Go to the Recipe: Sous Vide Pork Shoulder “Ham”
Any thoughts on smoking after the sous vide
Followed the recipe exactly as it is. It was absolute perfection! Everyone is asking me to do it again for New Year.
Followed Brandon's lead and substituted Five Spice + ginger + vanilla paste, and enjoyed the result (136°F x 19hr). Served with butternut squash nusät and escarole ripassata.
i was too lazy to gather all the ingredients of the "Sweet Spice" so i improvised with Chinese Five Spice. I used 20g of Ranch99 brand Chinese 5 spice, 5g of vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract), 5g of black pepper, 4g of cinnamon, and 0.5g of grated nutmeg. mix together into a slightly moistened rub. Turned out great
I’m planning to serve this ham as a cold cut and would love to achieve a nice, pink interior. Should I be using potassium nitrate for that effect? If so, what would be the correct dosage?
Also, how long would you recommend leaving the ham in the brine?
Sorry for the multiple questions, and thank you in advance for the help. Cheers, everyone!
Hello Ricardo. I like your style, going for both! You can absolutely reheat the roast. After its done cooking, drain juices from the bag into a small pot or heat proof container. Save those juices for making the graze. I find it easier to drain the juices before chilling to save time during the reheat and you don't have to drain the juices later during game time. Submerge the bag with the roast in ice water to rapidly chill it for about 30 min then transfer to the fridge to full chill. Depending the on the size of the roast the reheat time might vary. What I would do is when you're cooking your turkey breasts sous vide at 131 °F I would add the roast back to the bath for the last 6 hrs of the cook to fully reheat. At this point all the cooking is done on the roast, all you need to do is reheat it.
Is there another option to reheat the roast after the SV step? I only have one Joule and am planning to also SV my turkey so I had wanted to make the ham ahead of time and the turkey the day before thanksgiving.
Grant has a recipe for a spice blend called "Sweet Spice" on the chefsteps website. I think that's what is being referred to.
I added nitrites. Next time will bump salt to 2% and double the liquid smoke. "Next time" meaning this is now a Christmas staple. It out performed the sous vide strip loin. Excellent! Maybe make a video of how to fabricate a coppa/pork collar? Just a thought.
When Grant says "sweet spices" he is usually referring to spices such as cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, mace, star anise, and ginger. Other spices that can work in combination with those but maybe less common are dried orange/lemon peel, green cardamom, licorice, vanilla bean.
What are some sweet spices or other spices commonly available in stores?
Thank you that was very helpful.
Hey Will, great question.
If I was in your shoes and I had a small cooler that could fit the shoulder I would cook it the full recommended sous vide time. Place the bag in the cooler that has been rinsed out with boiling water to take the chill off it. The cooler will help trap the heat keeping it very warm for the hour drive. Once you arrive you can hold it warm in a sous vide bath set 5 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the original cooking temperature. Or if it’s just about time for dinner when you arrive you can move right into the final step in the oven.
But simply reheating it is also a great option. A roast that size will take about 6 hrs to reheat and warm through. When reheating it sous vide be sure to lower the temperature of the bath 5 degrees so it doesn’t become more tender during the reheat.
Hope this answers your question. Happy to provide more guidance if you have anymore questions!
Getting close to Thanksgiving please advise........
Travelling an hour away and then cooking Thanksgiving dinner there, so if I made this recipe a day ahead with an 8 or 9lb pork shoulder (i.e. completed the sous vide cook a day ahead) how long would it take to regenerate the next day? or would it make more sense to time the sous vide so that at 15 hours I took it out wrapped it in aluminin foil, drove the hour to my daughter's house and then reinserted it in a sous vide bath there yo complete the cook?
Yes, you can use the original Joule! No adjustments to time and temp needed; this recipe employs a traditional sous vide cook even with the Joule Turbo, no turbo function.
This recipe call for the joule turbo, ca.n you use the regular joule and if so do you have to adjust the time and temp.
That's not really an option for this method, this is a replacement for that.
