Sous Vide

I did a tritip last night, gave it 27 hours in the bath and then a light mayo rub, finished over charcoal. Didn’t get quite the sear I wanted but still came out very nice.

That looks beautiful!

Thank you sir, it did come out nicely. I think the long bath really does well for tri tip, makes it really tender more akin to a filet.

I'd take a serving of that!

I have been cooking with sous vide for about 9 months now. I use an Inkbird 1000 watt heater/circulator. The container is an old Rubbermaid cooler designed to hold 12 cans of soda. I made a custom top for the cooler out of a cheap polypropylene cutting board to minimize evaporation. Normally, I am cooking for my wife and I, so it is the perfect size. It won't hold a large piece of meat, but I would rather smoke them on my Traeger pellet grill. The Thanksgiving turkey on the Traeger was great. I am looking forward to cooking a ham for Easter on the Traeger.

When the weather is nice, I cook on theTraeger pellet grill. I usually cook a lot at one time and divide it into meal-size portions for the two of us (plus a couple of cats). The meals are vacuum sealed and stored in the freezer until needed. Tonight I am pulling out a large pork chop that is big enough for two. It was cooked a few months ago. It has already been seasoned cooked, smoked, and seared. This afternoon, it will go into sous vide for 2-3 hours at 145 F. That will make the pork really tender.

Although I love cooking my steaks on the Traeger and then searing them on a gas grill, you can also make great steaks sous vide with reverse sear. I do that in the winter if I don't have precooked steaks available. I normally sous vide at 135F, but you can use whatever temp you want for your steaks. I then sear the steaks in a carbon steel skillet on the gas stovetop in the kitchen. Basting with butter, garlic, and herbs makes them flavorful. In the past, I rarely grilled steaks at home as they never turned out like I wanted. Now that I have a variety of tools and my skills have improved, I much prefer my home cooked steaks to those I get at a restaurant.

To further expand my culinary capabilities, I am considering purchasing a flat top grill this spring.

For most of my marriage, I worked long hours and my wife had dinner ready when I arrived home. Now that I am retired, I am trying to do my share of the cooking duties.

I did a tritip last night, gave it 27 hours in the bath and then a light mayo rub, finished over charcoal. Didn’t get quite the sear I wanted but still came out very nice.

That looks just about perfect to me.

What temperature did you use for the Tri Tip?  Why did you choose a 27 hour cook?

What temperature did you use for the Tri Tip?  Why did you choose a 27 hour cook?

It's about tenderness - if you read this article from Serious Eats they explain the process on a brisket including experimentation with different times.  I haven't made this recipe yet but I have some brisket in the freezer and I'm going to soon.  I have done a long SV cook on cheaper roasts a couple of time - inside round or something like that and it really makes for a very nice roast beef dinner.  It's not going to make a cheaper roast into prime rib but its going to produce roast beef that everyone will enjoy at a more reasonable price.  Plus leftovers for sandwiches - I dont like tough roast beef sandwiches where the first bite pulls out all the meat and the tenderness achieved from a long cook solves that problem.

https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-ba...xas-recipe

I've cooked brisket @ 145°F for 48 hours to make it tender. I've also cooked it @ 150 for 36 hours. Both worked. Corned brisket would get the same treatment.

Marko, that's a good article.

edit: The temps stated also assume our units all operate precisely the same with the same calibration. I'd be willing to bet that they all have their own individual error. So don't assume the temp' we set is the same as what the SV circulator had in the article. We have to adjust our temps' based on our results. Keeping notes helps. Test it with a thermometer? OK, full disclosure, I worked in a lab and our instruments were tested for accuracy. Thermometers that weren't accurate, and we used only lab quality thermometers, were rejected. Not all were accurate, far from it. So can I use my home thermometer and expect "accuracy"? No. Can you? I highly doubt it. But even a broken watch has the correct time twice a day.

What temperature did you use for the Tri Tip?  Why did you choose a 27 hour cook?

I did 132. And I would have done longer but that was the time I had… I wanted to do at least 24hrs, so if I had been able to get it into the bath earlier the day before I would have let it go longer for the tenderness.

I've cooked brisket  @ 145°F for 48 hours to make it tender. I've also cooked it @ 150 for 36 hours. Both worked. Corned brisket would get the same treatment.

Marko, that's a good article.

edit: The temps stated also assume our units all operate precisely the same with the same calibration. I'd be willing to bet that they all have their own individual error. So don't assume the temp' we set is the same as what the SV circulator had in the article. We have to adjust our temps' based on our results. Keeping notes helps. Test it with a thermometer? OK, full disclosure, I worked in a lab and our instruments were tested for accuracy. Thermometers that weren't accurate, and we used only lab quality thermometers, were rejected. Not all were accurate, far from it. So can I use my home thermometer and expect "accuracy"? No. Can you? I highly doubt it.  But even a broken watch has the correct time twice a day.

I check the water temperature with an instant read thermometer. A Thermoworks brand. I could always double check with a second thermometer but how do I know if my thermometers are accurate? More thermometers!!

Many people try to calibrate their thermometers in an ice/water bath. That gives you one point. Unfortunately, that is not a point we use for cooking. Calibration at higher temperatures is more difficult. Although the boiling point of water is 100C/212F at standard sea level pressure, even if you live at the sea shore, the pressure might not be "standard". I live at an elevation of 900 ft where water boils at around 210F. My daughter lives in the Denver area where water boils at 200F. Thus, getting a good calibration at the upper end is difficult. 

I get around that problem by owning several thermometers. If they all agree within 1 degree, I figure I am pretty close to being accurate. I know that might not be good enough for precise laboratory work, but it is good enough for cooking.