On 21-May-2004, Dana Myers > wrote:
<snip>
> While I agree that boiling too long to warm the ribs
> runs the risk of pushing them into overcooked, I look
> at this way - cooking the ribs at 212F in a bag
> is basically the same as cooking them at 212F in
> the smoker without smoke. What's the difference
> between "cooked just right" and "overcooked" when
> they're in the smoker? It might not be that different
> when they're simmering in a pot of water.
>
> The one factor that I think mitigates this is I believe
> boiling water imparts heat more efficiently than smoke
> at the same temperature, but I don't have scientific
> evidence to back it up. It probably depends on what
> temperature you cook at in the first place, and
> boiling water probably isn't any worse than a mild
> heat spike in the fire.
>
> So, my take is, if cooking with smoke has a 30 minute
> window of "just right", you probably have 15 minutes
> of margin when heating in the water if simmering gently.
>
> I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong to heat very
> gently; I prefer to re-warm things gently as well for
> the same reason. My point here is that re-heating in
> water probably is as forgiving as cooking with smoke
> in the first place, no stress ;-)

Screw all this technobabble. My vac-packed frozen 'Q'
comes out right nice when reheated in in a boiler of hot
water. "Simmer" it until the bag starts to swell up. Take
it off and eat it.
--
M&M ("When You're Over The Hill You Pick Up Speed")