Costillas de Res ( Beef Ribs )

Frida Mexican Cuisine

Costillas de Res —- . kohs. -. tee. -. yah deh rrehs

Beef Ribs if you don’t read Spanish.

We are going to use “FLANKEN CUT ” ribs for this recipe.

What is that you may ask?

Well I also had to do some research because I have never heard of this before.

Basically, there are two types of beef ribs, back ribs and short ribs. A steer has 13 ribs on each side. Starting at the front of the cow (see above illustration), the first 5 ribs are in the chuck cut.

The next 7 ribs are part of the rib section and extend down into the short plate. The remaining rib is in the loin cut. As you might imagine, these cuts vary quite a bit from one end of the steer to the other. They vary not only in flavor, but in texture as well.

Back ribs are what you get when a rib roast (Prime Rib) is removed from its bones. That rib roast meat fetches top dollar, so it makes sense that most of the meat stays with the roast or steaks, and very little is left on the ribs, but they do have some great stuff between the bones. Back ribs make excellent barbecue.

Short Plate ribs or Loaded beef ribs, which are cut from the lower portion of the rib cage and often have a nice layer of fat-laced meat sitting on top.

The challenge is finding ones that would live up to the beef rib expectations. More often than not, the short ribs I came across were cut into small, individual bone portions, with wildly varying amounts of meat on them.

Chuck Short Ribs come from right under the chuck from the first to the fifth rib, and can also go by the name Flanken Ribs.
Other names which Beef Short Ribs go by include: braising ribs, crosscut ribs, English short ribs, Korean short ribs.

There are two major types of cuts: The “flanken”, which is cut across the bone and leaves the bone just 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5.1 cm) in length, and the “English”, which is cut parallel to the bone and leaves the bone up to 6 inches (15 cm) in length. Short ribs are popular in many international cuisines.

This is what “FLANKEN CUT ” looks like :

Thin-sliced short ribs are cut across the rib bones of a cow. The cut gives an 8- to 10-inch strip of ribs rather than English style short ribs, with are cut parallel to the bone in rectangular pieces. Thin sliced short ribs, can be found in Asian and Jewish grocery stores, or ask your butcher to cut them for you.

This cut keeps the meat juicy and really flavorful !

Ingredients
Serves 4
2 ½ lbs thin cut beef short ribs
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
¾ tablespoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon ground chile ancho
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon smoked paprika

Mix all ingredients well.
Rub the olive oil to the ribs then sprinkle rub onto the meat, both sides.

Refrigerate 3 hours to allow the flavors to absorb.
Heat the grill to medium high and grill over direct heat 2 – 3 minutes, turn and grill 2 minutes.
Warm corn tortillas on grill for about 30 seconds.