Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

Well, last night I thought I'd try cooking a beef eye of round "sous vide"
style. This technique, of cooking at a very slow temperature in a plastic
bag immersed in low temperature water appealed" I had previously roasted an
eye of round as suggested by Cooks Illustrated at a very low temp with
excellent success.

I salted the beef 4 hours before starting. The 3 lb piece of beef went into
a Ziplock bag; the air was sucked out thoroughly, and it was placed in a
warm water bath at 140F, first in the microwave on "thaw", and then in the
oven at a low temp, 150F by oven thermometer. The water bath, as far as I
could tell never went above 140F. By plan, I was going to sear the meat
afterwards, rather than before cooking. This can be done either way, the
recipes say.
After three hours, I took the meat out, expecting to sear it. I had a beef
"rock", dry as a bone, and tasteless.

I think one must do this with a very careful attention to an ongoing
temperature just over your final meat temperature. I wanted the meat to cook
to 130F at the center. I couldn't even get my thermometer in to measure it;
it was so hard searing would have been a joke.

In retrospect, I would
1. Sear first at a high temp.
2 Find a way to not ever exceed the planned temperature. Cook at 1
degree over the final temp for many hours, and hold the meat at that temp.
For a final meat temp of 130F, the water temp should have been 131F. That's
far beyond kitchen technology for most of us, for me at least.

As I posted previously, searing an eye of round, and roasting in the oven at
a very low temp, 150F and turning the oven off when the meat temp hit 120F
resulted in excellent results. The meat was moist, with au jus on the plate,
and very tasty, a real poor man's standing rib. I've done this twice with
excellent results. Slice it very thinly.

If any want to try this, here's a very good scientific article on the
subject with recipes. http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html

Ed


..

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

Theron wrote:
>
> Well, last night I thought I'd try cooking a beef eye of round "sous vide"
> style. This technique, of cooking at a very slow temperature in a plastic
> bag immersed in low temperature water appealed" I had previously roasted an
> eye of round as suggested by Cooks Illustrated at a very low temp with
> excellent success.
>
> I salted the beef 4 hours before starting. The 3 lb piece of beef went into
> a Ziplock bag; the air was sucked out thoroughly, and it was placed in a
> warm water bath at 140F, first in the microwave on "thaw", and then in the
> oven at a low temp, 150F by oven thermometer. The water bath, as far as I
> could tell never went above 140F. By plan, I was going to sear the meat
> afterwards, rather than before cooking. This can be done either way, the
> recipes say.
> After three hours, I took the meat out, expecting to sear it. I had a beef
> "rock", dry as a bone, and tasteless.
>
> I think one must do this with a very careful attention to an ongoing
> temperature just over your final meat temperature. I wanted the meat to cook
> to 130F at the center. I couldn't even get my thermometer in to measure it;
> it was so hard searing would have been a joke.
>
> In retrospect, I would
> 1. Sear first at a high temp.
> 2 Find a way to not ever exceed the planned temperature. Cook at 1
> degree over the final temp for many hours, and hold the meat at that temp.
> For a final meat temp of 130F, the water temp should have been 131F. That's
> far beyond kitchen technology for most of us, for me at least.
>
> As I posted previously, searing an eye of round, and roasting in the oven at
> a very low temp, 150F and turning the oven off when the meat temp hit 120F
> resulted in excellent results. The meat was moist, with au jus on the plate,
> and very tasty, a real poor man's standing rib. I've done this twice with
> excellent results. Slice it very thinly.
>
> If any want to try this, here's a very good scientific article on the
> subject with recipes. http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
>
> Ed
>
> .

Creamed chipped beef on toast as a salvage effort perhaps?

