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March 17, 2011
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig
McAdams Farm bone-in leg of lamb and Whole Food's (made in store by the Chapel Hill meat counter guys) corned beef. En sous vide 48 or so hours at 130° F (54.4° C).
This is the way my ancestor's would have done it ... right?
Update: I actually sous vide cooked the corned beef at two different temperatures: 130.5° F (54.7° C) and 138° F (58.9° C). The riff I had heard was that the lower temps would give a juicier corned beef but the higher one would get you closer to a classic corned beef texture. I have to say that, were I to do it again, I would go for the lower temprature: I felt the texture was just right at either temperature, but that the lower temperature definitely yielded the juicier result. So why was the texture good at 130.5° F (54.7° C)? Probably because of the length of time I cooked it en sous vide: 48 hours.
That said, I made a major mistake: there were pockets of extreme, over the top flavor on the beef. The reason was flecks of things like peppercorns and bay leaves on the surface of the corned beef. Sous vide tends to intensify herb and spice flavors and can essentially scorch with flavor any surface a piece of the herb or spice was touching. You often need to put herbs and spices in some kind of sachet and avoid direct contact with the meat surface in order to avoid these spice and herb "hot spots". So, in future, I need to pick off these flecks, particularly the bay leaves, before putting the meat under vacuum seal.
Posted by dag at March 17, 2011 9:13 PM
Comments
What will u do with the lamb?
Posted by: Anon at March 18, 2011 11:40 AM
Basically, I'll take it out if the bath and vacuum seal, let it sit for a half hour or so, give it a light once over with a torch (did some pre-carmelization before it went in the bag), sprinkle on salt and pepper, and then send it into a 550° F (287.8° C) oven for 20 minutes.
Posted by: dag at March 18, 2011 1:32 PM