Lovin' It Low Carb

The brisket is out of the SousVide Supreme!!

If you don’t know what Sous Vide cooking is, check out my post about my new SousVide Supreme water oven: Have You Heard of Sous Vide Cooking? If you are interested in further information, visit the SousVide Supreme website, or just google “sous vide”.

For my first Sous Vide cooking adventure, I cooked three Ribeye steaks and a small Brisket, cut in half and sealed in two vacuum bags. I ate the Ribeye Steak yesterday.

According to the chart in the owners manual:
   Medium Rare Beef Temperature: 134F/56C
   Cook Time for a 1-inch thick brisket: 24-48 hours

I cooked my brisket at 56C for about 31 hours.
One end of it was 1-inch thick, and the other end was maybe as much as 2-inches thick.

This was delicious!! It was very tender, very juicy, and very enjoyable. Probably the most tender I’ve ever made. Typically, my braised brisket is a little stringier and a little chewier, though not unpleasantly so. If you slice it against the grain (still referring to braised brisket), it has a very tender and delectable mouthfeel. Think of good shredded beef for tacos and burritos… that’s my braised brisket!

The sous vide brisket was less dependent on the grain for texture… it cut just as easily in any direction, and chewed just as tenderly in every direction. It was a very different texture than braised brisket that I would cook for, say, 6 hours at 275F.

After tasting the ribeyes yesterday, I was thinking that the garlic in the spice rub had come out a little too strong, or something. And I wondered if it would be even more pronounced in the brisket, since it cooked three times longer. But not at all so!! The brisket tasted better than the ribeye. Way better. I think this sous vide brisket is good enough to serve at the BBQ restaurants I frequent… with their various sauces and mops… it would fit right in with the rest of the delicious menu items.

Like yesterday’s steak, it looks like medium-cooked beef. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting it to come out like when I started the cooking yesterday, but after I saw that the steaks done to a medium done level, that is also what I expected for the brisket.

My first try at the ribeye was good, but I don’t think it was actually better than my favorite Outback Steakhouse Ribeye dinner. However, this BRISKET was really, really good brisket! I’m going to have to try one with a flavored spice rub, maybe with MY smoky-sweet barbecue rub I use for my braised baby backs, or my favorite mexican/cumin flavored spices. The sous vide method seems to work very well on the brisket. I need to try flank steak or carne asada.

I might try a slightly lower temperature next time, to see if I can get it to come out both TENDER and closer to MEDIUM RARE. I sort of gave up on medium rare when I started braising. Cooking the meat to tenderness, even at only 275F, always means cooking it way past doneness… It seems like cooking until tender in the sous vide may offer me the choice of cooking to tenderness without cooking it all the way to well done.

Another great dinner!! A very successful second sous vide dish!

And … I have a big piece of leftover brisket to add to my leftover steak for lunches this week.

I am so excited to have my SousVide Supreme and cook my first dishes with it. I can hardly wait to try pork chops, chicken breast and scrambled eggs!!

Lovin’ It Low Carb
Ramona Denton