Beef Short Ribs in the Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS)

This past summer we moved our daughter into TCU (Fort Worth, TX) to start her college life. While there, I had the pleasure of visiting Tim Love’s Woodshed Smokehouse on the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. Amazing place.

I ordered ala carte from their traditional smoke menu: 1 pound of beef ribs, an order of brisket, and a smoked / stuffed potato.
Everything was what I consider absolutely fantastic. Best brisket I’ve ever had. And the ribs – amazing.

Returning home from Texas, I couldn’t stop thinking about those ribs!

I looked up some beef rib rubs, and discovered a recipe from Tim Love for his Lonesome Dove Game Rub. I’m not sure this is what he uses at the Woodshed Smokehouse, but I figured I’d give it a go…

Here’s the recipe exactly as I found it (when I made it, I cut all the volumes by ½):

Lonesome Dove Game Rub:
1 cup Guajillo chili powder
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup cumin, ground
1/4 cup rosemary, finely chopped
1/4 cup thyme leaves, finely chopped
3/4 cup black pepper, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup garlic powder

Here’s the package of meat I started with (purchased at Costco). I'm pretty sure this is not the exact cut of meat I was served at the Woodshed, but these were the beef ribs I could find.

Here’s the meat trimmed up. See that pile of fat?

Since there were two “plates” of ribs, each with about 4 bones, I decided to experiment by cutting one into serving pieces before cooking to allow more surface exposed to the rub and the smoke, and then leave the second plate whole.

Here’s the meat all rubbed with the Lonesome Dove rub.

Just before loading up the drum:

The ribs loaded onto the Ugly Drum Smoker – along with three potatoes and two sweet onions. I carved a hole in one onion and stuffed it with two cloves of garlic, a little butter, and some bullion. The other onion I left whole.

Here’s what everything looked like at 3.5 hours at about 220-225 degrees F.

I pulled the ribs, wrapped them in foil, and sent them back to the drum for another 2 hrs. I decided to wrap the onions too.

The potatoes seem like they’re taking forever. Still not soft enough – even after 5.5 hrs.


Oh yeah… remember that pile of trimmed fat? I rendered it down on the stove (on low). I pulled the solid bits out for the dog. Not sure yet what I plan to do with the tallow.

Here are the ribs after 3.5 hrs on the drum naked, plus 2 hrs in foil (5.5 hrs total). They’re ready to go back on to finish up for another 1.5 – 2 hours. I’m looking for that internal temp of 203 degrees F.

I ended up stuffing two of the potatoes with sour cream and fresh basil, and topped with shredded cheddar cheese. Not certain my wife will like those, so I stuffed the third potato with sour cream and cheddar, also topped with cheddar.
Here they are ready to go back on the drum.

Getting close

After about 7.5 hours total time on the drum, I pulled everything in. (I think I brought the onions in after about 6.5 hrs).

The outside was nice and dark and crispy. The inside was tender and juicy. The rub, that I initially thought was too salty, was actually perfect. Over all, I was really pleased with the effort.