The Texas BBQ Forum

I normally get the sirloin flap meat that Costco sells, but got in the mood for fajitas the other day and no Costco meat in the fridgidaire. Local HEB was the answer, but their non-tenderized fajita meat has always been tough in the past. What to do? Since we planned on the meal for the next day, I broke out the Anova cooker, seasoned up the fajita meat with Bolner's Southwest Fajita rub after trimming the membrane and fat off the meat.
Into the bath at 135 for 12 hours.
Next day, out of the bath, put in the 33deg meat keeper for several hours then unpackaged, dried out the meat, then onto the K/A gasser searing burner.
Let me tell you, the meat was wonderfully cooked, nice and pink in the middle with a great sear to finish off the meat. Tender like a prime rib and something that seriously needed a flour tortilla wrapped around the meat goodness.
I think I'll be doing all our fajitas this way from now on

I have the same cooker but never thought of doing fajitas. One more thing on the sous vide list.

interesting, I would like to see pictures of the process and your cooker.

Sounds Delicious

TwoGuysBBQ wrote:interesting, I would like to see pictures of the process and your cooker.

Sounds Delicious

Nothing exotic. Just your typical vacuum sealed bag with seasoned fajita meat, cooked in a 12 qt stock pot using an Anova sous vide tool at a temperature of 135 for 12 hours. Then unbagged, seared on my gas grill that also cooked the meat to around 160 or so with perfect grill marks. I'm thinking I might go for 10 hours next time. Meat wasn't mushy at all however.

I don't sous vide, so this sounds like LOTS of work and time.

Is the result that much better than a well cooked meat in a fraction of the time?

Sous Vide is easy peasy and the water heater is not expensive at all.
Everyone by now should have a vac sealer and the rest is just dropping the bag in warm water and waiting.

Smoking Piney wrote:I don't sous vide, so this sounds like LOTS of work and time.

Is the result that much better than a well cooked meat in a fraction of the time?

Quite obviously I'm not recruiting new sous vide users, and am not selling anything. Well cooked meat doesn't mean it's tender. A well cooked eye round roast can be tougher than shoe leather. A sous vide eye round roast then properly seared, can be more tender than a ribeye roast.
We plan usually a day ahead what we want for dinner the next day. So putting a bag of meat into a pot of steaming water is no work at all. I would normally grill the meat before eating it, so that's a non-issue.

rexster314 wrote:

Smoking Piney wrote:I don't sous vide, so this sounds like LOTS of work and time.

Is the result that much better than a well cooked meat in a fraction of the time?

Quite obviously I'm not recruiting new sous vide users, and am not selling anything. Well cooked meat doesn't mean it's tender. A well cooked eye round roast can be tougher than shoe leather. A sous vide eye round roast then properly seared, can be more tender than a ribeye roast.
We plan usually a day ahead what we want for dinner the next day. So putting a bag of meat into a pot of steaming water is no work at all. I would normally grill the meat before eating it, so that's a non-issue.

I'm a fan of the technique also. You're ok in my book!

Rexter,

I've been curious of the method for a while now and I'm by no means bashing it. If it can make a round roast as tender as a rib eye roast, I'm in!

I have a birthday coming up. Maybe some sous vide gear.......

Ok I'm reading and looking on the www.... how do we get around the bacteria growth problems that occur between 40 and 140 degrees if we are cooking at 130 degrees? respectfully asked...
I am curious and not afraid to give this a whirl...

https://www.kamadoguru.com/topic/32915- ... formation/

You may have to become a member to read it but all your concerns along with tons of "how to" info is there..

spacetrucker wrote:Ok I'm reading and looking on the http://www.... how do we get around the bacteria growth problems that occur between 40 and 140 degrees if we are cooking at 130 degrees? respectfully asked...
I am curious and not afraid to give this a whirl...

It's a matter of time and temperature
In that span of temps, a longer time in the bath will pasteurize the meat

Smoking Piney wrote:Rexter,

I've been curious of the method for a while now and I'm by no means bashing it. If it can make a round roast as tender as a rib eye roast, I'm in!

I have a birthday coming up. Maybe some sous vide gear.......

A big chunk of round roast, bathed in a sous vide for 12 hours or so will make you think you're eating a prime rib. Eye round roasts do well in sous vide as well, turning out nice bright pink color after 12 hours or so.
The finishing touch is either searing the meat in a screaming hot iron skillet with a little olive oil, a once around on a sear burner on a gas grill, or a Searzall attachment on a propane torch. I use the Searzall because using it instead of the other options only sears the outside, and doesn't leave a gray ring around the meat like some of the others do.

Chasdev wrote:https://www.kamadoguru.com/topic/32915-useful-sous-vide-information/

You may have to become a member to read it but all your concerns along with tons of "how to" info is there..

read it fine, lost of good links and info for the curious mind to "cypher"...

does anyone have a particular brand name of gizmo they recommend? I may have to twist off and try this...

I've got an Anova which cost under $200 a year ago, I just looked on Amazon and the same one is $114 with quite a handful of them for under 1 bill.