I have never tried beef shorties sous vide but was looking to experiment with this cut of beef hoping for the advantages sous vide gives to other beef cuts. But instead of multiple experiments with a rather expensive cut of meat, I took a plate, divided it in half and thought about doing a couple of differing temperatures at varying times. On a whim I checked the old interweb and found that our friends at ChefSteps had already done the work for me.
Not to go through the entire details of what they discovered at varying temperatures versus time (here is the link if interested, beef short ribs) , I chose the 144* route after thinking I would prefer the 130* option better. At 144* in 48 hours they achieved a steak-like texture that still had a 'to the tooth' bite, but also had the beginnings of some soft shredding. That appealed to my palette.
I decided then to just go ahead and do both halves at that 144/48 option. So into the bath they went......
.....at 48 hours I immediately removed and chilled them in an ice bath for about 10 minutes. It was a Wednesday evening and I knew I had a brisket cook planned for the weekend so I decided to refrigerate them in their shrink wrapped bags until that time. I pulled them out of the frig on Saturday, unbagged them and re-applied my seasoning....
...as I mentioned I had a brisket cook going in my WSM at about 250-275* and toward the end of the cook I slapped the ribs on with it. I smoked them to about 150* IT, it took about an hour or so to get them up to temperature. I must admit they came out beautifully. Tender yet steak like (as ChefSteps had described) and still full of juiciness......
Bottom line I'm sold on sous vide-que for shorties. Many smoking purists will argue against not having the depth of smokiness that an all day cook gives you but I really thought there was plenty of bark (as you can see) and smokiness from the post smoke. The advantage is the ability to control precisely the outcome of the initial cook with the smoke finish being the only variable. As you can see the internal finish was consistent from bark to bone. My next experiment will be to drop the temp to the 133* range to go for a medium rare, steak like finish that is next to impossible to do with any degree of tenderness on a smoker. Should be interesting.
KEEP THAT BATH WATER CIRCULATING AND YOUR SMOKE BLUE ..... TROUTMAN OUT !!!
Not to go through the entire details of what they discovered at varying temperatures versus time (here is the link if interested, beef short ribs) , I chose the 144* route after thinking I would prefer the 130* option better. At 144* in 48 hours they achieved a steak-like texture that still had a 'to the tooth' bite, but also had the beginnings of some soft shredding. That appealed to my palette.
I decided then to just go ahead and do both halves at that 144/48 option. So into the bath they went......
.....at 48 hours I immediately removed and chilled them in an ice bath for about 10 minutes. It was a Wednesday evening and I knew I had a brisket cook planned for the weekend so I decided to refrigerate them in their shrink wrapped bags until that time. I pulled them out of the frig on Saturday, unbagged them and re-applied my seasoning....
...as I mentioned I had a brisket cook going in my WSM at about 250-275* and toward the end of the cook I slapped the ribs on with it. I smoked them to about 150* IT, it took about an hour or so to get them up to temperature. I must admit they came out beautifully. Tender yet steak like (as ChefSteps had described) and still full of juiciness......
Bottom line I'm sold on sous vide-que for shorties. Many smoking purists will argue against not having the depth of smokiness that an all day cook gives you but I really thought there was plenty of bark (as you can see) and smokiness from the post smoke. The advantage is the ability to control precisely the outcome of the initial cook with the smoke finish being the only variable. As you can see the internal finish was consistent from bark to bone. My next experiment will be to drop the temp to the 133* range to go for a medium rare, steak like finish that is next to impossible to do with any degree of tenderness on a smoker. Should be interesting.
KEEP THAT BATH WATER CIRCULATING AND YOUR SMOKE BLUE ..... TROUTMAN OUT !!!
