Sous Vide Deconstructed Pot Roast, Sous Vide....

~4 lbs of English chuck roast in ~8oz pieces, vacuum bagged with a marinade of Worcestershire, Coleman's mustard, Rubbed Thyme, Red Pepper Flakes, chicken stock, liquid smoke, and A1 sauce.


For 72 hours.


Cool water bath for 20 min, then ice water bath for 20 min.


Reserved liquid from bags, with some stock, wine, fresh thyme, salt, pepper.


Reduce by about 85%


Fingerling potatoes, with same marinade as roast. 2nd line for 15 min...should have been more like 12 min.


Couple min each side to create a nice crust, then 15 min hot smoke with hickory.


Fresh off the grill:


I'm not much on presentation, this is about the craziest I've ever gotten:


Satisfactory color cross-section:


There are several things that I could improve on for next time. But this was a satisfactory first attempt. The texture was very good, quite tender, but not falling apart. Enough cohesion to easily take grilling, I was worried they might fall apart. I could easily see serving these as "chuck steaks" for summer get togethers....but perhaps without so much sauce and potatoes.

That roast cross section looks spot on. Very nicely done!!

Wow, that looks tasty! looks like you are getting a lot of use out of your new toys

Just do the potatoes in a bag as well. 185 degrees for up to 1 hour.

Heh....that was my original plan...then decided to go PC on it instead. Good advice Theory.

ThEoRy said:

Just do the potatoes in a bag as well. 185 degrees for up to 1 hour.

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Looks delicious Danny. Nice technique! Great recipe

Looks really good, can't wait until I have a chamber vac.

I WILL be trying this at home. Nicely done.

Zwiefel said:

Heh....that was my original plan...then decided to go PC on it instead. Good advice Theory.

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Once they are done fully chill them, slice them in half lengthwise and upon pickup just roast them in a pan with a little oil and some butter until nicely browned and fully heated.

More good advice Rick

That looks awesome. What was the texture like compared to the traditional methods?

Texture with Sous Vide is different from other methods. I'm still learning, have only done this kind of thing 6-10 times.

I would compare the texture of this to mid-rare prime rib. There were a few strings here and there though...so the temp was maybe a bit too low to completely dissolve all of the connective tissues (my usually braising technique for these dissolves 100% of that stuff).

OTOH, to have this cut of meat with such a strong smoky flavor, and so juicy was very nice. I could see using this instead of sirloin for a lot of summer grilling sessions.

Erilyn75 said:

That looks awesome. What was the texture like compared to the traditional methods?

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Cross section looks delicious and the sauce looks excellent as well. The corned beef I made was my first sous vide project and it turned out so well I'm game for more. Thinking I might need one of the $200 immersion unit next year if this pans out as I can see where 7qt pot will run out of room. I'm doing wild caught salmon portions this weekend. Maybe a bag of brussels sprouts at the same time. Save on energy while I'm at it.

It looks so tasty I want to try it lol. I've got the Anova on my Christmas list just need to find a suitable sealer. Can't wait to see what you make next.

I gotta try that, looks amazing.

Erilyn75 said:

It looks so tasty I want to try it lol. I've got the Anova on my Christmas list just need to find a suitable sealer. Can't wait to see what you make next.

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Same here not sure if a chamber vac is worth the expense + shipping

rami_m said:

Same here not sure if a chamber vac is worth the expense + shipping

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Unfortunately sous vide machine requires a competent chamber vac, and significant purchase. Please take that into account before getting into sous vide.

AFKitchenknivesguy said:

Unfortunately sous vide machine requires a competent chamber vac, and significant purchase. Please take that into account before getting into sous vide.

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Any recommendation in Australia? All the chamber vacation I have seen are for professional factory packaging 3000+

One refinement to try that we use at the restaurant is to sear the meat and chill it, bag it, cook it, and then sear it again in the pan or on the grill at the moment of service. This allows some of that great roasted, caramelized meat flavor to permeate the meat while cooking. Sous vide is great for tenderizing, even cooking and retaining juice but the character of the flavor of the juice in the meat is not quite as intense as a conventional braise. You may want to try an agar clarification raft on the bag juice as well if you are going to reduce it into a sauce because the proteins released during a sous vide cooking process can give sauces made from the bag liquid a weird sort of milky appearance.

