Set up your smoker for indirect cooking and a temperature of 250f/120c. Add five or six Smokewood Shack Oak chunks to the charcoal, light and leave the smoker to come to temperature. When you see thin blue smoke the smoker is ready.

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When buying the beef ribs, try to pick ones with a good marbling of fat throughout the meat, the marbling will break down during the cook and result in unctuous, sticky smoked beef ribs. Trim the ribs of any sinew and place on a chopping board.

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Grind the sea salt and peppercorns in a pestle and mortar, until you have a fine mix. Don’t worry about the amount of salt and pepper, you probably won’t use all of it and the ribs can take a good amount of seasoning.

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Rub the ribs all over with the mustard, this will give the salt and pepper something to stick to. Sprinkle the seasoning all over the ribs, gently patting the seasoning on until you have a good even coating. Allow the ribs to sit at room temperature.

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When the smoker is ready, place the ribs bone side down and push a temperature probe into the thickest part of the meat. Place the veal marrow bones on the smoker too. Allow the veal bones to smoke for one hour, then move from the smoker and allow to cool. The beef ribs will continue to smoke for 5-6 hours more at least.

 

Peel and cut the potatoes into even chunks, place in a pan of cold water and add a good pinch salt. Bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes and tender. Drain into a colander and allow the steam to evaporate off to dry out the potatoes, this will give you a firmer, less watery mash.

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Use a spoon to scrape out the smoked marrow from the middle of the cooled veal bones into a food processor, dice the butter and add to the veal marrow. Blend for 3 -4 minutes until the marrow is well incorporated into the butter.

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Add the marrow butter to the pan you boiled the potatoes in and place over a medium heat, add the potatoes one at a time and mash into the butter. Once all the potatoes have been added beat the mash until it is nice and smooth, season to your taste. Set aside to reheat later.

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Slice the shallot and sauté in a pan over a medium heat for 4-5 mins, add the thyme and the red wine and allow the wine to reduce by two thirds. Add the beef or veal stock to the red wine and reduce again until the sauce has thickened and is glossy, season to taste and pass through a sieve to remove the shallots and thyme. Set aside to reheat later.

 

When the temperature of the beef ribs hits about 165f/74c wrap the beef ribs tightly in foil, this will accelerate the cooking through what is called the stall.

 

The “stall” is a period during the cooking process when the internal temperature doesn’t increase for sometimes hours due to evaporation cooling the meat. Wrapping in foil reduces the evaporation and therefore reduces the stall and the overall cooking time.

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Once the ribs have been wrapped, reinsert the temperature probe and return to the smoker until the internal temperature hits about 185f/85c, from this point on check the tenderness of the ribs every 15 minutes so with a skewer. Slide the skewer into the ribs, if you feel resistance it is not ready so try again in 15 mins. What you are looking for is the skewer to slide into the ribs with no resistance or “like butter” as the saying goes. Once you are at this stage, probe in a few different parts of the rib, if the feeling is the same the ribs are ready. Don’t worry if the ribs are cooking at different times and one or two don’t feel ready, they won’t be far behind. Simply remove the ribs that are ready from the smoker and wrap again in foil, allowing the other ribs to continue cooking.

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When all the ribs are ready remove them from the smoker still wrapped in foil and wrap tightly in a clean tea towel, allow them to rest for a least an hour.

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To serve, reheat the mash and red wine sauce. Slide the rib meat from the bone and slice into 4 or 5 slices. Place on top of the bone marrow mash and drizzle over the sauce.

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Enjoy!