Advice on preparing ribs night before a party with help from vacuum sealer

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patriot-bbq

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2011
11
10
I throw a large spread for our home tennis matches and often do an overnight smoke (beef and/or pork shoulders) and time the food completion to a couple of hours before the desired time.  I have a thermostat controlled Smokin-It (highly recommend if you enjoy sleeping and have a job
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This time, I'm doing ribs (pork and beef) with the normal 3-2-1 method which I can't do overnight without working on it.  Therefore, I'm planning to do the 3-2 (3 hours smoke, 2 hours wrapped with juice/beer), and then vacuum seal the racks and put in fridge overnight.  I've even considered just doing a 5 hour smoking and spritzing every hour.

Then, in the morning, I will take ribs out of the fridge and warm them up on the grill with sauce.

I have had good success with the vacuum sealer preserving the shredded pork in the past but I've never done ribs.

Has anyone else tried this?  Any advice on the cooking, preparation or reheating?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
As long as you have roll bags will do the trick...cut the bag to fit each slab so you can keep full slabs of ribs to hit the grill. If you have pre-made bags, just cut the slabs to fit. Sounds like you're right on track with the process. You should have fairly tender ribs before you get them sealed up and chilled, then reheat on the grill with sauce...I'd add the sauce after about 15-20 minutes so it firms up just a bit without too much time over the heat to avoid scorching...med/low grill temp with direct heat should do the job....45-60 minutes.

Eric
 
If you are serving them the next day just cook them unfoiled untill done then pull them off and let them rest for half hour. Then wrap them in foil and tosst them in the fridge. Next day put a little apple juice in the foil and re-heat them on the grill or in the oven, then to get that finished char, brush them with sauce and put them on a hot grill for a minute or two. I would only vacuum seal them if you were going to cook them way ahead of time.
 
Update: Very Successful.

I ended up smoking the ribs at 225 for 5 hours with a little rotation and apple juice spritzer.

After 5 hours, I slapped some sauce on it and left them in there for 30 minutes.

Let them sit for 15 minutes, wrap them up in foil and put them in the fridge - just didn't have the energy at 1am to vacuum seal them.

Pulled them out in the morning, put some apple juice in the foils and put them on the grill for 40 minutes at around 300 degrees.

The sauce still looked moist on the top but I put some more on top.  Left them open on the grill for 20 minutes.

Threw them in a big covered tin, covered in towels, brought to party.

Cut and served about 45 minutes later and over the next 2 hours.

They were very good - not great.  They were definitely moist on the outside but not a great smoke ring and less than perfect internal moisture.

Next time I do it, I'll take them off after 4 hours, instead of 5 and do everything else the same.
 
Glad to read things worked out pretty well for you!!! Each first brings challenges and questions...now you have a baseline so you can make adjustments to get closer to your expectations. Good job!!!

Eric
 
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