Go to the Recipe: Bomb Sous Vide Braised Short Ribs
Looks delicious but I don’t have a sous vide . How would this be adapted for a traditional braise?
The instructions all say small dice, but the photos look like brunoise? ~But~ the photos are all at least mid-sweat. Is there some shrinkage due to the sweating, or would a finer dice be better?
This is my favorite way to do braised short ribs--perfect results every time with minimal effort. It's worth putting in the time to get a deep golden brown sear on the short ribs prior to sous-vide. I serve these over pan seared thyme gnocchi with a rich brown pan sauce for a twist on "meat and potatoes".
Yes, the blanch/boil does help reduce the chances of this happening and searing pre-cook is another method that helps reduce this chance. Personally I take the Fat Duck approach and do both. I also bag my Short ribs individually just in case.....no sense in imparting that aroma across all ribs if it can easily be avoided.
Something I've never seen ChefSteps discuss, but is a common topic on various sous vide boards, is the issue of a stinky barnyard aroma (and sometimes a green sheen on the surface) that develops in long sous vide cooks.
According to Baldwin (link below), no pathogenic organisms of relevance to food safety can survive and proliferate at >126.1°F. However, 130-131°F is more commonly used as a lowest safe temp for sous vide cooking since pasteurization happens much faster at that temp, as described in Baldwin’s tables.
BUT, there are bacteria than can slowly grow at higher temps. Although they are not dangerous, they can result in a unappetizing stinky aroma if you cook for >6 hr at <138°F. But this is very hit or miss and most often shows up in 24-48h cooks of tough cuts like short ribs.
How to avoid this? Boiling the bag briefly before sous vide can eliminate the chance of it occurring, or less effectively pre-searing the meat.
Alternatively cook at at least 138°F, which seems to be the dividing line to prevent this problem in long cooks. This is not usually a problem for short cooks <6 hr, since these bacteria grow slowly at these temps.
This problem is hit or miss. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. It's not really a reflection of the quality of your meat. Bacteria are everywhere.
Not really an issue for this recipe as CS recommends, since it is cooked at ≥158°F, but it is not unusual for people to do this cut or other tough cuts at lower temps too, when it can be a problem.
Baldwin (who works with ChefSteps) is a must read for anyone doing sous vide cooking. The definitive source on sous vide food safety.
https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html
You really should give a weight for the ribs; estimates online are all over.
A great technique for cooking the ribs. After braising I sous vide them in a blended sauce of ginger, garlic, roasted cumin seeds, Kashmiri chillies and hoisin sauce. It is always a great hit.
Hi Jason! I took a look in the joule app- the best place to find this info!- and looks like a rich and braisey texture for chuck roast would be 149°f for 24 hours.
wondering what the time and temp and any changes if im doing this with chuck instead. thanks
Thats equal to about 3-5 lbs
Voila:
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/beef-short-ribs-your-way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5kQOQq7CuM&list=PLygL5wbJOvtKA2MN-Sq9K2VjXlcm9cB6q&index=2
ChefSteps, you have a page of short videos that show the texture of short ribs cooked at differing temperatures, but it doesn't come up in a recipe search. Can you add it to this recipe for future reference? I can never remember where it is!
Also, it is virtually impossible to sear them afterwards, since they are so tender and fall-off-the-bone.
A big advantage of this recipe is the high temp. Other low temp (<138°F) recipes risk bacterial growth, probably Lactobacillus spp, which can reportedly grow at higher temperatures than the food pathogens we worry about, and create a stinky (but not dangerous) result in long cooks. You can also avoid this by briefly boiling the vacuum-packed meat before sous vide cooking at a low temperature (pre-searing can work but is less reliable).
So I bought 3 pounds of bone in short ribs. How does that translate in this recipe?
I see some people questioning, why sear the ribs before sous viding? I would have thought that normally as the ribs are braised in a pan usually, or oven dish, pre searing them adds to the taste as if cooked in the oven.
