I wouldn’t expect sous-vide to be transformative for steaks, but there is great value in knowing you are going to get a nice piece of meat cooked exactly how you want it.
I AM hoping that it will be transformative for burgers. Really looking forward to being able to cook a nice medium burger and knowing it is safe to eat without having to resort to grinding my own beef.
I typically use a barbecue rub just before putting it in the bag, but you could do wet or dry brining with aromatics of choice in the bag if you prefer.
Are we talking breasts here? Thighs? Skin on or off?
Yes, I know how that reads. And no, I don’t mind.
Wait. So it brines while it cooks? Hmm. Interesting.
-xtien
It’s certainly possible. I think he’s still getting the hang of it. I suppose if we get invited back for a party next year I’ll be able to compare.
Regardless, it made me want to cook up a couple of steaks very soon.
-xtien
It depends. Thighs can be pretty decent broiled, so it’s not such a big gain, but I still do it occasionally - I made some green curry with sous vide thigh just the other day. But usually it’s with breast fillets, skin on or off. Skin-on is probably a little better because it insulates during the searing and, you know, skin.
I meant pre-brining, but yes, it does to a certain extent brine during the cooking. Pretty sure Kenji has some experiments on this to demonstrate different approaches.
Thank you, Ginger_Yellow.
I love it when the skin comes out right. Damn.
-xtien
A friend of mine brought over some tri-tip he cooked with sous vide and it was absolutely fantastic - it was what prompted me to ask for one for my b-day.
Once I got my onw, my first steak was as good as Morton’s, so I’d qualify it as transformative.
Then my friend who got me into this whole mess brought me over some boneless beef ribs and OMG, seriously best ever.
But I’m pretty picky and I don’t start off with cheap beef - there is a reason for grading IMO.
I dont know about the tri tip but the chuck steak I sous vide was absolutely transformative. No matter what you try on the grill, a chuck steak is always tough but after sous vide it was amazingly tender and flavorful. Im guessing the returns are less on better cuts of meat but I was amazed at how it handled cheap chuck. I have a london broil roast cut, I plan on sous viding so I can slice it up for italian roast beef sandwiches. Since deli roast beef runs $9/lb and the cut I bought was $4/lb it seems like a winner price wise.
Again, the nice thing with a better cut of meat is getting it cooked perfectly. Nothing wrong with that.
Some belated cookery:
Spaghetti Alla Carbonara
from Pasta Revolution
Extremely straightforward. Basically, you get the spaghetti going in a large pot, while frying up several slices of bacon (chopped) in a skillet in olive oil. Once it’s crisp, you mix in a half cup of white wine and simmer that for 6-8 minutes. Finally, in a mixing bowl you whisk together 3 eggs, 3/4 cup of grated Parmesan, 1/4 cup of Pecorino Romano, and a couple minced garlic cloves. Once the spaghetti is done, you drain it and immediately add everything from skillet and bowl, toss to combine, season with salt and pepper, and there you go. It’s a staple, of course, and so there are many other takes on it (including one in How to Cook Everything Fast, which is staged with greens instead of bacon and no wine - which I did some time ago- or you can do the classic bacon version as a variant). But this one is definitely delicious.
Honey-Cheddar Grits with Sage
from How to Cook Everything Fast
I got the grits for this from Amazon some months ago but never quite got around to do anything with them until recently. I had fresh sage for another round of Skillet Saltimbocca Spaghetti (so good) and milk for another recipe I made a little later, so I went ahead and fixed these for the first time. I understand why they’re so popular down south! There are, of course, many ways to make grits, but this one is straightforward and good: put a half-and-half mix of milk and water in a pan over medium high heat and bring it to a boil, then turn the heat to low and whisk in the grits. Add a sprig of fresh sage and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more liquid if needed. At the end, remove the sage and then stir in cheddar cheese and honey. Or, of course, chopped almonds and maple syrup, or parmesan, olive oil and rosemary, or ginger, orange zest and soy sauce, or just butter, if you want to do the variants. It has a whole list of topping options as well.
Skillet Meatloaf
from How to Cook Everything Fast
and
Skin-On Mashed Potatoes
also from How to Cook Everything Fast
Did this as one meal. Again, classic dishes but I’ve never made them before. Waaaay easier than I would have thought. The meatloaf was basically just mixing a pound each of ground beef and pork plus bread crumbs, milk, a little bit of garlic, some parmesan, one egg, and salt and pepper all together in a bowl with my hands, spreading it out in a pre-heated skillet, drizzling ketchup over the top and then baking for 15-20 minutes on 425, switching to broiler on High and broiling up close for another 3-ish minutes. Variants include barbecue sauce instead of ketchup (no parmesan for that), cumin and chopped chipotles instead of parmesan and adobo sauce instead of ketchup, blue cheese instead of parmesan, no ketchup, miso and minced ginger instead of parmesan and garlic (no ketchup), or lamb instead of both meats, feta instead of parmesan, and harissa sauce instead of the ketchup (or just ketchup). Meanwhile, the potatoes just involved scrubbing and thin-slicing six potatoes and dumping them in a large pot with enough water to cover them plus some garlic, boiling them for 20-ish minutes, and then draining and mashing them together with milk, butter, salt, pepper and optional flavorings (I went with some dijon mustard).
