BBQ Fans Swear By This Cheap Cut That Comes From Ribeye

Every cut of beef that eventually makes its way to your plate has been, at one point, connected to another. Your fancy chateaubriands and filet mignons are both from the same part of the cow (the tenderloin); cheaper sirloin is also sourced from nearby. Such is the nature of butchery. The beloved ribeye, with its marvelous marbling, also has more affordable adjacent sections.

Beef back ribs come from the same self-titled region of the animal as the ribeye; the ribs are just separated from the ribeye before they make it to the meat counter. Beef back ribs also tend to cost less than the average ribeye at the grocery store or supermarket, and they just happen to be an excellent barbecue protein.

There is one notable caveat to that price tag comparison: there is not an abundance of meat on beef back ribs, and their price per pound obviously includes the bones. However, what meat there is turns out particularly tasty on the grill. You just need to commit to a bit of your own tabletop butchery to saw it off the ribs — or take the traditional tack and sink your chompers right in.

Beef back ribs crave the smoke of the grill. Unlike both the neighboring ribeye and short ribs, beef back ribs are somewhat lean. As is the case with a lot of other meats, that lack of fat makes beef back ribs more prone to dryness, so you want to approach them with barbecue's de facto instructions: low and slow. Keep them away from the flames and gently bring them to an internal temperature of about 180 degrees Fahrenheit. How long this takes depends on their overall weight.

If grilling season still seems light years away, or you live in more of a fire escape than backyard parts of the country, you can also make beef back ribs in the slow cooker. As the device's name implies, they just take a lot longer. Your patience over the several hours they spend on low mingling with your favorite barbecue sauce is rewarded with that classic, fall-off-the-bone quality that fans of all rib varieties tend to covet. Accounting for there not being much meat to fall off, allow for at least 1 pound of beef back ribs per person rather than trying to portion by individual ribs.