Cooking Beef at 55 degrees.

[whiskywill]

So anyway, he's cooking a bit of sirloin beef. He coats it in black treacle and water and lets it soak for a day or so. Seals the outside in a pan then whacks it in the oven at 55 degrees. 45 minutes he says.

Is this time for a sirloin steak? Surely a joint of beef wouldn't get up to 55 degrees at the centre in just 45 minutes.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

No...what he's talking about is a joint of Sirloin. Sirloin steaks start out life as a ruddy great slab of meat (a joint). Butchers or indeed me at my gaff, take a knife and slice the required thickness of steak. But it is equally and frankly deliciously good to simply roast the entire sirloin joint and then thinly carve slices once cooked.

It beats the absolute pants off topside or silverside or indeed any other cut of beef with the exception of prime rib, rump or of course fillet which is the most expensive cut. Roasting a sirloin is an extremely expensive way to go but it is seriously delicious. Modern supermarket packaging and meat marketing, has people thinking that topside et al are roasting joints but they're just not. They're leathery and tough and require long slow cooking to tenderise. The advantage is of course that they're cheap. But to enjoy roast beef "properly" you just cant beat a joint of sirloin.

 

[Blister]

A friend of mine regularly ate blue / rare steak until the day he went for a poo and had something hanging out of his bum , Trip to A&E for the removal of a 6 foot long tape worm :shock:

He now has his steak well done , took him some time before he even went near steak again

My grandmother told me that she remembered in the 1930s people being starved and meals being put close in front of them to try to temp the worm out for food. She didn't ever tell me whether it worked, though. It would be interesting to see how they knew that one was 6' - they break into tiny segments about 1/4" long.

The hospital made him drink several ltrs of some special fluid that killed it and out came a tape worm , ``yuck

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Swallowing one used to be a method of dieting. :shock:
... cheaper than a gastric band for the NHS, I suppose ...

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I think it is worth remembering that cookery fashions, and particularly TV chef tastes, are set by the constraints of restaurant cookery. They need to get fresh ingredients onto a plate and served in less time than it takes an overprivileged food critic to get tetchy. So things that can be quickly cooked - fish, nearly raw meat - or stuff that can sit indefinitely sous vide (AKA boil in the bag) are a boon. The lovely caramelised flavours of a slow roast or braise are more of a problem to achieve without a lot of notice, or waste. Unfortunately for me, that's the sort of food I like. Lots of flavour, doesn't need to be soft, I still have most of my teeth

 

[bugbear]

I did a little research into domestic Sous Vide equipment.

The best buy at the moment is from Lakeland:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/31573/Lakeland-Sous-Vide-Wand

This is a OEM version of the Gourmia GSV130

http://www.gourmia.com/item.asp?item=10021

Amazon reviews here:

https://www.amazon.com/Gourmia-Digital- ... B017HX16FA

BugBear

 

[lurker]

I watched this the other week

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vrwj8

Highly recommended

 

[sunnybob]

Also 55 is not far above the sometimes reported heat-wave temps in some places! I'm sure I can remember 52 in the sun somewhere?

This was my side porch thermometer a couple years ago.

I could have just left the beef on the coffee table!

That particular week even I was hot enough, so at 10 pm I decided to cool off in the pool. After a while I realised I was NOT cooling off. Checked the pool temp and it was at 38c, which is hotter than most people run their showers at.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The word botulism comes from botulus - Latin for sausage.

Close but no prize. The Latin for sausage is farcimen, from which the word farce, meaning forcemeat or stuffing, is derived. A botulum is a type of spiced sausage.

I was anticipating a visit from the pedantry police, there.

 

[Bm101]

I did a little research into domestic Sous Vide equipment.

The best buy at the moment is from Lakeland:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/31573/Lakeland-Sous-Vide-Wand

This is a OEM version of the Gourmia GSV130

http://www.gourmia.com/item.asp?item=10021

Amazon reviews here:

https://www.amazon.com/Gourmia-Digital- ... B017HX16FA

BugBear

I was looking at this one today thanks to Gregs earlier link... Sat on a roof above Heddon Street (all restaurants) looking at a sous vide app. Ahh the gentle irony. Wondering if my Mrs would like one for Christmas lol. She will see through that malarkey better than the clear juices of a perfectly cooked chicken! :| Hmmmm. *plot plot plot*
https://anovaculinary.com/anova-precision-cooker/

 

[woodpig]

This all sounds like a large advertising billboard (hoarding) seen near a steak house in the US:

Sushi: still your best bet for intestinal worms.

