

Step by Step

  • Preheat the smoker to 225 degrees
  • Rinse the ribs and then pat them dry with paper towel
  • Coat the ribs in a layer of grilling oil and then a combination a white lightning and SPG rub
  • Let the rub setup for about 30 minutes before placing the ribs on the smoker
  • Place the ribs on the smoker bone side down
  • Spray the ribs with apple cider vinegar if needed
  • Remove the ribs from the smoker when they reach an internal temperature of 205 degrees
  • Slice the ribs and shake some Happy Endings on the pieces
  • Mix up a sauce by combining Blues hog and the hive on fire hot honey
  • Slice, sauce and serve!

Notes

What type of ribs should you use?

This recipe is designed for Beef Plate Ribs. These ribs are from the side/belly area of the cow and what makes them so great is the amount of meat that is located on top of the bone, not just between the bone. You can use back ribs for this recipe, but because there is a lot less meat on a back rib, the ribs will cook quite a bit faster, so you will need to make some edits.

What type of wood pellets are best for beef ribs?

I like to use either Hickory, Competition Blend, Charcoal or Mesquite 100% hardwood pellets when smoking beef plate ribs. Any of these pellet blends will work and stand up against the big beefy flavor of the ribs. I would stay away from mild flavored fruit woods pellets because the smoke flavor will get lost in the overall beefiness of this recipe.

What if I am Gluten Free?

Beef ribs and all the seasonings and sauces that we used in this recipe are in fact Gluten Free, so this is a great recipe to prepare for when you are having Celiac’s or other Gluten intolerant people over for dinner.

I bought beef ribs, but there is barely any meat on them!

You probably bought what we call beef back ribs, those are the rib bones attached to the Ribeye portion of a cow. For optimal results you want to specifically ask your butcher for beef plate ribs, or beef belly ribs. These are the ribs where the meat is on top of the bones instead of mostly between the bones.

I like my ribs fall off the bone, do I need to edit this recipe to get that?

I love eating my beef rib on the bone, but some people just want to watch the world burn. If you really want, you can buy boneless beef short rib meat and follow this recipe. However, the biggest edit to make the bones fall out in this recipe is to wrap the ribs in foil for the final 2-3 hours of this cook. The foil will lock in the moisture and help to tenderize the meat to the point where the bones just fall out.

What internal temperature do ribs get too before they are done?

I like my ribs to be done around 205 degrees, but every cow is different. Once you ribs get over 200 degrees, it is a good idea to put a thermometer, probe, or toothpick into the meat to see how easily it slides in. If it slides in like butter, then your ribs will be tender.
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