Needs longer cooking time.

I also don't like boiling then discarding the boiling water, as you're discarding flavor. I would rather add some water to the BBQ sauce and do all the cooking in the sauce.

I do my short ribs in the pressure cooker for 1 hour on high pressure, which is equivalent to four hours' normal cooking.

Process:
- heat open pressure cooker (or normal pot), add a little oil, deeply brown short ribs on all sides
- add half a small onion, some salt and pepper, and enough red wine to cover the meat (if using normal pot, cover by 2"). This may mean an entire bottle of wine, depending on how much meat you are cooking. Varietal of wine doesn't matter, and use something cheap.
- close pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 1 hour or more (if using a normal pot, bring wine to boil then lower heat and simmer, covered, for at least 4 hours)
- release pressure and open cooker (or normal pot), remove meat (use a wide ladle or similar, meat will be falling apart) and set aside
- remove the onion and all solids from the liquid in the cooker (or pot), or use a blender to blend them into the liquid, whichever is easiest
- bring to rolling boil and boil, uncovered, until liquid is reduced by half or more and is at sauce thickness. You can use a little thickener too - flour, cornstarch, etc - if it looks like reduction alone will leave you with not enough sauce. You should have lots of sauce. Taste sauce and add salt or pepper as needed.
- return meat to cooker (pot) to coat and warm in the sauce. Serve. Use rest of sauce on mashed potatoes or save it for later use.

I have never understood why anyone would boil ribs or any kind before cooking.

YOu want to retain all of the wonderful flavours in the braising liquid.
I brown seasoned short ribs, add onions and garlic to the pan along with fresh herbs (rosemary is good) a little beef broth, splash of red wine cover and slow cook in the oven until melt in the mouth tender.

YOu can do the same thing using beef broth along with your bbq sauce if you are looking for a sweeter sauce.

In the oven, and depending on the size of of the ribs and the oven temperature, you are looking at about two hours. Sometimes a little more for melt in the mouth fork tender meat.

~Ann

This is not to convince you to buy a sous vide cooker, but will give you a reference perspective point regarding temperature and cooking time with short ribs: (copied from the WEB for cooking short ribs at 145F for 72 hours)

"Collagen determines, to a large extent, whether cooked meat ends up tender or tough. It is also the determining factor in how long you should cook a given cut of meat. Collagen fibers are the biological equivalent of steel cabling, forming a mesh that holds bundles of meat fibers together. Proper cooking unravels the cable-like structure of collagen fibers and dissolves them into juices, transforming the tough collagen into tender gelatin.

In order to unravel collagen fibers, you must heat them. Heat causes the fibers to shrink, and the contracting mesh squeezes juices out of the meat. The hotter the cooking temperature, the more collagen mesh contracts, and the more juices are lost. If you cook the meat at lower temperatures, fewer of the collagen fibers shorten at any given point in the cooking process, so the mesh constricts the meat less. This is why meats retain more of their juices when cooked sous vide. But at lower temperatures, more time is needed to shrink, unravel, and dissolve enough of the collagen fibers to make the meat pleasantly tender."

I generally SV cook at 150F for 48 hours.

Short ribs is expensive, given the fact that it is mostly bones and fat, here is a suggestion for you for fun:

1. pressure cook short ribs in a separate container with no seasoning and no water for about an hour. You will get a good amount of the most concentrated beef broth(juice) ever for many recipes.

2. Remove the meat from the bones, and use the bones later for more beef broth the regular pressure cooker way.

3. Now with the meat, which has most of the fat rendered already, and find recipes for boneless short ribs and cook until tender.

dcarch

I don't boil or brown them; just put them in my ceramic bean pot or a Dutch oven, add a thin BBQ sauce, tightly cover and bake at 275 degrees for about 5 hours or until tender. Depending on the size of the pot and the amount of ribs, I turn them over after 3 hours

Here's my favorite sauce for roasting beef short ribs.

1 star anise
1 cup water
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 Tbs. Honey
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 slices fresh ginger, smashed

Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Now I'm going to have to make some short ribs this weekend.

Thanks everyone! I had hoped for responses from all of you! :O) I'll follow the suggestions as made--minus the pressure cooker (or sous vide), both of which I don't have.

Thanks for all the helpful info, and a new sauce recipe to add to my "food file."

Smiles,
Sooz

I don't boil ribs either. Just season, place them on a rack in a broiler pan with about an inch of water under the rack, cover tightly with foil and bake low and slow for 3 or 4 hours. Remove foil, brush with sauce and turn the broiler on for a few minutes.

I used to boil ribs and drain them before baking, grilling, or whatever. I thought it helped remove some of the fat and shorten cooking time. My purist son, who has spent more than half his life in Texas, launched a campaign to reform my objectionable ways. No more boiling. The big key to success is being able to keep the temperature low enough and the container closed tightly enough so that nothing goes dry and burns during the long cooking time. You'll find that the ultimate flavor is richer.

Okie dokie! No boiling!!! :O)
Smiles,
Sooz