Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!
Nice job!! How much cash did you put down for the equipment to build your own, out of curiosity?
Regarding the bolded, that's your cut of meat. Slow cooking skirt steak isn't going to make it tender. Skirt is all in how you slice it with those long fibers. Nothing you do besides slicing will change that. Try a sirloin. Great Expectations said his best experience has been with sirloin, as was mine. I've also had great luck with strips and ribeyes. If you want a slow cooked medium rare something, try short ribs or roast.
|
About $90. The solid state relay made it a little more expensive. I also had some of the stuff we needed sitting round (spare acrylic for the bracket, for instance).
Really, the reason I made this is that my buddy and I are tinkerers so we wanted to try to make them and I have a shitload of cuts of meat from that cow that I just don't like. Just buying the new wand style one is probably the way to go, but building this was just a fun project for a Saturday. I have some massive sirloins in my freezer from my annual cow purchase. Sirloin blows. Badly. But I have 10 lbs of it so I need a method to make it well. I fully expect your experience to be proven correct - everyone raves about sous vide sirloin. I was bummed to see your experience with roast was a poor one. I am hoping to find a way to make one of these round/chuck roasts into something vaguely resembling a poor man's standing rib roast. They take up a ton of freezer space and frankly I just don't like pot roast.
I also learned that minimalist is likely the way to go. I made a very complicated Carne Asada marinade that was way WAY too strong but also another packet in a simple lime/soy/garlic mix that was damn near perfect. I've always fought marinades anyway so that will be my biggest hurdle to clear.