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Sorry to have been so long getting back to this discussion. I bought Chris McDonald's The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook: More than 175 Recipes with Tips and Techniques It provided many many hours of delighted reading and I have tried several of the recipes. He has a quite different discussion about food than Douglas Baldwin's. I'm going to start another thread asking for advice manipulating one of the recipes in this book. I recommend this book highly. I also bought a Joule or two.

Add it to just about any casserole.

@FeChef, it's a stovetop, dating from the 60s, at least. I just can't fathom that I have something completely new to learn!

@FeChef, I have a pressure cooker which is a duplicate model (though smaller) as one from my childhood (i.e. eons ago). I don't use it much, so really don't have current experience of PC and am not sure how to translate it.

I trimmed beef short ribs of fat, put on a Five Spice rub 24 or more hours, washed off the rub, and dried with paper towel. Cooked at 142F for 72 hours. Put under a broiler for 2 min one side, 1 min other (bit too long). Cooked down cooking juices into sauce. The ribs were easily pull apart and delicious, but the rub was not that noticeable. Served immediately with enoki mushrooms and baked potatoes. No photos of those because I ate them all! As you can see, although I rinsed off the Five Spice, there was still plenty in the reduced sauce.

I followed the instructions from @daveb and left the chicken on a rack in the fridge, but I didn't leave it long enough. I expected the jellied stuff to melt as the chickens came to temperature and they didn't. I had to push the gelatin away and dry the pieces, The grapeseed oil was quite hot when I put these in. I have lost my fat-screen, so my kitchen is a mess today. These took about 8 minutes. Much better results this time. Thanks for your help.

@Josh71, I had baked beans (mine are spicy and not as sweet as "usual") and crispy salad.

They went in again @ 140F for 24 hours. Pasted on some of the remaining dipping sauce and put them in the oven at 550F for ~10 minutes. I think it was a bit too long. They would have been better if I had had a bit of sauce left to paste onto them after they came out of the oven. There's a sliver or two left for somebody's lunch, so 1.9 lbs including fat and bone was plenty for 5 meals.

Here is the photo of the chicken thigh recipe I followed but omitted (forgot) a few items. I boned 8 chicken thighs, pressed flat but not pounded. Sealed in 3 SV bags and cooked @ 150F for 90 minutes. Iced for 20 minutes. Put 3 bags on baking sheet, topped with another baking sheet, in fridge for 24 hours with water filled pot (10 US quarts). My large burner is 15K BTU (where halfway is mark 7). In cast iron pan, used 2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil and 2 T butter. I set to about 4 because I didn't want butter to burn. Sautéed for 10 minutes. Here is my result: The thighs did not rest absolutely flat in the pan. The meat tasted fine but the chicken skin (where not browned) was flabby and unpleasant. As you can see, my thighs were nothing like the recipe photo. My husband thinks I did not have the oil hot enough. And maybe needed a bacon press. Is he right? I still have 2 more SV packets of thighs. I'm thinking next to fry thighs in 1/4" oil.

What's in the rub, @IndyRob? I just bought some beef short ribs.

Wonderful @rotuts, never thought of that!

What I'm most curious about is the idea of drying off the sous-vide-cooked item and then putting on a rub. It isn't going to sit in the oven for a couple of hours. Does one cook this "rub" in a dry sauté pan? With a little olive oil? Or does one use a flame and "toast" the spices? Curious minds want to know. Sorry I wasn't very clear with my questions. Here is what I did in this case.

I did not have a desirable outcome. Here's what I did: Bag dipped in boiling water for one minute Cooked for approximately 12 hours at 135F to 138F. I used D Baldwin's guide for pork back ribs, i.e. 8-12 hours @130F for med-rare to 140F for Medium. Cast iron frying pan heated to midway on large burner. Lean side of meat (held down by heavy bacon press) cooked for 30 secs, browned nicely. Fatty side of meat not even enough to flatten. Bacon press didn't help. Very little browning after one minute. (In retrospect, this should have been longer). This is a view of the lean side: Made dipping sauce by throwing together some stuff. Here's what I thought it was: 1 1/2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil 2 Tablespoons soy sauce 2 Tablespoons mirin, sweeted rice wine 2 teaspoons Five Spice 2 teaspoons boiled cider concentrate (from King Arthur Flour) 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Put in pyrex jar. To reduce liquid and meld flavours, nuke for about 3 minutes, but in 30 second spurts. Here's what dinner looked with salad and sous vide baked beans: Here's what it looked like inside: While it looked okay, it was way too chewy. Inner fatty parts and connective tissue quite solid. Getting right sized portions might be tough. The two pieces weighed 1.9 lbs,. approximately 15 oz each. My leftover waste and bone was 2.9 oz with the leftover (upper right) at 3.3 oz, so I ate about 9 oz and my husband about 8 oz. What to do next time? Cook longer. I think I'll try 30 hours. Find a way to broil the fatty side longer. Maybe take a torch to it.

@Anna N, I don't mean to put into the sous vide with the rub on, but to put the rub on when the sous vide is complete. Dry off the meat and roll it in the rub. Then I guess one would need to sauté or broil the meat for less than a minute. Sound reasonable or no?

Is it possible to put a rub on a sous vide item? I'm cooking pig wings here and I'm trying to figure how to finish them. This looks good but would require a rub.