Why we love meat: Wine-braised Beef Short Ribs with Parsnips

Beef short ribs are slow braised with red wine, beef stock, parsnips, shallots, onion, garlic and anchovies (for added umami). Recipe below.

CHICAGO OFFERS A WEALTH OF OPTIONS for carnivorous home cooks. Besides the usual supermarkets, there are Mexican carnicerias, Korean markets, old-fashioned butcher shops, new-fashioned locavore snout-to-tail butchers… When we were looking for short ribs last Saturday, we reacquainted ourselves with yet another source, Peoria Packing.

Facing the noisy Green Line El tracks on Lake Street, Peoria Packing is one of the few remaining vestiges of the formerly gritty, bustling meatpacking district, Fulton Market. For more than a century, the market, along with a wholesale produce row two blocks south along Randolph Street, supplied Chicago restaurants and grocers as well as buyers on the East Coast. Now produce row has become the Randolph Street Restaurant Row, and Fulton Market is following close on its heels. Condos and tech firms are springing up everywhere. Google has opened a major office there.

Peoria Packing was a relative latecomer to the Fulton Market meatpacking district, opening its processing plant in 1990, selling directly to distributors, independent supermarkets, supermarket chains and other processors throughout the US, Mexico and Canada. In 1993, they opened their retail butcher shop across the street from their plant.

That proximity to the plant cuts out any middlemen and keeps very fresh cuts of meat at wholesale prices. So does a bare bones approach to retail. Walk into Peoria Packing’s butcher shop, and you are walking into a huge, clean, see-your-breath cold room. Essentially a giant refrigerator. Rows of tables are stacked high with meat, organized by animal and cut. Customers don plastic gloves and bag their selections in oversized plastic bags. Between restocking the tables, butchers can answer occasional questions—and do so cheerfully—but this is a self-service operation.

You won’t find esoteric meats or cuts here, but you will find beautiful, fresh meats at very good prices. The store is bustling with mostly working-class customers, often pushing full shopping carts. We left with the beef short ribs we’d come for and some thick-cut pork chops.

Short ribs are one of those cuts of meat that respond well to a long, slow braise. It makes the most of their flavor while tenderizing their chewiness. In this recipe, a host of aromatics—onions, shallots, garlic, parsnips, rosemary—and an umami secret that’s not so secret in the south of France, anchovies, all blend together to further boost the ribs’ meaty deliciousness.

Choosing your short ribs. I grew up eating English cut short ribs, squarish cubes of meat with a single slab of bone at the base. Flanken style short ribs are cut across the bones, usually in 1/2-inch thick slabs. These are often found in Korean and Mexican markets and are used in quick-cooking recipes (think Korean kalbi barbecue). For this recipe, we chose a hybrid of the two, cut flanken style, but much thicker—about 1-1/2 inches. If you can find this hybrid cut—and I’ve seen it a number of places—choose that. Otherwise, the English cut will work well too.

Whichever cut you choose, aim for thick, meaty portions, 2-1/2 inches or so from the bone to the top edge. As you can see, short ribs are marbled with fat. That’s a good thing. As much of the fat cooks off during the long braise, it imparts juiciness and flavor in the meat.

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Wine-braised Beef Short Ribs with Parsnips

Beef short ribs are slow braised with red wine, beef stock, parsnips, shallots, onion, garlic and anchovies (for added umami).

Course Main Course, Meat

Cuisine American

Servings 4 with leftovers

Equipment

• parchment paper

Ingredients

• 4 pounds or so of short ribs, English or flanken hybrid cut
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• flour for dredging meat
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more if needed
• 1-3/4 cups chopped shallots
• 1 cup chopped white onion
• 1-1/2 cups parsnips, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch cubish pieces
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 5 cloves garlic chopped
• 3 packed-in-oil anchovy fillets, drained and minced (optional, but use them)
• 1-1/2 cups dry red wine—we used a modest Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1 cup beef stock, preferably unsalted if store bought

Instructions

• Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit snugly inside your Dutch oven. I didn't do this until it was already quite hot, ready to go into the oven—things got dicey.
• Preheat oven to 325ºF. Season ribs generously with salt and pepper on all sides. Dredge in flour (I often put a few tablespoons of flour in a large plastic bag, add the meat and shake it). Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add butter and olive oil, swirling them together as the butter melts. Working in batches, brown short ribs briefly on all sides, 2 minutes or less per side; you don't need a char, just a little browning.
• Transfer browned ribs to a plate. Reduce heat to medium and drizzle in a little oil if the Dutch oven is dry. Add shallots and onion, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes. Add parsnips and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
• Clear a space in the middle of the pot and add rosemary, garlic and anchovies. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add wine and beef stock and stir, scraping up any browned bits. Nestle—or cram—short ribs back into the Dutch oven. They can totally touch each other now, but you want a single layer. Braising liquids should come about 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ribs. Add more wine, if needed. If the liquids come up higher than that, don't worry—you just don't want the meat totally submerged.
• Cover meat, aromatics and liquids with parchment paper; this concentrates the liquids around the meat and helps keep them from evaporating. Cover Dutch oven with lid and transfer to oven. Braise for 3 to 3-1/2 hours, until meat is quite tender, checking halfway through to see if you need more liquid (I did not need more).
• Transfer ribs to serving platter. If you used flanken-style ribs, cut between bones into individual sections. Using a slotted spoon, drain the parsnip/shallots/onion mixture and spoon around the short ribs on the platter. Serve. Accept compliments graciously.
• Note: Similar recipes will call for spooning fat off remaining liquid and cooking it down as a sauce. In my experience (I cooked the ribs for 3-1/2 hours), there was not a lot of liquid left, and most of it was fat. You don't need it.