Blade steaks are a cut of beef from the shoulder area with a fascia (tough connective tissue) in the center. If the same part is sliced the other way and the fascia is removed, it is called a flat iron … Continue reading Beef Blade Steak Sous-Vide Time & Temperature Experiment
Six years ago I blogged for the first time about a technique that I called “warm aging”. Aging is a technique that is used to improve the texture of meat and sometimes also to give it more flavor by the … Continue reading Sous Vide Warm Aging Revisited
When I saw black been beaf on One Man’s Meat, I knew at once I wanted to make a sous-vide version. Conor’s Asian recipes are always quick, simple, and full of flavor. Sous-vide takes the quickness out of it, but … Continue reading Black Bean Beef Sous-Vide
Beef shoulder, also known as the top blade roast, has great marbling (intramuscular fat) and therefore great flavor. It has a drawback, which is a thick central muscle sheath that is very tough. If that sheath is removed then the … Continue reading Blade Steak Sous-Vide
After seeing a nice recipe for caramelized red onions on Viaggiano con Bea I wanted to try, all that was left to do was pick what I would serve it with. I had some lovely wagyu blade steaks in the freezer, … Continue reading Wagyu Blade Steak Sous-Vide with Caramelized Red Onions
Braised beef is known as “draadjesvlees” in the Netherlands. This literally means “thread meat”, referring to the flaky structure of the meat. Good draadjesvlees should be juicy and tender, not tough and dry. This means braising it over low heat for a long time. One of the most common cuts that is used for this “sucadelappen”, which in the US is called flat iron steak. The difference is that in the Netherlands the tendon is in the middle is left in and after long braising is eaten. The braised tendon looks like candied peel, which is “sucade” in Dutch. Hence the name.
The dish I prepared can be made with or without sous-vide. With sous-vide cooking, a flat iron steak or other types of beef that are usually braised, can be cooked for 24-72 hours at 55-57ºC/131-135ºF to obtain the texture of a tender steak cooked to medium rare. I’ve very rarely used sous-vide to get the texture of a traditional braise. Exceptions have been duck confit and pulled pork. This is the first time I’ve prepared draadjesvlees sous-vide. I cooked it for 5 hours at 88ºC/190ºF. The result was comparable to a good traditional braise on the stovetop. The advantage is that there is less margin of error.
The advantage of cooking the beef sous-vide at 88ºC/190ºF is that that is also a fitting temperature for cooking the potatoes and parsnips sous-vide. Continue reading “Braised Flat Iron Steak with Parsnip Fondant (Draadjesvlees)”
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