Fat question concerning Sous Vide

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #1

I wish this section was more active, but anyway, here goes…

Over and over, I see Guga, and other Internet cooks suggesting that most of the fat should be trimmed off of Beef Brisket and other fatty cuts ???

First off, if you must, I hope your saving that fat for some fried beef cracklings or something !

But why trim it in the first place ? I’ve heard Guga say SV does not render the fat well… Hmmm. It seems to for me. Whatever fat that is not melted away, seems to reduce even farther when searing with my weed torch. Plus adds great flavor !

Seriously, with my next beef brisket, I might trim only the thickest, easiest hunks of fat (which again, will definitely be saved) but I’m just not too worried anymore about putting a good amount of fat into the SV bag. How about you ?

(Becky) #2

Ok sir you are now my favorite :man_cook: I am a true blue Cajun, born and raised and I bleed cracklings… I hang my head in shame at this moment because I have never thought to take some of that brisket bliss out of my freezer and fry it up like a yummy cracklin…I usually just run it thru my grinder with my leaner cuts of beef and pork to make super juicy burgers, but I will now be frying some to try it out!

(PSackmann) #3

I haven’t SV’ed a brisket yet, when I’ve cooked them slow in the oven I’ve only trimmed the hard pieces of fat and left the rest. The hard pieces don’t render well and become gristly, the rest I prefer to eat with the meat.

Seeing as how I like to cook a whole brisket folded over for even thickness, do you cut yours up or just leave it whole? I’ve been trying to envision that in a vacuum bag and failing miserably.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #4

Thanks :slightly_smiling_face: lol Will definitely report back with how this goes.

(Failed) #5

It’s possible that it has to do with the tenderness of the meat and the reaction of the fat with the protein. I’ve been making ribeye in the sous vide since starting this way of eating. Lovely, tender steak!

The other day I decided to add tallow from the jar I bought on Amazon to one of my ribeyes before sous vide cooking it. I had been adding it afterwards, before searing with my heat gun. That meat was tough. It might’ve been just a coincidence, but I’m not willing to try that again.

I know the guys on Sous Vide Everything on YouTube did a test by adding butter before cooking it sous vide. They found it wasn’t as tender. I remember them saying something about the molecular structure but I don’t remember exactly what.

Found the video

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #6

Thank you. I have cut my brisket into 4 sections for two reasons, 1) because we just don’t need that much prepared at once, for only the two of us, and 2) because my insulated and covered SV tub is only 12qts, so it can’t hold much more than a 4-5 lb chunk at a time…

Although I’m going to have to look into modifying an icebox, for doing a full brisket SV around Thanksgiving and Christmas when we have family over😉

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #7

Oh and BTW, another thing I wanted to throw in about my brisket… And for that matter, my beef Tri Tip SV’s as well… I see most people season there meats with salt, pepper, and garlic powder… But all of my recent SV’s have been marinaded in either Soy Sauce (probably my favorite) or Worcheshire Sauce, or even A1… And so especially with the Soy Sauce, I don’t add any salt to my SV bag, as SS is already salty. And only a little salt with Worcheshire or A1.

And finally, I have had a couple times when I didn’t really get to marinade my meat as long as I wanted to… Maybe only during thawing, so I left it in the bag during the SV cooking, and it didn’t seem to hurt it one bit :slightly_smiling_face:

(PSackmann) #8

I’m generally a dry-rub type of person, I’ve put liquid smoke in the bags for SV’ing ribs, it works well. Currently have 3 racks of baby-backs in the fridge with dry-rub on them, I’ll start the SV tomorrow night, then take them to a friends’ house for marinading and final grilling/smoking on Saturday for my husband’s birthday. It’ll save them some parboiling time and give us some really tender ribs

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #9

Hey I’m not beyond a good dry rub either :wink:
And speaking of liquid smoke and and ribs, I think I’m going to do a rack of baby back ribs, and a big, fat pork tenderloin roast (for my breakfasts) at the same time, for the same time and temp 150 F for 40 hrs, just as soon as my beef comes out :slightly_smiling_face:
Heck, I have two SV machines now… I should probably go ahead and get another SV tub, insulating cover, plus lid… Or, maybe I should modify a medium sized icebox ? Choices, choices :slightly_smiling_face: