Date Published: Feb 26th, 2024 | Last Updated: Feb 26th, 2024
Author: Abby |Category: mains
Serves: 4-5 | Prep time: 20 mins | Cook time: 2 hours

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Bookmark this, it’s time to impress everyone. These beef short ribs are fall-off-the-bone, melt-in-your mouth soft and it’s paired with a luxurious rich syrupy red wine sauce that is to die for. Try it yourself, you won’t regret it!

I came across this recipe through a Reddit cooking thread that asked people what their go-to dish was when they want to impress dinner guests and this one from RecipeTinEats was one of the top responses. I couldn’t wait to make it but due to our busy work schedule and sourcing the ingredients (mainly the short rib), it wasn’t until a week later that I finally got to try out the recipe. This dish was definitely worth it wait – it came out DELICIOUS! I actually had a lot of leftovers due to the giant Costco size package of short ribs I got so I shared it with our coworkers and they all unanimously agreed that it was damn good. This is a dish worth showing off – seriously.

What are beef short ribs?

I had never cooked with beef short rib before and didn’t even really know what it was. Is it different than a regular beef rib? Why is it ‘short’? Did they just trim down a regular rib? Why is it more expensive? What’s so special about it?

Being a veterinarian, I had to look up anatomical images of a cow just to figure out where the short ribs even came from to have it all make sense in my head. According to Wikipedia, the serratus ventralis muscle defines the area from where the short ribs come from. This muscle is thickest between the 2nd to 5th rib and is the preferred area to cut because the muscle here is much thicker. Outside of this area the serratus ventralis becomes too thin to create a true ‘short rib’. So a beef short rib is from specific area of the ribs that is meatier – which probably explains why its more expensive (if there are any butchers reading this, please correct me if I’m wrong!). I highlighted an anatomical diagram and included it in this post in case anyone else was as interested as me – ignore the fact that it’s an equine model 🤫.

English Cut vs. Cross-cut/Korean Cut?

There are two main ways a short rib is cut:

1. English cut – where the meat is cut along the bone and you end up with long pieces of rib bone and chunks of meat.
2. Cross cut or Korean-style cut where the ribs are cut across the bone and you end up with small circular bones and thin cuts of meat. This is popular in Korean short rib dishes – in fact, I couldn’t even find any non-Korean style dishes that used short ribs in this style of cut.

(Here is a helpful video from a butcher to help you visualize it better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA4FwE7QbrE)

In this recipe, we want the English cut so we can get big chunks of meat when serving. Living in South Brooklyn, we have a severe deficiency of a good butcher around our area and we had to go to THREE bodega grocery stores just to find English cut short ribs. Side story: the first time I made this recipe I found a huge pack of short ribs at Costco for a decent price and was so excited to make it. Nowhere on the package did it list what style it was cut and the way that it was packaged made it impossible to tell, so I just assumed it was the English cut since there is also a severe deficiency in Asian-style grocers in the area – what are the chances that this “Kansas City Steak Company” meat would be a Korean cut? 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ I woke up at 7am that morning to start prepping and cooking so everything would be cooked and ready by lunch time (the original recipe has a 3 hour cook time with a dutch oven – more on that below). I opened the big hefty bag of meat that I had been staring at for the past 3 days and I was so disheartened to find that it was the wrong cut of short ribs 😭. I triple checked the packaging in the garbage to see if I was the one that made the mistake, but indeed there was no label at all to identify the cut of meat, other than “sliced”. I had a mini temper tantrum not knowing whether I should abort mission after literally dreaming about short ribs for so many days or to continue on and hope for the best. All this at 7am while Toby happily slept in – he doesn’t know how close I was to waking him up to rage. Not wanting to waste $40 of meat and also definitely not wanting to venture out this early in the morning in the middle of winter to find more short ribs, I continued on. The flavours turned out just fine, but the steps involved were a lot lengthier and it was definitely super annoying to pick out every single cross-cut bone. I have included a photo of the offending meat package so no one else makes the same mistake that I did at Costco. /rant

What if I can’t find English cut and only Cross cut/Korean-style cut?

If you cannot find English cut short ribs and you can only find the Korean-style cut, you can still proceed with this recipe as written and the flavours will still be the same, but there will be some adjustments:

• If your rib slices are long, you may have to use scissors to cut them in half before you sear them so it fits in the pot better.
• It will take much longer to sear all the meat because you’ll be dealing with more pieces rather than bigger chunks of meat, so plan accordingly.
• When you have an English cut, you have the option of serving the dish with or without the bone based on preference of presentation. If you use a Korean cut, you must remove all of the bone prior to serving or else there will be small round bones throughout your dish which is unpleasant. Removing every piece of bone is time-consuming and a bit annoying, so be prepared for this.
• After you remove all the bone, the beef will look a bit ugly and stringy from the extra connective tissue around each bone so I’d recommend you break it all up and shred the meat before serving. Although the flavour of the dish will be the same, you won’t get big chunks of meat but rather shredded meat – it’s still delicious nonetheless, but the texture is a little different.

Instant Pot (pressure cooker) vs Dutch Oven – not much difference other than time!