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

On Aug 2, 2:52�pm, "Theron" > wrote:
> Well, last night I thought I'd try cooking a beef eye of round "sous vide"
> style. This technique, of cooking at a very slow temperature in a plastic
> bag immersed in low temperature water appealed" I had previously roasted an
> eye of round as suggested by Cooks Illustrated at a very low temp with
> excellent success.
>
> I salted the beef 4 hours before starting. The 3 lb piece of beef went into
> a Ziplock bag; the air was sucked out thoroughly, and it was placed in a
> warm water bath at 140F, first in the microwave on "thaw", and then in the
> oven at a low temp, 150F by oven thermometer. The water bath, as far as I
> could tell never went above 140F. By plan, I was going to sear the meat
> afterwards, rather than before cooking. This can be done either way, the
> recipes say.
> After three hours, I took the meat out, expecting to sear it. I had a beef
> "rock", dry as a bone, and tasteless.
>
> I think one must do this with a very careful attention to an ongoing
> temperature just over your final meat temperature. I wanted the meat to cook
> to 130F at the center. I couldn't even get my thermometer in to measure it;
> it was so hard searing would have been a joke.
>
> In retrospect, I would
> 1. � �Sear first at a high temp.
> 2 � � Find a way to not ever exceed the planned temperature. Cook at 1
> degree over the final temp for many hours, and hold the meat at that temp..
> For a final meat �temp of 130F, the water temp should have been 131F. That's
> far beyond kitchen technology for most of us, for me at least.
>
> As I posted previously, searing an eye of round, and roasting in the oven at
> a very low temp, 150F and turning the oven off when the meat temp hit 120F
> resulted in excellent results. The meat was moist, with au jus on the plate,
> and very tasty, a real poor man's standing rib. I've done this twice with
> excellent results. Slice it very thinly.
>
> If any want to try this, here's a very good scientific article on the
> subject with recipes.http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
>
> Ed
>
> .

You know, anytime I've ever seen one of the cheftestants on Top Chef
attempt to cook a piece of meat that way it's always been a disaster
too. Maybe it's just not a good way to cook a piece of meat.

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 15:03:09 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

> You know, anytime I've ever seen one of the cheftestants on Top Chef
> attempt to cook a piece of meat that way it's always been a disaster
> too. Maybe it's just not a good way to cook a piece of meat.

Especially a 4" thick piece of meat.

-sw

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

In article .com>,
"Pete C." > wrote:

> Theron wrote:
> >
> > Well, last night I thought I'd try cooking a beef eye of round "sous vide"
> > style. This technique, of cooking at a very slow temperature in a plastic
> > bag immersed in low temperature water appealed" I had previously roasted an
> > eye of round as suggested by Cooks Illustrated at a very low temp with
> > excellent success.
> >
> > I salted the beef 4 hours before starting. The 3 lb piece of beef went into
> > a Ziplock bag; the air was sucked out thoroughly, and it was placed in a
> > warm water bath at 140F, first in the microwave on "thaw", and then in the
> > oven at a low temp, 150F by oven thermometer. The water bath, as far as I
> > could tell never went above 140F. By plan, I was going to sear the meat
> > afterwards, rather than before cooking. This can be done either way, the
> > recipes say.
> > After three hours, I took the meat out, expecting to sear it. I had a beef
> > "rock", dry as a bone, and tasteless.
> >
> > I think one must do this with a very careful attention to an ongoing
> > temperature just over your final meat temperature. I wanted the meat to cook
> > to 130F at the center. I couldn't even get my thermometer in to measure it;
> > it was so hard searing would have been a joke.
> >
> > In retrospect, I would
> > 1. Sear first at a high temp.
> > 2 Find a way to not ever exceed the planned temperature. Cook at 1
> > degree over the final temp for many hours, and hold the meat at that temp.
> > For a final meat temp of 130F, the water temp should have been 131F. That's
> > far beyond kitchen technology for most of us, for me at least.
> >
> > As I posted previously, searing an eye of round, and roasting in the oven at
> > a very low temp, 150F and turning the oven off when the meat temp hit 120F
> > resulted in excellent results. The meat was moist, with au jus on the plate,
> > and very tasty, a real poor man's standing rib. I've done this twice with
> > excellent results. Slice it very thinly.
> >
> > If any want to try this, here's a very good scientific article on the
> > subject with recipes. http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
> >
> > Ed
> >
> > .
>
> Creamed chipped beef on toast as a salvage effort perhaps?

