Short ribs are a cut of beef taken from the brisket, chuck, plate, or rib areas of beef cattle. They consist of a short portion of the rib bone and the surrounding boneless beef short ribs, which varies in thickness. Banfield notes that the term “short ribs” comes from the fact that the cut of meat contains only a portion of each long beef rib.
Using American butcher’s nomenclature, short ribs may be taken from the brisket, chuck, plate, or rib areas of beef cattle. The serratus ventralis muscle defines the area in the beef carcass from where short ribs come, and is the preferred muscle tissue for short ribs. This muscle originates near the second rib, and covers most of the rib cage. The latissimus dorsi muscle lies atop the serratus ventralis muscle, and is separated from it by a layer of fat.
It adds thickness to chuck and rib short ribs, but is less prized by chefs than the serratus ventralis muscle. They consist of what remains of the rib in this area after the rib chop is removed. British cuts of beef, showing the various cuts of short ribs. Short ribs, by definition, are not the entire length of rib. When the carcass is cut across the bone to create strips of meat with multiple rib bones, the short rib is known as a “flanken cut. These may also be known as crosscut ribs, Eastern European-style ribs, Hawaiian-style ribs, Jewish ribs, Korean-style ribs, or “kosher ribs”.
Retail meat shops often do not differentiate between short ribs which come from the brisket, chuck, plate, and rib. In the United States, short ribs from the plate are generally the least expensive cut, followed by medium-priced short ribs from the brisket and chuck, and premium-priced short ribs from the rib area. Beef short ribs are the equivalent of spare ribs in pork, with beef short ribs usually larger and meatier than pork spare ribs. Boneless” short ribs are cut from either the chuck or plate, and consist of rib meat separated from the bone.
Boneless country-style short ribs”, however, are not true short ribs. Short ribs are particularly popular in Chinese, Japanese, Jewish and Korean cuisine. Short ribs generally require long periods of cooking in order to break down the connective tissues in the meat and make the meat tender. Methods of preparation include braising, stewing, and sous-vide. Pot-au-feu is a classic French method of cooking short ribs. Flanken is a traditional Eastern European Jewish short rib dish, and serves as the origin of flanken cut of short ribs.