I just bought my Anova and I tried ribs last night. I noticed that the bag with the dry rub stayed pretty well vacuumed but the bag with the marinate did not (I was trying two different recipes). Is this a common issue with marinates? Also most of the recipes call for ribs to be done at 160 for 8-12 hours. I didn’t have that kind of time so I did 190 for 5 hours. The ribs were ok but nothing spectacular. Did I over cook them with the high water temperature?
I double seal my vacuum bags for Sous Vide. The single seal has failed on me but not the double seal I use a Foodsaver vacuum sealer. I have never done Sous Vide ribs above 165° and that was after 4 hours in my smoker. When you say the ribs were OK do you mean they tasted OK but the tenderness was off or something else. I smoke ribs at 275° for 5 hours and they aren’t overdone so I doubt the ribs were overdone. Ribs get dry when overdone.
You can amp up the taste of ribs by finishing them with a thin coat of sauce and put them under the broiler for 1 or 2 minutes.
If you have a cooking vessel that minimizes evaporation You could start your cook the day before and use a temp like 150° for 24 hours. I’ve never done that so I’m guessing. Hopefully someone else will chime in.
J, you are brave starting your SV cooking with ribs as they can vary so much depending on those recipes’ expected outcomes. Some folks like ribs with a bit of chew to them where others like them falling apart done. What makes ribs spectacular for you?
Recipes are usually meant to be followed so once done you can learn and adapt them to your expectations. You’ll often achieve better results by following them than not.
Unless you have a very high end vacuum chamber machine you have already discovered the challenge of trying to pull a vacuum with liquids. Better to marinate, dry, vacuum seal, then SV cook.
Here’s a few of the basics of cooking with your Anova. But first, dispense with all your experience with conventional cooking as it won’t apply to SV. Don’t try to make SV cooking fit another cooking technique.
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Temperature regulates doneness, and often appearance, precisely throughout the cooked product. I would say those 190F ribs were more than somewhat overdone, maybe even grey, tough and dry.
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Time regulates tenderness. Less time, less tender. You will discover SV cooking can be very forgiving with time, but it’s also menu item or product dependant and only up to certain times on the long end. That’s why you will soon discover the most trusted SV recipes indicate a range of times.
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Those most trusted recipes will have SV cook times that will also be based on product thickness, never weight. Remember, with SV you are generally cooking at low temperatures and it takes longer for heat to diffuse throughout a product. The thicker it is the longer it takes.
If you plan to forge ahead with SV cooking many Community members here have found the following site helpful. Rather than just giving you recipes, Dr. Baldwin provides an understanding of all facets of the SV cooking process.
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com
If you do the learning you will do well.
tender and fall off the bone but gray looking meat in some areas and not a very good flavor. I grilled them for about 20 mins to finish with the sauce on them.
spot on with the grey, dry meat. I did chicken last night and it was perfect. I don’t know if it tasted any better than the regular way I cook it but the ability to put it in the water and go to the gym was the convenience I was looking for with the product.
J, you’re so right, SV is the cooking technique for precision, convenience, and flexibility.
Chicken gets more Community raves than any 6-week old creature deserves.
Hi @JWG,
If you want more feedback on cooking ribs it would also be good to specify some additional information.
- Specifically what kind of ribs are you cooking. Baby back, St. Louis, even “Country Style” ribs (which I guess are truly ribs, but they sure can be tasty!
) - What kind of texture do you personally like in your ribs?
- Dry rub only…or “saucy”! I like both, but I almost always go “saucy”!
- Do you have a smoker, or maybe a grill that you can “tweak” a bit to give your ribs a good smoke treatment?
This information (and more that I’ve forgotten to mention!) may generate a slew of responses and suggestions from other users in this forum (hopefully!). There are a lot of things to try when it comes to ribs, and even after you come up with works perfectly for you you’ll probably still want to experiment just to see if you can make something “even better”!
Best of luck!