Spare Me The Trouble (the Sous Vide / Egged Spare Ribs)

There was a thread here last week that was talking about how some folks tend to just tune out discussions here as soon as sous vide is brought up.  I had mentioned that I had done some spares using a combination of SV and the Egg, and a few folks had expressed interest in the details.  I hope this thread at least makes you think some more about getting an SV, because from my standpoint, after only having had one of these for about a month, I can't believe I waited as long as I did.  It's really another fantastic tool to have at your disposal.

For background, much of the credit for this recipe/approach goes to @nolaegghead and @travisstrick.  Those guys have both done variations on this cook recently, and their comments on the results are what spurred me to give them a shot. 

I used St. Louis cut spares from Costco.   I just did two racks.  The membrane was removed and I applied a mustard moisturizer (probably unnecessary for this approach):



I seasoned one with an ABQ Red Chile rub and the other with a homemade pepper rub:



Then they're vacuum packed using my FoodSaver:



I put both into the water bath with the Anova set just above 147F:



Those of you who have an Anova will know that my water bath wasn't quite up to temp when I dropped the two racks in.  That's OK.  I knew I was going to have them in there for 24hrs and that the time it took the bath to come the rest of the way up wouldn't matter too much in the big scheme of things.  

I kept them in there overnight for a total of 24 hrs, adding hot water as necessary to maintain the bath level.  I do cover the bath to cut down on water loss due to evaporation as well.  Here are the ribs coming out of the bath after that period:



You can see there's quite a bit of moisture in the bag.  That's not water that got in, but just juice from the meat itself.  I then put both racks in the fridge for about 3 hrs to cool.  Then they went right on to the Egg.  I went indirect, at a dome temp of 350, using apple wood for smoke.  After half an hour I sauced them up:


I kept them on for another half hour or so to let the sauce firm up.  Then I sliced them and drizzled in some more sauce:



And here they all are, plated out for our guests:


You do not get as much of a smoke ring with this approach, but there is plenty of smoke flavor.  Starting cold on the Egg for an hour is really enough.  You can see that they're fall off the bone, and pretty much all of the fat has been rendered out.  

These are really, really good.  Honestly they are a bit too tender for me - I'd like a little more pull.  But the flavor and bite is fantastic.  I've done these only twice, but my sense is that I can refine this basic approach over time to get things perfect.  And that's the beauty of the SV - you have a lot of control.  Thanks for reading!