Seeing there are some who like to cook here. I thought I'd bring up a way of cooking that not many may have heard of. Sous Vide or submersion cooking. If you're into cooking, you might want to check it out. Me being the curious type. Yes, I do this type of cooking. I started out using my dehydrator set to the correct temperature. But now I use a circulator in water. tp
A friend has done a chuck steak for me that had a sear at the end. It was fantastic. I think the only thing that bothers me about it is cooking in plastic.
I've heard about people getting fantastic results especially with beef. But for me the equipment is too expensive for something I wouldn't use that often and I don't necessarily plan my meals ahead of time so time is a factor. Maybe I should plan ahead more.
And you can plan stupid far ahead too. A dude on YT sous vide'd a steak for a month. Since it is held at a constant safe temp, bacteria can't grow and it was safe to eat. So, plan your penguiny little tush off sir, and even if you plan wrong, you're right!
I happen to have a crock pot with a sous vide function on it. I use it a quite a bit. It is good but has it's limitations like for example thin cuts of meat or hamburgers under 6 oz. You can turn meat into mush real quickly if it is too thin sous viding it. One thing I use it for is making cold cuts. I buy cheap meat like whole hunks of sirlon or eye rounds and first salt and skewer them to tenderize then sous vide cook them. They come out super tender and then I reverse sear using a pan. Cool them off in the fridge then slice them in the meat slicer. I do 2 to 3 pounds of meat at time. Instead of paying like $8 - $9 per lb for dried out roast beef at the deli or in a package I am paying $3 - $5 per lb instead and get a better result. Yeah you pay more up front but you save it on the back end if you use the equipment enough. Tools ultimately are almost always a good investment including kitchen tools if you use them enough.
Sous vide is perfect for pasteurizing meat since you can usually control temperature within a degree or so. It is just a matter of getting the right time down which there is plenty of info out there how to do this depending your cut of meat and thickness. You can also prep your steaks ahead of time, season and tenderize then vacuum seal and freeze until you are ready to cook. You don't even need to thaw out the steaks first just cook them longer to compensate for lower initial starting temperature. If you cook them first then freeze in the same bag they will hold at least 6 months. You thaw them by putting the bag in 100 degree F water for about an hour then finish the steak off the way you want. I don't do this myself but the steaks are supposed to be almost the same as if you didn't freeze them using that method.
I've been using sous vide for a couple years now. Within it's limitations, you can't beat it. You can get near prime rib type beef out of cheaper cuts like London broil. It will give you perfect steaks. Always sear after cooking sous vide. Some cuts don't benefit. Because the cooking temperature is low, the fat won't render down as much, so while you can cook a perfect medium rare prime rib, any fat on it will be near inedible unless you like perfectly cooked greasy white chunks that run like veins of gold in Kimberlite. A good filet now, there is no better way to cook it than sous vide, followed by patting it dry, salting and a one minute sear per side on a smoking hot grill. Garnish with fresh ground pepper to taste. Pepper turns bitter when exposed to high heat. It's always better to pepper afterwards if you can. I've had great success with pork and beef. Seafood must be sous vide carefully, and timed perfectly. Too soon and it's not cooked. Too long, and it turns to mush. I've yet to get a perfectly cooked lobster or tuna filet. Swordfish turned out OK, but not great.
One item that is absolutely decadent doing sous vide cooking is pork bellies. When done right they are like a buttery porkchop without that overly piggy taste to them. I season the meat side with sugar and salt and the skin side assuming you keep the skin on with only salt. Personally I remove the skin but only because I'd rather make homemade pork rinds with it instead. I let them sit in the fridge on wire rack over a pan for a few hours to tenderize before vacuum sealing them. You cook them at 165 F for 24 hours. That is hot enough to render the fat and break down the collagen into gelatin but they still stay super moist and tender. You can use the juice in the bag as sauce and if you keep the skin on make sure you thoroughly dry it first especially if you fry it to crisp it up afterwards. Other tip is to throw the bag right into cold water to stop it continuing cooking when done and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before finishing off the pork bellies either frying the skin or saucing and broiling. That will keep them from cooking over the 165 f mark when you finish them off. Pro tip with using foodsaver vacuum seal bags make sure you double seal each end of the bag. That will keep them from possibly leaking during cooking. I've found regardless of whether you use a dry or moist setting they leak. You double seal and they don't doesn't matter moist or dry. Second tip if you are cheap like me wash and reuse the vacuum seal bags or those sous vide zip lock bags. Bleach and warm water with a sponge is good enough to clean and sterilize them before drying and reusing.
Chicken thighs. Bone in skin on. Six hours at 165°. My preference for crisping the skin is under the broiler. For most everything else I sear with my flame thrower. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Another thing that you can cook right in the sweet spot (pun intended) without any guess work is corn on the cob doing sous vide. Unlike what you read on the websites the sweet spot is between 150 - 170 F. The reason being that is the range the starch breaks downs in the kernel but not the pectin on the skin. 170 or higher the pectin breaks down and kernel becomes mushy. You can also hit that spot boiling but it requires a certain amount of corn on the cob to water and the key is don't boil the corn, but throw the corn in after you boil the water then turn off the heat.
I use a Searzall attached to a propane bottle. Probably would have gone with a flamethrower instead, but they weren't a thing yet. Most of the time I try to use the grill for a seared finish, and just use the Searzall for finishing touches.
To add to this if you take a waste not approach, you can also use the corn cobs when you cook this way again before relegating them to wipe your rear end with. Once you have 6 or so cobs you can use them make corn cob jelly.
Depends what you are into, the corn cob jelly could have other uses in conjunction with that corn cob.
Beef brisket. 65hrs in the sous vide at 135°. Ice bathed for two hours then three and a half hours on 250° smoker. Delicious! Juicy and fork tender. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
