Despite the fact that cooking food using the sous-vide method has been known for quite a long time, the real boom in “vacuum” cooking in our country began quite recently, which could not but cause a response from manufacturers: today there are There are quite a few sous-vides themselves and related products (for example, household vacuum sealers).
In our opinion, the main advantage of sous vide is that this method is ideal for non-professional cooks. Cooking food in a vacuum bag at a strictly specified temperature does not require much experience or special knowledge. A dish prepared in this way is almost impossible to spoil, and the duration of cooking, which at first intimidates inexperienced cooks, in practice saves rather than wastes the cook’s time: after the bag of food goes into the pan with water, it practically does not require attention. This cannot be said about other cooking methods, where a dish left unattended tends to burn, run away or boil away.
In this guide, we decided to collect and systematize the knowledge we gained during testing of household sous-vides. Also (despite the fact that this is somewhat beyond the scope of the designated topic) we decided to talk a little about temperature conditions and how to cook food in the safest way.
Sous vide principle
We will start, as usual, from the very basics and give a definition of what sous vide is and why it is needed. This Wikipedia article does a good job of telling us the following:
Vacuum cooking (also sous-vide, from the French sous-vide, “under vacuum”) is a method of cooking in which meat or vegetables are placed in a plastic bag with the air evacuated and cooked slowly at a relatively low and precisely controlled temperature, usually in a water bath.
What are the special features associated with cooking food in sous vide? Firstly, it is achieving exactly the degree of preparation of the product that you need. The result will be guaranteed juicy and tender meat that has not lost any juices or flavor during the cooking process. With the help of sous vide, you can forget about gray overheated steaks, tough chicken breasts and other well-known culinary masterpieces.
The result will be stable and of high quality.
sous vide beef, lightly fried in a pan before serving to obtain a beautiful crust
Secondly, sous vide allows you to “soften” and make “edible” even those foods that are usually suitable for eating only after a long stew. Want to get a good quality steak from fairly tough meat? As easy as pie! True, you will have to wait from 12 to 24 hours.
Finally, sous vide allows you to prepare familiar foods in an unusual way. Take, for example, an ordinary chicken egg, which can be of very different consistencies - not only hard-boiled, soft-boiled and in a bag, but also, for example, with a formed creamy yolk, but liquid kefir-like white. This result cannot be achieved with a conventional ladle.
With sous vide you can:
- preserve the natural juices of the product during cooking, which are lost during cooking or frying
- forget that the food may turn out too dry or overcooked
- do not worry about the meat being raw inside: in sous vide it will be cooked evenly throughout its depth
- prepare a tender and tasty dish even from tough meat cuts
- quickly and easily prepare vegetables that (unlike boiled in a pan) will retain their shape and structure
- Easily store the finished product in the refrigerator or freezer for later use - directly in a vacuum bag
Sous vide for home: different types
Of all household appliances, several types of devices are suitable for sous vide cooking. These include multicookers with a temperature control function, induction cookers with a built-in temperature probe, as well as special devices (actually sous-vides) - submersible or stationary.
To cook using the sous vide method, you don’t have to buy a special gadget. If your home has a multicooker with a temperature control function, then congratulations: you already have the simplest sous vide. Of course, this raises the question of how accurately the multicooker can control the temperature. For example, many models allow you to change the temperature only in 5-degree increments. But even with the help of such a device, it is quite possible to get acquainted with what sous vide is and how it generally works. True, you will have to choose a suitable recipe, but a multicooker can handle cooking chicken breasts at 65°C quite well - not even the most complicated one, like .
The second suitable appliance is an induction hob with temperature control. We are primarily interested in models with an external probe thermometer type . Such tiles quite successfully perform the role of sous vide (this is even directly stated in the documentation). The only thing that is required from the user is not to pack the food bags too tightly into the pan to ensure even circulation of water.
Sous vide for the home: submersible and stationary models
All sous vides (both domestic and professional) can be divided into two main types: submersible and stationary. The first ones visually resemble an “advanced” boiler with a temperature sensor and a motor for circulating water - they will require a special container (pan) with water. The latter are an “aquarium” with a built-in heater. The advantages and disadvantages of each type are obvious: immersion sous vide takes up less space and is suitable for working with a wide variety of containers.
