As the weather heats up, many folks begin daydreaming about barbecue. But not just any barbecue,…sous vide barbecue. May is National BBQ Month – an entire month focusing on the delicious ways we’ve discovered to make proteins their savory, smoky best.
Barbecue has been a frequent topic in our blogs, for a couple of reasons. First (obviously) is that barbecue is freakin’ delicious. But another huge reason is how perfect CVap® Staging technology is at bringing the lip-smacking best out of barbecued meats and veggies. I’m amazed (but not surprised) at just how many calls we get at Winston asking about how to prepare a barbecue in CVap. (For a quick, quirky video about CVap® Staging and sous vide, click here).
Sous Vide Barbecue or Smoked
CVap technology positively impacts your BBQ recipes in many ways. Cook amazingly tender briskets in a CVap Cook & Hold. Add a Winston Smoker Box to your CVap Holding Cabinet to smoke bodacious Boston butts in a CVap holding cabinet. You can even Sous-Vide-Que your ribs using the method outlined on the Amazing ribs website.
In our most recent BBQ test, we prepared baby back ribs using two different methods of “sous vide” – bagged and bagless, simultaneously in the same unit, our new CVap RTV5-05 Retherm Oven.
Ingredients
- 6 slabs of baby back ribs
- French’s Yellow Mustard
- Meathead’s Memphis Dust
Procedure
- Remove membrane from ribs and rinse.
- Rub mustard on all sides of the ribs.
- Liberally sprinkle Memphis Dust on all sides of ribs.
- Weigh each slab of ribs.
Smoking and Sealing
First, smoke the ribs in preheated CVap Holding Cabinet to 170°F food temp and 170°F air with smoker box set for two hours. In this case, we used hickory chips.
Next, vacuum seal three slabs of ribs in a vacuum sealer, using high temp bags.
Then, allow ribs to rest in the refrigerator for a minimum of six hours.
- Preheat CVap RTV5-05UV to 190°F water temperature and 240°F air temperature.
- Place prepared ribs into oven and cook until ribs reach 203°F.
- Remove ribs and weigh for yield.
- If preferred, place on grill and crisp, then finish with another dusting of Memphis Dust.
Weight In | Weight Out | Yield | Time to End Point | End Point | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vacuum Sealed | 3.607 kg | 3.207 kg | 88% | 2 hours, 23 mins | 203.1°F |
Bagless | 3.087 kg | 2.657 kg | 86% | 3 hours, 10 mins | 201.7°F |
Observations
- Ribs that were vacuum-sealed in the traditional sous vide style cooked more quickly and had a slightly higher yield.
- Both ribs were highly acceptable relative to taste, tenderness, and juiciness.
- Ribs cooked in the bag were slightly more tender; ribs cooked bagless were slightly more toothsome.
- The ribs cooked in the bag had a less-defined outer bark and more of a wet finish.
- Ribs cooked bagless in CVap had better bark and a more defined rub taste.