NOTE: This was my April 1, 2013 post. Everything about the recipe and cooking method is real, but I did not shift my blog’s focus to entirely writing about cooler cooking..!
As I reflect on almost five years of writing about coupons and deals, I’ve seen many changes. Coupon values have changed; policies have changed; frequencies of great sales have changed. One thing that hasn’t changed? My love for cooking on a budget! Over the past two weeks I’ve experimented with posting deals earlier than I have in the past, which honestly has been more of a workload and time undertaking than I anticipated.
I’ve been considering lightening up some of my deal blogging and shifting my focus to writing about eating on a budget and sharing recipes with you that focus on eating well on less. Over the years, I’ve learned some unusual and wonderful methods of gourmet cooking for budget-conscious families that I think many of you will enjoy! As I take a break from deal writing, I hope you enjoy my first installment of “Cooler Cookin’ With Jill!”
Cooler Cookin’ with Jill: Sous-Vide Steaks
As a cooking show junkie, I’ve been fascinated with the sous-vide cookers many of the top chefs use on television. A sous-vide water oven is a kitchen appliance that cooks meats and vegetables in vacuum-sealed pouches in a heated water bath. Think a slow cooker without the variable heat on-off cycles that a slow cooker utilizes — as well as the absence of air. If you’ve eaten a steak or chicken breast in a restaurant and thought, “I can’t believe how tender and juicy this is,” chances are that it was cooked sous-vide.
Sous-vide is French for “under vacuum,” though in cooking terms, it refers to the method of cooking to a specific degree in a water bath. Benefits of sous-vide cooking? When you cook to a specific, consistent degree in the absence of air, food consistencies develop that are simply impossible to duplicate with traditional air-heat cooking methods. (Remember the gastronomic dinner I attended and blogged about last year? The egg and salmon dishes shown in that post were cooked this way.)
Sous-vide cooking is usually done with a sous-vide water oven such as this one, though a “bargain-priced” cooker will cost you more than $300. That’s a hefty investment if you’ll only cook sous-vide occasionally. Fortunately, there’s another way. I’m going to teach you to cook the best steaks ever in a cooler. If a cooler keeps cold things cold, it can also keep hot things hot. Believe it! Your cooler can get hot enough to cook steaks and more.
You will need:
– A cooler
– Ziploc freezer bags and a drinking straw OR a vacuum sealer and bags
– A cooking thermometer (I used a candy thermometer)
– Steaks (I used four boneless sirloin steaks)
Believe it or not, most of the time we spend cooking a piece of meat is spent waiting for the center of the a piece of meat to reach a temperature at which bacteria is killed and it’s safe to eat. For beef, this is over 130 degrees. For chicken, it’s over 165 degrees. When we cook in an oven, pan or grill, the outer layers of the meat cook faster and become drier or tougher as we wait for the heat to reach the center of the meat.
With sous-vide cooking, food cannot be overcooked, because the water never exceeds the highest temperature you set for the food. Your food doesn’t dry out, because it’s vacuum-sealed in a bag to cook in its own juices. The heat penetrates the bag, bringing the entire piece of meat up to temperature without going over.
The only drawback to sous-vide is that it does not brown meat, so when the cooking process is done, browning the meat in a pan or on a grill for a minute or two on each side is all that’s needed to “finish” it. Adding to the fun, I opt to do my sous-vide cooking in the bathroom with my cooler in the bathtub. It’s easier to drain it there once the cooking process has ended.
Begin by heating enough water to fill your cooler at least halfway. I use a lobster pot and the tamale pot I got free last year from a Procter & Gamble mail-in rebate. (Thanks, P&G. I love free cookware!) Keep your thermometer nearby – you don’t want the water to boil. You just want the water to get to or just above your optimal cooking temperature. As I like my steaks more medium than rare, I heated my water to 150 degrees.
While the water heats, prepare your steaks. I use:
– Smoked sea salt
– Minced garlic
– Thyme
– Black pepper
Salt and pepper the steaks liberally on both sides. If you wish to use fresh thyme, you can lay a sprig on each side of each steak. I used dried thyme as my herb garden hasn’t exactly come into season yet, Chicago weather being what it is.
Add a spoonful of minced garlic to each side and spread it around. Place each steak in a Ziploc bag. I put one steak in each bag, but leave enough room for each piece of meat to have its own “compartment” so that they are not touching. Seal the bag almost to the edge, and insert the drinking straw.
Suck the air out of the bag to create as much of a vacuum as possible and removing as much air as you can. Pull the straw out and seal the bag. If you have a vacuum sealer, skip the Ziploc and seal each steak in its own pouch instead.
Once your water reaches the desired cooking temperature, turn off the heat. Pour the water into your cooler, then lay the bags with steaks in the water. I put a wire cooking rack in the bottom of my cooler to make sure there is water on all sides of the meat if they touch the bottom.
Close the lid. My cooler loses about ten degrees an hour when it’s filled with 150-degree water, so I know it results in water that’s about 140 degrees an hour from now (a drawback to cooking in a cooler versus a sous-vide water oven – but, you know… the money I’m savin’!)
Depending on the size of your steaks, you may cook them in the water bath for 45 minutes to one hour. I left these steaks in for an hour, and I left the candy thermometer in the water too so I could monitor the temperature and blog about it. When I opened the cooler an hour later, this is what I saw:
Cooler cookin’ baby! My water had indeed dropped to 140 degrees, which meant my steaks were still over 130, safe to eat and fully cooked.
Look at the difference in the steaks too – you can see that the steaks have been cooking in their own juices: To finish these steaks, I heated my cast-iron stovetop grill. (I could have lit our charcoal grill to finish these, and I’m sure grilling these indoors is making my charcoal lovin’ friends cringe right now, but they truly need only a minute or two to brown before they’re ready to eat. Plus, the smoked sea salt I use already imparts a nice smoky flavor to the meat.)
Place the steaks on a hot grill and sear on each side. Then serve!
These steaks are so incredibly tender. They’re still pink in the middle but fully cooked, just like we like ’em – with a great texture and tenderness. Plus, they’re juicy and not at all tough. Yum, yum.
Everything I’ve learned about cooking in a cooler came from Serious Eats, the site that pioneered “hacking” sous-vide on a budget. I highly recommend reading through their post on the finer points of cooler sous-vide.
What else can be cooked in a cooler? I can’t wait to share other cooler cookin’ recipes with you in the days ahead.
mrsschafe says
You got me last year, but not this year! :)
coupondad says
Wrap the steaks in foil. Open up the hood of your car.
Place steak packets on engine.
Take a 3 hour ride and when you get there dinner will be ready.
addicted says
Good one – You’re funny Jill!
bigmoney says
I thought the whole post would be a joke. This really works? Make sure it gets posted in your recipes forum!
hobbitgirl says
Yes, cooking this way in a cooler as a cheaper alternative to a Sous Vide machine is documented and it does work. However, I think Jill is having some April 1st fun.
DealJunkie says
I’ve also seen the cooking shows with this and it just looks so cheap.
cg1 says
Hi Jill, I liked the trick of keeping the steaks on the rack to ensure uniformity. Does the temperature vary much say where you’d want to stir up the water every so often to eliminate any cool spots near the cool meat or does it seem to circulate on its own?
soapboxtray says
I read this waiting for my son to come out of school and was cracking up, intrigued at first, that laughing. Lots of time in this one! I am so excited that your blog is taking a new direction! ;-)