Beef Back Ribs Recipe - Healthy Recipes Blog (2024)

FAQs

Are beef back ribs healthy? ›

Beef Ribs Support Healthy Bones

BBQ beef ribs help to keep your bones and muscles strong with their phosphorous and magnesium.

Short ribs are shorter and flatter while the back ribs are longer and curved. The other difference is in the amount of meat that is on each type of rib. Short ribs will have less meat because they come from the chuck primal which is a tougher section of the cow.

Cooking baby back ribs in the oven is one of the easiest methods. First, wrap the ribs in tin foil and slow-roast them in the oven on a low temperature between 275 and 325 degrees. Bake until cooked through and tender, usually around 2 to 2.5 hours.

You will often see them sold trimmed “St. Louis Style” to make the rack of ribs easier to deal with. Overall, baby backs win out as the lowest in fat and calories, plus they're more tender and quick-cooking.

All That Marbled Fat

The ample gelatinous fat of beef ribs runs through the meat during the cook for that smoky brisket flavor. Want leaner and healthier cuts? Choose pork ribs.

Now let's take a closer look at beef ribs and see what types you may find at your butcher counter. The 3 main types are: chuck ribs, plate ribs and back ribs.

They're not as meaty or fatty as Spare Ribs, however what they lack in fat and meat, Back Ribs more than make up for it with tenderness and better marketing. These are a high demand cut, which drives up the price.

A great value and beef's signature ribs for the BBQ, this flavorful cut is great with a dry rub on the grill. Portioned by the number of rib bones. Can be offered as whole or half.

If you want your ribs to be more flavorful and juicy, boiling them will render out a lot of the fat. This will also cause the natural juices of the ribs to release into the boil. You don't want this, if your end goal is juicy ribs.

What does vinegar do to beef ribs? ›

This marinade recipe adds a lot of flavor to beef ribs, and the acid from the lemon juice and vinegar keeps the meat nice and tender as it cooks. Marinating also allows the meat to hold more liquid so the ribs won't dry out, whether you are grilling or smoking them.

What longer cooking times do to beef ribs. You would think that longer cooking times would simply mean more tender, succulent beef. Sadly, this is simply not the case. Cooking any kind of meat for too long will usually leave it dry, tough, and utterly unappealing.

A meat tenderizer doesn't do much for ribs, especially pork ribs. The problem is the amount of collagen. The best way, in fact the only way I know for sure, it to cook them low and slow. You can use the oven, braise them in a slow cooker, smoke them in a smoker, or even cook them indirectly on a grill.

Meat: The little meat on beef back ribs is between the bones, and beef short ribs have meat atop the bones. Fat: Short ribs tend to have a layer of fat on top of them. Beef back ribs are relatively lean in comparison.

Beef ribs can be very good but a typical cut has a LOT of bone for the amount of meat and there's a lot of tough connective tissue and potentially chunks of fat & gristle to deal with.

Beef ribs comprise a much heftier piece of meat, with each bone often more than twice the length of its pork counterpart. They're also complemented by more fat, typically marbled and layered throughout the meat. This fat infuses the cut during cooking, leading to a tender and bold result.

It also depends on how the meat is cut. Beef ribs are a lot bigger than pork, and have more meat on the bone, but also more fat. The fat-to-meat ratio in a beef rib is pretty even, but because the rib has a lot of meat, that means there is quite a bit of fat as well.