This is what happened to me a couple weekends ago. We were having friends over for dinner, and I really wanted to make short ribs. I searched around and thought I found a great, reliable recipe from Tom Colicchio on Food & Wine's website. I figured I couldn't possibly go wrong with a recipe from two sources I trust.
I started the night before, following the recipe all the way through. I heated oil in a large skillet and seasoned the short ribs with salt and pepper. I browned the short ribs on both sides, about 9 minutes per side, as the recipe instructed.
Then I transferred the ribs to a shallow baking dish.
I added onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the still-hot skillet and sauteed these over low heat for 20 minutes.
Then I added wine and thyme sprigs to the skillet.
I brought the wine to a boil and poured the hot marinade over the short ribs. I set the dish aside to cool and then covered it and put it in the fridge overnight. (I did forget that I was supposed to turn the ribs once while they were marinating, but I don't think that mattered much because the meat was all submerged.)
The following evening, I preheated the oven to 350 and transferred the ribs and marinade from the shallow baking dish to my cast iron Dutch oven.
I poured the chicken stock in, and heated the mixture on the stove until it came to a boil. Then I covered the Dutch oven and put it in the oven for an hour and a half.
After that, I uncovered the short ribs and left them in the oven for another 45 minutes. The sauce should have been reduced by half at this point, but I don't think it was. (Should I have continued cooking the ribs uncovered?)
I transferred the short ribs to a shallow baking dish, poured the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve, and then poured the strained sauce over the short ribs. I covered the ribs and left them to sit in the turned off oven until our guests arrived and we were ready for dinner (probably an hour), and then I heated them under the broiler (this seemed weird but that's what the recipe said to do).
We had two ribs leftover from the dinner, and I ended up putting them in the oven a couple days later at 325 for about an hour. They were much better after that. But how could the cooking time possibly be that far off?
What went wrong? Have you made short ribs before? Do you have any tips or recipes for me?
28 comments:
It sounds like to me they needed to cook a lot longer. This type of cut usually needs a very long cooking time to produce fall of the bone results. Better luck next time..
So frustrating. Clearly this is not my department, but I feel you. It's the worst when it's an involved recipe that takes a lot of time and you have really high hopes.
The flavors sound great! I've made short ribs a few times. Here's a link to my method. http://www.goodcookdoris.com/2009/01/restaurant-meals-at-home.html
Just like brisket, sometimes longer cooking is better.
I also had fun smoking them on the grill over the summer.
I can't remember where I saw it, but I recently read something about how the specifics of recipes are never quite right - especially cooking times.
Hope you are staying out of the snow today!
Just a thought; did the recipe call for making it partially ahead? Chilling the meat after browning basically stopped the cooking, so maybe more time was needed to account for not just the time in the pan, but the residual cooking that happens afterward. I'm no food scientist but I bet there's a Harold McGee chapter about the effect of stop-and-go cooking on protein chains... ;)
I'd try it again all at once and see what happens! Good luck :)
--christine
since this is pretty much my job as a cookbook, it's always disappointing to read something like this. but chef recipes are notoriously unreliable, and i'm talking about even the greatest chefs. they don't know anything about creating recipes for home cooks. they use terms that no one understands, or they have better equipment, or they take for granted certain steps that really need to be spelled out in detail for home cooks. but i know people at Food & Wine, and they really test the crap out of everything. but it's also the nature of cooking. just to make a general point, your stove's "medium" heat could be radically different than the same setting on the test stove. so that's why i always ask that authors give visual or taste cues in addition to other factors. but it's not always so practical, like such as with a large piece of meat, as opposed to a risotto that you can taste for doneness as you go. or baking is really tough, when you are, for example, afraid of ruining the top of your cheesecake by testing it. so my point is that we get emails from people at my job who tried a cookbook recipe, and it didn't work. sometimes errors get through, but about half the time, nothing is wrong at all. it's just something the home cook didn't understand. that's why i say recipes have to be written for the lowest common denominator. authors don't like that, but it's the only way to go. spell out everything, even if you think it's obvious or implied.
What a bummer Megan! It sounds like they just needed a longer cooking time. At 350 for an hour and a half seems pretty short....I usually don't go by time for shortribs and just keep poking them until they fall off the bone.
I made them for New Years - my recipe is here
http://www.thecleanplateclubblog.com/2011/01/new-years-eve-dinner.html
I haven't made them before. That stinks that they didn't turn out exactly how they should have!
I'm not expert but it sounds like they needed to cook longer. This wasn't a fail but a learning mistake...and next time they will come out perfectly!
Don't you hate when its a meal for guests too?! of course they are going to compliment the food (it still tastes good!) but inside you are totally unsatisfied and wanted something better for them! UG. Well, I enjoyed reading everyones comments and advice, seems like a simple fix of a longer cooking time will help!
that's really a shame! What a disappointment. I've made these, with great success: http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/12/gutted-and-glutted/ I even froze the leftover sauce and used it in a boeuf bourguignon a few weeks ago. Yum! Good luck next time - definitely try short ribs again, they're wonderful!
