c. Low and slow - Smoking, depending on the equipment, smoking can achieve "low and slow" with some success. Oooh, dem sound like fightin' words, LOL!

Louise, if they are a little dry, that suggests that they have lost too much moisture ( sorry, don't mean to offend by making it sound too obvious). While I used to think differently, from what I read I now understand that the main thing that effects the moisture in the meat is the temperature of the meat. If you steam meat or even boil it to an internal temp of 175, or put it a dry environment to the same internal temp - the moisture in the meat will be exactly the same ( would have been helpful to know that before I bought my combi steamer ) BTW - yes, the ribs cooked in the dry heat will be a little drier on the outside, but the inside of the meat will be just as moist as the one cooked in steam. The best way to retain moisture is to cook long and slow to break down the fat in the meat, and to try to avoid overcooking, and drying out, much of the meat. Another method is to use the closed cooking container - the moisture in the container allows the meat to transfer to the meat more efficiently. The worst method, of course, would be to put it uncovered in an oven at 500, by the time the middle of the rib meat came to a proper temp, the rest of the ribs would be a much higher temp, and be extremely dry. If you are a rib fanatic, you have a couple of choices, imho. Low and slow on a smoker ( or a gas grill, indirect heat, with smoking chips ), or low and slow in a gas oven, finish on the grill, or, if you are truly insane, smoke for 30 minutes on a smoker or gas grill with chips, then sous vide for 36 hours at 142 F, then finish for 5 to 10 min on a grill or in a broiler . I have adopted the sous vide method, yes it is a pain to do all the steps, but the direct time spent cooking while you are watching is pretty short ( just the time on the grill or broiler ) and the texture is unbelievably moist, and the timing works great for me, I smoke them, put them in a bag in the fridge, next morning put them in sous vide, and they are ready for dinner the following night. If you are looking for sauce recipes, or anything to do with cooking ribs, amazingribs.com is a great resource, even though they don't cover sous vide. Here is a link that might be useful: amazingribs

I am not sure any seller will be on record telling you to do what I had done. That is a very predictable answer you will get, from someone who most likely has no knowledge of sous vide cooking. Also I am not sure the nice lady understood totally the exact condition of what I had done. I will never cook with that plastic in a 400F oven. 150F is a relatively low temperature for plastics. I seem to remember that food grade plastics are rated to 212F. The moral of the story: Don't do it if you are not comfortable with this once a year crazy idea. For fun, watch these two videos. It seems to me that his plastic used was not even food grade. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WniZ1ly5Ik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neqq8imstlc&feature=relmfu dcarch

A similar method to the CI and Serious Eats methods was posted on Cooking for Engineers in 2005 using a sear first,then roast at 200 degree method. They also suggested taking the roast out of the refrigerator several hours before cooking so that it starts near room temperature and I think this is an important step. I've used this method a lot - always with success. I would definitely suggest the roast first then sear approach both because it is easier and also because if your roast is large enough it may brown sufficiently during the roasting and you might not need to sear at all. One final point - if you want your roast to end up around 125 degrees you will need to take it out at a lower temperature, somewhere around 120-122 degrees because it will go up as it rests. Go for it! It will be delicious. Lee