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I live in the South, so BBQ and especially ribs are a pretty big deal down here (there are two sole food restaurants within a mile of my house) so I have spent the last two weeks trying different approaches to get some good sous vide pork ribs and here is what I have come up with so far: Cooking ribs in a water bath has a couple of problems if you use fatty ribs, like spare ribs. First, even though the meat is fall apart tender, the fat does not render sufficiently and you end up with fat and meat that almost share the same constancy. Second, if you put a rub on your ribs, it tends to get washed away from all the juices in the bag. Third, no smoke flavor! So here are some things I have tried, and had some success with. Let me start by saying, I'm not claiming this to be the ultimate rib recipe, just a work in progress. First I cut the ribs into groups of four-five, then submerge in brine (10% salt) for six hours. The ribs are patted dry and a rub is applied (I use the one from CIA Pro Chef) I then smoke them with apple wood chips in a smoker box @ 225F for one hour, after smoking they go on a low temp grill (350F) for ten minutes. At this point a lot of the fat has rendered, but there's plenty left to keep them tender in the bag. The ribs are then chilled to room temp and bagged. From there I have cooked them at several different times and temperatures and found what works best for me is 24 hours @ 141F The result is a rib not quite as tender as one cooked en sous vide from the get go, but still tender, the rub is crusted to the rib from the grill, and they are deliciously smoky.

I'm sure that buried deep within these pages there is a bitchin' recipe for artichoke, but I can't seem to find it. does anyone have suggestions? time? temp? olive oil in the bag? I know TK does artichokes but I haven't gotten around to shelling out the $75 for Under Pressure yet (It's on my list) any ideas would be cool, thanks

Thank for your post man! I checked out that site, and it looks they have a good thing going. Do you know the reheating method used for their sous vide food? I will be adding some pasta to the menu, thanks for the suggestions.

My first concern is food safety. When home and professional chefs cook sous vide, they have completely control of the cold chain. It is highly likely that the food you sell will be temperature abused, and sous vide prepared foods do not spoil safe. At the very least, you should pasteurize the food for a 6D reduction in Listeria monocytogenes and have very short and prominent expiration dates. This of course limits what you can prepare --- most fish will taste overcooked if heated for the pasteurization times in Table 3.5 of my guide. ← Food safety is a huge concern to me as well, which is why I am so restricted when it comes to the way the meals are reheated. I am following a HACCP plan that I developed using some of the guidelines in your 'practical guide to sous vide' (thanks for all your hard work on this, by the way). I am considering tacking it a steep further by treating the surface of meats by quickly searing or grilling before bagging to reduce the potential surface pathogens. My process goes something like this: initial cooking (sear), cooling (41 F), bagging, cooking en sous vide following predetermined time temp for the recipe, cooling in ice water bath to 41 F, freezing. My hope is, keeping it frozen until reheated, I can stop the anaerobic spores from vegetating, which kinda sticks my with the reheat from frozen problem. I think this process limits the risk of time temp abuse to people not folowing the 'reheat from frozen' that will be clearly labeled. Because I feel like I have to instruct people to use boiling water in some way, otherwise there is no way of knowing the temp of their water, some things become a little dry. I am trying out two methods: putting the bags in cold water and bringing it to boil, and placing bags in boiling water and then killing the heat. So basically unless I have a break through I am restricted to things that work with this method, like pastas, soups etc. Using these methods do you think it possible to under cook the product en sous vide, relying on the reheating method to finish the job, without running the risk of food born illness? because this may salve my dryness issue.

What's up cooks I am opening my own place selling prepared meals that people take home and heat up. Everything that we will sell is vacuum sealed, and the better part of it cooked en sous vide. I was hoping for suggestions on things that anyone has found NOT to work well in a bag. Also, if anyone has time to check out my menu My WebpageI would be stoked to get any feedback especially when it comes to things you may see that you know from experience will or will not work. I am just beginning to test these recipes and I have no qualms about dropping or adding things. Another issue I have is that the people that take the meals home do not have a temperature controlled water bath, and I am trying to figure out a method for reheating from frozen that can be used with just a pot of water on the stove. Any suggestions would be great!