I prefer my food cooked. :wink: I do wonder what percentage of food poisoning is down to under cooked food ...

http://dba-oracle.blogspot.co.uk/2009/0 ... eight.html

 

[bugbear]

Good news everybody! The FSA has done research into pathogen death (or not) at the temperatures involved in Sous Vide cooking.

The conclusion of the research is that it the FSA is now absolutely certain that it doesn't know.

It's a Donald Rumesfeld "Known Unknown". :lol:

https://www.food.gov.uk/strategiceviden ... 4dfs102028

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

This all sounds like a large advertising billboard (hoarding) seen near a steak house in the US:

Sushi: still your best bet for intestinal worms.

I prefer my food cooked. :wink: I do wonder what percentage of food poisoning is down to under cooked food ...

http://dba-oracle.blogspot.co.uk/2009/0 ... eight.html

Apparently much fish is frozen first to kill parasites.

 

[Bm101]

After Will's post I thought I'd better check my memory!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/treac ... with_35837


I entered into cautious bilateral discussions with the Mrs and it appears no, she doesn't want either nuclear warheads placed near her international borders or a sous vide for Christmas. As an initial entry appeasement policy it appears I can have one for my Birthday. In April. Apparently international funding would be better directed toward funding a joint mutually aggressive national border expansion policy and 'we need the money for the loft conversion ya bleedin' eeejit'.
Balls.



Ah well, Sirloin in the oven it is then.

 

[llangatwgnedd]

A friend of mine regularly ate blue / rare steak until the day he went for a poo and had something hanging out of his bum , Trip to A&E for the removal of a 6 foot long tape worm :shock:

He now has his steak well done , took him some time before he even went near steak again

Watched a programme once about tapeworms and if red meat is not cooked through, eggs of the worm will still be alive and thats one way they get into your system.

 

[Woodchips2]

We like beef brisket which I cook in a slow cooker without any liquid. Just season the meat and stick it in the heated cooker on high for 2 hours and then on low for maybe another hour or two. Comes out succulent and not tasting like a cheap cut at all. Works equally as well with shoulder of pork or shoulder of lamb. Maybe it's the fattier cuts of meat that work for this no-fuss cooking.

Regards Keith

 

[Rorschach]

We like beef brisket which I cook in a slow cooker without any liquid. Just season the meat and stick it in the heated cooker on high for 2 hours and then on low for maybe another hour or two. Comes out succulent and not tasting like a cheap cut at all. Works equally as well with shoulder of pork or shoulder of lamb. Maybe it's the fattier cuts of meat that work for this no-fuss cooking.

Regards Keith

I do that with odd cuts of lamb that we get from the farm. Season and throw them in the slow cooker for about 5 hours with a splash of water to get a bit of steam going. I then pull all the meat off the bone, de-fat the liquid that came out and then freeze the meat in the juices. When we want to eat it I warm it in the juices and thicken to make a delicious gravy, wonderful with mash and veggies.

 

[whiskywill]

The word botulism comes from botulus - Latin for sausage.

Close but no prize. The Latin for sausage is farcimen, from which the word farce, meaning forcemeat or stuffing, is derived. A botulum is a type of spiced sausage.

I was anticipating a visit from the pedantry police, there.

I am a pedantic pedant. Actually, the information came from a book on Roman cookery that I have and I remembered farcimen so looked into it a bit further and got botulum.

 

[AJB Temple]

It is interesting how people have polarised views about food. I owned a restaurant for a while (I was speculating on the freehold) and as a keen cook I sometimes worked a few shifts. In general, older people, my parents included, insisted on beef being well done. Younger people and chefs (and I) consider this renders it inedible - but it is a good way of using up the worst pieces.

Professional sous vide machines are indispensable as they help hugely with two things: getting food ready for rapid final cooking (eg searing a steak and serving); and consistency. My wife and I were just discussing this yesterday: how difficult it is to get really good beef in the UK now. We go to Japan most years and the beef and fish quality far surpasses produce that we can readily source in England.

These days I am quite partial to long, slow smoking. In my case I use a Big Green Egg.

Sushi, contrary to the post above, has very low risk if reputably sourced fish is used. Much of the fish used for Sushi is in the freezer within minutes of being caught and parasites killed by rapid temperature reduction and holding.

 

[lurker]

Beef tapeworm is pretty harmless
Pork on the other hand.......

Pork is not banned by faiths like the Jewish for nothing