Or I was thinking, crock pot.
--
Peace! Om

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.
It's about learning to dance in the rain.
-- Anon.


Subscribe:

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

"Omelet" > wrote in message
...
> In article .com>,
> "Pete C." > wrote:
>
>> Theron wrote:
>> >
>> > Well, last night I thought I'd try cooking a beef eye of round "sous
>> > vide"
>> > style. This technique, of cooking at a very slow temperature in a
>> > plastic
>> > bag immersed in low temperature water appealed" I had previously
>> > roasted an
>> > eye of round as suggested by Cooks Illustrated at a very low temp with
>> > excellent success.
>> >
>> > I salted the beef 4 hours before starting. The 3 lb piece of beef went
>> > into
>> > a Ziplock bag; the air was sucked out thoroughly, and it was placed in
>> > a
>> > warm water bath at 140F, first in the microwave on "thaw", and then in
>> > the
>> > oven at a low temp, 150F by oven thermometer. The water bath, as far as
>> > I
>> > could tell never went above 140F. By plan, I was going to sear the meat
>> > afterwards, rather than before cooking. This can be done either way,
>> > the
>> > recipes say.
>> > After three hours, I took the meat out, expecting to sear it. I had a
>> > beef
>> > "rock", dry as a bone, and tasteless.
>> >
>> > I think one must do this with a very careful attention to an ongoing
>> > temperature just over your final meat temperature. I wanted the meat to
>> > cook
>> > to 130F at the center. I couldn't even get my thermometer in to measure
>> > it;
>> > it was so hard searing would have been a joke.
>> >
>> > In retrospect, I would
>> > 1. Sear first at a high temp.
>> > 2 Find a way to not ever exceed the planned temperature. Cook at 1
>> > degree over the final temp for many hours, and hold the meat at that
>> > temp.
>> > For a final meat temp of 130F, the water temp should have been 131F.
>> > That's
>> > far beyond kitchen technology for most of us, for me at least.
>> >
>> > As I posted previously, searing an eye of round, and roasting in the
>> > oven at
>> > a very low temp, 150F and turning the oven off when the meat temp hit
>> > 120F
>> > resulted in excellent results. The meat was moist, with au jus on the
>> > plate,
>> > and very tasty, a real poor man's standing rib. I've done this twice
>> > with
>> > excellent results. Slice it very thinly.
>> >
>> > If any want to try this, here's a very good scientific article on the
>> > subject with recipes.
>> > http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
>> >
>> > Ed
>> >
>> > .
>>
>> Creamed chipped beef on toast as a salvage effort perhaps?
>
> Or I was thinking, crock pot.
> --
>
People talk about "sous vide" cooking in a crockpot. You'd have to use the
low temp setting.

Ed

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

In article >,
"Theron" > wrote:

