These are the results of some early experimentation conducted by a friend (and tasted by me!) using a combination of smoking and sous-viding with the DSV. He tried quite a few different combinations of methods, but the best results were St. Louis style cuts smoked at 250F for 90 minutes, vacuum sealed and sous-vided at 140F for 48 hours, then finished off in the smoker on "high" (400F) for about 5 minutes per side. This is still a work in progress, so once we've nailed it we can post up an official recipe. In the meantime we'll keep tasting
Curious what's worked well for others, please let us know!
Sous-vide ribs directly in brine/broth & then smokeRemove silver skin from slab of baby back pork ribs
Cut in half, put in crock pot with chicken broth
Sous-vided at 140F for ~50hrs
Sprinkled rub on ribs, put in smoker set to 180F (actual 180-220F) for 1 hr
Basted ribs in brown sugar and hickory bbq sauce, allowed to smoke for 1 more hr
Verdict:Smoking the ribs post-SV dried out the meat, and did little to add any "smoke flavor" to them. Texture was a little mushy, probably a combination of sous-viding directly in broth and for too long.
Combinations of Smoke only, and Smoke, sous-vide, then grillRemove silver skin from slab of baby back pork ribs
Cut rack in half
Dry rub on ribs, put in smoker set to 225F (actual 225-250F) for 1 hr
Extracted one of the halves, sealed in plastic bag, put into the SV at 140F for 48hrs, the other half remaining smoked for 1 more hr before basting w/ bbq sauce.
Allowed to smoke 1 more hr (3 hrs total), basting every 20-30 min
Continually cut off single ribs after 3 hrs, 4 hrs, and 5hrs total to taste them, basting in between
For the ribs that were SV'd, i finished them off by basting w/ bbq sauce and cooking on the gas grill for about 2 min/side
Verdict:For the ribs that were only smoked- as expected, they got more tender with time. The ones after 3 hrs weren't very good (too tough) but the last remaining rib which cooked for 5 hrs total still had some moisture, but a flakier texture. A little effort is needed to get the meat to come off the bone, but it does come off cleanly. Taste was very smoky.
For the ribs that were also SV'd- these ribs were very tender, and came off the bone with zero effort. The texture was a little too soft throughout, especially on the outside which we normally expect to be crispier. The taste was very good, and a little smoky, but not enough to convince me it was bbq.
St. Louis cut with longer smoking times, combination of Smoke Only and Smoke, then sous-vide and finish on smokerDry rub on ribs
Set the smoker to 250F, and let them smoke for 90 minutes before sealing in the bag for the SV
The other rack i left on the smoker and smoked a total of 4 hrs
The rack that was SV'd cooked at 140F for 48 hrs, and finished off about 5 min a side in the smoker set to it's highest setting (~400F)
Verdict:Both methods of cooking produced really good results. The ribs were fattier than baby backs, which no doubt made a difference.
The ones that were only smoked were a little drier and tougher (relative to the SV'd ribs), especially the shorter ribs on the ends of the racks. Also, as a result of basting with a sugary sauce multiple times during the smoking, it produced a sticky layer so the next time I’d likely use something with less sugar.
The ones that were SV'd and finished off in the smoker were probably the best I've had so far in my experimenting. The meat was incredibly tender, but still had a little bit of crispness on the outside. For next time, i may leave it on the smoker for longer, depending on how close to the all-smoke-cook texture we want...
