While it may not be the kind of thing you'd rush to the supermarket to buy, I can thoroughly recommend it cooked this way as it turns out fab. Really juicy like a good steak but with all the toughness smoothed out by long slow cooking in a water bath.
Before I started, I did a bit of a Google to see if it's a tender or tough cut of meat. Unfortunately the internet suggests cooking it really quickly and the internet suggests cooking it really slowly. Thanks Google. And so it became one of those 'suck it and see' moments where anything could've happened but it was a massive success.
Vital statistics - 57 degrees for 24 hours.
And onto the cooking.
Two lamb fillets, one bag. Here you'll really appreciate the majesty of raw meat.
For this one, there's only one pouch so I've turned the rack horizontally to hold it under the water. It didn't need it, I'm just OCD.
And after 24 hours, this is what you get. You could use the juices in the bag for gravy or sauce but given what I was cooking, I was happy to lose these.
Doesn't this look appetizing?? Remember, sous vide gets meat perfectly pink or perfectly tender. What it won't do is make it look amazing - that's the next step.
So to add colour. This didn't take long which is something I've noticed before - lamb colours much more quickly than other meats. Notice the drops of oil up the side of the frying pan. This gets thrown up due to the massive amount of heat in the pan but you need it this hot to leave the centre of the meat pink while building a crust on the outside. The downside is disfiguring burns when you go to turn it but it's all part of the fun.
And here's the result. Much better looking, plus the colour gives a much more intense flavour.
Was it worth the effort?
I've got to say this was one of the more spectacular results we've had with the water bath. It was tender like ribeye steak but lamby instead of beefy. Who knew lamb would taste lamby??
Definitely one to do again with no changes to time or temperature.
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