Boneless Beef Short Ribs

Boneless beef short ribs were on sale at Ralph's so I made it a point to get my hands on some. When considering Christmas dinner ideas in November and learning the variation in pricing based on USDA grades I began wondering whether the non-choosy beef selections I made previously had an impact on the outcomes of the meals. Going back through the roast posts and image archives, I observed a correlation.

When selecting my rib packages I saw they didn't say anything about what USDA grade they'd been granted. If beef is of a higher grade, the packages are marked with designation of "USDA Choice" or "USDA Prime", prime being the best. Take a look at this roast I picked up in July for the Beef Stew with Mushrooms, Onions and Dark Beer; check out it's label and it's choice sticker. Then take a closer look at this short rib label:

Having been inspected, this beef either hasn't been graded or it didn't have the attributes required such as higher degree of marbling (intramuscular fat) to call it Choice or Prime. Comparing the fat striations through the flesh in the rib meat against the roast photo, there is a clear difference.

I went ahead and trimmed the excess fat from the edges of the beef as my recipe instructed. The exterior fat isn't what makes beef tender anyway.

Here's a couple of key excerpts from The Complete Meat Cookbook I should've paid more attention to when I first pick up the book:

Only about 2 percent of today's beef is of the highest USDA grade, or Prime. Most of this very expensive meat is sold to overseas buyers from Japan, leaving very little for the retail trade. Virtually all fo the remaining Prime beef ends up on restaurant tables. About 45 percent of the carcasses are graded Choice, while 21 percent are stamped with the Select grade.

Since only the top two grades demand a premium price to justify the cost of grading, many packers instruct the inspectors not to bother putting a grade on carcasses that are not Choice or Prime... Much of the beef in America, especially in supermarkets, is sold ungraded but would have been Select if graded.

Select is leaner meat. Select steaks have little marbling and only a few flakes of white, intramuscular fat. Because Select meat is so lean, it can be easily dried out when overcooked by dry-heat methods. It has less flavor and juiciness overall than the higher grades. Tender cuts such as steaks and roasts are best when not cooked beyond medium. Tougher cuts can be braised or stewed and often taste as good as Choice when properly prepared.

Elise over at Simply Recipes has exceptional photos depicting the difference between a choice and prime standing rib roast at the bottom of her Prime Rib Recipe post. (Notice too that the rib roast she was cooking looked like prime beef -- she either has a fantastic butcher or shops at Costco, the only non-meat-specific store I know of that carries prime beef!)

Conscious of grades and suspicious of the turn-out of some of the roasts I've done before, I will make it a point to revisit two in particular as my less than stellar reviews were primarily due to the tough beef:

• Italian Roast Beef with Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives
• Wine Braised Chuck Roast

For now though, I'm going to test my hypothesis with these short ribs.

Boneless beef short ribs, available on sale at Ralph's for $3.99/lb.

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