But when using this sous vide, the problem arises of evaporation of liquid from the surface of the water, because it will not be possible to close the pan with a lid. As a result, the water does not heat up as quickly as we would like; during long-term cooking, it has to be topped up, and energy consumption is increased. The problem is usually solved either by purchasing special balls that float on the surface, or in a makeshift manner - for example, using an Ikea container with a cutout for installing the device instead of a pan.
example of “home creativity” with a container from Ikea
250 balls will cost about $25 (excluding shipping costs)
Stationary sous vide, unlike submersible, does not have these disadvantages. But having purchased such a device, you will find yourself strictly tied to the available volume. And it’s also better to think through the issue of storing a rather voluminous “box” in advance - it’s far from a fact that there will be a permanent place for it in the kitchen.
Thus, when starting to choose a sous vide, you need to first decide on two main questions: how often you plan to use the device and how large volumes of product you plan to cook.
For immersion sous vide, the power and volume with which it will be comfortable to work is usually indicated: for example, the household immersion sous vide Steba SV 50 has a power of 800 W and can heat 20 liters of water in 45 minutes to 56 °C.
For stationary sous-vides, the power is also indicated, but the decisive factor here will be the volume of the chamber. For most household stationary sous-vides it does not exceed 12-13 liters.
Let us add that submersible sous-vides often indicate such a parameter as the performance of the pump, which ensures continuous circulation of water in the container. For most models, this value will be approximately 8 liters per minute. It is difficult to derive practical benefit from this knowledge, so it is better to focus on the volume recommended by the manufacturer: it will usually be from 14 to 20 liters.
Let's sum up the intermediate results. Immersion sous vides take up less space and can be used with any suitable cookware. However, you will have to make sure that the dishes are sufficiently insulated and that the water does not evaporate too quickly. Stationary sous vides solve these issues for you: they provide both thermal insulation and a special lid that prevents evaporation. Also, stationary sous-vides have special grates that allow you to more rationally place products (for example, steaks) inside the chamber. The price for this convenience will be the strictly fixed volume of the camera and the need to find a place to store a rather large device.
Returning to multicookers: obviously, a multicooker with the ability to set the temperature to the nearest degree is a kind of improvised stationary sous vide. What are the disadvantages of this improvisation? There are two main ones:
- A stationary sous vide is equipped with a pump that continuously mixes the water, making its temperature as uniform as possible at any point. Multicookers do not have a built-in pump, so more or less heated areas may appear in the bowl of water.
- A slow cooker is a very small stationary sous vide. Most of even household stationary sous-vides have a capacity of 8 liters or more, and the bowl of an average multicooker is 4-5 liters.
grid for several steaks in a stationary sous vide
Operating range and temperature control accuracy
For each device, the documentation indicates the operating range and accuracy of temperature control. The operating range for home sous vides is from 30 to 90 °C, which is quite enough for cooking the vast majority of dishes (we couldn’t even think of a single product that would require more than 90 °C).
Most home sous vides allow you to set the temperature to within 1 °C or even 0.1 °C. Our experience has shown that an accuracy of 1 °C is more than enough for most dishes. But the declared accuracy of 0.1°C often turns out to be a marketing ploy - not every device is capable of providing such accuracy in reality, especially taking into account the fact that food bags can interfere with the uniform mixing of water. In general, we would not refuse to purchase a suitable device just because the documentation states an accuracy of 0.5 or 1 °C rather than 0.1 °C. Moreover, errors of 1 °C usually appear at high temperatures (over 70 °C), and there such a difference no longer has any great significance.
Controls and related features
Household sous vides are controlled using an electronic control system consisting of several buttons and an LED display. Immersion sous vides often have a wheel (like a computer mouse), with which you can quickly and easily set the desired temperature or time. Almost all devices have the ability to sound a sound signal indicating the end of the cooking process.
