Cuts · UK butchery
Beef ribs
British beef ribs, sold under several names including Jacob's ladder. Worth asking exactly which ribs you are getting, because the answer changes the cook by hours.
Known as
The same muscle carries different names in different butchery systems, and some of those names mean different cuts elsewhere. Where a name is ambiguous, BBQHQ says so rather than picking one.
- United Kingdom
- Beef ribs
- Jacob's ladder
- Thin rib
- jacobs ladder — butchery
Where it comes from on the animal
Rib bones and intercostal meat
Rib and plate · high use · connective tissue: high
The meat between and over the ribs. Which ribs, and whether cut across the bones or along them, is entirely a butchery decision — which is why 'short ribs' names at least three visibly different products depending on where you buy them.
Muscles: Intercostales, Serratus ventralis
Asking a butcher for it
Named the way uk butchery names it. If the counter does not recognise the name, the anatomy is the fallback: ask for the cut by where it comes from.
- What to say
- Beef ribs, or Jacob's ladder (GB) depending where you are.
- If that draws a blank
- Ask for rib and plate — the muscle is Intercostales, Serratus ventralis.
- What to specify
- Typical weight is 1.0–3.0 kg.
What it is suited to
Derived from how hard the muscle works and how much connective tissue it carries, which is the pairing that decides whether a cut wants a fire under it or beside it. BBQHQ does not rank cuts and does not name a best one.
- High connective tissue: this wants long, low, indirect heat. Collagen converts to gelatine slowly and well above any safety endpoint, so the cut is tough until it has had the time and tender afterwards. Cooking it fast makes it worse, not quicker.
- A hard-working muscle, which is why it carries the tissue it does and why it rewards patience.
What to use instead
A substitute is not the same as an equivalent. These are graded, because “yes, use that instead” is the answer that ruins dinners: most real substitutions work only once something about the cook changes.
Workable, once you change the cook
'Jacob's ladder' is the British butchery term a reader is most likely to need. It is not a standardised equivalent of any single US short-rib product.
- Which ribs are included varies between butchers.
- The US plate/chuck/back distinction has no routine UK counterpart.
Asking for it in another country
US butchery: Closest available
'Jacob's ladder' is the British butchery term a reader is most likely to need. It is not a standardised equivalent of any single US short-rib product.
What differs
- Which ribs are included varies between butchers.
- The US plate/chuck/back distinction has no routine UK counterpart.
The UK side of these mappings rests on AHDB’s published cutting specifications, which BBQHQ has read. The US side does not: USDA’s Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications and the Beef Checkoff cut pages both refuse automated access, so no mapping here reaches “same cut” across two butchery systems. See the open question.
Typical size
1.0–3.0 kg