There’s no need to discard the fat once the lamb cooks. Pull it along with the meat and let it melt in together.
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE SOUS VIDE GUIDE
Imagine never overcooking an expensive roast again. Or taking an economy cut and making it taste premium. That’s the advantage of sous vide cooking–it’s always perfectly cooked!
Once only available to restaurant chefs, sous vide is a technique home cooks are embracing thanks to smaller, cost-friendly models like Anova or Joule. Translated to “under vacuum,” sous vide is a method of cooking meats and vegetables in a vacuum sealed bag placed in a water bath. The water is heated at a consistent and controlled temperature thanks to the heating element used in the water bath.
Precise temperature control and uniformity of temperature of the sous vide machine offers two big advantages. First, it allows you to cook food to an even doneness all the way through, no more dry edges and rare centers. Second, you get highly predictable results. The steak emerges from the bag juicy and pink every time.
Sous Vide Is Ideal for Entertaining on Yom Tov
Seal ingredients in a plastic bag or canning jar and place them in a water bath. When food reaches your target temperature or time, you take it out, give it a quick sear or other finish, and serve it. That’s it. Perfectly predictable results with no fuss!
With sous vide as my go-to for yom tov cooking and entertaining, I am finally able to focus on the other important aspects of cooking without the worry of going back and forth and checking on that expensive roast in oven, hoping we aren’t messing it up…. Which let’s be honest, we all do it!!
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Cooking with Plastic
Bags made expressly for cooking sous vide are perfectly safe as are oven bags. Brand name resealable bags and plastic wrap are made of polyethylene. It’s widely used in containers for biology and chemistry labs, and has been studied extensively, and is safe for cooking. Avoid store brand and cheap plastic wraps when cooking. These are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and heating them presents a risk of chemicals leaching into the food.
Slow Cooked Sous Vide Lamb
Servings
Ingredients
- 5 pound boneless leg of lamb or lamb shoulder
- Fresh rosemary sprigs
- Ground mustard
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Parsnip and Fennel Cream
- Mint and Pistachio Gremolata
- Garnish: fennel fronds
Instructions
- Set up your sous vide machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.
- Fill pot or bucket with water. For medium rare, set temperature to 165°F. Set time to 18 hours.
- Wait for water to reach desired temperature.
- Place lamb, rosemary, mustard, salt and pepper in brand name resealable bag. When your sous vide hits the desired temp of 165°F, add the bag to the water. Lower bag till it hits the bottom of the pot, and the air is released. Seal bag. Cover pot with plastic wrap to avoid evaporation.
- After 18 hours, take bag out of water. Empty contents of the whole bag, juices included, into a large bowl. The meat should be very tender and soft.
- Pull the lamb apart with your fingers and let the meat soak up all the juices.
- Place Parsnip and Fennel Cream onto a large platter. With a slotted spoon, place pulled lamb on top of the cream. Scatter with Pistachio and Mint Gremolata and fennel fronds over entire dish.
I only get semiboneless shoulders, 4 plus lb. I just leave ’em in the bag from the supermarket, 140 for 6-8 hours to get to medium rare, slightly pink and the shape of the meat retained. Anything more approaches slimy. I put the meat under the grill to brown it after it’s cooked and add seasoning after the meat is cut up. The texture is much smoother than if I roast it at 325 for 20 min/lb.
I followed to cook two boneless shoulders at 72C (161F) for 24 hours and they came out too dry (read ruined). I had a feeling that 72C is too high but I thought I’d give it a try. If you’re gonna cook it at such high heat, I would say 6-8 hours is more than enough time. Any longer than that and you end up with what I got which is super dry meat. Next time I’m gonna do it it’ll be at 65C (149F), maybe even as low as 62C (144F)
It’s just one of those recipes that you can just eyeball the amounts don’t matter.
Yep. ^
Thanks for pointing that out, they should go in the bag with the meat.
Why are there no amounts of Ground mustard, Kosher salt, Freshly ground black pepper listed??
Ground mustard, Kosher salt, Freshly ground black pepper are in the ingredient list but not in the instructions. Do they go in with the rosemary and meat?
Yes, exactly my point…165 will give a braised texture. It likely will be delicious, but it won’t be medium rare. So there is an error in the recipe where it says “For medium rare, set temperature to 165°F. Set time to 18 hours.” That should be corrected.
This recipe uses lamb shoulder or legs and the intention here is to braise the meat so it is fall-apart tender.
Fine, but at 165 F the meat will be well done vs “medium-rare” and will not “soak up all the juices.”
shifraklein yes but
165 for medium rare? no way; medium rare is in the 131 – 135 range. 165 will work for shoulder (braise like texture) but would probably overcook the leg,