THE ULTIMATE SOUS VIDE RACK OF LAMB GUIDE

Bevezetés

Sous Vide Rack of Lamb Basics

Traditionally-cooked rack of lamb cooks hot from the outside in, and it’s very difficult to gauge exactly what temperature it is from the edge to the center. This presents a problem, especially when you have bones to contend with. In order to ensure that the center of the lamb is cooked through and safe to eat, you inevitably have to overcook the outer layers, leading to a dry, stringy texture.

With sous vide cooking, you’re cooking at precisely the temperature you want to serve the meat, which means that by the time you’re done, the lamb is perfectly cooked from edge to edge, with an ultra juicy and tender texture.

Traditional sous vide rack of lamb consists of an easy, two-phase cooking process:

1. Pecsételés the lamb in a plastic bag using either a vacuum sealer or the water displacement method and főzés a kívánt véghőmérsékletre szabályozott hőmérsékletű vízfürdőben.
   1. The temperature of the sous vide bath during the initial cooking phase is what determines the final texture of the lamb.
2. Searing the rack of lamb to develop color, flavor, and textural contrast.

If you’d prefer to introduce new sous vide techniques into your arsenal, you can also use the Anova Precision™ Oven to prepare sous vide rack of lamb. Because of the way we’ve designed the temperature sensors and humidity control, the oven will precisely maintain the cooking temperature you set.

You can choose to bag and cook your lamb in the Precision™ Oven just as you would with a Precision® Cooker, or you can use the oven’s food probe to tell you exactly when the core of your lamb has hit your desired temp.

Just like traditional sous vide, using Sous Vide Mode in the Anova Precision™ Oven typically is a two-stage cooking process: First, bring the rack of lamb to your desired internal temperature, then sear it in the oven to create a flavorful crust.

A rack of lamb is a bone-in cut that typically includes eight rib bones along with a single, small eye of meat. If you’re familiar with a prime rib of beef, rack of lamb is the equivalent cut on the lamb. If you’re buying your lamb in the U.S., your main choices come down to the origin of the lamb (American vs. New Zealand or Australian), and the way it is butchered.

American lamb tends to be larger, fattier, and more strongly flavored than lamb imported from New Zealand or Australia, though that doesn’t necessarily mean better or worse. It largely comes down to personal taste. If you typically find lamb to be a little too gamey for your palate, stick to imported lamb. If you like a fuller flavor, pick American. The basic cooking process for either is identical.

Most lamb racks come already frenched, which means that the meat and connective tissue has been pulled away from the ends of the rib bones to expose them. Occasionally you’ll find an un-trimmed rack of lamb. Whether you want your butcher to french it for you or not is again entirely personal taste. Some people like the clean appearance of frenched bones. Others like the bits of crispy fat and connective tissue that you find on the end of untrimmed bones.

Hőmérséklet és időzítés

The doneness of a lamb rack is by-and-large determined by the maximum internal temperature it reaches during cooking. For instance, so long as the interior does not rise above 130°F (54°C), it will never cook beyond medium-rare. With traditional cooking methods, there is a very short window of time during which your meat is perfectly cooked. A minute too long will mean overcooked meat. With sous vide cooking, on the other hand, that window of time is stretched into hours, which means your lamb will be hot and ready to go whenever you’re ready to sear and serve it.

Like a steak, the muscle structure of a lamb rack resembles a series of long tubes that are filled with juices. The higher the temperature you cook them to, the more juices they squeeze out and the firmer and dryer your lamb will be.

Here’s a rough breakdown of how lamb feels at different degrees of doneness:

Rare (115°F–124°F / 46.1ºC–51.1ºC)

Your meat is still nearly raw. Muscle proteins have not started to contract much and will have a slippery, wet texture. Fat has not yet started to render so it can be a little tough or waxy. If you enjoy the texture of lamb that’s barely been touched by heat, you’ll enjoy this doneness temperature.

Medium-rare (125°F–134°F / 51.7ºC–56.7ºC)

Your lamb is still nice and red, but muscle proteins have begun to tighten and firm up. You lose a bit of juice due to this tightening, but what you lose in juice you gain in tenderness. Medium-rare lamb has a cleaner bite to it: instead of muscle fibrils mushing and slipping past each other, as they do with very rare lamb, they cut more easily between your teeth. This is our favorite temperature range for lamb.

Medium (135°F–144°F / 57.2ºC–62.2ºC)

Your lamb is a rosy pink throughout and has lost about four times more juices than a very rare lamb rack. If you have a very fatty piece of American lamb, we recommend the lower end of this temperature range; it will help fat render more fully, which should keep your lamb nice and juicy.

