Well done Sous vide

Ok, so I like my meat medium to medium-rare. But quite a few of my friends don't like pink in their meat. Thinking to have them over my place in a few weeks. What can I cook using sous vide ( ordered an anova today ). Would it be any good or just defeat the point?

 

short ribs!!!

 

Recipe?

 

Sous vide works well for medium well/ well done as you lose alot less moisture, lamb shoulder works well. I like 72 degrees for 12 hours, you can go up to 82 if you want a bit of a softer texture. Other things that work well, pork neck, beef brisket, ox tails

 

Why would you need a recipe for anything sousvided?

There are some things like ox shins, that will work much better braised imho. Neck too I like it more braised but its just preference.

 

Rami,

you can use your favorite braising type recipes and adjust for sous vide. Probably the hardest part is figuring out the timeline, since it's sort of counterintuitive. Please consider these to be general descriptions, there are some ins and outs of low temp cooking that can create some risk, so educate yourself and know that you are doing things safely.

For instance, if you do short ribs, prepare as normal, say salt, pepper, dust with flour, brown all over in a skillet. Allow to cool. Prepare your liquid, say add a few minced shallots, deglaze the pan with red wine, add beef stock and reduce by half. Allow to cool a bit (hard to seal hot foods in vac bag). You don't need much liquid in each bag. Enough for the shorties to be wet. Perhaps add a sprig of thyme, a small knob of butter to each bag. Some people go so far as to chill these all the way so the liquid is congealed, so they can remove extra fat and then seal the bags easily. But depending on your sealer situation, that may not be necessary. Be aware that under high vacuum, the bones can cut through the bags. Seal the bags.

The thing you'll have to use your judgement on is the time and temperature. Depending on the cut of meat, how thick it is, and so on, as Huw said, you'll want the waterbath to be at leaset 160-165F (approx 72 C for 12 hours, or more) to convert the collagen and get that nice braised texture. For food safety's sake, have your food closer to room temperature and your waterbath already hot before putting the bags in the waterbath. At 12 hours, check it by touch (keep the bag sealed for now) and see if it's tender enough. Adjust accordingly. There's a lot of time v. temperature to be played with, just minimize the time in the danger zone (40F -140F).

When it's tender, if you're serving right away, remove the bags from the waterbath and let them sit in the bags for at least 10 minutes or so. Drain and strain the braising liquids to a pot to reduce. Check for seasoning, finish the sauce, plate up.

If not serving right away, when you feel like it's tender, transfer the bags to a cool water bath. Some people like to shock it like vegetables, I prefer to temper it down a little - just room temp water first for a few min, add a scoop of ice, wait a few min for the ice to melt, add another scoop of ice, etc, until it's cold throughout. To reheat, you can do it in the bath again, but I'm lazy and I usually find it easier to drain and strain the sauce, reduce it/tweak it until it's a little bit diluted from the final sauce, bring it to heat, add the meat back, and slowly bring the meat back up to serving temperature, either on the stove or in the oven.

Depending on how you choose to do things, it could be a 2 or 3 day project, so count backwards from dinnertime, and add some time just in case. Hope that helps. Best of luck!

~Tad

 

Thanks mate. I will try this as soon as possible and let you know. This is very comprehensive. Much appreciated