I sous vide cooked beef ribs at 135°F for three days, then fast chilled them in ice water, put them into the refrigerator.  I later smoked them at 225°F for 1:45 until the IT was ~130°F

FWIW, I recently did  boneless short ribs exactly in the same manor and they came out perfect. All of the fat was trimmed prior to sous vide.

Cooking meat to a higher IT after sous vide will not make the meat tough will it?

Cooking meat to a higher IT after sous vide will not make the meat tough will it?

I suppose it would if the higher temperature dried it.  I guess that generates another question—does drying meat make it tough?  I think jerky is tough.  So I'd say, "Yes, it does."

Cooking meat to a higher IT after sous vide will not make the meat tough will it?

I'm not sure about tougher, but I'm quite sure that it would diminish flavor.

> It wasn't 170°F.  IDK where that number came from.
> I corrected my post to 130°F.  Thanks for pointing that out.

Hehe, I was scratching my head trying to figure out why you were doing it like that.

I think a lot of internal fat can be a problem. It's not going to render at 130F. I've had a few like that but most of the time for me, there's just a little bit, and it has the taste and texture of prime rib fat - nice in small amounts. Here's a pic of a typical rib after SV and prior to smoking

Bregent, you are correct, not a lot of fat is rendered at 130° but all of the tough connective tissue has been dissolved giving you tender medium rare ribs kissed with a touch of smoke.