Medium-well (145°F–154°F / 62.8ºC–67.8ºC)

Your lamb is well on its way to dryness. At this point, you’ve lost nearly six times as much juice as a rare lamb rack and the meat has a distinctly cottony, grainy texture that no amount of excess fat can disguise. If you must have your meat cooked medium-well, make sure to look for a really well-marbled piece of American lamb to ensure juiciness.

Medium-well (145°F–154°F / 62.8ºC–67.8ºC)

We get it. Some people like their meat well-done. However, there is no real reason to use a sous vide precision technique if you like your lamb well-done. Just grill or pan-roast until it’s as done as you like it.

Igaz, hogy a sous vide főzés időzítése sokkal elnézőbb, mint a hagyományos technikák esetében - a jól átsült húsok időablakai másodpercekről vagy percekről órákra nyílnak -, de még így is lehetséges, hogy a húst túl- vagy alulsütjük.

Általános szabályunk az, hogy fél hüvelyknyi vastagságonként körülbelül 15 perc főzési időt kell hagyni, és a biztonság kedvéért még kb. 10 percet kell hozzáadni. Ez elegendő idő ahhoz, hogy a hús elérje a hőegyensúlyt, és a vízfürdő hőmérsékletével megegyező hőmérsékleten átsüljön. Ezen időn túl a hús nem veszít sokat a szaftosságából, de végül, ahogy az izomfehérjék lebomlanak, kissé pépessé válik, és harapás közben inkább foszlik, mint szakad.

At four hours, the meat has begun to lose some of its resilience and by eight hours it is tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. We limit cook times for rack of lamb to under four hours to prevent this mushy texture.

So long as you’re cooking at above 130°F (54ºC), there are no real health risks associated with prolonged sous vide cooking.

Hagyományos Sous Vide

Rack of lamb cooked under 130°F (54.4ºC) should not be cooked longer than two-and-a-half hours at a time for food safety reasons.

Sous Vide Express

How to Cook Sous Vide Rack of Lamb, Step by Step

1. lépés

Attach an Anova Precision® Cooker to a water bath and heat to your desired final doneness temperature or preheat the Precision™ Oven to your desired temperature.

Season the rack of lamb generously with salt and pepper on all sides. If you are planning on leaving the un-cooked lamb in bags for more than a few hours before cooking, skip the seasoning step and instead season them just before searing.

2. lépés

If vacuum sealing, add to a bag with aromatics like thyme or rosemary sprigs if desired. Seal the bag with a vacuum sealer. If using the food probe in the Precision™ Oven, insert the probe into the center of the lamb, being careful to avoid the bones.

3. lépés

Dobja a zacskót a vízfürdőbe vagy tegye a sütőbe, és csatlakoztassa a szondát. Süsse a kívánt idő és hőmérséklet szerint, vagy amíg a szonda el nem éri a célhőmérsékletet.

Befejező lépések

Remove the lamb from the bag or oven and place on a paper towel-lined plate. Pat dry very carefully on both sides. If you did not season before cooking, season generously with salt and pepper.

1. lépés

Place a heavy cast-iron or stainless steel skillet with 1 tablespoon (15ml) of neutral oil over high heat. Heat until the skillet just starts to smoke.

2. lépés

Add the lamb, fat cap-side down and bones facing up. If cooking more than one rack, sear one at a time to prevent overcrowding. Add 1 tablespoon of butter, swirling the pan to let it melt, along with any aromatics you’d like.

3. lépés

Cook, basting the lamb with the butter, until the first side is well browned, about 1 minute. Flip and brown the second side for 1 minute.

4. lépés

Transfer the lamb to a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet. Pour the pan drippings over it before carving and serving.

1. lépés

Make sure to have your grill preheated before the lamb is finished cooking sous vide. Light one chimney full of charcoal (about 5 quarts of coal). When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate.

Helyezze a sütőrácsot a helyére, fedje le a grillt, és hagyja 5 percig előmelegedni. Alternatív megoldásként a gázgrill égőinek felét állítsa a legmagasabb hőfokozatra, fedje le, és melegítse elő 10 percig. A grillrácsot egy grillkaparóval kaparja tisztára, majd olajozza be a rácsot úgy, hogy egy olajba mártott konyharuhát vagy papírtörlőkendőt egy fogóba fog, és 5-6 alkalommal végigsimít a rácson.

2. lépés

Place the lamb fat cap-side down, directly over the hot side of the grill, and cook, flipping every 15 to 30 seconds, until a deep, rich crust has formed, 2 minutes total. If the fire threatens to flare up as the lamb drips fat into it, suffocate the fire by closing the grill lid until the flames die out. Alternatively, transfer the lamb to the cooler side of the grill using a set of long tongs until the flames subside. Do not allow the lamb to get engulfed in flames.

