Braised Short Ribs in Red Wine
Short ribs come off the plate, one of the hardest-working parts of the animal. Three hours is not a long time for them, it is the minimum.
Short ribs come off the plate, low on the animal, which on our cut map is the bottom row. That tells you everything: they worked hard, so they need hours.
| 3 lb SB Dry-Aged Short Ribs | 1 salt, rest 1 hr | 2 sear hard, every side | 3 cover, braise low, ~3 hr | |
| 2 tsp coarse salt | ||||
| 2 Tbsp beef tallow | ||||
| 2 onions, quartered | 4 rough chop | |||
| 3 carrots, in chunks | ||||
| 4 cloves garlic | ||||
| 2 cups red wine | 5 reduce by half | |||
| 2 cups beef stock | ||||
| 2 bay leaves | ||||
| 6Reduce the wine before the stock goes in, or the finished sauce tastes sharp. | ||||
| 7The fork is the test, not the clock. If it resists at three hours, it needs longer. | ||||
Numbers show the order to work in. Each cell spans exactly the ingredients it uses.
Why reduce the wine first
Wine added and simply left to braise keeps a raw, sharp edge. Reducing it by half first cooks that off and concentrates what is left. It takes about ten minutes and it is the difference between a sauce and a liquid.
“We used to just kind of not try to outsmart God, let the animal do what it's supposed to do and stay out of the way.”
Gray Shipley
There is no overcooking it, within reason
Unlike a steak, where every extra minute costs you something, a braise has a wide window. If the fork meets resistance, put the lid back on. Nothing goes wrong by waiting, and plenty goes wrong by serving it early.
“And it takes three years to make a steak.”
Gray Shipley
“There's a saying that farming isn't rocket science. It's way more complicated than that.”
Gray Shipley
The same method on a single larger piece is in the Sunday chuck roast.
Dry-aged short ribs, built for a long slow afternoon.
View Product- Cook to a Safe Minimum Internal Temperature, FoodSafety.gov
Food-safety temperatures and storage times on this page are cited to the agencies above rather than to us.
Written at Shipley Farms in Vilas, North Carolina: a family cattle farm raising and dry-aging beef in the Appalachian Mountains, now in its fifth generation. No shortcuts since 1872.
Every quote on this page is Gray Shipley talking, the man who runs this farm. We sat down with him, turned on a recorder, and kept his own words. Hesitations are trimmed so they read on the page. Nothing else is added or reworded, except where Gray revised his own words in review.
Nobody knows this beef better than we do. On food safety we leave it to FoodSafety.gov, and we have linked their page above. Reviewed 3 October 2026.
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