As to a lot of fat in the bag makes me think that you should trim as much fat off the ribs before bagging and after braising. If you season and flour the ribs before braising you will get thicker gravy. If you like it a bit sweeter, some rubs do have sugar in them, try a sweet (cream)sherry half and half with a good red as the liquid.
Something I gleaned from some comments today, is the cooking time. I have never yet cooked anything for 24 hours or 48. BUT I am prepared to do a cook off to see the difference. I will let you know. When I first saw some of the times I did wonder if it was for the whole beast? 😊
Serve with corn on the cob and a baked sweet potato with sour cream with chopped chives. Or thick unsweetened yoghurt. Yoghurt less fat than cream. Chopped sweet pickled cucumber tasty, added to cream or yoghurt. I prefer salad or fresh vegetables, steamed. If you want the yoghurt more thicker than normally, strain it through cheese cloth. More like cottage cheese. Keeps a couple of days in refridgerator if any left over. My grand boys prefer it. Cheers for now. MarthaMay
An excellent meal. My wife hates short ribs but loved these!
A couple of suggestions:
1. Pour the liquid from the bag into a pan, reduce to a thick consistency and pour over the final dish.
2. Serve over large egg noodle or rice.
Relative to bagging and possibility of leakage of water into the bag, I wonder if putting the food into the ziplock bag, then putting that into a dry bag (used to keep things dry when kayaking) would solve the problem. A clear plastic one lets you see the food. An example, but less expensive can be found. https://seatosummitusa.com/products/clear-stopper-dry-bag
Perfect @167/24hr. I will skim some fat off of the sauce and thicken slightly next time. I bought Prime cuts at Costco for this cook and they were tender and super moist - almost unbelievably moist. I've done pressure cooker short ribs as well as slow braised in the oven, the texture and juiciness cooked at 167/24 cannot be beat using any other method in my opinion. Nothing but polenta residue and bare bones left in the bowls.
I de-boned the short ribs and followed the recipe. I cooked for 48 hrs. at 145 and these were the best short ribs ever! The texture of the meat was more like a tenderloin. The sauce was terrific. You might add a teaspoon of sugar to the sauce if you want it a little sweeter. But the sous vide redefined short ribs. Yum!!!
Because metric is easier. If you're having trouble, Google has a unit converter.
Everyone loved this dish!
I did it part way at 167°F and the rest of the way at 176°F for a total of 18.5 hours (don't ask!). If you are doing 6-8 ribs, I recommend using a 9 quart Le Creuset Dutch oven or equivalent to sear and then make the sauce. Less of a mess than a skillet.
While sous vide cooking, it will off-gas and float some, so weight the bags down well.
After opening the bags, there was a fair bit of floating oil, so I spooned much of that off, plated the meat, and then blended the rest of the sauce before pouring around the meat. Served with asparagus & toasted almond carnaroli risotto prepared according to Eric Guido's recipe:
http://eat.snooth.com/articles/eric-guido-master-class-risotto/?viewall=1&fbclid=IwAR2En_SzF4OW8H1aMGVgV8Aqen5KSG1hRqA41ygUFsNKw610MONoQCaOUEQ
Paired with a 2007 Domaine de Saint Siffrein Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
The "funky" odor allegedly comes from lactobacillus (although apparently some disagree with this), the same type of bacteria you find in cheese, yogurt, etc. This is why people sear meat before a long cook (say >8 hours) at low temperature, in an attempt to kill this bacteria.
However, that is not an issue in this recipe, since lactobacillus can't survive at the recommended temperatures of 158°F, 167F or 176°F. Now, if you had a funky smell to your meat before you cooked it, it is possible that might still be present after.
Here's the boiling technique Nick mentioned, but again it is not needed for this recipe:
https://stefangourmet.com/2017/11/01/how-to-prevent-a-bad-smell-with-long-and-low-sous-vide-cooks/
Personally never experience this, but this is what some claim.
