A good way to compare low temp water bath to low temp fire style is pork butt. Get a Boston Butt, or some version of your favorite pork shoulder cut, and cut it evenly in two. Bag one up to sous vide at 140 for 24 hours. Smoke the second butt at 225 8-12 or until 203, probe tender. The sv butt will be ice bathed then sliced into steaks to be finished however. The bbq butt pulled and served however you like pulled pork. Side by side comparisons will show what you have before you are two entirely different styles of cooking. As different as baked potatoes from mashed. It's not that one is better, so different it's hard to compare. The sv butt will not pull apart but will be tender in a different way. The bbq will be juicy but in a different way, and vice versa. Personally I just don't enjoy sv chicken thighs. The rendering of fat live fire style is just better, to me. I like breast sv over bbq because of the lower temp options. With sv the less marbled cuts do better, to me, because the softened fat in better marbled cuts just has a texture I prefer grilled, while I like selects sv for a more tender texture. Sometimes I want mash potatoes, sometimes baked, other times I want French fries. Either way once you master the technique all are delicious.
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If you crank the heat on the pork shoulder in the sous vide up a bit, it will most definitely pull. 165x24 should get 'er done. That said, I find the best use of SV is to achieve results that are either:
1- Impossible by other methods (beef short rib 133x72)
2- Annoying by traditional methods (hollandaise, custards)
3- novel (coffee infused butter).
I have stopped doing SV for things where I want a simple replication of a fairly easy process. I do SV for things where I need extraordinary precision or where my time structures better for SV than for traditional cooking. -
The whole idea of sous vide has never appealed to me in the least. But now I am beginning to come around to the idea of using it just for steaks. I am kind of obsessed with getting the perfect wall to wall medium rare, and reverse sear is just not getting it done to my satisfaction. 🤔Comment
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