Sous vide short ribs, part 2

48 hours later, I pulled them out. This was my first time cooking meat sous vide, so I found that they looked quite unpleasant and unnatural looking straight out of the bag. Many sous vide meat preparations call for searing the meat with a hot pan or torch before serving to create a nice crust. As a former Boy Scout, I love playing with fire and welcomed the opportunity to torch the meat!

However, before pulling the ribs out of the water, I made a quick sauce by sauteeing a mirepoix (carrot/onion/celery), tomato paste, deglazing with white wine, and then adding beef stock. I reduced this until it became syrupy.

Finally, I had my torched short rib and sauce. Time to eat! The result was indeed a medium-rare short rib--something I had never had before. I also found that there was no discernible difference between the three versions I had made. It was not as tender as I had hoped, except for one piece that was particularly fatty. I also thought that they had an almost overwhelming flavor of beef fat. I wonder if the result had something to do with the beef being grass-fed. Grass-fed beef tends to be lean and strong in flavor, almost gamy. Did cooking it in a pouch intensify these flavors? Did I need to cook it another 24 hours to make it more tender?

Overall, I had expected an amazingly tender short rib with amazing flavor. Perhaps that was too much to expect. Compared to this meal, I would have preferred a traditionally braised short rib. I obviously have much more experimenting to do.