So Frustrating! I agree with Christine above-perhaps it was the interruption in cooking? I've used adaptations of a Tyler Florence recipe with great success- perhaps it was just a poorly written recipe?
Either way- thanks for posting- something we can all learn from!
They just needed oven time--and at 300, not 350--before going into the refrigerator. Then you would remove the layer of fat before proceeding with the recipe the next day. I didn't look at the actual recipe, but I've found that many chefs are far better at making a dish than putting that dish down on paper!
Thanks for all the advice, everyone! To clarify, putting the short ribs in the fridge overnight is part of the recipe (everything I wrote above is part of the recipe). With most dishes like this, overnight refrigeration is typical. So I'm sure that wasn't the issue. But it does sound like a lot longer cooking time would be the solution. So frustrating. Thanks for the tips and new recipes to try!
Every time I've braised, the oven temp has been 325 (liquid can't boil in the oven at 325) and I've cooked all the way through before refrigeration. Maybe if you did all the cooking the night before and just re-heated uncovered? If the flavor was good, maybe the recipe can be resuscitated.
Every time I've braised, the oven temp has been 325 (liquid can't boil in the oven at 325) and I've cooked all the way through before refrigeration. Maybe if you did all the cooking the night before and just re-heated uncovered? If the flavor was good, maybe the recipe can be resuscitated.
Hmmm, did you maybe put the ribs in the oven the next day directly out of the fridge? I always leave meat out for a while to come up to room temp so it doesn't seize up when it hits the heat and gets tough. I've made the Olive Garden's recipe for Chianti Braised (boneless) Short Ribs several times, and everyone raves about them. Sorry this one didn't turn out for you. :(
I made short ribs a couple weeks ago and cooked them for four hours and I feel like they could have gone longer. I've seen recipes where they say to cook for an hour, but in my experience that is never enough time. Short ribs remain something of a mystery to me.
You can't win 'em all. We have trouble with braising meat too. It's such a bummer (and also why I usually dont try new recipes with guests!)
What a bummer! I hate when that happens. Because you mentioned it might the times in the recipe at fault, I will say that in culinary school they tell us to never pay attention to suggested times because there are so many variables, different sizes of meat, ovens that cook at different temperatures and even the weather has a serious impact on suggested times. I don't know if that's helpful. The components of the recipe look great, sorry it didn't work!
I'm sorry they didn't turn out well. At least they were flavorful though!
So frustrating Megan!! Maybe it was the meat- were all the short ribs not tender? Ive made short ribs twice and I've used Smitten Kitchens recipe. It's seriously flawless. I can't remember exactly, but I believe I braised in the oven for 3-4 hours at 325, then refrigerated, took off all the fat and put them on a baking sheet to broil for 15. Try that one next time... you won't be disappointed. : )
M - I made this recipe too and it was a fail for me too, which is why I never wrote about it. The ingredients are very similar to Daniel Boulud's recipe, which was quite a success, but DB's recipe calls for oven braising for 2.5 hours prior to refrigeration. The refrigeration allows for the meat to contract and absorb all of those delicious flavors. I think the F&W recipe was just bad. Try the DB recipe, it's amazing!
oh no! i do not like when this happens, especially from sources that i would've trusted! i've never cooked them, though, so i have no suggestions...
I feel you're pain! We've all been there, one that... It's so disappointing when you put in all the time and effort. It does sound like they got better after you cooked them longer. Here's my favorite way to prepare short ribs. Hope this helps! http://skinnykitchen.com/recipes/fabulous-braised-short-ribs-provencal/
Sorry to hear that these didn't turn out well. I think I agree with the other commenters that they just needed more time. Did you check the comments on the recipe from the F&W site? Did other people have this problem? I'm sure we'll have another snowstorm soon which will give you a good excuse to stay home and rework this recipe.
Oh no, that's the worst! I actually made those exact short ribs for Valentine's Day last year (I briefly mentioned them in this post: http://cakebatterandbowl.com/champagne-salmon-with-swiss-chard-quinoa.html) and they turned out beautifully. I think my short ribs were smaller than the ones your used though, so maybe they just needed to cook longer? Hopefully they'll be better next time!
So disappointing when a meal for guests doesn't turn out. :( I agree with the others that the cooking time probably wasn't long enough. I've made Pioneer Woman's braised short ribs a couple of times with very good results. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/11/braised-short-ribs-heaven-on-a-plate/
I usually do 2+ hours at 350, then 45 minutes or so at 325, then let them sit for 20 minutes before serving.
Thank you for sharing when something doesn't work! I think that helps novice cooks gain confidence... when even experienced cooks turn out recipes that aren't perfect.
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