Many sous vides only allow you to set the desired temperature and cooking time, and the countdown begins when the set temperature is reached. When work is completed, a beep sounds. This functionality can also be found in professional restaurant sous-vides, so a certain “minimalism” in this case is not a drawback at all, but a feature of the device.
Some sous vides also have the ability to set a delay start timer. This function can be useful if you want to receive a finished dish by a certain time. In our opinion, this functionality is somewhat redundant: placing food in water at room temperature for several hours is not the best idea from a food safety point of view. However, on English-language forums you can meet people who are not deterred by this problem: some users put food in a container along with ice in the morning and set a delayed start in order to get a finished steak by the time they return from work.
Finally, we need to mention the possibility of remote control. Some sous vides (in particular, devices released under the Anova brand are famous for this) have built-in Bluetooth or Bluetooth + Wi-Fi modules. To communicate with the device, a special application for Android or iOS is used. Thus, the user gets full control over the device from his smartphone. Here you can find a temperature control function, the ability to remotely start/stop the cooking process, and other features. The application also contains a collection of recipes that allow you to start cooking the selected dish “with one click” - the device will automatically set the desired temperature and cooking time depending on the selected recipe.
Anova mobile app allows you to control sous vide remotely
Operation and care
Household sous-vides do not require any special care: during normal operation, the parts of the device come into contact only with clean water, and therefore, to care for the device, it will be enough to simply wipe it with a sponge and a mild detergent. But if the package depressurizes and the contents get into the water, the consequences can be very different. An immersion sous vide will survive such an incident more easily: you will have to remove the body and thoroughly rinse everything that is under it (heating element, temperature sensor, rotating screw that circulates water). With a stationary sous vide, more serious difficulties may arise: if the water circulation is provided by a pump, then you will have to rinse not only the cooking container, but also the entire system involved in the water circulation.
What should you cook at what temperature?
On the Internet you can find many guides and tables that clearly explain what products need to be cooked, for how long and at what temperature.
If we are not talking about long-term cooking, the purpose of which is to “soften” tough meat, then the time is calculated based on the thickness of our product (it must have time to warm up evenly to its entire depth). The temperature is selected based on the desired degree of “cooking” (or “done”, as you prefer).
The general principle is that thicker cuts need to be cooked longer than thinner ones. Higher temperatures reduce cooking time. Lower ones may require more time.
Below we present data collected from several credible sources. By “minimum time” in this case we mean the time after which a standard portion of the product should be ready. The “maximum time” is the time after which it is no longer advisable to keep the product in sous vide; it is probably already cooked.
Time, naturally, begins to count not from the moment the device is turned on, but from the moment the water is heated to the set temperature.
Please note that different sources may offer different modes for the same products. There is no danger here, no one is trying to deceive you. This is usually caused by a difference in the definition of different degrees of doneness (what is Medium for one, another will call Medium-well) or the desire to “play it safe” and prevent the appearance of undercooked meat in the center of a large piece. In principle, we can recommend the same to our readers: if you prefer meat more cooked, do not be afraid to focus on the upper recommended limit in both temperature and time. Subsequently, you can try cooking the same dish at lower temperatures and record the result that best suits your taste.
But comments from users who argue that the meat is “raw” or that such meat must contain a lot of bacteria should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. There are still quite a lot of similar alarmists, but few of them can confirm their words with references to relevant studies or standards.
