Sous Vide Short Ribs

While I was starting to read up on sous vide cooking, someone on a message board asked for people's best recipe for ribs.  I did a quick search and found several people raving about short ribs cooked this way.  Most short rib recipes involve low slow cooking for a long time, either braising or smoking, resulting in fall-off-the-bone tender meat that doesn't have a bit of pink in it.  Sous vide gave me the opportunity to make medium-rare short ribs that are still fall-off-the-bone tender.  A little bit of salt and pepper, a few vacuum bags, and I was off to the races.  These cooked for 48 hours and still came out medium-rare at the end.  It's still a little mind boggling to me, but I'm loving every minute of it.

Sous Vide Short Ribs

Ingredients:

• 2-3 pounds beef short ribs
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1. Heat sous vide cooker to 138F.
2. Season all sides of the ribs with salt and pepper.  Seal in vacuum bags and put in sous vide cooker.

   

3. Cook for 48 hours.
4. Just before removing ribs from sous vide cooker, heat 1 Tablespoon oil in cast iron skillet until nearly smoking.
5. Remove ribs from cooker, remove from bags, and sear in cast iron skillet for 45 seconds per side.
6. Remove ribs from skillet and pour off any excess oil.  Pour juices from the bags into skillet and add a splash of Worcestershire sauce.  Cook for about 60 seconds, stirring regularly.
7. Pour pan sauce over ribs and enjoy!

   

Notes:
I'll probably cook these around 134F next time.  They were good, but a little more rare would have been even better.  I'll also probably use less salt, and add it to the pan sauce later.  The ribs were delicious but tasted a little like corned beef.  This, of course, didn't stop us from demolishing them in just a couple of minutes.

Comments

[sous]

Amazing way to boil the ribs while holding in the flavor and moisture. Before you grill them. Tennddderrrr emmmmm good.