Another Sous Vide Smoke Rib

[Habanero Smoker]

I was able to finish my spare ribs today.

Thanks to Scotty-G's post Sous Vide Smoked Ribs motivated me to try this. After reading this article; The Food Lab Complete Guide Sous Vide Pork Ribs ; and reading Scotty-G's results, I used both as a guide to how I wanted to approached this. My goal was to see if I can prepare spare ribs in advance, reheat them, and have them taste as if they were coming out of the smoker for the first time. For this test I didn't want to use liquid smoke to produce a smoke flavor, so I will hot smoke them in the Bradley. I wanted to see which method; smoking before or after Sous Viding produces the best smoke flavor. I have two racks of spare ribs, one was hot smoked for 2:00 hours prior to Sous Vide, and the other smoked after.

I decided to Sous Vide at 152°F, for 24 hours, because that seemed like the texture I was looking for. If I used 145°F – 36 hours is too long of a time period for me, and it's not the texture I'm looking for. Using 165°F at 12 hours looked good, but the texture may be a little too soft for my liking. If they come out tougher than I like, I may try using 160° for 16 hours; as Scotty-G did. I prepared my ribs as I would if I were to cook them in one of my smokers. I used my favorite go to rib rub; which is Simply Marvelous Cherry rub – which I add additional seasonings, and for a sauce I use Blue Hogs Original diluted to two parts Blues Hog plus one part apple juice. You can get both on the Big Poppa Smokers website, or Amazon.

I'm using St. Louis Style ribs. Because I was using my 19 quart Sous Vide container and the P10 to apply smoke, I found I could leave the slab whole, after trimming about one rib off the short end of the slab – which I generally do anyway. After prepping the ribs, I vacuum sealed one slab, and refrigerated it. The other one was placed in the P10, and hot smoked between 116°F – 142°F, applying 2 hours of pecan smoke. The internal temperature after taking them out of the smoker was 91°F. I wrapped them in plastic wrap, and placed them in the refrigerator to cool down quickly, before vacuum sealing. Because the internal temperature only reached 91°F, I'm not going to adjust the time they are in the water bath.
 
After the smoked ribs cooled down they were vacuumed sealed, placed back into the refrigerator to "rest" for an additional 4 hours. I used an old inexpensive rib rack to hold the ribs. The rib rack was too wide to seat into the container, so I had to saw off part on each end of the rack. Next both slabs were placed in a 152°F water bath for 24 hours. After 24 hours the ribs were removed from the water bath, and placed in an ice bath to cool down rapidly; then transferred to a refrigerator.

I didn't get a chance to taste them until a couple of days later. In the morning I applied smoke to the unsmoked slab, following the same procedure as I did with the other slab. After being refrigerated I cut each slab in half, vacuumed sealed half of each rib, and placed them in the freezer to reheat at another time. Due to the small amount, the other two halves were finished in the oven at 300°F, as described in the above linked article, the only change I made was to give the ribs another dusting of rub before placing them in the oven.

Conclusion: As expected, I got the strongest smoke flavor from the ribs that were smoked after Sous Vide, but I felt the ribs smoked before sous vide had a better smoke flavor. Those were vacuum sealed and refrigerated for a couple of days after being smoked, and as usual the smoke flavor mellow out over time. Some of the smoke flavor of the ribs smoked prior to Sous Viding, dissolved in their liquid during the cook time; which may have also effected the smoke flavor.

I was disappointed with the texture. I like the texture of my ribs to have some bite, a slight tug, and come clean off the bone. Though these ribs were not fall off the bone, they were about as close as you can get to fall off the bone, and still be attached to the bone. So to me they were overdone. I know a lot of family members who would have loved them. I may try again, at the same temperature, but cut down on the time. Reheating them in the oven work well, but the temperature set at 300°F wasn't enough to caramelize the sauce.

I'm fairly sure this method will work for the parties I give, and may give it a try. I can Sous Vide eight slabs of ribs ahead of time, and on the day of the party I can use one of my charcoal cookers to reheat them at around 180°F for 2 hours while applying smoke; then transfer them to the grill when I apply sauce.

P.S.
Scotty-G; I did save the juices, and looking forward to making some ramen.

[Scotty-G]

Habs,
Thank you for sharing! Some ideas you shared I will also add for the next time I try this. I am also considering doing a time and temp comparison to see how the chew differs.
I typically cut my slabs into halves or thirds so they fit easier and then become portion sized for reheat but whole slabs sound tempting for a party.

Enjoy the ramen   :D

[Habanero Smoker]

I'm going to make some ramen tomorrow evening.  :)