> Well, last night I thought I'd try cooking a beef eye of round "sous vide"
> style. This technique, of cooking at a very slow temperature in a plastic
> bag immersed in low temperature water appealed" I had previously roasted an
> eye of round as suggested by Cooks Illustrated at a very low temp with
> excellent success.
>
> I salted the beef 4 hours before starting. The 3 lb piece of beef went into
> a Ziplock bag; the air was sucked out thoroughly, and it was placed in a
> warm water bath at 140F, first in the microwave on "thaw", and then in the
> oven at a low temp, 150F by oven thermometer. The water bath, as far as I
> could tell never went above 140F. By plan, I was going to sear the meat
> afterwards, rather than before cooking. This can be done either way, the
> recipes say.
> After three hours, I took the meat out, expecting to sear it. I had a beef
> "rock", dry as a bone, and tasteless.
>
> I think one must do this with a very careful attention to an ongoing
> temperature just over your final meat temperature. I wanted the meat to cook
> to 130F at the center. I couldn't even get my thermometer in to measure it;
> it was so hard searing would have been a joke.
>
> In retrospect, I would
> 1. Sear first at a high temp.
> 2 Find a way to not ever exceed the planned temperature. Cook at 1
> degree over the final temp for many hours, and hold the meat at that temp.
> For a final meat temp of 130F, the water temp should have been 131F. That's
> far beyond kitchen technology for most of us, for me at least.
>
> As I posted previously, searing an eye of round, and roasting in the oven at
> a very low temp, 150F and turning the oven off when the meat temp hit 120F
> resulted in excellent results. The meat was moist, with au jus on the plate,
> and very tasty, a real poor man's standing rib. I've done this twice with
> excellent results. Slice it very thinly.
>
> If any want to try this, here's a very good scientific article on the
> subject with recipes. http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
>
> Ed
>
>
> .

Sous vide might be okay for a tough cut of meat, but not eye round.
It's one thing to roast it at a low temp (dry heat) and quite another to
stew it in its own juices at low temp. This is another fad that will
pass.

Cindy

--
C.J. Fuller

Delete the obvious to email me

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

"Theron" ha scritto nel messaggio >
> "Omelet" wrote in message

> People talk about "sous vide" cooking in a crockpot. You'd have to use the
> low temp setting.
>
> Ed

The whole thing sounds like a try at the Darwin Award. When training for a
culinary career, one is taught that food spending time between 38° and 140°
is a shortcut to food poisoning and lawsuits. I frankly think this needs to
be left to the pros for a while yet, because they obviously know more about
this than the resrt of us. You describe deliberately leaving a piece of
meat in that temp range for hours. I think your shoe leather may have saved
your butt this time.

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

"Giusi" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Theron" ha scritto nel messaggio >
>> "Omelet" wrote in message
>
>> People talk about "sous vide" cooking in a crockpot. You'd have to use
>> the low temp setting.
>>
>> Ed
>
> The whole thing sounds like a try at the Darwin Award. When training for
> a culinary career, one is taught that food spending time between 38° and
> 140° is a shortcut to food poisoning and lawsuits. I frankly think this
> needs to be left to the pros for a while yet, because they obviously know
> more about this than the resrt of us. You describe deliberately leaving a
> piece of meat in that temp range for hours. I think your shoe leather may
> have saved your butt this time.
>
I'm only interested in trying this with beef, which we tend to worry about
less than other meats. Based on this one experiment I think most of my beef
will get seared and very slow roasted, or smoked. I'd like to sear, and very
slowly smoke at 150F, cut the heat at about 120F, and let the temp.slowly
rise to 130F. You can brine the beef, which reduces bugs somewhat. The old
electric Luhrs Jensen would do this. I did a turkey that way once. Brined,
smoked at 150 for five hours, and then roast the turkey. Take your
doxycycline 2 hours before eating.

