First off, for those of you who don’t have a Sous Vide and aren’t getting one soon, here’s a previous post with rack of lamb made in a traditional way. Rack of lamb done properly is perhaps my favorite food. And making it in the Sous Vide Supreme was just to die for. Easily my favorite thing so far — though pork chops run a close second.
So for the preparation, it was sea salt & ground black pepper, a clove of crushed garlic, a sprig of fresh rosemary (I now have a plant out on the terrace) and a sprinkle of dried thyme. As always, click the images for the larger, higher quality versions.
Rack of Lamb Prep
Then it was into the SVS at 131F for 1.5 hours. In the meantime, I went to work on the sauce. I began with a good pat of butter, a clove of crushed garlic, a sprig of rosemary crushed up, and a handful of frozen berry medley. I got that all crushed up before introducing about a cup of my homemade stock.
The Sauce
I boiled it for a short time in order to extract all the flavors from the herbs & fruit. Then I strained it and reduced very, very slowly down to a nice sauce with no thickening agent. It came out very nicely. Oh, I also had a dash of red wine in there.
Once the rack came out of the SVS, I used the kitchen torch on it, sliced it up and plated.
Rack of Lamb
Alongside was a surprisingly good quick fry I did of celery, red onion, sea salt & ground pepper in hot Nutiva coconut oil. It was one of those "what have I got" deals that came out real nice. Now here’s a closeup on the other plate of lamb (that’s my wife’s above).
Rack of Lamb, Part Deux
It was melt in your mouth delicious, perfectly pink through and through, easy to gnaw off the bone, and the fat was just succulent. To me, there’s nothing like the taste of the fat of the lamb.
I like lamb, too. But how is that sous vide … cooking in plastic?
Love it, and there is absolutely zero danger from the plastic.
Here’s a quote from a poster on an email list I follow.
“I discussed the plastic issue a little before. The plastic that
touches the food is made of 100% polyethylene, contains no
plasticizers or estrogen-like compounds. The foodsaver bags are 5
layers of polyethylene with an outer layer of nylon. While you might
get BPA from your cans of coconut milk, there is simply no BPA that
will get into your food from sous vide. The temperatures of sous vide
are also low (polyethylene doesn’t begin softening until 195F),
although I would imagine that a very small amount of polyethylene
would still make it onto the surface of your food through diffusion.
Polyethylene, however, is considered biologically inert, and
scientists have been unable to detect any toxicity in animal tests
(unlike BPA). It passes the Ames test and other studies of damage to
DNA, and doesn’t have a similarity to estrogen. At this point, I’m
unaware of any evidence at all that polyethylene poses any harm.
As always, it’s up to you, but for me the taste and health benefits
(less AGE production, nutrient loss, and protein degradation, and more
retention of fatty acids) that sous vide provides far outweighs what
seems to me to be an almost arbitrary possibility that it will harm
me.”
Thanks, Richard, sounds good then. I will check on this a bit more, but it looks like a winner.
Did the person on the email list specify what kind of bag that is? I’m aware of three different types of bags that people are using for sous vide: ziplock vacuum bags, vacuum bags for home foodvac machines, and vacuum bags for commercial chamber sealers. I’ve read that the chamber sealer bags require a higher temperature to seal than home foodvac bags, so that leaves me with the impression that not all bags are made of the exact same stuff.
Yes, he was talking about the FoodSaver bags, which are the ones I use.
Dear Good Richard Nikoley, I love this blog. I finished reading Taubes’ GCBC on June 16, 2008 and my life has been transformed for the better since then. A new book recommendation for you. “The Other Brain” by R. Douglas Fields, PhD. It’s about the 85% of the cells in our brains that aren’t neurons, but glial cells. Our brains are fatty. The glia and axons (axons are in the body also, all 100,000 miles of them if stretched out and laid end to end) are fatty fat fat fat fat fat fatty fat-hyperlipidinous. I just got the book. Can’t put it down, except to comment here. This may be preaching to the choir, but advising humans to eat low-fat, vegetarian is a prescription for brain deterioration and dumb-down. HAND ME THE LARD and the BEEF. I am LIVID that I hadn’t heard about any of this until Taubes’s book fell into my hands, and I teach biochemistry for heaven’s sake!
If you’re LIVID now, just wait until you read my latest post.
Thanks for more food porn! Hehehe, look at that rack, heheh.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Yes, the Sous Vide Supreme is worth ever bit of the cost and more. I use mine every day. In fact, I was frustrated the day I did the 30 hour cook on the lamb roast since that meant I had to use a pan to fix breakfast instead of our usual sous vide omelet bag. The FoodSaver is a good addition, too. I like mine much more than I thought I would (and great way to freeze leftovers). And if you buy the jumbo box of FoodSaver bags at Costco, they are much more affordable over the long term.
How many bags/rolls are in the Costco jumbo box, and do you know the price?
I’m not sure exactly but I think the cost was around $40. The box includes:
– 4 rolls 11″ w x 16′ l
– 1 roll 8″ w x 20′ l
– 30 quart bags
If you sign up for at the FoodSaver site you can get specials and no shipping charges too.
http://www.foodsaver.com/index.aspx?
What food torch do you have? I got one with the intention of finishing sous-vide meat, but the flame is very small and the torch runs out of fuel before I can get any sort of sear on it. Maybe I’m not fueling the torch correctly, but curious as to the size of your flame and how long you have it on before you run out of fuel? I must be doing something wrong.
Not sure the brand, but I got it at Sur la Table. It gives off about a 2″ flame and last for a good 5 minutes or so of continuous use before it needs refueling.
This is a wonderful site. I had gleaned from my research that the butane torch was better for the sous vide process than the propane torch. Haven’t tested either yet but am leaning in the direction of the butane based on comments that I have read. What are your experiences?
Thanks for all of your hard work. I love this site. : )
I had heard that the propane touch can impart a foul taste on food so I have just stuck with the butane.