| type of product | Degree of “cooking” | Temperature, °C | Time (minimum) | Time (maximum) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken (light meat) | exceptionally tender meat | 60 | 1 hour | 3 hours |
| soft and tender meat | 65 | 1 hour | 3 hours | |
| Well Done | 75 | 1 hour | 3 hours | |
| Chicken (dark meat) | tender and juicy meat | 65 | 1 hour | 5 o'clock |
| meat falls off the bone easily | 75 | 1 hour | 5 o'clock | |
| Beef (steak) | Medium Rare | 54 | 1 hour 30 minutes | 3 hours |
| Medium | 60 | 1 hour 30 minutes | 3 hours | |
| Medium Well | 63 | 1 hour 30 minutes | 3 hours | |
| Beef (roast beef) | Rare | 56 | 7 o'clock | 16 hours |
| Medium Rare | 60 | 6 hours | 14 hours | |
| Well Done | 70 | 5 o'clock | 11 o'clock | |
| Tough cut | Rare | 55 | 24 hours | 48 hours |
| Medium Rare | 65 | 24 hours | 24 hours | |
| Well Done | 85 | 8 ocloc'k | 16 hours | |
| Pork (chop with bone) | Rare | 58 | 1 hour | 4 hours |
| Medium Rare | 62 | 1 hour | 4 hours | |
| Well Done | 70 | 1 hour | 4 hours | |
| Pork (loin) | Rare | 58 | 3 hours | 5 hours 30 minutes |
| Medium Rare | 62 | 3 hours | 5 o'clock | |
| Well Done | 70 | 3 hours | 3 hours 30 minutes | |
| Tough cut | Rare | 60 | 8 ocloc'k | 24 hours |
| Medium Rare | 68 | 8 ocloc'k | 24 hours | |
| Well Done | 85 | 8 ocloc'k | 16 hours | |
| Fish | tender translucent meat | 40-43 | 30 minutes | 30 minutes |
| tender crumbly meat | 51 | 30 minutes | 1 hour | |
| traditional Well Done | 55 | 30 minutes | 1 hour 30 minutes | |
| Eggs | soft yolk, barely set white | 60 | 1 hour | 1 hour |
| creamy yolk, opaque delicate white | 63 | 45 minutes | 1 hour 5 minutes | |
| Sausages | very juicy and soft | 60 | 45 minutes | 4 hours |
| juicy and soft | 66 | 45 minutes | 4 hours | |
| traditional, elastic | 71 | 45 minutes | 4 hours | |
| Hamburger (cutlets) | Very Rare/Rare | 46-51 | 40 minutes | 2 hours 30 minutes |
| Medium Rare | 51-54 | 40 minutes | 2 hours 30 minutes | |
| Medium | 54-58 | 40 minutes | 4 hours | |
| Medium Well | 59-62 | 40 minutes | 4 hours | |
| Well Done | 63-68 | 40 minutes | 4 hours | |
| Green vegetables (asparagus, broccoli, etc.) | 84 | 15 minutes | 40 minutes | |
| Root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, etc.) | 84 | 1 hour | 3 hours | |
| Fruits | heated warm | 68 | 1 hour 45 minutes | 2 hours 30 minutes |
| cooked until soft (for puree) | 85 | 30 minutes | 1 hour 30 minutes |
However, in many cases it will be better to see once than to hear a hundred times. Many sous vide fans have done their own research and recorded the results of cooking various foods at different temperatures.
Here, for example, is a mini-guide on cooking steaks by Stefan’s gourmet blog.
And this is how the structure of meat changes depending on the cooking time (photo -).
Interesting experiments can be carried out with an ordinary chicken egg by cooking it at different temperatures.
It's not difficult to figure out:
Is it really safe?
In the comments to articles related to cooking foods at low temperatures, fighters against “raw” and “unsafe” meat inevitably appear, trying to intimidate other participants in the discussion. There are stories about various bacteria, salmonella and even worms that live in the brain.
Should I be afraid of bacteria when low-temperature cooking? Our answer: no, if you follow basic safety rules. The latter also includes rapid cooling of products that are intended for long-term storage (for example, in water with a lot of ice).
As for the development of bacteria directly during the cooking process, all sorts of tables and guidelines have long been compiled on this subject, demonstrating at what stage the products become pasteurized (that is, all the bacteria in them are destroyed).
Especially for those who doubt it, we provide data on pasteurization time for various products. Source: US Food and Drug Administration.
