Sousvide Que + Mayo!

Wife had a hankering for ribs and I had the sousvide machine out.. so a bit of a peanut butter in my chocolate moment, with a little brethren twist. I've never tried any sousvide que as of yet so was highly skeptical.

Trimmed down and slathered


All seasoned up with a riff on Popdaddy's Butt Glitter


Here we are after 12hrs in a bag at 165F, a chill in an ice bath and 6 hours in the fridge. Appetizing isn't it?


Put them on the egg at around 200F with 3 fist sized chunks of pecan. Figured I would need to hammer them with smoke. I let them temp slowly creep up to 300F over the course of an hour. In this picture they've been in there for about 45min. Starting to look like real ribs.


Glazed a few times with a combination of Smokin' Hoggz BBQ sauce and another Popdaddy riff of Beale Street Redd and Wett



I hate to say it but I just might be a convert. It made for some of the best damn ribs I've ever made. Texture was spot on and they were plenty smoky.



Now I'm not going to give up on tending a fire but I can see these being a viable option when pressed for time or the weather doesn't cooperate.
Thanks for looking.

jonfromjersey said:

"Here we are after 12hrs in a bag at 165F, a chill in an ice bath and 6 hours in the fridge."

Okay, so I get that they turned out great, but is your point that they take less time AFTER the sous vide? Do you mean you sous vide one day and then freeze or refrigerate until you want them and then they take a short time? Just asking because:

A-I want to rationalize a sous vide
and
B-I've never had to smoke ribs for anywhere close to 12 hours

Thanks!

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Yes that's exactly right. They are already cooked after the sousvide. So it's only an hour or so on the cooker. That puts ribs in the time range of a weekday meal for me and/or braving inclement weather without much discomfort. That 12 hours is completely hands off by BTW, even a pellet cooker needs to be refilled occasionally!
I do believe that the chilling is a critical step, otherwise they would overcook while in the smoker. I'm also feel that that being wet and cool helps the smoke adhere.
The sousvide is great, it allows you to do things that would be difficult or impossible with out

JD08 said:

Now I'm curious about other cuts.

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Sousvide top sirloin makes some of the best roast beef. I like it even better than reverse seared prime rib. I salt the roast heavily with lawry's seasoning salt and let it hang out for a day in the fridge (Alternatively if doing it for meal prep I seal it and throw it in the freezer and go directly into the sousvide from frozen), then do 140F for 24-36 hours, pull it out pat it dry with paper towels and I sear it on my infrared gas grill. It's awesome. The liquid in the bag makes a great start to a jus if you want french dip sandwiches. Makes fantastic canitas, Pork belly is amazing. I cook a pack of chicken breasts just about each week for work lunches for the family.

edapp said:

I have never heard of cooling the meat back off after sous vide... Can you explain that process? Aren't they leftovers at this point?

I was under the impression you could sous vide basically as long as you want, for convenience purposes. Why not do that vs back in the fridge?

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I do believe that the chilling is a critical step, otherwise they would overcook on while in the smoker. I'm also feel that that being wet and cool helps the smoke adhere. Not only that as you can see from the picture they are quite pallid and unappetizing out of the bag. Many things require a finishing step after their time in the bag.

You definitely have a large window (on the order hours) but as TravelingJ mentioned you will get different textures with different times and temps.

TravelingJ said:

There is a limit to sous vide, before the texture changes. If you are after 12 hour ribs, then 18 hours would probably be vastly different.

I've tried it, and we liked it as well. I had a hard time getting the bark that I wanted, but it was good enough that I convinced a coworker to try making them this way, as well. It's fun to try something new.

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Yeah the "bark" out of the bag was soft enough that i was leaving finger prints in it and could have wiped it off it I wasn't careful. I'm sure it would have been worse if they had been warm. After 30 minutes or so in the cooker it had set right up. Not that much different than if you wrap ribs in liquid.