Hi! First post here, but probably won’t be the last considering how much and how long I’ve been cooking sous vide. I confess I don’t actually have an Anova brand specifically but I hope that doesn’t matter as I can’t seem to find any other sous vide forums like this.
I’ve been recently looking into cutting my own steaks from cheaper cuts of meat as sous vide can really bring out the best in it, and I’ve seen that even tougher cuts like beef brisket can be made into pretty decent steaks if prepared properly, but I just had a couple of questions before I try this for the first time.
Does it matter if I cut the steaks before placing in the bath (which I’d prefer to do), or is it better to cook the meat in the bath in as large pieces as possible to allow the connective tissue to break down in a tough cut like this before cutting the steaks? If I cut them before, does that affect (reduce?) how long it’s best to cook them for? I plan on cooking it for 2-3 days as per the normal course for things like brisket, but I’m not sure if that might be too long for smaller pieces already cut from the joint. There’s also the question of when seasoning and/or dry brining etc is most appropriate for either scenarios.
I take my sous vide principles from Douglas Baldwin’s A Practical Guide to Sous Vide CookingFree On-line
My rationale for SV is similar to yours, make cheap cuts as nice as expensive meat. I have recently been cooking beef and venison at 130ºF for six hours.
Temperature is doneness. Time is tenderness. Doneness is subjective. Meat is very tolerant of excess time, but 30 hours is getting up there.
I seldom brine, only when a specific recipe requires it.
In your circumstance, I would cut the individual steaks from the sub-prime cut first. Seasoning them and vacuum bagging them individually.
Thanks very much. I have a fair bit of experience with sous vide cooking but not so much when it comes to butchering my own steaks from larger cuts (I only know to cut against the grain and that’s it lol).
In that case I’ll cut the steaks first before cooking which was what I was preferring to do, but will that in any way affect the time required for less tender meat like brisket (often 2-3 days for whole joints)? I guess my question can be generalized to whether the size affects the influence that the tenderness has on the ideal cooking time.
Cool, so from that I gather that size/thickness only influences time in regards to getting it to temperature (which is only relevant to shorter cooks), but doesn’t affect the time in regards to doneness for longer cooks.
Thanks especially for telling me about Douglas Baldwin’s guide. I’ve never come across such a fully encompassing one before so will definitely be referring to that a lot in future.