Can you use a pre-cook sprial ham? What degrees and how long?
Just saw the note under "choose your doneness". Thank you.
Accidently left pork shoulder in for an additional 7 hours at 136F. What should I expect?
Those would be cloves, Joel.
Are those pepper corns on top of the roast at the end of the cook?
This was a great success. The fact it wasn’t a “leg” was greeted with jest until the first slices were viewed and tasted. The remaining 3kg was inhaled in a matter of minutes, and altered my guests perception of ham forever. I used Nutmeg as sweet spice in the brine, and added a 375ml bottle of Bundaberg Ginger Beer into the glaze. A truly winning recipe, Chef Steps. This will be a Xmas staple from now on…
Gotta admit, I thought this was going to be a disaster. It was actually quite good. I did have to run out and buy 2 gallon bags when none of my vacuum seal bags were big enough.
Two questions:
1. What kind of bags are in the video?
2. Is there any reason you can’t slow roast this in the oven?
If you leave it in the bag and ice it down after the SV step, one week. Reheat in the bag then follow the oven steps
How far ahead can I Sous Vide the roast before finishing it off in the oven?
Yep!
Thanks! I am going to try this with a fresh ham. Would that be the same?
I was super nervous about this recipe. I had so many people coming over that I needed to cook two shoulders. But it turned out absolutely fantastic! Everyone raved over it saying they expected a BBQ pork type flavor and texture, but were super surprised by the Christmas ham they tasted instead. I cooked my shoulders at 154F. I did all the glazing steps before people came over and just turned the oven off to keep everything warm until it was time to slice and serve.
Hi Anthony! We get them all the time from the down town Uwajimaya. If you ask the butcher there they will let you know which pack it is. They carry the Snake river farms version and its the best.
136 °F / 58 °C for 18 hours.
Of course. Use what ever ratio is recommended with the product you have.
Is it ok to use curing salt? If so, what proportion vs normal salt?
What temp does Grant use in the video?
I’m having a hard time finding a pork collar here in Seattle but one butcher said a coppa roast is pretty similar. Would that be a good option here?
I used a boneless pork shoulder a few years ago and it came out great. I'm hoping to try it with a different cut this year just as a fun and cool side. I was thinking maybe ham ribs.
Thanks , and last questions it says to get skin on , but in the the video it looks like it’s been removed .
Also the bone I removed once cooked ?
Thanks again
It all depends on the size roast you get, but if you have a 4kg shoulder I would say you could feed 8-10 well.
How many people dose this roughly feed please
Is it possible to brine this overnight before hand, and then let it sous vide for 18 hours? Would it enhance the flavor at all?
Good catch.. it should be .5% If you ended up doing 2% I'm sure it was still tasty but it looks like we had the copy in the step wrong.
I have eaten a few sandwiches with it, but it does have a pretty good amount of fat that is better warm than cold.
Is this recipe good cold?
I am confused about the liquid smoke, the 4kg meat ratio recipe says 20g but in recipe it says 2% which would be 80g, please advice (are the ratios right)
Could you use a boneless pork shoulder?
Made this for the family on Christmas, none of them liked it. Blasted the leftovers in the instapot two days later and tossed with Meathead's Kansas City BBQ sauce and it's the best pulled pork they've ever tasted. Sort of a how it started/how it's going type of situation.
Amazing!
Awesome - thank you so much! Happy Holidays!
Hell Ashley, Sorry for the delay. No the time will not matter for the longer cooking time. Follow as recipe states. It will take a long time to get to the core temperature. With sous vide it is all about the thickness and reaching the center of the meat. If it is substantially smaller then the time would reduce by an hour or two maximum.
Please help! Hoping to get this bad boy started tomorrow so I can serve it on Christmas!
Hi CS Team! I went to my butcher today to get the pork shoulder...and got a deal because they had pork shoulder cut into a few pieces. I took them all, and they're equal to what's called for in this recipe. Does the fact that they're separate, smaller pieces affect the time needed to cook in the Joule? Any help would be appreciated!