Poultry pasteurization time:
(at initial temperature 5 °C and water temperature 57-65 °C)
| Thickness of a piece of meat | 57 °C | 58 °C | 59 °C | 60 °C | 61 °C | 62 °C | 63 °C | 64 °C | 65 °C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 mm | 2¼ hours | 1¾ hours | 1¼ hours | 55 minutes | 40 minutes | 35 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes | 20 minutes |
| 20 mm | 2¾ hours | 2 hours | 1¾ hours | 1¼ hours | 1¼ hours | 55 minutes | 50 minutes | 45 minutes | 40 minutes |
| 30 mm | 3¼ hours | 2¾ hours | 2¼ hours | 2 hours | 1¾ hours | 1½ hours | 1½ hours | 1¼ hours | 1¼ hours |
| 40 mm | 4 hours | 3¼ hours | 2¾ hours | 2½ hours | 2¼ hours | 2 hours | 2 hours | 1¾ hours | 1¾ hours |
| 50 mm | 4¾ hours | 4¼ hours | 3¾ hours | 3¼ hours | 3 hours | 2¾ hours | 2½ hours | 2½ hours | 2¼ hours |
| 60 mm | 5¾ hours | 5 hours | 4½ hours | 4¼ hours | 3¾ hours | 3½ hours | 3¼ hours | 3¼ hours | 3 hours |
| 70 mm | 7 hours | 6 hours | 5½ hours | 5 hours | 4¾ hours | 4½ hours | 4¼ hours | 4 hours | 3¾ hours |
Meat pasteurization time (beef, pork, lamb):
(at initial temperature 5 °C and water temperature 55-66 °C)
| Thickness of a piece of meat | 55 °C | 58 °C | 60 °C | 66 °C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mm | 2 hours | 45 minutes | 30 minutes | 14 minutes |
| 10 mm | 2 hours | 55 minutes | 40 minutes | 25 minutes |
| 15 mm | 2¼ hours | 1¼ hours | 55 minutes | 35 minutes |
| 20 mm | 2½ hours | 1½ hours | 1¼ hours | 45 minutes |
| 25 mm | 2¾ hours | 1¾ hours | 1½ hours | 55 minutes |
| 30 mm | 3 hours | 2 hours | 1½ hours | 1¼ hours |
| 35 mm | 3¼ hours | 2 hours | 1¾ hours | 1¼ hours |
| 40 mm | 3½ hours | 2¼ hours | 2 hours | 1½ hours |
| 45 mm | 4 hours | 2¾ hours | 2¼ hours | 1¾ hours |
| 50 mm | 4½ hours | 3 hours | 2½ hours | 2 hours |
| 55 mm | 5 hours | 3½ hours | 3 hours | 2¼ hours |
| 60 mm | 5¼ hours | 3¾ hours | 3¼ hours | 2¾ hours |
| 65 mm | 6 hours | 4¼ hours | 3¾ hours | 3 hours |
| 70 mm | 6½ hours | 4¾ hours | 4 hours | 3¼ hours |
For those who are interested in the details, we recommend turning to the book, in which you can find many recipes, tables and recommendations for all occasions. We, in turn, believe that the issue of the safety of cooking meat in sous vide can be considered closed.
Sous vide is simple, tasty and safe.
Remove meat from the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking.
Preheat the oven to 200 C. Cut the peeled onions and carrots in half. Cut the garlic in half lengthwise, cut the celery into pieces 5-7 cm long. Place all the vegetables, parsley stems and thyme on the bottom of a large roasting pan or deep baking sheet. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until brown marks and a characteristic aroma appear. Reduce oven temperature to 110 C.
Trim the meat from the ribs. Dry with paper towels. In a large Dutch oven, heat the vegetable oil over moderate heat and fry the meat on all sides until golden brown. During this time, quite a lot of fat will be rendered from the meat. Drain it and either use it to make Yorkshire pudding or discard it.
Season the meat with salt and pepper, rubbing the spices into the surface of the meat. Use kitchen string to tie the meat to the rib bones. Place the structure in the Dutch oven on a bed of roasted vegetables, add water and place the Dutch oven in the oven. Bake the meat for 30 minutes per 450 g of weight, until the temperature inside the piece reaches 62 C. You can turn off the oven after 2 hours and leave the meat in the oven to cool.
Sous-vide or sous vide is a cooking technique that is still perceived in Russian-speaking gastronomy as something completely new. However, this method is gaining increasing popularity in European cuisine, especially in the so-called molecular gastronomy. However, recently many household appliances have appeared on the market that have made it possible to use this cooking method at home.
