Unlike most of the other braises I’ve posted, this recipe has no latitude whatsoever in what its main ingredient is. These are braised short ribs after all, so braising anything else would necessarily mean you aren’t braising short ribs. If I’m not mistaken, the inspiration behind this recipe (Wolfgang Puck’s short ribs, which, if I remember correctly, he aid he serves annually at the Oscars) was the way I learned how to properly braise meat. I’ve since applied the techniques I learned from studying Puck’s recipe to my other braises.
There are two different “Western” (as opposed to “Asian” styles—we won’t get into those here; I still need to eat and study a lot more kalbi before I feel confident enough in my understanding to post a recipe) styles of short ribs: English- or flanken-cut. Each Western style is cut perpendicularly to the other. For this recipe, I recommend bone-in English-cut. If you can’t get the English kind, get flanken-cut. You might also decide to use boneless short ribs, but they have two shortcomings. First, the bone imparts flavor, and not having the bone loses out on the flavor. Second, the goal is for these ribs to be fork-tender but not completely falling apart; using bone-in ribs helps preserve this structure, and plating with the bone makes for a particularly nice presentation.
Ribs vary quite considerably in how much of their weight is flesh and how much is bone. Boneless ribs are then most cost-effective since you’re not paying for any bone. But if you buy bone-in, the way the ribs were cut and where they were cut from (the front or back of the animal) makes a considerable difference as to how much meat each rib has. Plan on buying at least one meatier rib (or at least two bonier ribs) per person per portion.
Braised short ribs have four components: the ribs themselves, the braising liquid, the vegetables cooked in the braising liquid, and a starch base. Each of those requires a considerable amount of prep work, but the good news is that 3 of the four components also have (collectively) dozens of hours of idle time where you can be doing other things.
Let us begin with the ribs. I recommend dry brining them. That is, salt them quite heavily and place them, salted and uncovered, on a wire rack in the fridge for 24 hours. The salt on the surface will draw out unsalted moisture from within, then the salt will dissolve into the moisture it extracted by osmosis, and then, again by osmosis, the salty moisture will go back into the ribs, leaving them poised to be perfectly seasoned and remarkably tender at the end of this process. Salt them, put them away, and forget about them for a day. I recommend you do this a day in advance of the day you cook them, which itself should be a day in advance of when you serve them. Thus, do this 2 days before you intend to serve the ribs.
On “cooking day” (in between “brining day” and “eating day”), preheat your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. While your oven is preheating, coat a Dutch oven (mine is 8 quarts; you don’t technically need a Dutch oven—a casserole dish would work—but I find that most vessels that are big enough are classified as “Dutch ovens”) in a thin film of extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Just before it smokes, place as many ribs as can fit in the pan in one layer into the pan. Do not crowd the pan. Your objective is to sear the ribs, not steam the ribs. Moisture needs space through which to escape, and if the pan is too crowded, this space will not exist and the ribs will steam and go gray, instead of searing and going brown. Give the ribs a few minutes on each side. You will know that the Maillard reaction is complete on a given side when a particular rib releases from the pan without any resistance at all. If you feel resistance, the reaction hasn’t finished. Stop trying to move the rib and come back to it later. Brown the ribs in batches if you need to. Turn the heat up or down as needed. Color should come fairly quickly, but it is possible that it might come too quickly. If the latter case occurs, the meat will be irreparably scorched and the fond (the sticky caramelized bits on the bottom of your pan we’ll deal with later) will be irreparably burned. If either the ribs or the fond scorch, throw everything away and start over.
After the ribs are browned, reserve them somewhere. Dice 4 yellow onions, 1 pound of carrots, and 1 pound of celery by hand—even the coarsest setting on a food processor is too fine for what we need. This is the basic flavor base called “mirepoix”—and, if your knife skills are good enough, your cut might also be the “mirepoix” cut. Sweat off these vegetables in the same pan where the ribs were browned until the vegetables soften and the onions turn translucent. Stir frequently. Once the onions become translucent, add 4 cloves of minced garlic (this can be done by hand, in a press, or in a food processor), and sauté with the other aromatics until fragrant, for about 45 seconds.
Then, deglaze the pan with what will, in time, become the braising liquid. At this stage, that means a whole bottle (about 3 cups, so ¾ of a quart) of good red wine—something you would drink. Never cook with something you would not drink on its own. Replace the ribs, and supplement with enough homemade beef stock (follow this recipe, but use beef bones, and keep the stock simmering for a minimum of 16 hours and up to 48) to just come to the top of the ribs, but no more. It is crucial that you use your own beef stock here. Whether you dry-brined or salted your ribs immediately before searing them, using an industrially made stock will make the ribs and the braising liquid inedibly salty, even if the product you bought claimed to be “low-sodium.” Further, homemade stock (especially beef) contains much more gelatin than industrial stock. Together with the collagen in the ribs that will cook out into gelatin, these two sources of gelatin will lend a rich, unctuous, umami character to the sauce that simply cannot be replicated if an industrial stock that contains +less gelatin is used.
