Today starts my sous vide bone in short ribs experiment. I am making two bags - one with just salt and pepper and a mix of dried thyme, oregano, basil, garlic powder and onion powder and the other with the same plus about two ounces of 2010 Rivers Marie pinot left over from last night and a tiny squirt tomato paste from one of those Tomato Paste in a Toothpaste Tube things that I have come to love. What is the time and temperature plan? To be determined. I’m starting at 155. I may lower to 130-35 after 24 hours depending on when I decide to eat it. Start time: 11:50 am, Saturday, February 10, 2018. If anyone knows how to change the attachment code to flip the pictures, please let me know. Some of them are sideways.
Here are the initial photos. More to come as the process continues.
Step One: Buy some nice meaty short ribs on the bone. I like the ones at Stew Leaonards because they are reasonably meaty without breaking the bank. Why four? Because there were four in a package and this was the best package.
Step Two: Sprinkle wit salt and pepper and sear very fast, less than 30 seconds per side, in an extremely hot cast iron fry pan coated with Avocado oil:
Mmmm. Looks good already
Coat with spices, add wine and tomato paste to one bag, and then seal with Food Saver sealer (I’ve had it for years and I think it is about to keel over, but it was OK).
Put into pot with warm water, hold down with broken piece of pizza stone dropped at a Jets tailgate, wrap pot with a towel to keep warm, cover with aluminum foil to avoid evaporation on a long cook, and get it going. Why does it say the temp is 155.6 when I set it for 155? Because I pre-heat the water because that is more efficient than the Anova. I overshoot slightly because when I add the meat, it drops the temp a bit, and I missed by a fraction of a degree this time. It soon equalizes.
25 hours at 155 degrees followed by 19 hours at 130 degrees. Why? Because. I pulled them at 25 hours and they did not feel quite right so I left them in until this morning, when they felt like a bit more of the connective tissue had broken down. Unfortunately, I’ve got a PDH office tonight and a meeting tomorrow night, so I will not eat them until Wednesday. Into the refrigerator and I could claim I did that on purpose to increase the infusing of the flavors from the broth in the bag created by the process.
Wine and a squirt of tomato paste on the left. Just dry herbs and powdered garlic and onions on the right.
Sorry everyone. I forgot to post the photos. Overall, it’d all about your fat tolerance. My wife does not like fat in her beef, so this was not a good choice because the process does not render out that much fat because of the relatively low temperature. I, on the other hand, have more fat tolerance and I think the flavor, especially with the meatier parts, was outstanding. If I do it again, I will either serve a second alternate main dish or make sure that the meat is as lean as possible.
First, we have the finished product with buttered papardelle and roasted Brussel Sprouts on the side:
The we have the first cut:
Then we have the full display:
We are big fans of sous vide ribs but I’ve always been afraid to salt before a long cook - concerned about curing it rather than cooking it (we do 72 hours on ribs). Have you noticed any impact?
A tip I learned on keeping the SV bags submerged. Get large binder clips and put them on both sides of the bag. Insert large metal spoons (or comparable silverware) into the clips. The silverware will weigh the bags down and you don’t have to worry about them rising to the surface.
I just use a piece of broken pizza stone to hold the bags down.
I did not use any significant salt. That’s an interesting idea. What if I put nitrates in a brine in the bag with brisket. Does it speed up making corned beef? Ok, the pseudo healthy nitrates.
Adding nitrates in the brine is how you fake a smoke ring on your brisket. It works but it makes you feel bad about yourself. It won’t speed up making corned beef though, it works because it’s not curing the meat all the way through.
Weigh your protein, subtract 30% for the bones and add one percent of the remaining weight in kosher salt. One percent is where most people like their salt level, around three percent it gets into curing territory. It’s a good starting point, adjust to your taste on your next cook. Salt will be in the liquid in the bag when they are done so be aware if you are reducing it. Still better to salt the day before and leave uncovered in the fridge for a day, then no more salt in the bag.
In the old unhealthy days, I used to make my own corned beef with a teaspoon of Potassium Nitrate in the ziplock bag. Then people told me it was going to kill me. I still have the jar of chemical in my pantry but I haven’t used it for a decade or more.
Does it depend on the quality of the vacuum sealer being used? I use a low end food saver, while it’s theoretically “air free”, most everything I put in the water bath floats. Wonder if a tiny bit of residual air is still inside.