To lose the funk (which does not always happen, I have never met it), you can actually drop the ribs in boiling water for like 30-40 seconds. Or you can (gasp) microwave the ribs for maybe a minute. Neither of these will cook the meat, but will soften the exterior and kill the bugs. Having warmed and softened the exterior, you can dry and pre-sear for extra flavour, in a HOT heavy-based pan. There IS a school (mine as well I reckon) of thought the pre-searing sous vide makes little difference to flavour. But it does colour the meat and you can't dothis with this recipe post-cook.
I would like to amend this. Warm them _at_ the temp you cooked at. You can't do any harm. BUT.....you do not need to get anywhere that temp in this case: you have already cooked the ribs. You can serve meat at 50 C + and it will be delicious.If you have the bath at 75 Deg C and only want the food at 50-55, the process will be _heaps_ faster...maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the time.
Yes! You sear before cooking for a couple reasons. One, when I've done short rib cooks in the past, without the presear, you often get a bit of a funk on the meat. The smell isn't pleasant and I believe it interferes with the flavor. Searing kills any surface bacteria and reduces that funk considerably, searing also adds flavor to the meat. The way these are cooked you can't sear afterwards. So you're missing an important flavor component if you skip the sear.
ACK! why not answer in lbs and oz? for us math challenged people
I bought some Safeway Swift Premium Dry Rubbed Whiskey Black Pepper St Louis Style Pork Spareribs. They come pre rubbed in a sealed bag. Can I sous vide them in there bag
Im going to do a large amount of these for Memorial day. Thinking of searing them on the grill. Any disadvantages of doing that?
@Humberto Jaime between 1.4 and 2.3 kg.
@Roxanne Cote This recipe was already set up for 4 people. I'm guessing that you increased the recipe by 4, which would mean what you got was for 16 people. That is a relatively large amount, probably about a liter of wine.
@Kostas You can try 48 hours if you desire. The difference will be texture. The longer you cook it, the softer the meat will get. Eventually, it will become unpleasantly mushy.
Can i try for 48 hours sous vide? What will be the difference?
250g of wine is for 4 servings.
Struggling with the measurements....I have changed the units for 4 people and it is saying 1kg of wine....isn’t that an extremely large amount
Not an expert here, but I'd say your best bet is to warm them using sous vide with a temperature just slightly lower than the temp you chose to cook them.
how do i go about warming this back up after its been in the fridge for a day.
I have the same question as Lance. If cooking from frozen do you have to sear before freezing and sealing? If not, can you just sear a chunk of frozen ribs? Seems like the meat would be too cold and drop the pan heat too much to sear effectively.
Hey chaps. Presume you can do the same cook time for boneless short ribs?
About how many pounds of short ribs?
Can I use English style short ribs.
I used this recipe just for the temp/time to cook the ribs. I then used the meat in my masaman. Husband said it was the best he’s ever had. This is the only way I’m doing short ribs from now on.
I did bag the meat using my foodsaver with no problems.
I use a Foodsaver machine and don't have this problem. You want to make sure you don't get the bag wet where you are sealing it. Fold the edge down a few inches prior to filling. Also, do a double seal. After your first seal, move the bag down a quarter inch or so and seal it again above the initial seal.
After first night in the fridge most of extra fat stack on the inner surface of the bag! Then You get the meat and glaze from inside and put it on another bug.
i have braised shortys in a dutch oven and always defatted after first night in fridge. how do you defat sous vide?
Just finished this recipe and I was very satisfied! 20Hrs @ 80C, yielded the most tender meat I've ever had. I feel like some people might get turned away from this recipe due to a lack of demi on hand, I skipped it and they were still good. I used double Ziploc bags clipped in a dishpan and had zero problems with leakage.
My advice don't use a foodsaver machine I had one and had the same issues. If need be double bag some ziplock bags but I would say buy a sous vide supreme sealer.
I am having trouble with the bags getting water in them at this temp. I have a foodsaver machine, and even when you use that it doesn't work. What kind of bags does everyone use for high temps?
Should I trim the fat on the under side of thr short ribs?
Soooooooooooooooo good. Great recipe ChefSteps! Served mine over cheese grits and fennel