Penne with Fennel and Italian Sausage
from Pasta Revolution
It’s supposed to be ziti but for reasons only known to them, Trader Joe’s doesn’t stock ziti and that’s where I was. So, penne. Close enough. In a large pot, get the water boiling and cook up some ziti or penne or whatevs. In a dutch oven, cook the italian sausage for a few minutes on medium high until it’s no longer pink, then add two chopped onions and one chopped fennel bulb, cover, and cook for 5 minutes or so. Uncover, turn it down to medium and cook another 10-12 minutes. Add a can of tomato paste and cook for another 3-ish minutes. Stir in 2 cups of boiling pasta water and simmer until thickened - another 5 minutes or so. Drain the pasta (reserving another cup of pasta water), then mix it, the sausage mixture, some grated Pecorino Romano, and the cup of pasta water. Season w/ salt and pepper to taste. Had this for dinner last night and it was quite yummy. Really the main tricky bit was timing things so that I had pasta cooking at the point when you need to add boiling pasta water to the sauce. But I managed it without a hitch.
@malkav11, as always, it’s awesome following along with you. That ziti sounds pretty fucking good (I Mean, all of it does, but the ziti especially. Or penne. Whatever :-D). Did you have to drain any fat from the sausage?
Wrapping around the weekend, I’ve found myself in the midst of Mediterranean cuisine once again :)
Hummus. I forgot to start slowcooking my dried chickpeas, so I had to get canned. Food-processed with a little tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, salt, olive oil, and water. Topped with olive oil and paprika!
Made some pita chips with cheapo pita breads from Walmart. Slice into 30-40 pieces each, then toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, Italian herbs, Parmesan, and garlic powder, then toast till crisp!
I added a little sumac to this relatively paprika-light serving of hummus, as I’d never had it and Alton Brown recommends it as his preferred hummus-finisher. He seems pretty right to me!
Chicken Zakis are more or less ripped off from a local Mediterranean joint, Jasmin. Some “halal cart chicken” (chicken marinated in blended-together olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, oregano, cumin, coriander, cayenne, black pepper, and salt, then seared in butter and olive oil and chopped) put in a tortilla with chopped sundried tomatoes, feta cheese crumbles, shredded mozzarella, and “pesto aoili” (okay it’s actually just 1:1 jarred pesto and mayo). Then, fold it up and panini griddle. . .
Cut it in half and serve with freshly fried crinkle fries because you’re a fatass.
Freshly fried falafels from tonight :-D – soaked, raw chickpeas blended together with an onion, a lot of parsley, cumin, coriander, cayenne, black pepper, salt, lemon juice, baking soda, and just a bit of flour to bind it, then formed into balls and deep fried at 340F for 4:30!
Preparing to make a falafel wrap! Got some fresh-made tzatziki (with garlic, lemon, salt, pepper, cucumber, mint, and dill in full-fat Greek yogurt), tahini sauce (tahini mixed with lemon, garlic, salt, and a little water to thin it out), feta, falafels, Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, red onions, and tomatoes.
That’s the fuckin’ business, yeahhhhh. Unfortunately, this was the last tortilla out of a bag I opened like 3 months ago, so it was pretty stiff; rolling was gonna prove challenging, even after microwaving it with a damp towel. . .
But I bravely soldiered on, dumped some pita chips and hummus on the plate, and forgot to take a picture until I was halfway done!
Holy fuck that looks good.
No fat draining necessary. The sausage fat is what’s helping cook the onion and fennel mix.
Nice… I might give that one a shot sometime. Thanks for the delicious looking post 😀!
The cult of sous vide here has me taking a longer look at it now. I’m particularly interested in it for bbq meats as its easier to maintain than a smoker overnight. Anyone have any experience with sous viding and then smoking a brisket for example?
I think of sous vide as a substitute for a smoker rather than a supplement (and to be honest, if you have a smoker, you’re probably better off using that).
I think @Misguided has done that? If not, I know I’ve seen it mentioned on a few sites. Essentially you smoke only at the end for long enough for smoke flavor (and ring if you’re going for that.) One recommendation if you wanted more smoke flavor would be to rechill your meats after sous vide before then putting them on the smoker, as colder meat absorbs smoke more quickly.
Nah, we just got the sous vide. Haven’t used it yet. Our smoker maintains itself overnight, just like a sous vide does, by having a computer-controlled auger that feeds pellets into a fire pot.
I’d think, though, that if you wanted to do that, you might want to remove the meat from sous vide and chill it in the fridge before putting it on the smoker, because smoke sticks to cold meat better. Or maybe you could just use a smoker tube.
You aren’t going to get a traditional bark that way, though, or a smoke ring, if those things matter. Sure it would still be very tasty.
Note that at altitudes much over 4000 feet, I don’t think you could do this properly, because you couldn’t get the water temperature high enough. There you might have to go from sous vide to oven to push the temperature up (I cook brisket to 203).
I have a great smoker… the weber smoky mountain unit. It’s awesome and cheap… My sister got it for me a while back.
The thing is, it’s still a significant commitment to use it. I use it a few times a year, and really nothing else can compare to its results. But it’s an event you need to plan around. It’s gonna take all day, and while you don’t need to do much, you still need to check on it every few hours to make sure things are still humming along.
I’ve actually moved onto using a pressure cooker for BBQ…and it’s pretty freaking amazing, as you can get results which are damn close to the real thing, and it takes AN HOUR.
