Braised lamb leg sous vide?

Hi all - any thoughts on how to replicate the braised, fully cooked through* approach to lamb? I'm looking for that 7-hour slow-roast/braise, spoon-tender texture rather than medium-rare. I'm guessing 75C (temp given for the Chefsteps BBQ pork butt) would be a good place to start, for something like 12-18 hours. As a bonus, I suspect this is high enough to make the bag liquid useable as the proteins should coagulate fully, so a "pan" sauce should come together immediately.

I'd appreciate any comments/confirmations on my temperature guesses.

Chris

*Yes, I love my medium-rare lamb too, and SV is perfect for that. But this time I'm looking for something else

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Tim_Sutherland_52834

I find lamb cooked too long SV becomes meat toothpaste. I've cooked lamb leg 6 hrs at 60°C and I could notice the start of textural issues. Shanks in the pressure cooker for and hour are great, so I would try 40 minutes with a leg.

The bag juices from a long SV lamb are likely to be very gamey and "lamby/muttony" in flavour and may over power a sauce.

tshewman

My two favorites are shanks for 48hr and breast for 18-20 hrs..

Chris_Cotsapas_68234

Interesting - do you trim the fat? I trim aggressively; and I quite like the gamey flavors (cultural bias, likely). Haven't tried the PC - great suggestion! Do you like more traditional braised lamb applications (7 hour lamb, kleftiko and the like)?

Chris_Cotsapas_68234

Hi Todd - yes, I usually do shanks for 48h or so at 54-55C for medium rare. But I'm looking for that fully cooked texture, rather than medium rare. What temps do you use?

Chris_Cotsapas_68234

I think I'll just follow the beef experiments and do 70C for 24h

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/short-ribs-time-and-temp

tshewman

For shanks 57-58, breast 65 (a little higher than MC if I recall).

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I enjoy the gamey flavour and most times I leave the bulk of the fat on. The taste of the long cook SV sauce can just be over powering and make for an unbalanced dish.

Shanks in the PC give you the traditional braised texture, which is the way I cook them. For me it gives a better texture in a shorter time frame than any other method.

Legs I roast in the oven as I slice the meat to serve as traditional roasted meat. For me braising a lamb leg is not the best use of young meat. Give me a mutton leg and it is a different story.

Chris_Cotsapas_68234

Good points all. I'm trying to recreate a dish my aunt makes - slow-roasted leg of (relatively mature) lamb with rosemary and olive oil. Very different approach to the lovely pink juicy preparations I usually go for