Top Sirloin (Prime)

Just another Sous-Vide project. After making this a few times I finally dialed in the temp time for this hunk of meat. Can't resist prime meat especially when it's priced so reasonably. 

So easy to do and if you don't do this you will kick yourself. First let me point out that I have cooked this big hunk of joy several times all while experimenting with temps and times. I have settled in on 131 F degrees at 9 hours. I have tried 6, 9, 12, and 16 hours. First thing I did was to apply a dry-brine which I did for 2 1/2 days. I won't go into all the benefits of dry-brining here but just google and you will find tons of info on the subject. I have covered this step in past posts. 

Modus Operandi 

• Dry-Brine for at least 2 days (I used Montreal Steak seasoning)
• Sous-Vide at 131 degrees for 9 hours
• Ice-Shock
• Refrigerate until ready to proceed to the next step
• Sous-Vide again at 130 F for 70-90 minutes to bring up the temp
• Remove hunk from bag and reserve purge
• Dry Surface very well and spray with oil (I used Canola)
• Apply more seasoning if you want. I also used about 1/2 tsp of sugar on each side to help with caramelization.
• Brown the outside using what you want. I used my Weber Grill set at 750 F degrees
• Careful how you slice. Cut across the grain and serve. 

Sous-Vide Beef-Back-Ribs

This will be a short post because it's so straightforward to do.

Purchase Ribs!!! 

Unpackage Ribs....yea I am a smart ASS. 

Using your favorite Rub plus sugar (I prefer brown sugar) coat your ribs thoroughly. 

Vacuum Seal and place in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours. Don't skip this step!!! It's essential!!!! That's if you want them to taste great. Ok, now the important part!

 

Sous-Vide at 149˚ƒ for 48 hours. Shock in ice-bath and refrigerate until you want to BBQ. 

Out of the refrigerator on to my Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker (choose the wood you like to use). I like to coat my ribs with BBQ sauce. This is not essential, just a preference. They're smoke at between 160-200 degrees for about 2.5 hours. I add cold water to the trough to keep the temp down in the smoker. Since the ribs are already cooked to perfection, smoking them at low temps adds lots of smoke and color without cooking them.

Gratuitous pictures to follow with a review at the bottom.

Review- Great!!! I Won't change a thing (probably...LOL!!! So why did I chose 149˚ƒ? My experience has taught me that this temp is perfect to render down the fat and connective tissue. I have SV ribs at 131˚ƒ and 140˚ƒ, and although they turned out pretty darn good, they were far from perfect. The majority of the connective tissue rendered down but the fat stayed the course. If you like biting into globs of fat use a lower temp. If you want succulent ribs that are basted in its own fat use a higher temp like I did. I've been asked before to compare SV-Smoked ribs to the more traditional Low and Slow method. The SV version is better. The meat comes out perfect every time. Yes, they have the conventional bark too, although not pronounced. The traditional way would take a very long time and not add anymore smoke flavor. After a couple of hours of smoke the meat stops taking on smoked....unless of course, you keep the ribs wet. Anyhow this is a preferred way of cooking Beef Ribs. 

Sous-Vide Beef-Back-Ribs Revisited

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Chicken Sous-Vide

Sous-Vide chicken has to be the easiest thing you will ever cook. I have a wife and two kids, and I love preparing this tasty meal for them in advance. It's fast and easy to do. 

 Simple to do. Start out with a whole chicken. Twenty fours in advance dry-brine the entire chicken by coating the chicken with kosher salt; inside and out (if you want you can add some spices and herbs) but just understand that the salt is the only thing that will penetrate).

Cut out the backbone and split chicken into.

Vacuum seal. Personally, I always double vacuum seal. There is no waste because I use a regular bag first then a reusable Waring bag for the second enclosure. Call me paranoid but I have had a bag or two fail during the cook, and it was terrible to clean up. 

I Sous-Vide the chicken at 145 degrees for 7 hours. I always shoot for 6-8 hours. Here they are all cooked and resting until the next step.

Pr-Heat the BBQ to about 350 ish degrees. I sprayed a little oil on the breasts then applied my favorite spice rub. 

Slather the chicken with your favorite BBQ sauce and apply more rub if you want. I used more rub, but you can't see it because I forgot to take a picture of that step. 

I indirectly cooked the chicken at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or so. Just enough to get the outside nice and pretty. Check temp using an internal thermometer and pull at desired temp. 

Turkey Sous-Vide

Delicious Sous-Vide Smoke Turkey

Tasty and so very simple to make. 

Start out with a whole turkey. Mine weighed just under 13 lbs.  Break it down to individual pieces. 

To learn how to break down a Turkey visit TURKEY BUTCHERY BY CHEFSTEPS. After you break it down give a sprinkle of salt and dry-brine for 24 hours. 

Learn about DRY-BRINING HERE (note: I always rinse after dry-brining).

Save the scraps for a turkey stock.

Sous-Vide at 140 for 8 hours.

Add extra spices. Now you have to decide what technique you are going to use to  create the maillard reaction. You can grill, pan fry or smoke etc. I chose smoking. 

I smoked the Turkey at 190 degrees for roughly an 90 min. 

 Moist white meat!!!!

Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum!!

Note: the breast only needed 4 hours but I tossed everything in the bath for 8.  Everything came out great.

NOTE: I will probably never make a traditional turkey again. See my Turkey Roulade.

Update 11/26/15

Thanksgiving 2015 was a hit! I have made 12 Sous-Vide Turkeys to date. I think I have finally dialed in what I think is the best temp and time; for both the Dark and White meat. 

Turkey Breast Sous-Vide at 140˚ƒ for 4 hours is perfect. 

Dark meat came out perfect at 150˚ƒ for 6 hours. 

Let me give this caveat: All these temps and times are designed around how I want to finish the Turkey. In this case, I planned on smoking the Turkey for about 90-120 minutes at 180-190˚ƒ. When the smoke dissipates, I will crank the heat up to about 225˚ƒ to give that mahogany glaze we all love so much. 

What preceded the smoke is important too. After the Sous-Vide process I shocked the Turkey in an Ice-Bath and refrigerated overnight. If I had taken the turkey out of the SV and proceeded directly to the Smoker, the Turkey would have overcooked. Starting out with temps much lower helps mitigate the possibility of overcooking the Turkey. I also know if I placed a Turkey on my smoker with an internal temp of 34˚ƒ, it would have taken forever for the meat to come up to temp too. So what did I do?  I cranked up the Sous-Vide to about 125˚ƒ and set the Turkey in the bath for about 40 minutes. The Turkey hit the smoker registering 90˚ƒ internally. The Turkey was removed from the smoker when an internal temp of 140˚ƒ was reached. These are all techniques. If you miss one of these steps the outcome will be different. Let's say I wanted to finish the Turkey in a frying pan instead of an oven or smoker. I would have made sure that the meat was at least at 120˚ƒ before the meat would have hit the pan. Again these are my techniques. 

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