Sous-Vide Salt & Sirloin Roast Experiment

-
OP 2/2015- Albeit another experiment? I dare say why? This is; at least to me a lot of fun. This experiment serves two purposes. The analysis will contrast a Dry-Brine Sous-Vide Roast with a Naked Sous-Vide Roast. Naked meaning the roast goes in the bag with no salt or seasoning. The Dry-Brine version will be Dry-Brine on a rack with air circulating around the roast for 5 days (refrigerated of course) which gives the salt ample time to reach the center. The second purpose is to contrast a roast and a steak when it comes to Sous-Vide and Dry-Brining. 

My first experiment involved Sous-Vide VS Reverse Sear, and my second experiment was all about Steak and what role did Salt play in the cooking process... seen here Sous-Vide Steak and Salt Experiment. You must be wondering why I would do another experiment with salt and Sous-Vide when I just did one with steak? This one is different because I am using large pieces of meat and the cooking process is longer. And I was curious, of course.  Both Sirloins will be Sous-Vide at 131 degrees for 9 hours and Ice-Shocked. 



EQUALS 
"Salt penetrates, so the amount we apply depends on the weight of the meat, All the rest are huge molecules that rarely go beyond 1/8" deep. Spices and herbs are a surface treatment just like sauces so the amount apply depends on the per square inches of surface."

"You can add the salt at the same time as the spices. No harm, no foul. It will still penetrate, maybe not as deep, but will travel when it gets wet and warm. But if you can get it on in advance, you give it a head start." 


 Both Sirloins will be Sous-Vide at 131 degrees for 9 hours and Ice-Shocked. 


________________________________

First-  Meat coated with 1% (based on the weight of meat) of salt and allowed to Dry-Brine for 5 days. I plan on seasoning the meat after the Sous-Vide process and searing as usual. After the thermal bath, the roast will be Ice-Shocked. Of course, I will record all the weights. Note- Each sirloin will be coated with 80 grams of rub (no salt) which mostly burns off or drops off.)

Weight Before Trim - 3819 g
Weight After Trim - 3389 g
Weight With Salt (1%) - 3423 g
Weight After 5 days - 3194 g (- 6.7%)
Weight After SV - 3112 g (- 2.56%) 
Weight After Sear - 3028 g (-2.69%)
Total Moisture Loss -10.65%

Review- Outstanding. Perfect amount of Salt (1%) which penetrated all the way to the center. The meat was tender and did not exhibit any texture consistent with cured meats. Extremely tasty!!!! Every bite was freakishly good. 
________________________________

Second- This sirloin roast is going to be naked meaning it's going in the bag with no salt or seasoning. I will replicate the cooking process listed above. After the thermal bath, the roast will be Ice-Shocked. Before the sear, the roast will receive 1% salt coating, and 80 grams rub.  


Weight Before Trim - 3960 g
Weight After Trim - 3529 g 
Weight After SV -  3167 g (-10.26%)
Weight After Sear - 3059 g  (-3.4%)
Total Moisture Loss -13.32%


Review- With a 2.67 % difference in moisture loss, there was not much of a difference that I could discern. Still amazingly good. I am a fan of the dry brine technique more specifically for the taste than I am for the retention of moisture. 

Caveat- Unless you can clone the proteins, these experiments will always be tainted.  
________________________________








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Curing Notes and some Math

-
Image
(OP-2016) I wrote this up to help you with some of my recipes. I hope these notes and links expand your knowledge of curing.  My recipes are straightforward to follow if you use the info given below. Replicating my recipes is possible because I use percentages for everything. The weight of meat plus fat is 100%, and all ingredients to be added are expressed as a percentage of the weight of the meat plus fat.  Percentages can be used to standardize recipes regardless of batch size, and all weights are metric. An online calculator is provided below.  No weights are given because the weights of meats vary. Again everything is a percentage of the meat's weight after trimming. Here is an example- Meat weight,  2393  grams, and we want to find out the amount of salt we need in grams-  2393 * 3.5%=83.755 or 2392/100 * 3.5 =83.755 grams. Or 2393 * .035 = 83.755 For most of my recipes, I use  .25%  c...
Read more

Eye-of-Round (Sous-Vide)

-
Image
EYE OF ROUND- EOR  (OP- 5/2017)I've been wanting to do this for a while but prefer other cuts for roast beef (I still do). Anyhow, after reading all the pontificating posts on E-O-R, I wanted to see what all the hype was about. After making about 5 of these E-O-R's, I have dialed in what I believe is the perfect temp and time.  The T/T was selected because it provides the highest moisture retention, texture (tenderness) for slicing using a Deli-Slicer. If you plan on slicing by hand or wanted to slice very thick to serve as an entree it might not work. The E-O-R will be cooked at 128f for 24 hours and sliced on my Berkel Slicer.  (Disclaimer located at the bottom for T/T). Note: The T and T are perfectly fine. The Log Reduction is exceeded 12.  If you plan on purchasing the E-O-R at Costco or another whole seller, I will suggest buying it cryo-vacuumed-sealed. If you don't, there's a possibility that it was mechanically tenderized. I'm not against...
Read more

Burnt Ends the Sous-Vide way!!!

-
Image
  The King of BBQ Brisket is Burnt Ends. But what are Burnt Ends? Traditional Burnt Ends are from the point of brisket. Where I live, you rarely find a whole packer (whole briskets), and when you do come across one, you're usually not in the market for one. Yes, yes, I could buy one and freeze it, but I don't like to freeze the meat. So I decided to make Burnt Ends entirely from the flat. Burnt Ends are a delectable delicacy and are prized by many if not all BBQ enthusiasts. I actually prefer Burnt Ends to BBQ brisket. Sometime during the "cook," the whole brisket is removed, and the point is separated from the flat. Traditionally the point is cubed up and doused with more spices and smoked very low and slow for a couple of more hours, and sometimes BBQ sauced is added. Burnt Ends are typically served with a little char on them with some BBQ sauce on the side or in sandwiches. I recently attended a BBQ workshop, and t...
Read more