Michi’s blog

I tried out an idea from Khymos recently when inviting a bunch of friends over for a party. We took six slices, about 1100g, of beef entrecôte and rubbed them all over with vodka (in order to minimize the risk of getting for instance botulism growth in the heating process). These were then put in an ordinary plastic bag and into a 60 degree (+- ~7 degrees – I monitored it reasonably closely, but couldn’t keep it within a few degrees of 60) water bath.

Alas, once I started the water bath, I forgot about the camera I had to document the whole process with, so I probably should repeat it with more photos sometime later on.

After about 90 minutes in the waterbath, the party had progressed to the point where we wanted to eat. So the plastic bag was taken out, put in a tray, and cut open. Each slice of meat was gently dribbled on each side with a mixture of olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and black pepper, and then fried quickly on a very hot cast iron skillet. Quite a few of the guest preferred their meat thoroughly cooked, so most of the fries took longer than they could have. However, the result was indeed great – a very supple, tender and well-tasting entrecôte that very well complemented the spinach-cheese quiche we served it with.

One of the few things I regret was not using the juices in the meat bag immediately for a sauce to go with the meat; but we saved them and put them in a wonderful chili-con-carne pie the day after. However, for future experiments, using the juice is high on my list of priorities.