Overnight in the fridge, uncovered — the dry brine standing in for the bag.

Two racks of St. Louis ribs, cooked entirely in the Precision Oven: barbecue ribsBarbecue Ribs, Precision Oven
SPICE RUB
1/3 cup / 80 ml paprika
1/3 cup / 80 ml dark brown sugar
1/4 cup / 60 ml kosher salt
2 tablespoons / 30 ml whole yellow mustard seed
1 teaspoon / 5 ml freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons / 30 ml granulated garlic powder
1 tablespoon / 15 ml dried oregano
1 tablespoon / 15 ml whole coriander seed
1 teaspoon / 5 ml red pepper flakes
RIBS
2 whole racks St. Louis-cut pork ribs
SAUCE
1 medium yellow onion, grated
1 1/2 cups / 320 ml ketchup
2 tablespoons / 30 ml spicy brown mustard..., Kenji’s Anova water-bath recipe moved into sous vide mode with 100% steam. The recipe offers two paths — 63ºC for 36 hours for a dense rib that slices, 74ºC for 12 hours for one that shreds — and the calendar picked for us: 12 hours fits between a morning start and a 5 PM return, 36 does not.

The schedule is the interesting part. Rub on Tuesday afternoon, overnight dry brine in the fridge, ribs into the oven before 4:30 AM on a 13-hour timer, and the cook runs unattended while nobody is home. The timer ends at 5:20 PM, just after getting back at 5, so the oven holds the ribs at temperature until someone is there to pull them.

In the oven at 74ºC, 100% steam, the rear element doing the work.

Two racks cut into portions, rubbed, on the rack they will cook on.

Base Recipes

• Barbecue Ribs, Precision OvenBarbecue Ribs, Precision Oven
  SPICE RUB
  1/3 cup / 80 ml paprika
  1/3 cup / 80 ml dark brown sugar
  1/4 cup / 60 ml kosher salt
  2 tablespoons / 30 ml whole yellow mustard seed
  1 teaspoon / 5 ml freshly ground black pepper
  2 tablespoons / 30 ml granulated garlic powder
  1 tablespoon / 15 ml dried oregano
  1 tablespoon / 15 ml whole coriander seed
  1 teaspoon / 5 ml red pepper flakes
  RIBS
  2 whole racks St. Louis-cut pork ribs
  SAUCE
  1 medium yellow onion, grated
  1 1/2 cups / 320 ml ketchup
  2 tablespoons / 30 ml spicy brown mustard...

Plan

• Tuesday ~3:30 PM: grind the rub, reserve 3 tablespoons for the sauce. Membrane off, racks cut into 3–4 rib portions, rub on, fridge uncovered on a rack overnight.
• Wednesday before dawn: sous vide mode, 100% steam, rear element, 74ºC, middle rack, 13-hour timer. Leave for the day.
• Wednesday 5:00 PM, back home: sauce on the stove first — grated onion, the reserved rub, ketchup, brown mustard, molasses, Worcestershire, cider vinegar, and all the liquid smoke, 20 minutes.
• 5:20 PM, timer ends: pull the ribs, pat dry, switch to bake, no steam, 150ºC. Bake 20 minutes until the surface sizzles, brush with sauce, 10 minutes, brush again, 10 minutes until tacky, optional broil at 230ºC for a few minutes.
• Serve around 6:10 PM.

Log

Time	Step
Tue 3:40 PM	Rubbed and in the fridge, uncovered
Wed 4:20 AM	Into the oven, 74ºC, 100% steam, 13-hour timer
Wed 5:20 PM	Out after the full 13 hours — some parts drier than they should be
Wed evening	Shortened finish: 10-minute broil, then sauce and 5 more minutes. Skipped the 150ºC bake — the surface needed no more drying

After the broil: dark bark, rendered juices on the pan.

Notes

Thirteen hours at 74ºC was one hour too many. The exposed edges went dry — without a bag there is nothing protecting the surface, and the recipe’s foil-tent warning exists for exactly this. Next time: 12 hours, not 13, and tent the pan if the tops look dry partway through. The finish had to adapt too: with the surface already dry, the 20-minute bake plus two 10-minute sauce coats would have made it worse, so it became a 10-minute broil and a 5-minute sauced broil, which was enough.

The grated onion in the sauce looks like a transcription artifact but is not — it is straight from Kenji’s original, down to the instruction to use the large holes of a box grater. Grating dissolves the onion into the sauce so it thickens and flavors without leaving pieces. Odd to do, but it works.