Beef Short Ribs

Choose and prep the rack

You want the top fat not too thick, and marbling on the inside too. A three-bone rack about two to two and a half inches thick is right. Some people take the membrane off the back; get a flathead screwdriver under it, lift, and try to slide it along to separate it from the meat, then pull. If it rips you will have to repeat it on the other sections. Try not to puncture the flesh.

Cooking at home, it is worth leaving that membrane on. It matters far less than the fuss it takes to remove.

Mustard and rub

Dry the rack off. Spread a thin, even layer of mustard all over the top and sides, rubbing it in well and making sure there are no clumps. Then season the top and the sides liberally with the brisket rub. There is no need to season the back where the bone is.

Light the pit

Get the pit to 120°C. When the charcoal is ready, start with a hard smoke, three or four chunks of oak, and let the wood burn off before the rack goes on.

Hard smoke, fat-side up

Load the rack fat-side up and watch the temperature. Every time it drops, add more oak and charcoal. Once you hit the three-hour mark, start adding a pecan chunk in with the oak. After four hours you can go with pecan and charcoal the rest of the way.

Wrap, or make the mop

If you want to wrap the rack, do it once it has a nice bark on it and a deep mahogany colour — about three hours in, at an internal temperature of around 80°C at the centre. If you are not wrapping, make the mop instead: combine the water and the soup mix in a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring to a simmer, stir once or twice, then remove from the heat and set it aside until you need it.

Wrap or mop — one or the other. They are two different finishes and they do not go together.

Mop it

After about two and a half hours you can start to mop the ribs. Stir the mop each time before you use it, as the solids settle to the bottom. From then on, just mop the ribs every time you open the pit — use it as the excuse to open and let some of the heat out if your pit flares up. Or if your heat is even, mop every hour or so.

Tug the bone

From the four-hour mark, start checking. You will not be able to move the bones on a beef rack the way you can on pork. But if you give the meat a tug against the bone, you should be able to feel whether it is ready to pull off. A thermometer will read around 90°C when it is right.

Temperature can trick you here. What you actually want is to feel that the meat is ready to come off the bone — without it falling right off on its own.

Rest, then carve between the bones

Once the short ribs are ready, mop them one last time, take them out of the pit and set them aside to rest. Carving is easy: just cut through the centre of the meat between each bone.