The original recipe (and most short rib recipes on the internet) calls for a dutch oven that slowly cooks the short ribs in the oven for 3 HOURS. I did this. I even bought a dutch oven just for this recipe – well, I was eventually going to get one anyway, but this recipe pulled the trigger for me to get it now 😛. When I first made this recipe, I had a large amount of short rib from Costco (albeit in the wrong cut – see rant above) so I decided to double the recipe. However, when it came time to cook it all, I realized that not all of it fit into my 5 1/4qt dutch oven and there was no way I was going to make it in two batches and commit another 3 hours to making this (totalling 6 hours of cooking time), so I decided to put half of it in my Instant Pot and cook it at the same time.

The original recipe from RecipeTinEats raves about the dutch oven method as her preferred way of making this due to the flavour from the extra caramelization of the sauce and beef. Since I was doing half dutch oven and half Instant Pot, I figured that even if the Instant Pot version wasn’t as good at least I wouldn’t be cooking until late into the evening and I’d still have the oven ribs to enjoy. The Instant Pot version only took 1 hour cook time and was the first to finish. Because it was pressure cooked with the lid on, all the liquid had remained and I ended up having to reduce the sauce down a LOT to get the right consistency – it took about 15-20 minutes, whereas it should usually take 5-10mins. The resulting sauce and meat was REALLY GOOD (and even with the wrong cut of meat!). I couldn’t believe how rich the flavours were and how tender the meat was! It was incredible. The timer went off again and this time the dutch oven method was ready – I was excited. There was a lot less liquid so the sauce came together much faster but the texture and colour of the meat was the same (see the comparison photos below).

I did a blind taste test with Toby of the Instant Pot meat and sauce vs the dutch oven meat and sauce. He couldn’t tell the difference (and neither could I) – he actually thought maybe the Instant Pot version was a little better by a hair, which made me really happy because although I love my beautiful new dutch oven, I would much prefer waiting 1 hour for something to cook rather than 3 hours for the same results. Although you have a longer sauce reduction time with the Instant Pot, the overall time commitment is still less. Instant Pot wins!

*Note: when I did this cooking trial, I did it with the wrong cut of meat – Korean style cut rather than the English cut. In this trial, the flavours of the meat turned out exactly the same and the sauces were also similar as well which is why my Instant Pot is my go-to for this dish. I haven’t tried the dutch oven method with the English cut so I can’t speak for any differences in meat that it may have. To me, the sauce is the focus and the small differences in textures of the meat is secondary, so if you’ve done it both ways with the English cut, I’d love to know if you find a big difference!

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 1.5 – 2kg beef short ribs, English cut (~ roughly 4-5 large pieces, try to get ones with more meat on them)
• Kosher salt & pepper
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 4 sticks of celery, diced
• 2 Tbsps tomato paste
• 2 cups (500ml) beef stock
• 2 cups (500ml) red wine – any will do, even the cheap stuff! I use cabernet sauvignon.
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme (or 1/4 tsp of dried thyme)
• 2 bay leaves
• Your choice of side to serve with the short ribs: ie. mashed potatoes, sautéed green beans, salad…etc.

Directions:

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the short ribs.

Turn your instant pot on to the SAUTÉ setting on HIGH heat. Add a drizzle of oil and sear the short ribs in batches, making sure you brown every side. Set aside the seared ribs.

Tip: Watch out for the oil splattering! A splatter guard will work wonders here and extra long tongs or extra long chopsticks will be even better to avoid getting hot oil on your hands when you turn the ribs to sear each side.

Turn the heat down to MED and add in the onion and garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes until fragrant, making sure you scrape up any browned bits from the beef on the bottom and sides of the pot (the precious brown bits give us extra flavour and the moisture from the onions will help soften it from the bottom of the pot).

Add in the carrots and celery. Continue to cook until the carrots have softened (7-9 minutes).

Add in the tomato paste and stir through, then the beef stock, red wine, thyme, and bay leaves. Mix everything together and simmer for 3 minutes for the alcohol to cook out.

Add back in the seared ribs (from step 2) and submerge them in the liquid. Cancel the instant pot sauté setting and put on the lid. Set the instant pot to PRESSURE COOK and HIGH for 1:00 hour with 10 minutes of natural release.

While the instant pot is cooking, you can prepare any sides to go with the short ribs. I’d recommend a carb like mashed potatoes to pair with the rich short ribs sauce and an easy veg like green beans or a salad.

When the timer has finished, turn off the instant pot and open it. You should have a very tender fall-off-the-bone short rib! Very carefully, remove all of the ribs into a separate bowl, trying to keep the meat and bones intact for serving. Cover the ribs to keep warm and set aside.

Make the sauce: Place a strainer over a bowl and strain out the vegetables from the liquid. Use a spoon or ladle to squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the vegetables. Discard the vegetables. Pour the strained liquid into a saucepan or wide based pan and simmer on MED heat for 15-20 mins until you get a thickened syrupy-consistency. This will take a while because there will be a decent amount of liquid to cook down since the instant pot does not evaporate any liquid as it cooks. Drizzle the sauce over the short rib to serve.

To serve: Place 1-2 pieces of short rib (depending on how large your pieces are) on a plate with or without the bone and add a drizzle of the sauce overtop. Serve with your desired side dishes. Enjoy!

Summarized Recipe: