I don’t reverse-sear often enough. When faced with a choice chunk of beef, my go-to method is a traditional sear (see one of my favorite recipes of last year, this Roast NY Strip Loin). But many prefer a reverse-sear, where you cook the meat to just under your desired temperature, then blast it with some high heat to finish it off. This allows you to heat the meat evenly and results in a better distinction between the crispy crust and tender center (here is a good writeup). So I decided to share this method using these miso-marinated boneless short ribs.
Many folks in the Paleo world eschew all forms of soy, and balk at the idea of cooking with miso. But as I mentioned in my five years Paleo post last month, I believe a more nuanced approach to diet is appropriate, and we shouldn’t discount all foods from particular groups (even if it does make for handy and marketable “eat/avoid” charts). Here’s my stance on soy, taken from the pages of Paleo Takeout:
“Make no bones about it—soy is pretty terrible for you. It has been linked to malnutrition, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders, and even heart disease and cancer. It has one of the highest toxin profiles of any legume, and it’s baffling that we feed this stuff to our children via infant formula.
But there’s a bright spot in all this doom and gloom; fermenting soy, especially through the long, slow process of making tamari and miso, eliminates its phytic acid and other digestive inhibitors. However, the fermentation process doesn’t totally destroy phytoestrogen, another bad guy, although it does reduce it by up to 90 percent; you’re likely ingesting more phytoestrogen through sesame seeds and garlic than through fermented soy.”
Miso’s bold flavor makes for a great marinade. Adding a bit of acidity, in the form of mirin (sweet rice wine) and sake, helps tenderize the meat as well.
For this recipe, I had the pleasure of trying some boneless short ribs from ButcherBox. They deliver 100% grassfed, pastured meat products as part of a curated monthly subscription service, shipped with recipes for their products. I really like the concept of curated meat boxes, as a way to bring variety into your meals (much like a vegetable CSA).
ButcherBox recently featured my Instant Stew recipe in a previous box (pictured above), and this short ribs recipe will make its way into a future box as well, which is pretty awesome.
Miso-Marinated Boneless Short Ribs (Primal, Gluten-Free, Perfect Health Diet)
3 tbsp miso paste
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sake or other white wine (if none available, use 1 additional tbsp of mirin)
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
2-3 lbs ButcherBox boneless short ribs
chives to garnish
1. Combine the miso paste, mirin, sake, and white pepper in a small bowl. Pat the short ribs dry with some paper towels, then liberally spread the miso mixture over the ribs; transfer to a resealable plastic bag and marinate for at least 4 hours, overnight preferred. Can be marinated for up to 48 hours.
2. Preheat your oven to 225F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil, then cover the foil with a wire rack. Place the short ribs on the wire rack, fatty side up, leaving a few inches of space between them to allow air to circulate. Bake until they reach an internal temperature of 125F for rare short ribs, or 130F for medium-rare short ribs, about 1 hour. To assist in checking the temperature, I use a bluetooth-enabled oven thermometer; a quick-read thermometer will work fine, just check it every 5-10 minutes after 40 minutes.
3. Remove the sheet of short ribs from the oven and increase the temperature to 500F; loosely cover the ribs with foil as the oven heats. Once the oven comes to temperature, switch it to “broil” and place the ribs in the oven. Broil until the tops crisp and start to blacken, about 2 minutes, then remove from the oven. Allow to rest for 5 minutes, then slice and serve garnished with chives.
** Sake is readily available in most liquor stores, often in small bottles that are perfect for cooking. Buy one that you’ll enjoy drinking; just be sure to reserve 1 tbsp for this recipe!
When buying miso, I prefer the pastes available from Mister Miso. In particular, I like their red miso paste, which is barrel-aged for a year (its extended fermentation gives the paste its red pigmentation). This brand is available in most Whole Foods stores.
I served mine with some Pressure-Cooker Duck Fat Risotto.
The Domestic Man 
Good god this looks good
LikeLike
What about the fact that most soy products we get here in the US are GMO?
LikeLike
Hi Marilyn, good question – organic foods are by definition free of GMOs, so we buy organic miso and tamari (the Mister Miso paste I linked to in this post is organic, and I like Eden Foods’ organic tamari). You’re right that most soy products sold in the US are genetically modified, but thankfully it’s relatively easy to find organic fermented soy products!
LikeLike
Thanks for taking time to respond…
LikeLike
FYI, I clicked on the link for the miso paste but got the following warning:
The site ahead contains malware
Attackers currently on ges.blueshift7.com might attempt to install dangerous programs on your computer that steal or delete your information (for example, photos, passwords, messages, and credit cards).
So, not wanting to compromise my ‘puter, I opted to not proceed.
LikeLike
“But as I mentioned in my five years Paleo post last month, I believe a more nuanced approach to diet is appropriate, and we shouldn’t discount all foods from particular groups”. Finally! Someone who has a sensible approach to this diet.
LikeLike
Looks so yummmmm! Thanks for sharing this :)
LikeLike
These sound terrific—I’ll have to whip them up soon. Thank you!
LikeLike
My mouth is watering – and where I am right now it’s early morning, is it too bad to want this for breakfast?
LikeLike
This looks delicious :)
LikeLike
Made this tonight Russ – turned out great! :D
LikeLike
Jeff, awesome, glad you liked it! I’ve made this recipe three times since posting the recipe :)
LikeLike
I have to reblog this recipe–it’s a keeper. Just used the short ribs from by local supermarket, but they were luscious. Thanks for a great recipe.
LikeLike
This looks amazing! Love to see people who are soy-sane. I just wanted to jump in and say that, like many things, phytoestrogens aren’t across-the-board bad guys… they are just a component of food that can effect our hormones, for good or for bad. Because we have co-evolved with the plants that we (and our primate ancestors) ate, I think it’s worth a deeper look to see what their value could be–along with the clear risk of overconsumption, especially with certain conditions. Turmeric, yucca, flax, marijuana, sunflower seeds, etc. are all sources of phyto-estrogens!
LikeLike
made this last night. a major “yum”.
LikeLike