While strolling through the COSTCO meat section last week (like I’m prone to do) I stumbled upon what I thought would be an amazing find. Packages of Plate Ribs! Well, it was not to be as all of the good packages had been taken and what was left was some really ratty looking ribs. For a while now I had been itching to try my hand at making Sous Vide Beef ribs. I left that day dejected but for the rest of the week, beef ribs didn’t leave my mind. Instagram rabbit holes followed and then a couple days of planning out how I would combine SV and my lack of a smoker. Then after some research I finally understood what to ask for at my butcher and decided to go for it. But how good could I really expect to get them without having a smoker? Let’s find out.

🔪Prep Time 10 minutes

🛁Sous Vide Time 16 hours @158F/70C (50min ice bath)

👨‍🍳Oven Time 2hrs @ 300F (30 min rest)

🥩 Total Time 19 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Plate of 123A Beef Plate, Short Ribs
• Salt
• Generous helping of Meat Church Holy Cow
• Liquid Smoke + Molasses (optional)

Instructions

I started off by removing most of the silver skin and fat from the top of the beef plate. From previous cooks of short ribs at this temperature I have found that this does not aide anything to the cook and can sometimes get hard. This will also allow a lot more of the salt to get absorbed into the meat. I then generously seasoned all sides with salt and placed the plate uncovered in the refrigerator for 24hrs. Dry brine for the win!

After 24 hours, I took the plate out and made my liquid smoke/molasses mixture. This is a trick I learned from the guys over at ChefSteps. I have seen this countless times in their indoor brisket and pork ribs cooks. This will give me some of that smokey flavor I will be missing from the smoker. I mixed 40g of liquid smoke and 20g of molasses together.

I brushed the liquid smoke/molasses mixture on the meat. You wont use all of this mixture, save the rest for the finish.

I then vacuum sealed the plate. Double bagged. Knock on wood I have yet to have a bag burst but on longer cooks with bone I always double bag. A little insurance goes a long way.

If using a vacuum sealer, you can go ahead and place right in the bath. In place of a nicely vacuum sealed bag, you’re going to want to use the water displacement method which is achieved by submerging the protein in the water till most of the air is out of the bag. Then secure the bags to the side of the Sous Vide Container with binder clips.

Set your Sous Vide cooker to 158F/70C and place bag in bath for 16 hours.

After 16 hours pull your meat and while it is still in the vacuum bag, plunge into an ice bath. The goal with the ice bath is to bring the internal temperature of the ribs down so that it doesn’t overcook when you build the bark in the next step.

Obviously it doesn’t look great yet. But thats what the next steps are for.

From there you will be bringing back that the liquid smoke/molasses mixture and begin brushing it over the meat again. This time, generously season the whole plate with Holy Cow (Meat Church).

Set your plate on a roasting rack and set your oven to 300F for 2 hours.

After 2 hours the ribs had developed an amazing bark. But the amazement did not stop there.

And as great as the bark was….the inside was 100x better. Juicy, tender, flavorful.

Conclusion

I have been toying around with the idea of getting a smoker for a while now because I have always wanted to do cooks like these. It just hasn’t been in the cards. I know a lot of people are in this same situation, where a smoker is not feasible because of where they live. But for someone without a smoker, this is 100% doable with just a SV and an oven. That being said, if you do have a smoker (luckyyyy), I would SV and ice bath the same way. Then I would put it on the smoker till the internal temperature reached your desired level.

Thank you for checking us out. Now go ahead and try this one! You’ll love it. And when you do, go ahead and drop me a comment and tell me how it went, I want to know! If you enjoyed this, check out our social media’s and go ahead and share this blog with a friend. If you want to be the first to see our new cooks, subscribe to the blog through the bottom of this page. See ya next time!

Equipment List Links:

Vacuum Sealer: Anova Vacuum Sealer

Vacuum Seal Bags: Anova Pre Cut Vacuum Sealer Bags

Vacuum Seal Rolls: Anova Rolls Vacuum Sealer bags

Sous Vide Circulator: Anova Nano 

Sous Vide Circulator: Anova Pro

Sous Vide Container: Anova Sous Vide Container

Chef Knife: Wustoff Chef Knife

Meat Church Rub: Meat Church Rub

BBQ Sauce: Lillies Smokey Hot

Sheet Pan With Wire Rack: Sheet pan with a rack

Skillet: Skillet

Meat Tenderizer: Meat Tenderizer