Best Way to Re-Heat Ribs


 

John R.

New member
I want to make some baby back ribs a couple of days before they are to be served. What is the best way to smoke the ribs ahead of time, and the best way to re-heat? Should I not fully smoke the ribs, then finish them over the grill later? Are there advantages or disadvantages to reheating on a gril vs. oven vs. microwave? Your thoughts are appreciated!
 
My favorite is to vaccuum-seal the ribs when they've cooled after cooking, then reheat them boilin'-bag style in a large pot of simmering water. A slab of ribs will reheat nicely like this in about 10-15 minutes.

My next best option is to wrap the cooled ribs tightly in foil. When ready to reheat, place the wrapped ribs in a 300-degree oven. Let them heat for about 20 minutes, until they're feeling warm through the foil, then open the foil and spritz with some apple juice. Let them continue to heat with the foil open for another 10 minutes or so, then brush on a little more glaze of whatever kind you've used. A few more minutes to set the glaze, and they should be ready to eat.

These are the two methods that I suggest people use to reheat their ribs when I cook for them and they won't be eating the ribs immediately.

Someone else will be able to address the finishing over the grill approach, as I haven't done that very much.
 
I pull the ribs off the smoker about an hour early and vacuum seal 'em. For reheating, I do them on the grill at medium, then on high to glaze the sauce.
 
I cut them into individual ribs, sauce 'em then throw them on med. grill to warm up and crisp/glaze a bit...MMM! Thinking about doin' spares right now!

Aloha,

Greg
 
I just got a Food Saver & vacuum packed some leftover pulled pork I made. Do you think the "boiling bag" method of reheating will work just as well for pulled pork as for ribs?

Thanks, Keri C
 
Joe, yes, I do the boilin' bag thing for butts and briskets the same way. I'll vac a whole pork butt minus the bone, press down on it a bit in the bag to separate some of the large muscle chunks and thin the total mass a little, and chill it quickly before I seal it so the juices solidify some. That helps keep juices in the bag and not in your machine. I just went through this process a couple of days ago for my grandmother and some of her buds who decided that they were going to need a weekend pulled-pork fix, in fact. I let a frozen vacced butt sit in the refrigerator for a couple of days to thaw, then simmered it slowly in the bag for about 45 minutes while I was getting dressed. Wrapped the bagged pork in a towel, set down in a foil half-pan, wrapped a few layers of foil around that, put the whole bundle in an insulated casserole carrier, and it was still steaming hot when they decided to open it and eat about three hours later, so she tells me. I don't like to pull it before I vac it, but I do like to at least partially separate some of the larger muscle chunks to facilitate thawing/heating.

For smaller bags of leftover pulled pork, tjkoko is right - 15 minutes will probably do ya. You'll be able to tell by the movement of the juices in the bag.

Use caution when doing the boilin' bag thing on whole briskets, though. I find that briskets work much better if you'll go ahead and separate the flat from the point before bagging them and either lay them next to each other in the bag, or bag them separately.

Keri C, still smokin' on Tulsa Time
Hot Wire BBQ
 
Sorry it's been while since i started this post. This is what I did: vacuum sealed and froze the ribs. Later thawed in the fridge. When time to serve, took out of the plastic, wrapped in foil and put them on the grill for about an hour. took them out of the foil for the last 15 minuts and hit with sauce. They tasted just like I had slow cooked them that day! Outstanding results.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bob T.:
I just never seem to have enough leftover ribs to freeze lol. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You need to think about buying a second or third wsm, just so you can cook enough ribs to have leftovers, that was the reason I gave my wife for why I had to buy another one, and she either accepted the idea, or at least wanted to see me happy and didn't argue.
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