Sous vide pork ribs

[klflowers]

Mosca, rickgregory, I do chops and tenderloins in the sv all the time. I think it works really well on chops with a hard sear over charcoal afterwards. Keeps them pretty moist. Also, chuckies are great, but I go for like 30 hours. Turkey breast and chicken breast for lunch meat. I pretty much just follow the Anova instructions on time and temp. Corn on the cob and asparagus are also great in the hot tub.

[rickgregory]

Yeah, steak work that way. But it's not as set and forget and you would, I imagine, have to watch out for getting an overdone band on the outside, no?

[Mosca]

rickgregory You know what? I started taking steaks right out of the freezer and putting them in the cast iron. Works just fine. Haven’t tried chops yet.

[rickgregory]

3) SOMETIMES, chops/steaks from the freezer. This is more a matter of convenience, but if you forgot to get anything down from the freezer you can go from frozen chop to done and just needing a sear in 90 minutes. Texture can suffer, but it's fairly minor in most cases (esp with pork chops) and rescues those situations.

[rickgregory]

Mosca im the same. I like it for a few things, usually pretty specific:

1) shellfish. You can dial in the doneness nicely. Shrimp or lobster meat with butter and herbs is amazing. Do that, then make lobster or shrimp rolls... awesome. Scallops get done perfectly and then a quick sear finishes them.

2) chicken, esp for chicken salad. It stays moist, hits the perfect doneness.

[Mosca]

It was. I haven’t figured out a way to satisfactorily fit sous vide into my tool kit. And this wasn’t it.

This is going to be stuck in a sub comment in a topic that isn’t about the same thing, but even just straight up sous vide’ ing a steak, I don’t like the texture. All that purge gives the meat a bloodless springiness that it shouldn’t have. I’m not going to give away my circulator, but I’m not putting it front and center on the counter, either.

[rickgregory]

I dunno, this feels to me like one of those times when people SV just to use SV vs for any significant benefit. Ribs take a few hours on the smoker. If you can't smoke them for some reason (2 feet of snow, whatever)... oven.

[Rbar]

I did the next ribs at 162 degrees for four hours (Chefsteps) and that was less tender and mostly ok. No success with Liquid Smoke again. The next test will be to put them in the smoker, perhaps in Spring.

[Rbar]

I got perfect pulled pork texture with Sous Vide/1.5 hours on the grill.
Ribs end up bathing in the rendered fat and there is no hint of the bark that I applied or the fragrant Liquid Smoke. I found baby back ribs for 25 cents/lb at a big box store so I can afford to experiment ($4/rack). I barked the ribs in a toaster oven and added some sugar free Baby Ray's sauce (tomatoes are sweet enough).
This is like the WSM "boiling" items that are too close to the water pan. Edible but can only get better.
The next test batch has been rubbed and in the refrigerator over night. I will look to trim any extra fat but ribs in a bag have yet to impress me at all (the seal is water tight). I am tempted to stop the cooking and drain the bag mid-sous vide cook. 165 degrees for 12 hours was a tad long for healthy sized baby backs. Doing 152 for 24 hours was a waste of time and effort on prior ribs. I have never posted a picture and am doing so you can see that they look tasty. The glaze was the best part.
Please let me know if there is a better place to post this.

[Mosca]

rodkeary I’ll probably do them again, yes. My biggest problem with sous vide is that it is inconvenient; often I don’t think about dinner until dinner time. This is a way to make it fit the way I do things. If I can sous vide half racks and freeze them, then remove for reheating and smoking, or for a one hour cook instead of a five hour cook, then it is good.

[MBMorgan]

Now this is a perfect example where "no pics or it didn’t happen" can be a good thing. Better luck next time, friend.

[rodkeary]

Too bad. At least you were having fun by the sounds of it. If given the opportunity do you see yourself giving them another try?

[Mosca]

Oh heck, I forgot.

They were bad. We were laughing, talking, snacking, etc and I left them in too long. They were very very dry. Not a failure of method, but of execution.

[BFlynn]

Ribs pics or it didn't happen......

[rodkeary]

Still waiting on your SV pork rib update. How did they turn out?