Details on the vacuum procedure please.
Directions for fall-off-the-bone baby back ribs:
Step 1: Acquire a Food Saver Vacuum Sealer (mine's from Costco) or similar device. Keeps food WAY fresher than ziplock bags. Bags can be custom cut to the size needed. Great for marinating, and storing / freezing / cooking unused portions (especially from bulk buys). And unlike Ziplocks, the Vacuum Seal bags are a higher grade plastic, so you can cook directly in the bag if you so choose. Less waste + More taste!
Step 2: Acquire a Sous Vide machine***. A WHAT?? Yes, I know...it's French for 'cooking in a bag' - go figure. Ever wonder how restaurants get your steak edge-to-edge medium rare, and not burnt on the outside and raw in the middle? Long story short... Sous Vide cooking (you can YouTube it a bunch) is a method employed by many high end restaurants for 'pre-cooking' food to a desired temperature in a circulated temp-controlled water bath.
Please DO NOT confuse this with Steaming or Boiling...it's not either. The water never touches the food...it just heats it through the bag for slow cooking. It's also safe, because the water never reaches boiling temperature.
The sous vide process allows you to get the entire protein (works great with STEAKS & RIBS) up to a constant temp, and then hold it there (nearly, but not quite indefinitely....well...for hours anyway)... There are many advantages to this, not the least of which is that you can throw the bag into the water bath earlier in the day, set it & forget it...it will reach desired internal temp (set temp control for just under what you consider 'done') in a few hours, but never over cook....so if you decide to eat in 2 hours, 4 hours, or 8 hours later..it won't matter much...the protein will still be just below 'done'.
Then - when you're nearly ready to eat, remove from bag and finish on grill or in smoker as you normally would...Except now , for steaks in particular, you only need 2 minutes per side to get your grill marks...and you're serving your guests perfect edge-to-edge steaks 5 minutes after you decided to eat. With ribs, I like a lot of flavor - and still smoke them for hours, but not nearly as long as it would take to do the raw ribs entirely in the smoker.
Sounds like a lot of work? It really isn't -- since most of your work is done in prep...you only have to throw away the used plastic bag - and serve. (I rub my ribs good, and then give a light coat (think Rem Oil) of sauce before they go into the bag, and then marinate overnight before either cooking directly, or freezing. This helps the flavor penetrate the meat during the sous vide process...not just on the outside)...
***Consumer Sous Vide machines can run $350-500, and professional machines even more....But I've got a great work around for that. They're just a metal box that holds water, with a heating element and a thermostat.......almost exactly like an Electric Turkey Fryer....which are designed to heat oil to over 300 degrees...so they have no problem heating water to 130 degrees (med. rare steak) or 155 degrees (pork ribs). I got my ButterBall Electric Fryer on sale @ Lowes for $70. Costco may have them too.
You will be very happy.
Thanks! Although I already was...
1.) Do you do a dry rib or with sauce?
Typical arfcom answer...both! I like a spicy rub base, and a bit of a sticky crust finish, built up from layers of carmelization from sauce during the smoking process at 250-275 degrees.
2.) 45acp is always the answer
Ok, but I just put new Hogue chainlink grips on my p239, and it's a bit easier to conceal from my neighbors. The p220 prints a bit.
3.) you gonna be at the burro canyon shoot this weekend?
I've surely been considering it, but I fear I will not make it. Taxes to do, ribs to cook....
It's been 2 months, 8 days, 8 hours, and 38 minutes since I ordered my LaRue Tactical OBR 7.62 16" (#94xxx)