ChefCosta, could you elaborate on that a bit? A link perhaps?

ChefCosta said:

One refinement to try that we use at the restaurant is to sear the meat and chill it, bag it, cook it, and then sear it again in the pan or on the grill at the moment of service. This allows some of that great roasted, caramelized meat flavor to permeate the meat while cooking. Sous vide is great for tenderizing, even cooking and retaining juice but the character of the flavor of the juice in the meat is not quite as intense as a conventional braise. You may want to try an agar clarification raft on the bag juice as well if you are going to reduce it into a sauce because the proteins released during a sous vide cooking process can give sauces made from the bag liquid a weird sort of milky appearance.

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Chef interesting technique with a pre-sear. I thought Dave Arnold of Cooking Issues decided it wasn't worth the effort. If you say it does improve the flavor of the beef, it's worth revisiting. Your absolutely true right the thin quality of the jus that forms in the bag while SV. I usually toss it.

Can you explain what you mean by a raft of agar? Curious

MB: I keep the jus, but add stock/wine and reduce... Has a nice meaty flavor after that.

I assume you've tried this?

Mucho Bocho said:

Chef interesting technique with a pre-sear. I thought Dave Arnold of Cooking Issues decided it wasn't worth the effort. If you say it does improve the flavor of the beef, it's worth revisiting. Your absolutely true right the thin quality of the jus that forms in the bag while SV. I usually toss it.

Can you explain what you mean by a raft of agar? Curious

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A gelatin raft will trap the impurities leaving only the flavorful broth behind. Much like the egg white raft for a consomme technique. If you really want to get crazy you can add straight gelatin, freeze it, then let it thaw in a china cap in the fridge and only the pure flavor will drip down into a collection reservoir. This technique can be used to make some crazy consumes .

Looks like ThEoRy explained the purpose of the raft as well as I would. Any link that I would post would be to Think Food Group's database of recipes which is intentionally impossible. Every new dish we develop we test through as many different versions as we need to to get to a result we are proud of. Evidently we came to different conclusions about the results and our preferences than Mr. Arnold, whom I respect greatly. With no pre-sear the meat and the bag juices lasted like boiled meat. This is not in itself bad if that is the result you want, like if you are working on Pot-au-feu or something. All I can say is that we preferred the taste of the pre-seared meat when we tasted them side by side. I would advise you to do the same and see which result you prefer. There is no substitute or shortcut for putting in the R&D time. Resources like cookbooks and ChefSteps can be useful in forming your hypothesis but you must test and form your own conclusions.

*tasted. I meant to write "tasted like boiled meat".

I'll setup a side-by-side and report back...great idea!

ThEoRy said:

A gelatin raft will trap the impurities leaving only the flavorful broth behind. Much like the egg white raft for a consomme technique. If you really want to get crazy you can add straight gelatin, freeze it, then let it thaw in a china cap in the fridge and only the pure flavor will drip down into a collection reservoir. This technique can be used to make some crazy consumes .

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I've been making veal stock to serve with pasta. Theory's post sums it up perfectly (as he always does!), but I had the perfect opportunity to illustrate with pictures. First photo is direct from the stockpot. Second photo is finished product, after chilling to remove fat and simmered with egg white raft.

Mucho Bocho,
I was mixing metaphors and to see the phrase "raft of agar" stand alone I feel kind of stupid. I can see why that would beg clarification. I guess I meant "raft of agar" to refer to what is left in the cheese cloth after you do a "set with agar, break up, freeze, then thaw over cheese cloth" clarification technique. Classically, as I'm sure you know, the "raft" is what floats in the consomme when using ground meat, egg whites, etc to clarify. Mixing metaphors...

Namaxy said:

I've been making veal stock to serve with pasta. Theory's post sums it up perfectly (as he always does!), but I had the perfect opportunity to illustrate with pictures. First photo is direct from the stockpot. Second photo is finished product, after chilling to remove fat and simmered with egg white raft.

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Looks perfect.

Thanks chefs Costa, Theory and Neil. I understand what you mean by raft now. I thought you meant raft in bag akin to raft in simmering stock. You mean using agar to suspend the solution then freeze, thaw over cheese cloth to clarify. Makes sense I'll give it a try.

Looks top shelf Neil. What ratio of semolina to Four do you use? WhaT brand Uncle Bobs and Caputto 00?