Tag Archives: Japanese

Beef ribs vs. Pork ribs

Posted on by Standard 6

Greetings Carnivores,

Todays’ thoughts come by way of an old friends’ question regarding Beef ribs and how they stack up against the Pork Ribs.

Firstly, the two of them are an obvious “Apples to Oranges” comparison … or, are they?

Structurally, the Beef and Pork carcasses are the same. Same bones, muscles and organs so, it’s safe to say the methods employed to cook them should be the same and, guess what? They are!!

The mighty Beef rib that you commonly find in the butcher shop would be the back rib section, cut from the Prime Rib area of the carcass. Once the Ribeye is removed, these would be considered Beef Back Ribs.

You would “think” these big, beefy ribs would be very tender considering the meat that was on them is the Ribeye but … the butcher rarely leaves any of the tender rib meat on the bone. The retailer can get MUCH more money for the Ribeye than the rib bones so, as I said, the only meat left on the bone is the meat between the bones and, that stuff is pretty tough. That’s not to say that with a little love you can’t turn these big bad boys into something pretty special because … you can!! The secret is … yup, low and slow, the same as the Pork Ribs.

Beef ribs

So, this rib area of the Beef carcass would correspond to the same area on the Pork carcass (AKA “Baby back ribs”) but, there is another “Rib” area on the beef carcass as well. The section that mirrors the Pork Side ribs on the beef carcass is marketed as Beef Short ribs and are sold either boneless or bone-in.

Oh boy … Beef Short ribs !!

The bone-in portion is VERY popular in Asian cuisine particularly Korean BBQ ribs when cutting across the bone in VERY thin slices. The boneless short ribs, although they LOOK tremendous, need to be cooked long and low.

Just for the record, … one of my FAVOURITIE ways to treat the boneless short rib is to brine it and turn it into Corned beef. If you’re interested, you can check out my post re Brining here.

For my buddy Steve, who asked me the question in the first place … thank you for the blog fodder buddy and, … I hope you will try these bad boys out.

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Just remember to take the skin “membrane” off the back of the ribs (both Beef and Pork) before you cook them … that stuff is REALLY chewy and will suck all the fun out of the whole eating experience.

That’s it for today Carnivores 🙂 🙂

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The Great Kobe Beef Mystery … the real deal ???

Posted on by Standard 4

Greetings Carnivores,

Have you ever been to a high-end restaurant where they advertise Japanese Kobe Beef on their menu? Do you even know what Kobe Beef is? How about Wagyu Beef??

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Is it Kobe Beef? Unless you ate it in Japan … ‘probably’ not

Boy, I’m opening a real can of worms here.

Truth is … If you’ve paid the retarded premium price for Kobe beef, and you didn’t eat it in Japan, you haven’t had REAL Kobe beef.

The steak (or burger, whatever) that you paid BIG bucks for was probably exceptional BUT … here’s the tricky part: Kobe refers to a PLACE in Japan where they raise this special animal and, just like Champagne refers to a region of France where the bubbly originates … anything produced OUTSIDE of Champagne  is nothing more than Sparkling wine, AND beef produced OUTSIDE of Hyogo prefecture (of which Kobe is the capital city) is an imposter. Until just recently, … it was NEVER even exported here (to North America).

Wagyu, Wagyu ‘style’, domestic Wagyu is another ‘trick’ the industry is playing on you too … Wagyu actually means “Japanese Cattle” and does not mean it’s Kobe. Look at it this way: a motorcycle is a two-wheeled, motorized vehicle but … not all motorcycles are Harley Davidsons. Motorcycle manufacturers around the world have for years copied the look and feel of the Harley Davidson. Sounds snobbish but, what I’m trying to say is if it looks like a cow, and moo’s like a cow … unless you’re in Japan, it’s not necessarily a Kobe Beef cow.

The reason this is so is because the USDA doesn’t recognize the copyright and hence, allows anyone to call their beef “Kobe” AND get away with charging an arm and a leg for it in their restaurants.

The next time you go to a game and see “Kobe Beef” Hot Dogs on the menu, or “Kobe Beef” meatballs at the grocery store … save your money, you’re being duped. Just like that $40.00 burger at the Bistro … yup, not the real thing.

And lastly, there’s also a myth about how Kobe Beef cattle are massaged daily, fed a crazy diet which includes beer and serenaded by Barry White on the old ‘Close ‘n Play’ … rubbish. (I made up the part about Barry White 🙂 )

Do your own research folks, I think you’ll be surprised.

Until then, stay hungry Carnivores and as usual, please follow my posts on Twitter @DougieDee and like and share them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/carnivoreconfidential