Beef Short Ribs or Roast or Whatever

A friend at work had a cow butchered and then didn't know what to do with the short ribs. So he messed up big time and gave them away to me. It's like the best part! So here I'll show you and him how I dealt with these tasty bits.

I've never seen a packing plant that gave you the meat unfrozen. So thaw out those short ribs if needed and salt all sides with . . . salt. I don't use other seasonings at this point. They'll likely just burn in the next step.

Add some oil to a pan and get your sear on. It's amazing how very few of us actually read the instructions that come with our pots and pans. The majority of them only ever say to use on Medium heat and no higher unless they have a lot of liquid in them. I heated some oil up to medium on my stove and then seared the short ribs on all sides possible in batches.

When some people read "brown the meat" in a recipe all they do is turn it grey with a little heat. Nah, that's wrong. You want to crisp that stuff brown as pictured.

Once you've seared all of the beef off you'll be left with a decision. Sometimes you can use the left over bits and oil and sometimes not. A lot of times not. It just becomes too browned and blackened to be useful. It'll be a bitter mess. I chose to discard this oil, clean the pan, and move on with life.

Take your basic additions and chop them into bite sized pieces. Here I used a shallot, mushrooms, carrots, and celery. You'll notice I don't give amounts. In one sense the amounts don't really matter and in another sense they do. Sort of.

Are you going to eat these bits? If yes, then they matter. Put in as much as you like.

Are you not going to eat these bits? Then they don't matter. All you're doing is giving your sauce a boost. If you start with a good broth or stock, then you may not even need these things and could get away with just using dried spices to your liking.

How big is your pot? Your meat? Put in only as much vegetables as you can fit in your pot with the meat and stock.

Go out to your herb garden, if you have one, and scavenge. I grabbed rosemary, thyme, and chives. I didn't bother chopping them up.

With the clean pan I tossed in some butter and added the veggies to soften a bit and cook off some of their liquid. I may also have squeezed a clove or two of garlic into at the end.

I had some beef stock made from soup bones from earlier in the day. You could buy it of course. I just browned the bones up in a super hot oven then simmered them for a few hours in water with some more of the herbs and onion and carrot. How did it taste? Like a beef stock. Was it strong? No. So I took most of it and got it screaming hot on the stove to concentrate it. You can do this with store bought as well but it may get a little salty. Get a low sodium version if you plan on doing this. Also adding some gelatin powder might be a good thing since the store bought probably doesn't have much body to it and needs some help.

Cooking is about concentrating flavor a lot of the time. Drive off the water and leave the good tastes.

Reintroduce your meat to the pot. Tuck it in there, nestled in among the veg, and pour in the stock. The herbs I just tucked in the liquid as well.

Preheat to 250 - 300 F and stick it in. For hour long? Hours likely. I'd start poking at it around 1 hour and 30 minutes. After than poke it with a stick or whatever every 15 to 30 minutes until it gets to how you like it.

This is optional, but desirable.

Remove the meat from the pot. I didn't plan one eating the veg so I strained it and discarded it. I'd wrung every bit of goodness out of it.

Put the liquid back in the pot and crank up the heat. Reduce it down until it starts to get thick. Be careful to not let it burn on the bottom. Once it's to your liking, taste it for seasoning, add what you think it needs, and then put the meat back in and coat it with the sauce. Ready for a plate.

Serve with appropriate sides. Here is mashed potatoes, some braised radish greens, and buttered sauteed radishes.