First Meat: Part 1

The 'holy grail' of sous vide cooking is the promise of being able to take an inexpensive cut of meat and cook it at just the right temperature to make it tender without making it dry. Fortunately the temp that meat gets tender is less than that which it releases its juices.

I hunkered off to Whole Foods to begin my 48 hour transformation process. I'm surprised at how few people have heard of this. I had never cooked brisket before and was asking the butcher about the cut of meat. He remarked that it can be tough and people usually slow cook it. I explained that I was going to cook it sous vide and he shrugged and asked what that was. After explaining the boil in baggy meets the crock pot concept he was intrigued. Apparently they have a cryo-vac machine at the store. (I'm seeing a new marketing opportunity. Pre sealed sous vide bags at butchers!)
2 lbs of brisket later and 2 short ribs later, I'm back at home testing out what meat cooked for 2 days tastes like.

I'm following one of the recipes in the intro guide. "Beef Brisket Steak"
To quote the cookbook. "..for beef brisket, another cut that requires long, slow cooking, we use only sous vide because the advantages of making the cut tender without bringing it above 150 deg exceed the advantages of poaching it in stock or braising it."

I'm sold.

It is becoming apparent that cooking meat sous vide is not for the casual cook. Planning ahead, investing in the equipment, browning food and cooling it then sealing it then browning it again is more work than conventionally cooking a roast. But given the visual of so many of the French Laundry dishes being cooked this way, I am going on faith that this yields a better product.

Abbreviated Recipe:
Preheat the water bath to 147.2°

Brown the meat in a hot pan of oil. Brown all sides, not just the top and bottom. Cool the meat optimally overnight or for a few hours in the refrigerator.

[Ok I put the meat into a true ice bath - defined as more than 50% ice with salt added to rapid cool the meat. It seems that sealing the warm meat is a bad idea. The book shares this wisdom in all caps. "FOOD TO BE COOKED SOUS VIDE MUST BE COLD WHEN IT'S SEALED AND THEN EITHER COOKED IMMEDIATELY OR STORED IN THE REFRIGERATOR..."]

Seal the meat and cook it in the hot water for 48 hours.

So here are the questions I have at this point?
1) How often will I need to add water?
2) Will there be steam that will cause the paint to mildew? Will my pantry placement be an issue?

If you look at the photo of the pan, you can see it's on a rack. Leaving the pot with moist heat on a wood floor for hours or days seems like a bad idea. Elevation seems like a better idea. Let's hope that's enough protection...

I browned and added some short ribs to the pot as well. The thought of serving short ribs (my favorite cut of all) and serving it medium rare seems impossible. We'll see!

......................

So it's now 2 days later. I added a second brisket to the mix. This one was not browned but instead it was added with just salt and pepper. Goal was to see if there was a significant difference.

Verdict. The meat from this recipe is intended to produce a more traditional pot roast style cut where the meat isn't medium rare. It was great. I sliced the roast into 1/2" slices, floured the sides and browned in a cast iron pan with olive oil then gave them a few minutes in a 375° oven.

Verdict. Amazing. Moist. Tender. Slightly red. Not at all chewy. The bag juices were reduced and were only ok. The lacked some of the depth of a truly roasted pan sauce.

The browned roast looked better (the one on theleft was pre-browned - and it was slightly better tasting with a richer flavor. But if time is pressed, by all means, just do the after browning.

.................

I had to fill the stock pot morning and night to keep the water level at a safe level. Not something you can leave in the garage for the 2 days of cooking as it does need to be monitored.