Sous Viding tougher cuts

Hi,

I'm hosting a dinner with a few different cuts of meat. I wanted to sous vide mostly to make the rest of the night a bit less hectic. I looked at the Chef Steps guide for sous viding certain cuts of meat, but I couldn't find any information on sous viding skirt steak, flank, hangar, and lamb shoulder slices. Has anyone tried doing this? Normally, I do it the old fashioned way, but I thought this would be easier/free up time for other prep/cooking.

Thanks

Daniel B.

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Matthew_Snyder_68770

There's a recipe here at ChefSteps that uses sous-vide cooked flank steak to make carne asada.

To me, skirts and hangers (my favorite cuts, fwiw) benefit from high heat direct cooking. So I wouldn't necessarily use sous-vide to cook those cuts. I wouldn't have a problem using a warm bath to keep them heated for service, however. That said, I did see a food program once that showcased a food truck here in L.A. (sadly now defunct) that used SV for skirt steaks.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

+1 for Matthew's comments. Skirt is too thin to benefit from the SV process and is best grilled (or otherwise cooked over high direct heat). When thicker flank steak goes on sale, I buy a bunch, vacuum seal them, and cook them SV in a big batch. Then I chill them down and throw them in the fridge. When it comes time to eat them, I just throw them on the grill and by the time a nice crust has formed, the center will be warmed through and ready to go. Dave Arnold calls this type of technique "sous vide for insurance purposes." The SV step ensures that your steak is cooked all the way through and also extends the amount of time you can keep it in the refrigerator without freezing. You can do the same thing with hangar steak.

I don't consider skirt, flank, or hangar to be particularly tough cuts, as they don't contain much in the way of connective tissue. What matters most is how you slice them. If you don't slice against the grain, the results will be terrible. These cuts also benefit from the use of a needler or Jaccard tenderizer. I frequently use them with these kinds of cuts. ChefSteps cooks their flank steak for 8 hours at 131F, but I've been very happy with the results of cooking it for one or two hours (using a Jaccard and slicing against the grain). If I'm looking to extend the time these steaks can stay in the fridge, I'll cook these cuts long enough to pasteurize them... but that doesn't take more than a couple hours. Lamb shoulder slices are the exception. Shoulders contain a boatload of connective tissue and you can get great results by cooking them for extended periods. I've never used lamb, but I've cooked a tons of pork and beef shoulder (aka chuck roast) and you can get wonderful steaky results from these cuts (which are traditional ground or braised until falling apart). If you are going to cook lamb for extended periods, be sure to include some antioxidant rich herbs like rosemary or thyme in the bag to stop off flavors from forming. Lamb fat oxidizes quickly, which gives it that gamey flavor. Check out the CS leg of lamb recipe for more details.

Daniel_Bissonnette_403864

I've found the shoulder chops relatively tender -about equal with flank- if I treat them with some citrus juice and cider vinegar. Do you think I could throw those, the flank, and hangar in the sous vide at 131 F for 8 hours for decent results? I think their thicknesses will be pretty much the same, and the they'll all be around 1 lb.