Ed

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

"Cindy Fuller" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Theron" > wrote:
>
>> Well, last night I thought I'd try cooking a beef eye of round "sous
>> vide"
>> style. This technique, of cooking at a very slow temperature in a plastic
>> bag immersed in low temperature water appealed" I had previously roasted
>> an
>> eye of round as suggested by Cooks Illustrated at a very low temp with
>> excellent success.
>>
>> I salted the beef 4 hours before starting. The 3 lb piece of beef went
>> into
>> a Ziplock bag; the air was sucked out thoroughly, and it was placed in a
>> warm water bath at 140F, first in the microwave on "thaw", and then in
>> the
>> oven at a low temp, 150F by oven thermometer. The water bath, as far as I
>> could tell never went above 140F. By plan, I was going to sear the meat
>> afterwards, rather than before cooking. This can be done either way, the
>> recipes say.
>> After three hours, I took the meat out, expecting to sear it. I had a
>> beef
>> "rock", dry as a bone, and tasteless.
>>
>> I think one must do this with a very careful attention to an ongoing
>> temperature just over your final meat temperature. I wanted the meat to
>> cook
>> to 130F at the center. I couldn't even get my thermometer in to measure
>> it;
>> it was so hard searing would have been a joke.
>>
>> In retrospect, I would
>> 1. Sear first at a high temp.
>> 2 Find a way to not ever exceed the planned temperature. Cook at 1
>> degree over the final temp for many hours, and hold the meat at that
>> temp.
>> For a final meat temp of 130F, the water temp should have been 131F.
>> That's
>> far beyond kitchen technology for most of us, for me at least.
>>
>> As I posted previously, searing an eye of round, and roasting in the oven
>> at
>> a very low temp, 150F and turning the oven off when the meat temp hit
>> 120F
>> resulted in excellent results. The meat was moist, with au jus on the
>> plate,
>> and very tasty, a real poor man's standing rib. I've done this twice with
>> excellent results. Slice it very thinly.
>>
>> If any want to try this, here's a very good scientific article on the
>> subject with recipes. http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
>>
>> Ed
>>
>>
>> .
>
> Sous vide might be okay for a tough cut of meat, but not eye round.
> It's one thing to roast it at a low temp (dry heat) and quite another to
> stew it in its own juices at low temp. This is another fad that will
> pass.
>
> Cindy
>
> --
Apparently high brow steak houses do this routinely, over a 12-24 hour
period. The steak is then seared at 1700F with an infrared burner, and then
to the table, as here. http://www.ruthschris.com/Menu/Steaks Hubert Keller,
of French Laundry fame has just published a cookbook about sous vide.

Ed

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

On Aug 2, 8:36 pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 15:03:09 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
> > You know, anytime I've ever seen one of the cheftestants on Top Chef
> > attempt to cook a piece of meat that way it's always been a disaster
> > too. Maybe it's just not a good way to cook a piece of meat.
>
> Especially a 4" thick piece of meat.
>
> -sw

Especially an eye of round which isn't much good for anything, IMO.
Well, maybe hash.

N.

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

"Nancy2" > wrote in message
...
> On Aug 2, 8:36 pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
>> On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 15:03:09 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
>> > You know, anytime I've ever seen one of the cheftestants on Top Chef
>> > attempt to cook a piece of meat that way it's always been a disaster
>> > too. Maybe it's just not a good way to cook a piece of meat.
>>
>> Especially a 4" thick piece of meat.
>>
>> -sw
>
> Especially an eye of round which isn't much good for anything, IMO.
> Well, maybe hash.
>

What I was thinking.

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

In article
>,
Nancy2 > wrote:

> On Aug 2, 8:36 pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
> > On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 15:03:09 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
> > > You know, anytime I've ever seen one of the cheftestants on Top Chef
> > > attempt to cook a piece of meat that way it's always been a disaster
> > > too. Maybe it's just not a good way to cook a piece of meat.
> >
> > Especially a 4" thick piece of meat.
> >
> > -sw
>
> Especially an eye of round which isn't much good for anything, IMO.
> Well, maybe hash.
>
> N.

Eye of round (as well as sirloin) are lean enough to make good steak
tartar. Served raw, it's not tough. It only gets tough when you cook
it, unless it's long slow cooked to tenderize.

Eye of round makes excellent pot roast for instance.

Last time I ruined a hunk of beef tho', pressure cooking it into a stew
salvaged it nicely.
--
Peace! Om

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.
It's about learning to dance in the rain.
-- Anon.


Subscribe:

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

Ed wrote:

> Apparently high brow steak houses do this routinely, over a 12-24 hour
> period. The steak is then seared at 1700F with an infrared burner, and then
> to the table, as here. http://www.ruthschris.com/Menu/Steaks Hubert Keller,
> of French Laundry fame has just published a cookbook about sous vide.