Translated from French, sous-vide is translated as “in a vacuum,” which quite accurately reflects the essence of this method. In theory, the technique is simple and straightforward: the product is packaged in a vacuum bag, after which it is cooked in water, the temperature of which fluctuates in the range of 50-70 degrees Celsius. The cooking process itself can take a very, very long time - it depends on the product and the cooking mode. But, in general, the cooking cycle will be much longer than the usual frying or boiling methods. For cooking, a special technique is used - which Russian-speaking localizers have already dubbed a slow cooker.
We decided to understand the intricacies of the method, its possibilities for home use and, of course, the equipment that may be required.
Alchemy of Vacuum
Back in the Middle Ages, special furnaces were invented that had vacuum chambers. Basically, they served the needs of alchemy and the search for the philosopher's stone. The technique was revived in 1799 by Sir Benjamin Thompson, who left a mark on history with his work on the quantitative measurement of the explosive force of gunpowder, as well as through the discovery and study of the phenomenon of convection in gases and liquids. It is believed that he also invented the stove, coffee maker, army field kitchen, brick kilns and steam heating system. But sous vide appeared in its current form in the late 1970s, thanks to the efforts of engineers from the Old and New Worlds. The new cooking technique went well with scientific and technological progress and quickly gained popularity among experimental cooks. The advantages of the vacuum method are obvious: there is no loss of juices and aromas, moreover, sous vide is very attentive to the temperature that is suitable specifically for a particular product. Thus, it becomes simply impossible to overcook or overcook the dish.
Slow method
Low-temperature cooking has a number of advantages - cell membranes are not destroyed - for us this means that such dishes will turn out much juicier. This is especially important when it comes to meat. When the internal temperature of a piece of meat approaches certain values, the blood in it completely coagulates and protein conversion processes begin. Different types of meat have their own temperature to achieve these results, which meat thermometers are designed to control.
Meat in sous vide and on a regular grill
In the case of conventional frying devices, it can be very difficult to achieve uniform heating of meat throughout the entire piece. The method also works for those cuts that are usually boiled or stewed - sous vide allows you to avoid dryness and toughness, turning even low-quality meat into a completely digestible dish. Sous vide works wonders even for vegetables - low-temperature cooking in a vacuum successfully preserves their crispy texture. If we are talking about those pieces of meat that are usually boiled or stewed, the correct selection of temperature allows muscle collagen to transform into gelatin, preventing protein denaturation - it is because of this that the meat turns out tough and dry. Vegetables that undergo this method, on the other hand, retain a fresh, crisp texture that is more difficult to achieve with conventional cooking.
Possibilities of sous vide
Accurate temperature control and uniformity have two other big advantages. First, it allows food to cook completely evenly, without dry edges or soggy centers. Sous vide is especially useful for cooking meats and seafood, for which the window of proper temperature is surprisingly small. A narrow range of temperatures in which the juiciness and freshness of meat or fish can be preserved for sous vide is working. In addition, slow cooking at low temperatures has a much less destructive effect on food fibers than fast cooking at high temperatures.
Inventory
To fully use the sous vide method, you will need the product itself, a sterile vacuum bag, an installation for pumping out air and hermetically sealing the bag. A special device for cooking sous vide is necessary, but it is quite possible to try preparing test batches in a slow cooker with precise temperature control. But here the situation is complicated by the fact that you cannot do without a thermometer and you will need to constantly measure the temperature. A device called sous-vide, which has the same name as the method, will help you take sous-vide cooking offline. It is equipped with a special cooking chamber, which is absolutely sealed and has a system for maintaining the temperature at the desired level.
The Slow Cooker and the Myths of Sous Vide
Mostly, the myths about sous vide are built around the fact that cooking this way takes a very, very long time. In fact, sous vide is not much slower than other methods. A piece of regular chicken breast is cooked under vacuum for about an hour at a temperature of 64 degrees. Medium trout or salmon steak - 18 minutes at a temperature of only 52 degrees. Red fish does not lose color, does not disintegrate into dry fibers - it turns out bright, juicy and unusually tender. Cooking a steak can take up to four hours, especially in the case of fairly large pieces.
