Willis RIMS/HERMS? System Project

[Billybrewster]

Why don't you make Steak & Ale pie ?

[adm]

Why don't you make Steak & Ale pie ?

I'm not sure how much pastry I'd need to make a lid for the mashtun

But I do make Beef in Beer quite often.....and a Steak and Ale Pie would be the same thing with pastry on top! My kids don't seem to like pastry for some reason though....

[befuggled]

Ah, but what was the sirloin like??

[adm]

Ah, but what was the sirloin like??

It was bloody lovely! Came out a treat.

It got 26 hours in the end, but came out perfectly medium rare (cooked to 55C). The texture was awesome - it held it's shape perfectly and looked great, but it was silky smooth and fell apart beautifully in the mouth.

When it was time to eat, I took the vac pack out of the mash tun, opened it and drained the (pint of) juice into a pan to boil up to make gravy. This was a bit of a mistake as although it looked lovely, it foamed up everywhere and then kind of separated, so the final gravy while tasting great, looked awful. A bit like a fine ground mint sauce if you get the picture (but red). I think next time, I will filter the juices through a coffee filter before making the gravy and hopefully catch the fat or whatever caused the separation.

The roast looked a bit strange at first - almost a greeny grey colour on the outside, but I fired up the kitchen blowtorch and gave it a good searing, and it turned from an ugly duckling, to a beautiful looking piece of meat. Really very nice indeed.

We had some leftover, so I wrapped it in foil and the next day it was still great - superb texture and taste and hadn't gone hard like roast beef tends to the day after.

All in all, it was an excellent result. I need to plan the gravy a bit better though.

Next time, I'll try a tough cut like ox cheek, or brisket as you probably don't notice the benefits of sous vide so much with a premium cut like sirloin anyway....

So - if you've got a RIMS or HERMS mash tun lads......it can do far more than make beer!

[befuggled]

Feedback very much appreciated adm!!

Now that you have achieved such a success, I hope to try something at the weekend - it's a shame you can't do a whole forerib as this is always a favourite with friends and family .
I have a very big, well hung (careful now, I mean 6 weeks+, not...) one on order for collection this Friday, I might cut it in half, de-bone one of the halves and then see if I can get that into a vac. bag! The other half is for a family get together in the next fortnight. Cow overload coming up!

[Subsonic]

Maybe go for a brisket cut? I tried a silverside in my hot smoker last week and it was disappointing. Not enough fat I think, that said it was divine but more sort of 'harder' when cutting. I am going to revert back to good old brisket with a Texas rub. Its an interesting thread you have going, there are by my reckoning 3 crazy cookers on this forum! If you do a brisket let me know how it goes. Subsonic

[adm]

Maybe go for a brisket cut? I tried a silverside in my hot smoker last week and it was disappointing. Not enough fat I think, that said it was divine but more sort of 'harder' when cutting. I am going to revert back to good old brisket with a Texas rub. Its an interesting thread you have going, there are by my reckoning 3 crazy cookers on this forum! If you do a brisket let me know how it goes. Subsonic

Funny you should say that, Sub......I was in my local farm shop / butcher the other day and asked him to sort me out a nice big flat brisket. I do them quite often in my smoker and they are sublime when cooked overnight. It's difficult to get the American type (flat & point) brisket cut here unless you can describe to the butcher exactly what you want.

I'm currently trying to work out what would be a good cut to vac pack and stick in the mash when I brew......nothing like killing two birds with one stone, eh? I'm thinking a thick ribeye might do well at 66C for 90 minutes.....maybe a pork chop.....or maybe a few eggs.... I'll have to experiment!

[Subsonic]

Lol, I know what you mean about getting the right American cut on the point! I buy the whole brisket and cut it myself but its an awful lot of meat....

[befuggled]

A week later than planned, the mash tun has been busy, and will be again on Sunday, so I thought I would get this going last night:
It was already a well hung bit of beef, but these can tend to be a bit chewy!

Raw, I gave it two minutes in the nuker after taking it out of the fridge just to warm it up a bit


Then I had a go with the flamethrower


Wrapped it with the new toy, this was tricky coz it got juicy!


And into the tun


I read somewhere, probably in "In Search of Perfection", that Maillard reactions are killed off at a few degrees over 50C, so it will sit there for 20 hours or so, then I might raize it to 55C........to be continued!

[adm]

Superb.....I'm watching this with interest.

No brewing today then?

[befuggled]

A day off!
I just racked five FVs though, to make more room!
Lots of nice yeast for the next Marmite experiment....

I have just upped the temperature to 55C, so it has had about 20 hours at 50C and will come out around six tonight

[befuggled]

Well, it had about 20 hours at 50C and then 5 hours at 55C

The bag straight out of the tun:


The juices:


The meat straight out of the bag:


After a quick flash with the flame thrower:


Some slices:


And the cut end:



The pictures tell a lot, but the texture and taste:
Tender but with enough texture to know you are eating top quality beef.
Perfect flavour, you would not want to kill it with horseradish or whatever!

I did the "gravy" in a similar way to adm, added some roux and heated gently, gave it a wizz with the hand held blender.
Got much the same result as adm - rather light in colour and granular - but the taste - quite simply amazing.

I think one of the biggest advantages is that the whole joint is cooked to the same point. Normally to get a good medium/rare core, you either need a massive piece, slowly cooked, or you have a smaller piece where the outer 2/3rds is much more cooked and toughened.

Overall - thanks for the inspiration adm!
You have opened up a fifth cooking dimension which will be further explored while the mash tun is otherwise idle!

[Andy]

Looks superb !

[adm]

That looks great. Yummy.

The other advantage - is that you can't overcook it. It can only cook to the temperature of the surrounding water, so you can just dial in the temperature for rare, medium or whatever then forget about until you are ready to eat.

[leedsbrew]

I very nearly drooled reading this! LOL