Amish Braised Beef Ribs

I have a good great friend who regularly goes to the meat market near Baraboo. She picks me up beef short ribs, chickens, tongue, smoked pork hocks. All the great odds and ends which make my OK cooking great.

I wanted to create a beef taco from rib meat. Beef rib meat is incredibly tough and takes a huge amount of time to cook properly. It's easy to overheat and dry it out before it's done cooking, so I decided not to smoke it. I wanted to get some good smoky flavors into the meat so I first charcoal grilled the meat to get a nice hard sear on the outside of the meat.

You lose some of the fond and rendered fat by charcoal grilling rather then searing it in a dutch oven. I think this is well balanced by the delicious grilled flavor that is imparted.

After I grilled the meat I put it into dutch oven and half covered it with 24 oz of Milwaukee Brewing's Polish Milk Stout which had a cinnamon stick and about a 1/4 cup of natural peanut butter mixed in. I braised it in a 300F oven turning every hour or so for 4-5 hours until the meat is tended.

The meat that is outside of the oven quickly darkens with the natural sugars from the beer and peanuts. It imparts a delightful dark sweetness to the meat which the light hit of cinnamon compliments without being noticeable.

The bones add a lot of flavor to the braise. The crusty deliciousness on the outside is mixed in with the chopped meat and the braising liquid is poured over the meat. This is eaten in corn tortillas or in burritos with cilantro lime rice.

I also like to serve the tacos with a black bean salad which is rinsed black beans tossed with garden fresh tomatoes, cilantro, shallots and apple cider vinegar.

-NOM!