Beef Ribs with Rosemary And Wine Sauce, Sous Vide And Smoked

Smoked barbecue beef ribs are taken to a new level of deliciousness in this recipe for sous-vide-que beef ribs with rosemary wine sauce.

Every Saturday morning throughout the 1960s, Fred Flintstone would order a massive rack of ribs only to have his car tip over from their weight. It was with that scene in mind that I first sank my teeth into a smoked beef rib, a.k.a. dino bone, roughly two decades later.

While the girth of this rib dropped my jaw in awe, the tender, smoke-kissed meat was the true star of the show that day. Since then, I have tried time and time again to cook perfect beef ribs but, as Meathead explains in the article “Barbecue Beef Ribs Texas Style,” they can be much tougher than pork ribs if they are not cooked past the well-done stage.

Sous-Vide-Que changes all that. With this cooking method, the beef rib’s fat and connective tissue slowly break down in a controlled temperature water bath (the sous vide) at 150°F (65.6°C) for 36 hours (the temperature is based on our guide here; the length of time is longer than our recommended 24 hours for tough cuts as we have found them to be extra tender after 36 hours) before the rack soaks up some flavorful smoke on a smoker or grill (the que). Remove the ribs from the cooker and you’ve got a tender rack of dino bones that would make Fred Flintstone (and Wilma) proud!

To take the recipe one step further, I have also included instructions for turning the leftover liquid or drippings in the sous vide bag into a savory sauce for the ribs.

Finally, when selecting your beef ribs you can either opt for the ultra meaty plate ribs (i.e ribs taken from the short plate next to the flank steak) or the more flavorful, yet less meaty, back ribs (i.e. the ribs found in a prime rib roast). For this recipe, I use back ribs but you can easily substitute plate ribs by allowing a little extra time for them to reach an internal temperature of 205°F (96.1°C) on the smoker.

Explore the world of Sous Vide Que, the ultimate marriage of water and smoke, by clicking here to download our ebook “Sous Vide Que Made Easy” for $3.99 on Amazon (free Kindle app runs on all computers). Or get the book and others FREE as a member of the AmazingRibs.com Pitmaster Club. Click here to join.

Recipe: Smoked Sous-Vide-Que Ribs with Rosemary Red Wine Sauce

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With this recipe, the beef rib’s fat and connective tissue slowly break down in a controlled temperature water bath (the sous vide) before the rack soaks up some flavorful smoke on a smoker or grill.

Serve with: additional red wine.

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Course:

Dinner

,

Main Course

Cuisine:

American

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Makes:

Servings: 3 servings

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Takes:

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Sous Vide: 1 day day 12 hours hours

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Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

The Meat

• ▢ 1 rack beef back ribs rack (approximately 3-4 pounds (1.4-1.8 k))
• ▢ 1 teaspoon  Morton Coarse Kosher Salt  (approximately 1/4 teaspoon per pound (453.6 g) of ribs)

The Rub

• ▢ 1 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

The Sauce

• ▢ 1/4 cup red wine
• ▢ 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• ▢ 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• ▢ 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• ▢  Morton Coarse Kosher Salt 
• ▢ finely ground black pepper

Notes:

About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works. For this recipe, you want to use 1/4 teaspoon Morton coarse kosher salt per pound (453.6 g) of meat.

Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

• Prep. Season the ribs with Kosher salt. If you can, give the salt 1 to 2 hours to be absorbed. The process of salting in advance is called dry brining. The rule of thumb is 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound (453.6 g) of meat, but ribs are about 50% meat, so use about 1/4 teaspoon per pound (453.6 g). You can simply eyeball it by sprinkling on the same amount of salt you would sprinkle on the ribs if they were served to you unsalted. 
• Prepare a sous vide immersion circulator such as Joule by ChefSteps according to instructions and set water temperature for 150°F (65.6°C).
• Cut the rack of ribs into two sections and place each section into a separate sealable freezer bag. Carefully submerge the freezer bags in the water bath until most of the air has been removed and then seal. Once the bags are submerged, cook for 36 hours.
• Optional: finish the ribs later, remove the bags from the sous vide bath after 36 hours, and submerge them in a large container filled with a 50/50 mix of ice and water for at least 30 minutes to chill the meat’s core temperature. Place the ribs in the refrigerator until ready to grill (up to 2 days ahead of time).
• Fire up. Prepare a grill for 2-zone cooking. On a charcoal grill, place a chimney full of pre-heated charcoal briquets on one side of the grill's charcoal grate in order to create direct and indirect cooking zones. Adjust the grill vents to bring the temperature to about 225°F (107.2°C). Add 2 to 3 chunks of your favorite smoking wood to the charcoal for flavor. On a gas grill, adjust the temperature knobs so that one half of the grill is off and the other half is heated enough to maintain a temperature of approximately 225°F (107.2°C) on the indirect side.
• Cook. Once the grill is ready, remove the ribs from the bags, reserving the remaining liquid in the bag to make a sauce. Combine pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder in a small bowl and blend well. Pat the rack of beef ribs dry and season with the rub mixture. Place the ribs in the indirect zone on the main cooking grate as far from the heat source as possible. Set the lid on the grill with the fully opened top vent positioned directly above the ribs in order to force the smoke over and around the meat. Allow the ribs to smoke for 30 minutes. If the ribs have been chilled after the sous vide process, cook until completely warmed through, approximately 15 to 20 minutes longer. The goal is to add smoke to the meat while reheating it to a temperature that is pleasant to the mouth when served.
  
• During the last 15 minutes of the smoking process, strain the liquid from the sous vide bags through a fine mesh strainer into a small saucepan or skillet to remove solids. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, add the red wine and fresh herbs, and let the sauce continue to simmer until reduced in volume by about half, approximately 10 minutes. Whisk in the butter until it butter completely melts and the sauce thickens, about a minute. Season the sauce with salt and pepper and reduce the heat to low to keep the sauce warm as you prepare the ribs.
• Serve. Remove the ribs from the grill, slice, and serve immediately with the sauce.
  

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