Reheating Ribs - Boiling water and foodsaver bags

[TmanEater]

So, my first baby back ribs were great and we had some leftovers which I stored in foodsaver vacuum bags for about a week. I took the ribs to family in another state this weekend and we attempted to reheat the meats (ribs and some brisket I also smoked) by boiling water and tossing the foodsaver bags in the water. With the ribs the foodsaver bag split open on the side and quite a bit of water came into contact with the ribs and washed off a bunch of the seasonings. We ate the ribs and they were pretty dry and bland as compared to when I cooked and ate the first batch from the smoker. I would like to know what everyone normally does to reheat leftovers and keep them as near as possible to original quality (taste, temps, moisture content)?


The brisket turned out fantastic reheated in boiling water (but the bag didn't break open in the water with it)...

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[DiggingDogFarm]

Unless bags are intended to be used for boiling you're going to run into problems.

Sous vide is a great way to reheat BBQ, gently!!!!

[NDKoze]

"Food Saver" bags ARE designed to be reheated in water.

I have done this numerous times without any problems. You want just a slight boil/simmer though. I don't use a full rolling boil. I just reheated some smoked turkey this afternoon this way and it was awesome!

Are you sure the bag with the ribs in it didn't have a pointy edge that punctured the bag? This happens occasionally especially with Jerky. I usually use a scissors to slice any pointy edges before sealing.

You can also use a crock pot with a half cup of water. Lay the ribs in sideways.

[DiggingDogFarm]

I reheat food in Foodsaver bags via "hot" water too....I've never had a split.
I assume that boiling literally means boiling, and that's just not good!
Zip-Loc bags can also be used to reheat food in water, but not boiling water!!!!

[NDKoze]

I'm not a chef so don't know the official meaning of "boil", but what is acceptable is maybe more correctly called "simmer".

The bottom line is that the goal is to slowly reheat the contents in the bag. I usually use a large pot/kettle so, that the bag doesn't touch the sides or bottom of the pot.

You can actually get it up to the light boil or simmer or whatever you want to call it and turn off the heat leaving it on the burner and it will reheat quite nicely.

[swthorpe]

I too have used the boiling water method to reheat pulled pork that was frozen in a foodsaver bag...worked like a charm.   For ribs, I have also put them in a crock pot with some apple juice and let them reheat slowly.

[SuperDave]

The microwave has always worked just fine for me.     I think second day smoked meat is often better because the smoke flavor has had a chance to balance throughout the entire piece of meat. 

[NDKoze]

The microwave has always worked just fine for me.     I think second day smoked meat is often better because the smoke flavor has had a chance to balance throughout the entire piece of meat. 

+1 on that. Reheated smoked food from the backs is always just as good if not better. That smoke just gets a chance to infuse deeper into the meat. Reheating in the bag keeps all of that valuable moisture intact.

[TmanEater]

"Food Saver" bags ARE designed to be reheated in water.

I have done this numerous times without any problems. You want just a slight boil/simmer though. I don't use a full rolling boil. I just reheated some smoked turkey this afternoon this way and it was awesome!

Are you sure the bag with the ribs in it didn't have a pointy edge that punctured the bag? This happens occasionally especially with Jerky. I usually use a scissors to slice any pointy edges before sealing.

You can also use a crock pot with a half cup of water. Lay the ribs in sideways.

I did have a full rolling boil going.  Maybe that was part of the problem. It was the side of the foodsaver bag that opened and it was over gas heat. It may have broke open when we were flipping the bag over in the boiling water (I'm not sure). Next time I'll keep it more of a simmer temperature to reheat.

How long in this simmer temp water is typically sufficient to reheat the meat through?

[NDKoze]

Yeah, I think the break was probably because of boiling too hard. I'll have to remember this when I recommend this to others in the future.

I haven't really timed mine. For pulled pork where I have a pretty thick chunk of vacuumed meat, I think I let it go 15-20 minutes or so.

For ribs, it would depend on whether you have them stacked or in a single layer. If they are stacked, I would still say 15-20 minutes. Less if they are not stacked.

To be honest, I don't usually have a lot of leftover ribs, so I don't think I have ever reheated the ribs this way. But I regularly use this method, with Chicken, Turkey, Pork, and Brisket.

[swthorpe]

I agree...when I have done the water boiling method, it was 15-20 minutes for a bag of pulled pork.   The pork came out nice and warm.

[DivotMaker]

I've only recently used the "boil in bag" method, which worked very well on pulled pork (hot simmer, no "rolling boil").  I usually use the crock pot to reheat pulled pork and ribs.  Stand ribs on their sides, with about 1/4" of apple juice in the bottom, cover and heat on LOW until warm.  3 racks can go 3-4 hours, after thawing in the fridge for a couple of days.  For pulled pork, I also add a little apple juice to the bottom, and then the pulled pork.  Heat on low until nice and warm.  Tastes like it did the day out of the smoker!

[TmanEater]

Did reheating via crock pot today for ribs with some cider in the bottom. Oh My God is all I have to say! I think the ribs were better than when they were just off the smoker! The flavors were just phenomenal. My 6 year old daughter even tried some and kept telling me to give her more and more. She wasn't this nuts about them the first time around. Kids seem to change daily with what they like anyway so this is probably a bad indicator.

[NDKoze]

I think a lot of our smoked goods actually benefit from a rest in the fridge or freezer and then a reheat.

I started smoking both of the double-pack of Boston Butts that I get from Sam's just because I love having the option to pull a pack of pulled pork out of the freezer for a quick and easy meal. And like you said, reheating can make results as good if not better than it was right out of the smoker.