Minor correction: it's THOMAS Keller of French Laundry fame. The book is
"Under Pressu Cooking Sous Vide."

Thomas and Hubert are not related.

Now, as to your claim that Ruths Chris does sous vide before grilling,
having eaten there it didn't sound right, I just called our local RC and
no, they do not sous vide a steak before grilling. It was "Huh? Sue
what?" So, I explained the process. Nope. Season and sizzle is about it.
BTW, it's 1800F degrees and not 1700F. But hey, what's 100F between
friends. ;-)

Bob has dabbled a bit with sous vide, but we have been less than
impressed with the results. It does lend itself better to smaller, more
delicate cuts of meat. I would never do eye of round that way.

--Lin

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

> Eye of round makes excellent pot roast for instance.
>
> Last time I ruined a hunk of beef tho', pressure cooking it into a stew
> salvaged it nicely.
> --
> Peace! Om
>

But, but, but, .... it doesn't have any flavor because of the lack of
fat.

N.

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

In article >,
"Theron" > wrote:


> > --
> Apparently high brow steak houses do this routinely, over a 12-24 hour
> period. The steak is then seared at 1700F with an infrared burner, and then
> to the table, as here. http://www.ruthschris.com/Menu/Steaks Hubert Keller,
> of French Laundry fame has just published a cookbook about sous vide.
>
> Ed

It's Thomas Keller. Just because "highbrow steak houses do it" doesn't
mean that the method translates well to a home kitchen. It's a very
rare household that has a 1700° infrared burner. And, as the OP found
out, it can be damn hard to keep the temp of the sous vide at 140°.

Cindy

--
C.J. Fuller

Delete the obvious to email me

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

In article
>,
Nancy2 > wrote:

> > Eye of round makes excellent pot roast for instance.
> >
> > Last time I ruined a hunk of beef tho', pressure cooking it into a stew
> > salvaged it nicely.
> > --
> > Peace! Om
> >
>
> But, but, but, .... it doesn't have any flavor because of the lack of
> fat.
>
> N.

Depends on whether or not you know how to cook. <g>
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people until they put their foot down."
--Steve Rothstein


Subscribe:

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

In article
>
,
Cindy Fuller > wrote:


> Sous vide might be okay for a tough cut of meat, but not eye round.
> It's one thing to roast it at a low temp (dry heat) and quite another to
> stew it in its own juices at low temp. This is another fad that will
> pass.

I've found eye of round to be a tough cut of meat. Perhaps I just got a
couple of bad ones. I roasted it to a medium rare, like I would tri
tip. It was *very* chewy. And isn't "stewed in its own juices" just
about like pot roast? That will make the toughest meat tender.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

On Mon, 3 Aug 2009 09:18:50 -0700 (PDT), Nancy2 wrote:

> On Aug 2, 8:36 pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
>> On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 15:03:09 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
>>> You know, anytime I've ever seen one of the cheftestants on Top Chef
>>> attempt to cook a piece of meat that way it's always been a disaster
>>> too. Maybe it's just not a good way to cook a piece of meat.
>>
>> Especially a 4" thick piece of meat.
>
> Especially an eye of round which isn't much good for anything, IMO.
> Well, maybe hash.

I haven't cooked an eye of round since I was 20 years old. It was
my first and last.

I think I made jerky out of one since then, though.

-sw

Beef Eye of Round "sous vide" disaster
 

On Mon, 3 Aug 2009 02:51:37 -0700, Theron wrote:

> Apparently high brow steak houses do this routinely, over a 12-24 hour
> period. The steak is then seared at 1700F with an infrared burner, and then
> to the table, as here. http://www.ruthschris.com/Menu/Steaks Hubert Keller,
> of French Laundry fame has just published a cookbook about sous vide.

Yeah - but you don't see them doing it with eye of round.

-sw