Sous Vide Spare Ribs

June 30, 2009

Sous Vide Spare Ribs

Sous vide turns a full rack of pork spare ribs into something closer to a controlled experiment than a cookout. Instead of babysitting a smoker for half a day, the ribs go into a rubbed, sealed bag and sit in a precise water bath for a full day, then get maybe fifteen minutes of real attention at the end. The bath does the tenderizing; the finish does everything a smoker usually does for flavor and looks.

The rub is a classic sweet-paprika, brown-sugar BBQ blend with garlic, mustard seed and a light hit of chili flakes, and a few drops of liquid hickory smoke go into the bag itself, since the water bath obviously won’t pick up any smoke on its own. After the long cook the ribs are still pale and soft-skinned - sous vide alone never builds bark or char, so a short stint under a hot broiler or on a hot grill, brushed with a ketchup-and-molasses BBQ sauce in two coats, is not optional. That’s where the color, the tacky glaze and the last bit of texture actually come from.

The sauce itself is straightforward: ketchup, molasses, cider vinegar, Worcestershire and grated onion, simmered down while the ribs cook so it’s ready the moment they come out of the bag. The result is a sweet, tangy glaze with a little heat and enough smoke to read as proper American barbecue, even though it never goes near a smoker. Slice the rack between the bones and put the rest of the sauce on the table - backyard cookout food, good with coleslaw, cornbread or baked beans.

Ingredients

Serves 4

The ribs

2 racks pork spare ribs (1.1-1.4 kg each), trimmed St. Louis-style, membrane removed

The rub

35 g sweet paprika, not smoked
75 g dark brown sugar, packed
72 g kosher salt
12 g yellow mustard seed
18 g garlic powder
2 g dried oregano
6 g coriander seed
2 g black pepper
2 g red pepper flakes
8 drops liquid hickory smoke, 4 per bag

The sauce

1 medium yellow onion (about 100 g), grated
360 g ketchup
30 g spicy brown mustard
110 g dark molasses
60 ml Worcestershire sauce
60 ml apple cider vinegar
7 ml liquid hickory smoke

Directions

The ribs

Peel the membrane off the bone side of each rack - work a knife under one corner, grip it with a paper towel, and pull it off in one piece. Mix the paprika, brown sugar, salt, mustard seed, garlic powder, oregano, coriander seed, black pepper and red pepper flakes in a bowl, then coat both racks generously on all sides with the rub.

Put each rack in its own vacuum bag or large zip-top bag, folding the top edge over while loading so rub and juices stay off the seal. Add 4 drops of liquid hickory smoke to each bag, seal (vacuum, or water displacement for a zip-top bag), and refrigerate for 4-12 hours so the salt has time to work into the meat.

Sous vide at 154°F (68°C) for 24 hours.

The sauce

While the ribs cook, combine the grated onion, ketchup, brown mustard, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar and liquid smoke in a saucepan and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until it thickens slightly. Let it cool.

To finish

Take the ribs out of the bags and pat them dry. Heat a grill to medium-high or turn on the broiler.

Cook the ribs about 15 minutes on the cooler side of the grill (or a few inches under the broiler), then brush generously with sauce and move to direct high heat for 5-7 minutes. Brush with a second coat of sauce and give them another 5 minutes or so, until the glaze is tacky and the edges have started to char.

Rest the ribs for 5 minutes, slice between the bones, and serve with the remaining sauce on the side.

Notes

Water-bath temperature and time is a style choice, not a right-or-wrong call. The 154°F (68°C) / 24-hour target above lands in the middle of the range and gives meat that’s tender but still holds together when sliced. For firmer, more sliceable “chop-like” ribs that stay close to the bone, go lower and longer - 145°F (63°C) for 36 hours, or 150°F (66°C) for 24 hours as a shorter middle ground. For the shreddier, classic fall-off-the-bone texture, go higher and shorter - 165°F (74°C) for 12 hours. Past about 176°F (80°C) for 12 hours or more, the meat goes fully fall-apart, which some cooks want and others consider overcooked.

Liquid smoke in the bag is the standard way to get smoke flavor into a sous vide cook. If a real smoker is available, finishing there instead of under the broiler or on a gas grill gets noticeably closer to traditional barbecue flavor.

An optional ice-bath shock after sous vide and before finishing firms the surface back up, which buys extra time under high heat for a deeper sear without overcooking the interior.