Sous-Vide Prime Rib!

What is better than a tender, perfectly cooked Prime Rib?  Use your Sous-Vide guarantee perfect results every time!

Adults are just children in baggy skin. Ok. Seniors.  Because it has taken me that long to realize that all those things I didn’t want to do as a kid, I still don’t.  And never will.  Chores. Washing dishes. I don’t think I ever made the connection that nobody wanted to do it and ‘many hands make light work’.  I just thought these plaintive pleas for assistance were simply ways Mother dreamed up to torment me.  I’m sure she tried to explain, but I was just too busy explaining to her that, ‘I just don’t want to’.  It took me an hour at the foot of the stairs with the phone cord stretched across the path to the bathroom, to explain to sympathetic friends with similar tribulations, that my parents ‘just don’t understand me’. 

The war was finally over. I grew up and moved out.  This was about the time when dishwashers were invented and the next generation of kids were girding their loins to do battle with unsympathetic parents who expected them to load or unload the darn thing.  

Once free of the nest, free to spread my wings unfettered, I soon came to realize that, ‘I don’t want to’ only works when a defeated parent rises from the battlefield and gets things done because they need doing.  I was on my own.  Free from tyranny.  And yet there were dishes. And laundry. And dust bunnies reproducing like rabbits. And groceries had to be scavenged on a budget tight as a drum. And cooking had to happen. Although I will admit that in those early days, I was a dab hand at KD. Eventually, my sheer love of eating led me to enjoy cooking, and I did learn that ‘I don’t want to,’ doesn’t cut it in the real world.  Mothers always get the last laugh.

So I keep a sharp eye out for any gizmo that promises to make light work of clean up.  And I have found three without which I simply could not go on. 

Parchment paper.  I line baking sheets with parchment paper. Toss it away and clean up is done. I bake  cookies, breads, meats, pies (galettes), vegetables, pizzas,  bacon, whatever needs baking or roasting,….on parchment paper.  Love the stuff! Buy it by the gross. Costco size. 

The Instant Pot.  In one pot, you brown, sauté and sizzle, roast, simmer and stew.  When everything is done, you have one pot that nestles in its own pew in the dishwasher.  There was slight trepidation at first, but the promise of easy clean up got me over that hurdle in a flash!

Sous vide.   Did I lose you there?  It’s tempting, I know, to drift away when folks start tossing French culinary terms around, with all the complexity that implies. But stay with me here.  You’ll be glad you did. Here’s Wikipedia: “Sous-vide (French for "under vacuum") is a method of cooking in which food is placed in a plastic pouch and cooked in a water bath for longer than normal cooking times (usually 1 to 7 hours, up to 48 or more in some cases) at an accurately regulated temperature. The temperature is much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 131 to 140 °F for meat, 185° for vegetables. The intent is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and to retain moisture”.

Upscale restaurants have been doing this for ages. How did you think they could magically produce steaks or prime rib cooked perfectly to order?  And so tender!  Oh my! 

You need a large container. I use my stock pot. Fill with water. Attach the Sous-vide wand you may have just received for Christmas.  

Now you’ve invited a few special friends for New Year’s Eve, you have your new toy and just about enough money left in your account to invest in a lovely prime rib roast. If you aren’t quite so flush, sous vide is your friend. Just sous vide less tender cuts for a few hours longer.  They will not be overcooked.  Just surprisingly tender!

Sous Vide Prime Rib Roast 

What you’ll need:

A prime rib roast as big as you need. 

Salt 

Pepper

A few tablespoons of butter. 

Generously salt and pepper your roast, and toss it into a zip lock bag with the butter.  (If you have a vacuum packer, even better!). Submerge your bag into the water removing as much air as possible before sealing.  Set your device to your desired doneness.

133 Rare (I like 128)

137 Medium rare

140 Medium

Anything more than that and you’re wasting your money investing in a great cut of beef. 

Now here’s the good part.  Leave it for five hours or six.  It’s already tender so you don’t need to leave it for longer, but you can if you decide to serve an hour later. Your food will never over cook. Its internal temperature can’t exceed the temperature of the water bath. 

When you unbag it, it will not have that browned roasty look we like to see, so you will have to add that at the end by popping into a very hot oven or frying pan only just long enough to brown it up. I use a good sized blow torch. Personally. 

Oh, you’ll be a bit anxious about all this at first, but before long, you’ll be sous-viding your veggies, all meats – oh my tender chicken thighs (pop into a hot oven and the skin crisps up over the extraordinarily tender meat oh my)!  Reheat your leftovers without overcooking.  

Of course it’ll take a bit of googling and some time on YouTube to get up to speed, but the easiness of cooking – and dare I say clean up? – and this amazing device will soon be an essential trick in your bag of tricks. 

Note: The bags must be food safe.  And it’s earth friendly to find the reusable kind. 

Having the dishwasher, parchment paper, the Instant Pot, and the magic Sous-vide wand, is almost like having a self-cleaning kitchen!  

Follow my lead and you’ll be sure to have a very Happy New Year!