You will need: Fireclay bricks / Spacer grid
Working hours: 25 minutes
Smoking: approx. 3 hours
Steaming: approx. 2 hours
Crusts + resting time: approx. 1 hour

Preheating: approx. 15 minutes
Top heat: approx. 120-140°C

Ingredients

1.5 kg short ribs (cross rib of beef)

For the Rub:

• 15 g roasted coffee beans
• 15 g coarse sea salt
• 5 g black peppercorns
• 10 g brown sugar
• 10 g paprika powder, sweet

In addition:

• Olive oil or medium hot mustard
• 2 vegetable onions, sliced
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled 
• 1 bottle of light beer

For the Rub:
Coarsely grind the coffee beans and then place in a small bowl.
Grind the peppercorns with the sea salt and mix into the coffee beans with the sugar and paprika powder.

Pat the short ribs dry with kitchen paper and remove the silver skin.
The silverskin usually does not come off completely. To prevent the rib ladder from bending open later in the oven, score the remaining skin along the bones (on the silverskin side) slightly with a knife.
 
Rub the beef ribs first with olive oil (or mustard), then with the prepared rub.

Vacuum the piece of meat or wrap it in a freezer bag and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 1-2 hours (preferably overnight).

Remove the ribs from the fridge one hour before cooking.

Heat the Merklinger to approx. 120-140°C.

Place the spacer grid on the firebricks. (If you don't want anything to drip onto the stones, you can place the Celtic bowl or a baking tray underneath).

Place the beef ribs on the spacer rack and smoke in the Merklinger for 3 hours at approx. 120-140°C top heat.
To do this, a small fire should be burning in the very back of the combustion chamber.

To maintain the heat, place a small piece of wood in the fire or on the embers from time to time. (It doesn't matter if it smokes!)
For a special smoke aroma, close the flap in the smoke pipe and the locking mechanism of the combustion chamber door completely 3-4 times for a few minutes during this time.

If you wish, you can also add smoking flour or chips (e.g. oak or hickory) to the embers during this phase.

Later, place the onions and the crushed garlic cloves in a GN container (with lid) or another casserole dish.

Place the smocked beef ribs on top and pour the beer over the sides.

Cover the tin with the lid or alternatively with aluminum foil and place back in the Merklinger (on the spacer rack).

Now comes the phase in which the beef ribs are steamed. This takes about two hours.

Then remove the tin from the oven.

To make the coffee crust crispy again, place the short ribs on the spacer rack in the Merklinger for approx. 30 minutes.

As soon as they are crispy enough, turn off the heat and leave the meat to rest in the oven for 30 minutes.

The coffee-crusted beef ribs are ready when they have reached a core temperature of 95°C.