While I was at Cosco I saw round roasts for under $4/lb. These are exactly where I thought SV should sing. They are good lean meat but on the tough side.
There were two roasts and I sliced them across the grain and got 3 decent steaks plus one end from each of the roasts. Bagged them up and cooked for 6 hrs at 131.5 degrees.
The first night I seared one batch on cast iron in a mixture of palm kernel oil and ghee. With a touch of butter for flavor. These were OK, but it was pretty clear that I should have cooked them shorter. Not dry, but not juicy. The sear looked good but wasn't all that flavorful.
Last night I grilled the second batch. I had been waiting for the cast iron grate I ordered. It sits on a spider inside my medium BGE about 1.5 to 2" from the coals.
I kept searing until I got to about 115 degrees inside (they had been in the fridge). Got a deep brown color.
As I mentioned before, 6 hours was too long, so while not dry, they were not juicy. But not at all tough either. The searing on the grill worked treat.
On these ~1.5" steaks the char to meat ratio was ideal. The outside slices were just a bit too much char. But the balance on the rest was wonderful. A very nice balance of that "almost charcoal" flavor and the beef flavor worked very well. It might be a bit too strong for some tastes though.
NOTES: Not much point in even pepper when making this much char. It could see it burned on the grate. I did salt and pepper before putting in the SV bath (wet/dry brine). Applying more at the time of searing was kind of pointless. Better to sprinkle before serving.
I think next time I will try 4.5 hours in the SV bath.
There were two roasts and I sliced them across the grain and got 3 decent steaks plus one end from each of the roasts. Bagged them up and cooked for 6 hrs at 131.5 degrees.
The first night I seared one batch on cast iron in a mixture of palm kernel oil and ghee. With a touch of butter for flavor. These were OK, but it was pretty clear that I should have cooked them shorter. Not dry, but not juicy. The sear looked good but wasn't all that flavorful.
Last night I grilled the second batch. I had been waiting for the cast iron grate I ordered. It sits on a spider inside my medium BGE about 1.5 to 2" from the coals.
I kept searing until I got to about 115 degrees inside (they had been in the fridge). Got a deep brown color.
As I mentioned before, 6 hours was too long, so while not dry, they were not juicy. But not at all tough either. The searing on the grill worked treat.
On these ~1.5" steaks the char to meat ratio was ideal. The outside slices were just a bit too much char. But the balance on the rest was wonderful. A very nice balance of that "almost charcoal" flavor and the beef flavor worked very well. It might be a bit too strong for some tastes though.
NOTES: Not much point in even pepper when making this much char. It could see it burned on the grate. I did salt and pepper before putting in the SV bath (wet/dry brine). Applying more at the time of searing was kind of pointless. Better to sprinkle before serving.
I think next time I will try 4.5 hours in the SV bath.
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