Another sous vide and smoker question.

So, I got this really nice Pit Boss smoker for Fathers day. I want to try to do a mix of sous vide and smoking on some baby back ribs. The sous vide “Bible” says to do ribs 8-12 hours. The smoker says to do 8 hours. So, how would you divide the times? 6 & 4? 8 & 2?

Not baby backs, but I’m sure you can apply the same technique. I got to believe the timing is close. I’m sure you can ask on the website. Someone will chime in.

@Artie a few folks have cooked up baby bake ribs with the smoker and the sous vide from our Facebook group. Here’s one post that has a lot of helpful comments.

Thanks for that link richieb. I’m signed up for that site and never noticed that article before.

And thanks Alyssa. Unfortunately, I’m not signed up for Facebook and so, can’t read the full article.

Hi Artie, great question. I love my SV but I have found that some meats just do not benefit from it. Ribs being number one on my list there unless you get the cheapest ribs, bone in breastbone ones.

If you are going to do baby back ribs, just smoke them straight up as they are the tenderest of ribs and require nothing more than a good char and some smoke. Also I have NEVER done ribs for that long,8 hrs, ever! You will dry them out badly if you do so. 3 ish hours @ 250 in your smoker should be all you need.
If you want to SV cheapo ribs then smoke :
Cook for 36 hours at 145°F or 12 hours at 165°F. Transfer cooked ribs to a large bowl of water filled with ice to chill thoroughly, you can store in the refrigerator at this stage for up to 5 days before finishing, but chilling them a bit is important so the smoke will penetrate and you dont overcook the ribs ( yes you can do that ).

After that I have found that starting up my Kamodo kamado and getting a good fire going, toss on a boatload of hickory on it and let it get burning well enough, toss on the ribs , let them start to char and close down the smoker to bank the fire and let the hickory smolder and it will produce enough smoke to really give your ribs a fantastic smokey flavour. when you close it down to smoke, throw on any sides,salts, spices or chillies that you want to smoke for later. An hour will really do it but 30 minutes should be fine. Experiment !
My goto www for recipes is Serious eats btw. Check it out.
Sj
PS. Real BBQ ribs do not fall off the bone! They pull away with a tug. I understand everyone has a different idea about ribs so YMMV but for aficionados, fall off is overdone.

Wondering if anyone has tried a dash of Liquid Smoke in the bag with whatever, steaks, ribs, etc.

Been using liquid smoke when cooking brisket. Works as well as liquid smoke does. (Not as nice as the real thing, but not bad.)

1 Like

So, three hours is was what we ended up doing. (In the smoker. No sous vide.) And that was probably a bit too long. But it came out perfectly tender with a nice bark. Between sous vide, and our new smoker, our new range is probably gonna collect dust. :blush:

Arite, its a nice problem to have regarding the stove LOL. We only use ours if we lazy too.
Enjoy!

Artiee, I’m a long time BBQ guy and new to Sous Vide. I’ve done Baby Back ribs Sous Vide and then smoke and smoke then Sous Vide. I prefer Smoking them first. I;m using a pellet grill for smoking. I smoked BB ribs for 4 hours at 180° F and then 7 hours Sous Vide at 165° F. The taste was spot on with good bark but I thought they were too tender. Next time I’ll try 4 hours of Sous Vide to get a different texture. Ribs are a work in progress for me.

I’ve done Pork Butt and Brisket and my family said they were great so I know it works well… It’s nice to find others interested in combining the two cooking methods.

Hey Lew. (I know this thread is old.) We use the Pit Boss pellet smoker. Works great. I’ll try some of your temp & time suggestions too.