You can find sous vide in ours.
I’ve made this pork before, but, as often happens, I didn’t write down the recipe. It seemed that everything was so simple that there was no need to write it down, but no, a couple of years passed and the subtleties were forgotten. I only remembered that it turned out to be a divinely tender and aromatic roast from the cheapest part of the pig.
Addition: Served this pork for breakfast today as a cold cut on a sandwich. It’s hard to say which is tastier, but even when cold, the meat retained the same tenderness and richness of taste with a bright note of fried pork:
I had to re-learn the Internet and my cookbooks. My recipe was sourced from numerous variations. Slow Roasts And Carnitas , but none of them suited me as is, so I had to derive my arithmetic mean recipe again.
But this time, being already a scientist, I will document this recipe right here.
I used one of the cheapest pieces of pork for it - like this:
http ://www. cleanfoodconnection. com/ catalog/ images/ pork%20 shoulder%20 roast%20 boneless. jpg
We call it Boneless Shoulder Roast . My piece weighed a little more than 2.5 kg. First, I salted it well with kosher salt and pepper. Then I thought and was influenced by recipes Carnitas added a glass of fresh orange juice. I thought some more and decided that I would like some piquancy, and maybe even a slightly smoky taste, and added a little Sweet Mesquite Seasoning:
http://www.vitasprings.com/kirkland-sweet-mesquite-seasoning.html
Indeed, these additives suited the taste of the finished meat quite well, but the taste of the pork itself with this method of cooking is already so good that one could have stopped at salt and pepper, as I did last time. Although, however, the orange juice was still in order.
And so, place the pork coated with spices in a large plastic bag or bowl and refrigerate for 1-3 days. It just so happened that I kept it on for exactly half to a day and a half. I wanted to pamper my husband, who returned from Estonia today, so this was what dictated the time for marinating the meat.
Remove the marinated meat from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. This takes from 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the piece. While the meat is heating up, it makes sense to tie it with twine for a neater look.
Heat the oven to 300 gr. Fahrenheit (~150 degrees C). Place the prepared meat on a baking sheet lined with foil (easier to wash and collect meat juices) with the fattier side facing up and place in a preheated oven on a wire rack set to the middle position.
And that's really all. Then you can forget about meat for 5 hours. If the piece is smaller than what I had, then 4-4.5 hours may be enough. Having checked the meat after 5 hours, I decided to add another half hour. The goal was to obtain absolutely soft meat that almost disintegrates into fibers. That is, the meat is ready when a large meat fork goes into it very easily.
There are many further options. You can simply serve it immediately hot, pouring juice over it, with a side dish (I served it with fried cabbage, but this is far from the only option). You can cool, cut into small cubes, fry in a frying pan until golden brown and serve with tortillas, salsa and guacamole ( Carnitas ). You can cut into pieces, chop with a fork into fibers ( Shredded Pork ) and eat it on a sandwich with BBQ sauce. You can also use it as a cold cut for sandwiches.
By the way, since the cooking process, although simple, is quite lengthy, it makes sense to cook a large piece at once. If this is too much for your family, then half can be frozen without any loss of taste.
Yes, and one more thing - the juice and fat that leaked out during frying should definitely be used to stew the potatoes, it turns out amazingly tasty.
Next, as always, photos:
Salted and peppered pork:
This is what pork looks like, marinated in the refrigerator for almost two days and prepared for baking:
And here it is ready, rosy and lying in its juice and fat:
Served with fried cabbage and freshly baked rye bread:
And here is the bread itself, but I’ll make a separate post about it someday when I get around to filming the whole process:
Low-temperature baking technology is the most advanced and economical cooking method.
Long-term simmering of products while maintaining a certain temperature makes them juicy and perfectly cooked. Modern ovens and devices designed for this allow you to cook using this approach.
What is sous vide?
The term "sous vide" is translated from French as "in a vacuum." Thanks to this technology, cooking at low temperatures has become possible. The process takes longer than other heat treatment methods, but this method achieves several goals:
- Low-temperature cooking modes preserve the integrity of cell membranes, so dishes are juicy.
