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Sous Vide Roast beef... AKA the future of cooking


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If you haven't heard of Sous Vide, here is a quick run down. Fancy name aside all you are really doing, is vacuum sealing food (in this case a beef roast) and placing it in a bath of water that is held at very precise temps.

 

Until very recently the gear was either very expensive (it still can be) or a DIY hack that had questionable accuracy, but viable immersion heaters are on the market for less than $300, and a good vacum sealer can be had for about the same. Anyway here we go.

 

 

Special Gear:

First you will need an immersion heater, I got this one off Amazon its now $200; Link

Second you will need a way to vac pack your food. I guess the "Food Saver" from TV isn't really suited for this, they have issues of the seal breaking open, I got this one; Link its rated highly, and makes a nice seal.

 

Books: There are a ton of books coming out, right now among the best would be this, the original was a 4 volume $500 orgy of science, food, and coffee... This will do, its not cheap but the hints and tips will help in all aspects of your cooking.

 

Normal stuff:

 

OK basically all we are making is a Sunday Roast, only it will be the best roast you've ever had, it will not be difficult, and everyone who eats it will be stunned.

 

Go to the store and buy a rump roast or shoulder roast, the tougher the better, the more work a muscle did, the better it will taste, but it is tougher, in this case we dont care, go for rump or shoulder, make sure there is some nice fat left on. Say 5lbs, more or less depending on how many you are feeding.

 

1 lbs Bacon

 

One large canning pot, or similar vessel.

 

Method:

 

If you are eating Sunday night do this Saturday morning. Take the roast, and season, Salt/Pepper/Garlic powder. If you have fresh rosemary you can add that, or however you season your beef.

Vacuum seal the roast with seasonings, and rosemary still on. NOTE: Make sure the seal is good, lots of people double seal the bag, hit it once to vac and seal pull up a little and seal again, also insert the roast into the bag with a towel or plastic wrapped around it, if the top of the bag gets dirty it wont seal correctly.

 

Set immersion heater to 128F

 

Once at temp place beef in water, cover top of pot with foil to prevent water loss.

 

Check water level at 6 hours, and 12 hours. If you need water try to use hot water, so the temp remains steady. At these temps I normally do not need to add.

 

At 24hours prep a large bowl, or your sink, with ice water.

 

Pull beef from bath and plunge into water, wait 30-40 minutes

 

Put in fridge until 1-1.5 hours before you eat.

 

Once you are close to meal time, start the heater again at 128. Once to temp place the still vac/packed beef in the bath. It will only take around 30 minutes to reheat, but it can stay for a few hours if needed.

 

Take bacon and cut the slab in half. Continue to dice the half slab, and put in a skillet on med/low heat. You want to slowly render the fat out of the meat. This will take 20-30 minutes, or more. Once this is done remove the bacon bits, and save for whatever sides you are serving, for me half go into mashed potatoes, and half on top of blanched Asparagus with parm cheese.

 

Remove the beef from the bath, open the bag, you can make the "drippings" into gravy, you will need to cook the water out of them. I screwed it up both times, so I'm not helping on that (I had store bought gravy on the ready once) I set the meat on a rack to let any moisture drai away, and pat it dry with paper towels.

 

Now for the good part, take the bacon fat at place on medium high. Once it starts to smoke, place the beef in the pan. Turn at one minute, until all side are done. Turn heat off and set on plate, you do not need to rest this, you can carve right away.

 

Once done you will have this

 

post-4100-0-96562000-1395702567.jpeg

 

 

and once its cut...

 

post-4100-0-95055600-1395702602.jpeg

 

Truly an amazing piece of meat, it will be tender, but not over cooked. Since you had a tougher piece of meat, it will have bigger beef flavor. I cannot stress how good this is.

 

 

EDIT: Sorry about the huge pics. Also when you sear this it will smoke A LOT, and the fat will spatter A LOT, have some windows open and maybe a fan to suck the air out.

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Well...sous-vide cooking isn't the "end all be all" of cooking. It works better for certain types of proteins than others, and even those sous-vide friendly proteins then work better in certain types of dishes than others. Some people are going to like the different textures this produces and others will straight up not like it. Others will miss the variety of flavors produced by traditional cooking methods that sous-vide lacks.

 

It's a useful method for cooking when used correctly (with the right protein in the right dish), but that's it.

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