I try to keep kitchen gadgets to a minimum. Cast iron and good knives. I use my dehydrator for jerky, I use my meat grinder/sausage maker. My wife got me one of these Sous Vide gizmos for Christmas last year. I didn’t just dive into it. Over the last months, having time, I focused a lot of attention on developing some new culinary skills and put this device to use. Glad I did.
Sous Vide means “in vacuum” in French. Whatever is being cooked goes into a freezer ziplock or vacuum sealer bag. Important to stick with these because of the issue with the chemicals in plastics when heated up…no bueno. This technique works better for lean meats and the beauty of it is you bring the package to a very exact temperature in the water bath. The water never touches the meat so it doesn’t boil, overcook, or lose its flavor to the water. Perfectly cooked meats result. Recently, I’ve done Porterhouse steaks, a rolled and tied pork belly, turkey legs, pasteurized eggs for edible raw cookie dough, and…a venison shoulder and leg.
What’s great is you can leave lean, tough cuts at the precise, say medium rare temperature for extended times which really helps to break down sinewy toughness. The turkey legs just fell apart. The venison shoulder was remarkably tender having been cooked at 130 degrees for about 20 hours.
A basic approach is to take the cooked portion, quick cool it in the fridge for 10 minutes and then sear the outside in a piping hot cast iron skillet. This gives that beautiful outside crust. The venison I’ve just done I left in the bag and refrigerated overnight. The next day I sliced it up into cold cuts that were superb. Texture like tender roast beef with that sort of cold lamb flavor.
I am curious if anyone else has fiddled with this and what you have found? I have to say…this is not a useless kitchen gadget! VERY useful and I would argue a key piece of equipment for anyone consuming game, and such.
Thanks,
Parnell