- The correct choice of temperature and cooking time allows you to obtain soft products. Thanks to this, even the toughest meat will turn into a divine dish.
- If you bake or fry a piece of meat, the outer part becomes very hot and uneven heat distribution occurs. Sous-vide technology allows you to forget about burnt, dried out, undercooked foods.
- Cooking vegetables at low temperatures maintains their freshness and crispiness, which is not achieved by simply boiling them in water.
Benefits of technology
To understand why the method is remarkable, let’s get acquainted with the basics. The essence of the method is simple: the products are vacuum-sealed in a special plastic bag, after which they are cooked in water while maintaining a constant temperature, usually not exceeding 70 degrees (for vegetables the limit increases).
The most important thing is precise control of temperature and time. Sous vide provides results that cannot be achieved with traditional cooking. With it in the house there will always be delicious food that has retained all its beneficial properties.
If you learn to bake meat using low-temperature technology, you will forever remain an adherent of this method. The technology is especially relevant for fish. It must be borne in mind that it remains tender within very narrow temperature limits, so it is important to carefully monitor the time.
Creating a vacuum
The sous vide method is ideal for young housewives and experienced cooks who want to surprise their guests. When cooking meat at low temperatures, it must be placed in a vacuum. However, many people wonder whether such results can be achieved without special equipment.
Firstly, you can completely do without a vacuum sealer in the kitchen. Cling film comes to the rescue, with which you need to tightly wrap the food on all sides, leaving no gaps and squeezing out air. Another alternative is plastic ziplock bags. They are lowered into a large container of water so that the upper part with the clasp remains above the liquid.
When cooking meat food in a water oven, excess air is released from the bag. But since the vacuum obtained by such methods is not complete, long-term storage of ready-made dishes is excluded.
Sous vide machine or oven
The operation of modern devices consists of a combination of three key elements: the presence of a thermostat, a heating element, and a water tank. Thus, low-temperature cooking of meat without an oven becomes possible. What to do if the farm does not have such a device?
You can simulate low-temperature conditions when cooking meat. To do this, use any capacious container of water (for example, a saucepan) placed on the stove or in the oven. Therefore, if you like any beef recipe, you can always try it.
Special water ovens for sous vide have a number of advantages:
- temperature control with an accuracy of 0.5°C;
- uniform cooking of food;
- timer;
- large capacity.
Low temperature for cooking meat in the oven
The average temperature of cooked meat ranges from 55 to 70 degrees. If you lower the temperature for cooking to 56-70°C, you will be able to retain all the juices and unique taste in the food. Before you heat the oven to a low temperature, you need to make sure that it can maintain it, otherwise the food will remain soggy.
It is best to cook meat at low temperatures in an electric oven with top and bottom heating. First, the piece can be lightly fried in a frying pan, and then placed in a bag and left to bake for several hours. A special thermometer helps check the degree of readiness. In this way you can prepare delicious dishes with any type of meat - from chicken to lamb.
A gas oven heats up very quickly, so it is difficult to protect meat from extreme overheating. It does not need to be turned on in advance. The meat should be removed from the refrigerator an hour before cooking, and then placed in a shallow dish and turned on the oven.
Disadvantages of the method
Cooking food using the above technology is not easy, but it allows you to get ideal results. However, sous-vide has a number of minor disadvantages.
Low-temperature cooking of meat does not trigger the Maillard reaction, which is responsible for the formation of a golden brown crust of the finished dish. It appears when the temperature exceeds 150°C, which is much higher than the technology requires. Therefore, to give the product an appetizing appearance, it must be fried before or after simmering.
If a temperature of less than 52 °C was chosen for low-temperature cooking in the oven, and it takes more than four hours, the chances of the growth of botulism pathogens increase. This danger can be avoided by setting a higher temperature for foods that are cooked for longer than 4 hours.
To achieve an ideal result and implement sous-vide in its original form, which is used in restaurants, you must have devices created for this: a vacuum sealer and a thermostat, a device for maintaining a constant temperature.
