For many years on Christmas Day my mother would put out this big spread. All day long people would stop by. Whenever anybody was hungry they'd just make themselves a plate and chow down. The centerpiece, I guess you could say, was a bottom round roast, cooked and sliced thin, set out immersed in its own juice in this oval electric appliance I guess was the predecessor to the crock pot. You'd grab some bread, fish out slices of meat, and make yourself a sandwich whenever the mood struck.

One of the challenges in executing what my mother did is getting the meat cooked just so: Enough to be done all the way through, but remain tender and juicy, and be slice-able without falling apart.

It took her a few tries, but the last few years my wife's managed to duplicate the feat.

We now have an Instant Pot that has a Sous-vide mode. My wife is thinking to give that a try for this dish. The question is: How long to cook the meat? The Instant Pot book says four hours. That seems very short for what little I've read in passing of Sous-vide cooking. Other recipes on-line suggest more like eighteen hours.

Anybody got any guidance for us?

Thanks!

Four hours should be plenty to get it to an even temperature (whatever the sous vide temp is) all the way through.

Keeping it in longer won't make it any more cooked, but connective tissue will continue to break down and it will get more tender.

This can go too far - if you sous vide a filet for 18 hours the texture will approximate mashed potatoes. Tough cuts can go longer - 72 hour short ribs are not uncommon in fancy restaurants.

Also, for food safety reasons, if you are going to have it in there more than 2-3 hours, the temperature MUST be above 130 F. That is a hard limit. 129 F isn't safe. If you aren't sure your cooking device is that accurate and you don't have an accurate thermometer to check it with, stay WELL above 130.

Sous vide is great for stuff like this, though. Say you want a medium roast, if you sous vide it and then sear it or stick it under the broiler briefly it will be perfect medium all the way through right up to the edges, no thick gray band around the outside like if you roast your roast.

I would base the cook times off of a true sous vide website, like Anova. I did a bottom round roast about 2 weeks ago for 24 hrs at 135 degrees. Came out perfect, fork tender, juicy, could be sliced without falling apart.

If you are cooking in plastic, remember that plasticizers imitate estrogen hormones, reducing testosterone in males.

I'm in the 10-12 hour camp, depending on the overall weight of the roast.

I would tweak the serving method a bit. I would section the roast in to 3-4 equal chunks, then cook them all together in the same bag.

When time to serve I would remove 1 chunk and transfer the rest with all the juice to a large zip lock bag. This way you can easily retrieve the next chunk when needed and the rest stays warm and juicy

"Cooked all the way through" You lost me on that.... that is not how you cook roast beef.
But maybe bottom round is different than what I usually cook.

I really like using Sous vide for quite a few different things but roast beef (prime rib) isn’t one of them. There isn’t much connective tissue in that cut so there is nothing to break down in a low and slow cook. If you cook it to an internal temperature as opposed to using an arbitrary weight/time formula you will get predictable, repeatable results.

I do mine for four hours then it gets rolled around on a very hot 600F+ grill until seared and I paint the recessed or slow to sear areas with a blow torch. Comes out beautiful. In the bag I put thyme and onion, nothing else. Salt/Pepper, garlic powder, and Lawry's Season Salt goes on the meat the night before or morning of.

Can't find pics of full sized ones, but he's a little 2-3 bone one I cut off and made. This one I should not have done the full four hours as the meat pulled apart a little too much. Tasted great, but too tender. Should have done the smaller roast for slightly reduced time.

Pre-cooking



Sous Vided




Seared



Sliced






Link to original video: https://youtu.be/UY4Q7Drsh0w

Thanks for the feedback, guys. She's not feeling well this morning, so she's going to skip the sous vide experiment this year and do it the way she knows works.

Once you guys try it, you'll realize doing sous vide is the way to do it if you don't feel like putting a lot of effort into it. Also guarantees it's always cooked perfect.

Hope the wife feels better!

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
If you are cooking in plastic, remember that plasticizers imitate estrogen hormones, reducing testosterone in males.

That's why you cook it in heat resistant bags. There's no issue if you use the correct equipment.

Sous-vide is may favorite way to cook meat to the searing stage. I love it so much I'm never going back. So thankful that my mom got me my joule.

I do not believe heat resistant bags have less plasticizers. I know nothing about high heat bags, but am extremely skeptical that they do not release plasticizers.

quote:

That's why you cook it in heat resistant bags. There's no issue if you use the correct equipment.

If you want to get really fancy, there's another way to do it without the bag. I have not tried it, but I have seen meat cooked directly in butter or fat.

And The Plan changes again

She found a recipe, method, what-have-you on the Instant Pot forum (?) that made sense to her, so she's going to give that a go. It does not involve a plastic bag.