Dexter ribs

[Lynne Simpson 180Farm FaberVA]

Dexter steaks, roasts and burgers taste soooo good, but the ribs...not so much.  

Any hints on how to make Dexter ribs taste good?

[zephyrhillsusan]

Smoke them in a smoker. You can get a nice one for under $100. We put a dry rub on them, smoke them and then put barbecue sauce on.

[Lynne Simpson 180Farm FaberVA]

Thanks for the tip Susan, I finally bought a smoker and did the ribs.  Put a nice dry rub on them, used Apple Wood (all I had, but might try hickory next) to smoke them and put several layers of barbeque sauce during the last 2 hours.  

Since the rest of the cuts are not fatty, I am surprised at how much fat is on my grass-fed Dexter ribs.  Even though the flavor of the meat was excellent, the amount of fat on them took away from it I thought.  Instructions on the smoker said to leave the fat on, and I thought it would diminish during smoking, but it really did not, so I definitely will remove as much fat as I can next time before smoking them.  

Thanks again, Lynne 

P.S. Don't want to wear you out, but would love to know your technique/recipes for cooking hanging tender, skirt and flat iron...

 

[zephyrhillsusan]

Other than skirt steaks, I don't think we've gotten those exact cuts or if we did, they called them something else. I'm really bad on names of meat cuts, for some bizarre reason. I could name you the ingredients of Moroccan couscous off the top of my head! Go figure. I'll post about what we do for skirt steak down in the recipe section so others can find it.

[carragheendexters]

I watched a video of Jamie Oliver cooking steaks, and from what I can gather, a flat-iron steak is what we would call blade steak (bone out) as compared to a cross-cut blade (bone-in). Skirt steak is something that I haven't seen for years. I think that nowadays it is probably just minced, (ground beef), it wasn't a popular cut, just a cheap one.
It always amazes me the different names and cuts from around the world. I lived in the UK for a while back in the '80s, when we went to the butchers to buy meat, we couldn't recognise the cuts, the carcass is cut up differently to here in Aust. We would have to take a guess on what to buy and ask the butcher what to buy for different dishes. Even the lamb cuts were different, the chops looked strange.

[legendrockranch]

Jan 19, 2015 19:06:40 GMT -5 carragheendexters said:

Skirt steak is something that I haven't seen for years. I think that nowadays it is probably just minced, (ground beef), it wasn't a popular cut, just a cheap one.

Oh no The lowly shirt steak holds a place of honor here in Texas. Without it there would be no fajitas.

www.texasmonthly.com/content/low-steaks-0

Barb

[kansasdexters]

We offer our beef customers flank steak (sliced as fajita meat, or as whole plain steaks, or as london broil, or as tenderized steaks), and skirt steak (whole or pre-sliced).

Some of our beef customers don't cook roasts very often, so we offer them the chuck cut instead into boneless flat-iron steaks, mock tenderloin steaks, and ranch steaks (these make a nice breakfast steak). Alternately, the chuck can be ground into burger, for the people that want more packages of ground beef and fewer roasts.

We have started to offer meatless marrow bones, cut into 2-inch lengths, 2 lb per package, for use in making brown stock and bone broth (very trendy right now). Marrow bones are highly sought after in the grassfed/grass finished beef market. I make brown stock by roasting about 6 lb of marrow bones in the oven at 375oF until they are toasty brown and then boiling the roasted bones with carrots, onion, celery, peppercorns, bay leaf and enough water to cover in an 8 quart soup pot. This is brought to a boil, and then the heat is reduced to slow simmer with the pot loosely covered, for about 6 hours. The broth is strained to remove the bones and vegetables, allowed to cool, and then most of the fat is skimmed off. After skimming, the broth is heated to boiling, and then ladelled into quart mason jars (makes about 4 quarts). A small amount of fat rises to the top of the jars and creates a seal, so that the broth can be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks (we typically use it all in a week or two). If you want to freeze the broth, you don't need to keep any fat on it, just allow a couple of inches at the top of the jar for expansion during freezing.

[zephyrhillsusan]

You can make your own fajita marinade with olive oil and lime juice in about equal proportions, or to taste, some fresh garlic crushed, a dash of soy sauce and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. If you're not going to grill them over mesquite (sorry non-Texans) or at least a wood fire, you can add a couple drops of liquid smoke. Just toss the marinade when done.