Here are my first short ribs out of the 136°F bath after 48 hours. I seared them and they were seasoned with a little salt and freshly ground pepper. They were extremely tender and juicy with a good texture. Beef flavor definitely came through. These are a totally different experience than the brazed over cooked short ribs I have had. I would never eat the brazed ones without sauce. I will make some sauce tomorrow when the 72 hour ones come out. Next time I might go up a couple of degrees but I will wait until tomorrow to decide. THe other thing I noted was that the shrinkage after 48 hours was minimal as was the amount of juice in the bag.
Oh my gosh, beautiful photo too! I have some food photos to take this weekend, do you have any advice?
Thanks
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Simon_C said:Oh my gosh, beautiful photo too! I have some food photos to take this weekend, do you have any advice?
Good lighting is key. I also used f/5.6 to limit depth of field. Also try and watch your background you don’t want anything distracting from the food
I just finished up some 72 hour short ribs tonight actually. I cooked them a bit higher temp based on the recommended temp of 144 degrees Fahrenheit from Modernist Cuisine’s website. I wouldn’t be completely comfortable doing a long cook like that below 140 degrees due to that being within the so called food danger zone. At any rate though, they were pretty awesome! The weight loss is much lower when cooked this way than other ways of cooking short ribs and they are very tender after cooking that long.
jordan said:@john.jcb I second @Simon_C's comment - lovely! Was it taken with your phone?
No phone pictures, I have a Nikon DSLR that I use.
@elangomatt My 72 hour short ribs finished up last night and they were great. I think they were just a bit denser than the 48 hour ones but just as tender and juicy. I would also say that they seemed to have a little more beef flavor than the first batch. Both were good though. I also found that a glass of Merlot went very well with them. I think I will need to star making sides again and not just filling up on meat.
I picked up a hanger steak at the local butcher last night and will be giving it a try Saturday
So I finished cooking my short ribs a couple nights ago. I had made it in two vacuum sealed bags so that I could have leftovers for another meal. I just put the second still sealed bag into my fridge after it cooled some. I was trying to wait till the weekend but it ended up as dinner again last night (they’re just so great I couldn’t wait!).To reheat the ribs I put the still sealed bag in a 140 degree water bath for about an hour. The ribs I had last night seemed even more tender than the ones I had the night before. They were only in the water bath for an extra hour and much of that time they were probably just warming up so I doubt that is much of a factor. Could it have been the cooling and reheating that made them even more tender?
I also have to figure out what to do with the gelatin rich juices that came out of the ribs since I didn’t use them for any kind of serving sauce.
@elangomatt I will be doing the same thing for dinner tonight.
I think this is an often overlooked feature of cooking sous vide. You can reheat your leftovers without overcooking them. I made a sauce from the de-fatted drippings. It was simple but tasted very good. Juices, butter, salt, freshly ground pepper and a little wine. It was delicious.
@elangomatt You mentioned putting the still-sealed bag into the fridge - did it have a lot of juices in it from the cook? Sitting in the juices for a longer period of time would be my guess for the tenderness of the second cook. Also, since it was cooked longer with the reheating it might have helped break down more of the connective tissue.
@jordon There was surprisingly little juice in my bag of ribs after 72 hours. They were very tender and I don’t think an hour more or less after 3 days makes much difference. They did need some seasoning to really bring out the flavor. I did not preseason at all because I was worried about bitterness with such a long cook.
