How to cook lean, in-between beef cuts

jed

Between the MCAH book and all the great courses and vids on ChefSteps, I've seen plenty of great tips and techniques for cooking tender cuts (ribeye, strip, tenderloin) and fatty tough ones (short ribs, brisket). How do you prefer to cook those common, inexpensive cuts like round/rump roasts? Do you even bother? Does sous vide or pressure cooking add much value here? Or is it just as well to braise them in the oven?

grant

Yes, and yes. Sous vide and pressure cooking both lend themselves to tougher cuts of meat even better than tender cuts in some ways. At the end of the day a tender cut of meat is still a tender cut of meat cooked to a degree and that is it. But tough cuts can be transformed into things that were previously impossible before sous vide because you add time as a factor as well as temperature and new combinations arise. Sous vide lets you control those variables easier than other techniques.  Pressure cooking is, in my opinion the best form of cooking at home. Meaning, if I had one set up it would be a pressure cooker and that is it. You can really do anything in it and they require very little upkeep and last forever(nearly). 

Braising in the oven is great as well, sometimes I choose to raise in the oven still over sous vide or pressure cooking just because I want the smell in my house. I don't get that form sous vide or pressure cooking. 

Here are some options and their outcomes(hypothetical)with the same cut of meat. Lets use beef chuck as an example, its cheap, tough as hell, kinda fatty and there is lots of it available. 

1) Traditional Braise -  sear+place in pan+liquid+covered+250f oven for 12 hours =

Super tender, brown throughout, all fat has rendered and its now floating on the liquid, its gotten even darker, maybe a bit crusty on top where the liquid reduced off. Nothing wring with this right? I agree. This is ready to eat now, just place the pot on the table and folks are happy. 

2) Pressure cooker - sear+in cooker+tiny bit or lots of liquid+covered+90 minutes at 14psi =

Super tender, brown throughout, all fat has rendered, low yield, more liquid than you started with, lots of rendered collagen(great mouth feel in jus). This is great and its done now, I like that. This will taste the same not matter how many thermo-cycles, eat it now or later. 

3) Sous Vide - sear+bag+48 hours at 145f =

Super tender, still fat remains in the meat, great yield due to low temperature, soggy texture, still pink inside, maybe I want to chill this, process it and sear to order?

4) Sous Vide is Sear+Bag+ 12 hours at 185f =

Super tender,  fat is mostly rendered, yield low due to high temp, soggy texture, brown inside, lots of jus. Looks gross kind of, lots of great things about it but it needs color, texture and some love. 

Some others:

L'Arpege style, place the bone in chuck on the flat top and let it sit there for 2 days. Slice as needed.

L'Astrance style, place the trimmed chuck in the 150f oven for most of the day and slice against the grain, still chewy but super good. Staff what you don't serve that night. 

Mistral style, don't cook that, it takes too long and people won't pay for it. 

Northern India style, chop it all up with bones and and braise the hell out of it. Eat with hands so you find the sharp bones. 

My Mom's style sear and add liquid and braise on the stove overnight. Eat leftovers in a few days as well or freeze in ziplocs and make you kids take them to school. 

My Dad's style place in the smoker over night. eat it all and then save the leftovers for tacos the next day. 

You can mix an match these all, like our pastrami is our sous vide+my Dad's smoker.

You can cook a piece of meat many ways it really depends on the result you desire and the equipment you have. If the decision is based on how you want to serve it, that will dictate exactly how you cook it. If the decision is based on how you want to cook it, it will limit the ways you can serve it. Over all sous vide and pressure cooking are additions to the existing arsenal of cooking methods. I think you have inspired me to make a piece of content based on all the ways you can braise a chuck;)

Thank you for that,

g