Partially cover and allow to braise for anywhere from 2½ to 4 hours—until the ribs are fork-tender but not falling apart. Once the ribs are cooked through, place them in another container; place the vegetables in that same container, and run the sauce through a fat separator. Discard the fat and place the remaining sauce in a separate container. Refrigerate the two containers (de-fatted sauce; ribs/vegetables).
On the third day of this process, prepare the base. Typically, buttered noodles, polenta, or mashed potatoes work well as a base for beef braises like this one. For this recipe, I will recommend my mashed potatoes.
Ribs vary quite considerably in how much of their weight is flesh and how much is bone. Boneless ribs are then most cost-effective since you’re not paying for any bone. But if you buy bone-in, the way the ribs were cut and where they were cut from (the front or back of the animal) makes a considerable difference as to how much meat each rib has. Plan on buying at least one meatier rib (or at least two bonier ribs) per person per portion.
Braised short ribs have four components: the ribs themselves, the braising liquid, the vegetables cooked in the braising liquid, and a starch base. Each of those requires a considerable amount of prep work, but the good news is that 3 of the four components also have (collectively) dozens of hours of idle time where you can be doing other things.
Let us begin with the ribs. I recommend dry brining them. That is, salt them quite heavily and place them, salted and uncovered, on a wire rack in the fridge for 24 hours. The salt on the surface will draw out unsalted moisture from within, then the salt will dissolve into the moisture it extracted by osmosis, and then, again by osmosis, the salty moisture will go back into the ribs, leaving them poised to be perfectly seasoned and remarkably tender at the end of this process. Salt them, put them away, and forget about them for a day. I recommend you do this a day in advance of the day you cook them, which itself should be a day in advance of when you serve them. Thus, do this 2 days before you intend to serve the ribs.
On “cooking day” (in between “brining day” and “eating day”), preheat your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. While your oven is preheating, coat a Dutch oven (mine is 8 quarts; you don’t technically need a Dutch oven—a casserole dish would work—but I find that most vessels that are big enough are classified as “Dutch ovens”) in a thin film of extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Just before it smokes, place as many ribs as can fit in the pan in one layer into the pan. Do not crowd the pan. Your objective is to sear the ribs, not steam the ribs. Moisture needs space through which to escape, and if the pan is too crowded, this space will not exist and the ribs will steam and go gray, instead of searing and going brown. Give the ribs a few minutes on each side. You will know that the Maillard reaction is complete on a given side when a particular rib releases from the pan without any resistance at all. If you feel resistance, the reaction hasn’t finished. Stop trying to move the rib and come back to it later. Brown the ribs in batches if you need to. Turn the heat up or down as needed. Color should come fairly quickly, but it is possible that it might come too quickly. If the latter case occurs, the meat will be irreparably scorched and the fond (the sticky caramelized bits on the bottom of your pan we’ll deal with later) will be irreparably burned. If either the ribs or the fond scorch, throw everything away and start over.
After the ribs are browned, reserve them somewhere. Dice 4 yellow onions, 1 pound of carrots, and 1 pound of celery by hand—even the coarsest setting on a food processor is too fine for what we need. This is the basic flavor base called “mirepoix”—and, if your knife skills are good enough, your cut might also be the “mirepoix” cut. Sweat off these vegetables in the same pan where the ribs were browned until the vegetables soften and the onions turn translucent. Stir frequently. Once the onions become translucent, add 4 cloves of minced garlic (this can be done by hand, in a press, or in a food processor), and sauté with the other aromatics until fragrant, for about 45 seconds.
Then, deglaze the pan with what will, in time, become the braising liquid. At this stage, that means a whole bottle (about 3 cups, so ¾ of a quart) of good red wine—something you would drink. Never cook with something you would not drink on its own. Replace the ribs, and supplement with enough homemade beef stock (follow this recipe, but use beef bones, and keep the stock simmering for a minimum of 16 hours and up to 48) to just come to the top of the ribs, but no more. It is crucial that you use your own beef stock here. Whether you dry-brined or salted your ribs immediately before searing them, using an industrially made stock will make the ribs and the braising liquid inedibly salty, even if the product you bought claimed to be “low-sodium.” Further, homemade stock (especially beef) contains much more gelatin than industrial stock. Together with the collagen in the ribs that will cook out into gelatin, these two sources of gelatin will lend a rich, unctuous, umami character to the sauce that simply cannot be replicated if an industrial stock that contains +less gelatin is used.
Partially cover and allow to braise for anywhere from 2½ to 4 hours—until the ribs are fork-tender but not falling apart. Once the ribs are cooked through, place them in another container; place the vegetables in that same container, and run the sauce through a fat separator. Discard the fat and place the remaining sauce in a separate container. Refrigerate the two containers (de-fatted sauce; ribs/vegetables).
On the third day of this process, prepare the base. Typically, buttered noodles, polenta, or mashed potatoes work well as a base for beef braises like this one. For this recipe, I will recommend my mashed potatoes.
While the potatoes are boiling, be sure that no more fat has separated from the sauce, and if that is the case, reduce the de-fatted sauce by a third. Then, return the ribs, vegetables, and reduced sauce (which now glazes the ribs and the vegetables) to the oven at 300 Fahrenheit for another 20 minutes or so, just to warm them through.
Once all the components of the dish are heated through, serve.
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