Friday, December 26, 2008

Friday Night Food Porn

Christmas Leftovers: Sous Vide Prime Rib Sandwich

Christmas dinner was great. Among other things I cooked a 19 pound prime rib. To me one of the best things about a large piece of meat like that is the inevitable leftovers on the next day. My problem in the past with making a sliced beef sandwich is the reheat. Even in a low oven thinly sliced beef can over cook very quick. It can go from perfectly rare to well done in under a minute. Sometimes I will take the beef and just hit in a a frying pan to sear it up; it would still get over cooked but at least it would add some nice flavor. And there was always the option of a cold beef sandwich, the meat would still be nice and rare, but not everyone likes cold meat. So, how can I get a hot beef sandwich, but keep the meat rare? Yep, sous vide. I sliced the rest of my prime rib very thin and stored in some au jus overnight. Today for lunch I took it out of the fridge and put it into a large freezer bag. I got a sauce pan filled with water and brought it up to 120 degrees...you didn't think I was gonna breakout my immersion circulator for this did you? I kept the water between 120-122 degrees with very low to no heat. While the beef reheated I got some sub rolls and toasted them under the broiler. I sliced them, added some horseradish sauce, and some cheese, and put them back under the broiler. When the cheese was nice and melted I took them out and put the beef in the rolls and served.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know of two barbecue joints that reheat/hold this way, it makes a lot of sense. What would you consider cooking using sous vide the entire way?

Lakeside Smoker said...

Holding food this way is a great idea because, in theory, you can hold the food at any temp you want indefinitely. I don't think I will be doing a whole prime rib sous vide anytime soon, but I think sea food would be a great cooked this way. I'm thinking scallops real soon.