recipe update: Mac & Cheese with Beef Short Rib Ragù

I have a recipe update for the Easy Mac & Cheese topped with Beef Short Rib Ragù which I posted in September of last year.

I happen to know that this is my friend and neighbor, Cindi Hancock’s, favorite recipe from this site. She and I often commiserate about and then update each other on, the availability status of the prepared short ribs at Costco.

This is the product that Costco sold last September. Then, suddenly, it wasn’t available… right when Cindi was planning to make the dish for a dinner party. We were bummed.

I’d search for the ribs on my weekly Costco runs.

After a few months of disappointment, I found that prepared short ribs were once again available at Costco. I sent Cindi a text while I was there, telling her of the good news. I purchased a package and tossed it into my freezer.

Yesterday, I finally pulled it out to make the dish, as requested by Connor, and was pleased to discover a much superior product from the original. Superior in appearance, texture, taste, value, and overall quality.

The Harris Ranch brand short ribs were chunks, with far too much fat, and drenched in an awful sauce, which I had you rinse off and discard.

The new product contains two bone-in portions, each weighing about 2-pounds, in their natural juices. Keep those juices and mix them into shredded meat! After removing the meat from the bone and discarding all visible fat, I was still left with a full pound of meat, from just one of the two packages. The remaining package was returned to the freezer for future use. I also saved the sesame BBQ sauce packets, although I don’t use them for this ragù, I may try to use them down the road for a rice dish.

This is good stuff!