The baby ribs you are going to eat are not going to be necessarily fresh. What if momma sends some packed barbeque for you? Or you held a party overnight and had some leftovers? Sounds easy, doesn’t it. We are going to see how to reheat ribs.
This is because the protein content is continuously burned down to leave tough deposits of little meat. At times, it even adheres to the bones and shoot! You are not going to like the tag of war between your teeth and your piece of meat.
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Guidelines to Follow When Reheating Ribs
Moisture loss from the already cooked ribs is the major threat at hand here. The moment we start to cook meat we are in a process of degenerating its tissues bit by bit. This means the more we reheat meat, the less tender it becomes and the lesser nutritious it becomes too.
This is because the protein content is continuously burned down to leave tough deposits of little meat. At times, it even adheres to the bones and shoot! You are not going to like the tag of war between your teeth and your piece of meat.
The trick to this is to store the leftover ribs in airtight bags or containers. Most of us foodies get hunger attacks during the wee hours of the night and woe unto you if you had nothing left to eat. How are you going to safely revive your meat? First, you will need to steam it. You may use a steamer basket. This ensures that the chunks of meat recover the little moisture lost and warmth.
While back at home, you may just simply dip the packs of airtight containers in a pan of steaming water. This works in an instant. However, if you are the owner of a restaurant or a large barbeque joint, you are going to need a Cryovac machine for the best of results. The greatest challenge here is how to keep cooking food that is by then so overcooked and yet still manage to produce a tasty meal for your customers. You need to keep them coming.
Care needs to be taken when reheating ribs to ensure they are not ruined. We are going to see how to reheat ribs using a grill first, then an oven next.
How to Reheat Ribs Using a Grill
- Gradually warm the ribs to be preheated if applicable, especially if they were frozen.
- Take your barbecue sauce and apply it on both sides of the rib parts with meat.
- Set your grill to the usual average temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit while ensuring the lid is closed.
- Take two sheets of aluminium foil and wrap them as tightly as possible around the racks of ribs.
- Care should be taken to put the ribs on the grill at a point with no direct heat. The rib meat should then be reheated until the temperatures drop to approximately 155 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The next step is to take the ribs out of the foil, look for a spot with the direct heat this time around then place your rib pieces right on it. This step prevails until the barbecue sauce applied gets steamy and bubbly.
- Finally, you can remove the ribs from the grill and let them cool until fit to be eaten again.
How to Reheat Ribs using an Oven
- The first step, as usual, is to thaw the ribs if frozen, that is you warm them gradually, while they are still in the airtight plastic bags.
- The oven needs to be preheated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Care should be taken not to exceed the average temperature because the excessive heat would cause the meat to dry, shrink and become hard.
- Any fat on the rib pieces should be skimmed off with a spoon.
- Smear the barbecue sauce all over the meaty parts of the rib on both the upper and lower sides.
- Neatly fold out two layers of aluminium foil together and then wrap them around the rib pieces. Ensure the aluminium foil is not torn by the sharp parts of the rib pieces as this could cause the meat to desiccate and lose its tastiness.
- Take a baking pan (or a ceramic lasagna pan) and put the foiled ribs in then put it in the middle part of your oven. A cooking sheet can be used in place of the cooking pan.
- Heat the meatiest part, the center of the rib, until it gets to 155 degrees Fahrenheit. This process should last say an hour, depending on the size of the meat chunk available.
- Take the foil off the ribs. The oven has a “Broil” option, this should be the set mode. Leaving the oven door open on one side for 15 minutes then turning to the other adjacent side for another 10 minutes or so, let the ribs lay in the oven on the Broil mode.
- It is advisable to leave the door open to prevent the thermostat in the oven from turning it off.
- The reheated ribs are ready and should be left for 5 minutes before serving.
- Slice off any excess fat deposits with a well-sharpened knife and cut the meat pieces into thin slices.
The following video may assist in the process of understanding how to best reheat ribs, which may also be known as briskets.
It’s Not Always the Microwave solution…
- You could be thinking, why not just shove the ribs into the microwave, wait a few minutes then get done? Microwaves may be advantageous when it comes to speed of reheating. However, they could also be the major source of the problem.
- Too much instant heat could cause the meat to become mushy or the fats and syrup applied to it melt and leave the oven messy. However, heat ovens and grills ensure the syrup is kept intact and that the sugars are coagulated.
- Also, timing on a microwave is a task, one has to put it on, then check in intervals how much time it would probably require being ready.
With time, meat ages and develops a condition that is scientifically termed as warmed-over-flavor, WOF. Animal fats become stale from exposure to the air. It’s the living version of rusting. The meats with more unsaturated are the most prone to this kind of effect.
A good cook would not want putrid smells lurking around in the kitchen or even house in general. Care should be taken to observe the best practices while going through the process of reheating ribs.
Today we learn that the barbecue that has stayed long can be reheated to get better. Not as good as new, but good enough to feel the sweet taste of the meat as a delicacy. With a few ingenious tricks, one can produce the finest reheated ribs of all time.
I believe your questions have been answered on how to reheat ribs. Leave a comment below in case you have more and we’ll get back to you. Enjoy your ribs!
The following article is going to be about leftover chunks of ribs and how to reheat them to ensure they try to remain as tasty as they can be. We have guided you through the best safety practices and you can go ahead and reheat your ribs without having to worry about them drying up or ending up tough and ultimately, inedible.