3. lépés

Transfer the cooked lamb to a cutting board, carve, and serve.

1. lépés

Adjust the oven temperature for Air Frying: Turn sous vide mode off and set the oven to 475°F (246°C) with 0% steam using the Top+Rear heating elements.

2. lépés

While the oven is heating, place the rack of lamb on a clean sheet pan, fat cap-side up. Brush with neutral oil.

3. lépés

When the oven has reached temperature, return the lamb to the middle rack. Air fry until the lamb is well browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board, carve, and serve.

A Closer Look at Seasoning Sous Vide Rack of Lamb

Seasoning a rack of lamb prior to vacuum sealing it and then letting it rest in the bag can result in meat that has a firm texture similar to a mildly cured ham. To avoid this texture, it’s best to season and bag lamb immediately before cooking, or after cooking sous vide and before searing. In either case, only the exterior of a lamb will be seasoned, so it’s always a good idea to serve it with some coarse sea salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling at the table.

Intuitively you may think that adding a flavorful fat like butter or olive oil to the sous vide bag will in turn help create a more flavorful cook, but it turns out that you achieve the opposite goal. The additional fat dilutes flavor. Fat-soluble flavor compounds dissolve in the melted butter or oil and end up going down the drain later. Similarly, flavors extracted from aromatics end up diluted. For best results, place your seasoned lamb rack in a bag with no added fats.

You can, however, add aromatics, like thyme, rosemary, sliced shallots, or garlic cloves to the bag with lamb during cooking. Adding the same aromatics to the pan as you sear will bolster that flavor.

Add spice rubs with care. They behave quite differently under sous vide conditions than standard cooking conditions. Normally, aromatic compounds will dissipate into the air in the kitchen or over your grill as a spice-rubbed cut of meat cooks. At the same time, moisture dissipates, which means what’s left of your spices sticks firmly to your meat. With sous vide cooking, there’s no way for that flavor to escape the bag. Meanwhile, spices rubbed on the surface of the meat have a tendency to get rinsed off by any juices that are being expressed.

The short answer is that it’s very tough to predict exactly how spices are going to react in a sous vide bag. We’ve found that if we want spice flavor in short-cooking things like lamb, it’s better to rub the spices into the meat after the sous vide cooking phase and before the final searing phase.

A Closer Look at Searing Sous Vide Rack of Lamb

After repeated testing and blind taste tests, we’ve found that pre-searing meat—that is, browning it before it goes into the sous vide bag and then browning it a second time just before serving—serves at most a very minimal role in improving flavor or texture. In most cases, the difference is imperceptible. On the other hand, with a small rack of lamb, there’s a very real risk of overcooking the meat by searing it twice. We do not recommend pre-searing.

Traditionally-cooked meat needs to rest. That is, it needs to be placed aside for five to ten minutes before cutting and serving. This resting period is to allow time for the temperature gradient within the meat to even out. The cooler center is gently heated by the hotter outer edges, while they in turn lose some of their heat to the outside world. Even temperature is important: It’s what prevents meat from leaking its juices everywhere the moment it’s been sliced open.

Because sous vide techniques cook from edge to edge with more or less perfect evenness, there is no temperature gradient inside. A medium-rare rack of lamb should be 130°F (54.4ºC) from the very center to the outer edge with only the outer surfaces hotter after searing. Thus sous vide lamb can be served immediately after searing. The very minimal resting it needs will happen on the way from the kitchen to the table.

That said, sometimes you want a little bit of breathing room between cooking and serving, in which case it won’t harm your lamb to let it rest for a few minutes while you set the table.

Étkezés-előkészítés és Make-Ahead Sous Vide

It’s true that given a high enough temperature (130°F / 54.4ºC or higher) and a long enough time period (several hours), the contents of a sealed sous vide bag should be close to sterile, which means that rapid chilling via an ice bath followed by rapid reheating should pose no health risks, but bags are not perfectly airtight and chilling is never quite as fast as you’d like it to be, so we still strongly recommend against it whenever avoidable. It’s also not doing any favors for the quality of your meat to repeatedly chill and reheat.

Figyelmeztetés: Soha ne hűtsön és ne melegítsen újra olyan ételt, amelyet 54,4 ºC (130 °F) alatti hőmérsékleten főztek vagy tároltak. Ezek a hőmérsékletek nem elég melegek ahhoz, hogy elpusztítsák a veszélyes baktériumokat.

On the other hand, sealed, seasoned, ready-to-cook lamb racks in sous vide bags in the freezer make for a great easy meal. Allow an extra hour for cooking if starting from frozen lamb.