A sous vide guide to cooking tender meats | The Tool Shed

A sous vide guide to cooking tender meats

Sous vide is the perfect method for cooking tough meats and making them succulent and tender, but it is also a great method for cooking more tender cuts too. They each require different methods of cooking, but due to the precise nature of sous vide, this is easy to achieve for great results.

Tender meat does not need the same slow cooking that tough meat does, but that doesn’t mean to say it can’t be made better by cooking it sous vide. It is very easy to overcook tender meats accidentally and end up with dry meat, so being able to precisely control the level of doneness using sous vide cooking avoids this issue and results in a delicious and succulent meal.

How to identify tender meats

Tender meats come from the parts of an animal that have had to do less work during its life, so that includes things like chicken breasts, pork chops, tenderloin, and most seafood.

These parts of the animal don’t need to work so hard, so they contain less collagen, which makes them much less chewy than things like a shoulder of lamb that has plenty of hardworking muscle and connecting tissue.

The stronger a muscle needs to be, the more coarse the texture of the meat becomes. If you inspect the meat, you will see that it is made up of bundles of muscle fibres, which are called fascicles. Butchers often refer to this as the grain of the meat, and it is an easy way to tell whether a cut of meat is tough or tender.

In tough meats, the grain will look very coarse, but in more tender cuts it may actually be very difficult to see it at all.

Why cook tender meats sous vide?

While tough cuts of meat need to be cooked at low temperatures for a long time in order to break down the collagen and make them easy for our teeth to chew, tender cuts are already easy enough for us to chew so they do not need to be cooked for nearly as long.

Cooking changes the structure of the muscle fibres, and as they are heated the protein molecules begin to contract, causing them to shrink in both diameter and length. When this happens, they squeeze out some of the moisture that they contain, which can mean that the meat ends up quite tough if cooked for too long or at too high a temperature. This is something that often happens using traditional methods such as grilling.

Cooking sous vide means that you can avoid this overcooking and drying out taking place, by precisely controlling the time and temperature, and tailoring it to the exact cut of meat or fish you are cooking.

It also allows you to cook the meat evenly throughout, and hold it at the required temperature for long periods of time without resulting in overcooking – perfect for those occasions where you are cooking a complex meal with many components and don’t want to risk accidentally compromising the texture or quality of your meat if you get distracted for a moment too long.

The exact time or temperature you need to cook at will depend on the cut of meat, its weight, and a few other factors. If you’ve never cooked sous vide before or you just need a little guidance in this area, we have a handy calculator that can help you work out exactly what your time and temperature should be.

Our iVide Cooker also works with a smart app that can help you get the perfect temperature and cook time, as well as keeping track of your meat while it cooks.

We hope this has inspired you to try cooking different cuts of meat sous vide, and experience for yourself how perfectly this method retains moisture for juicy and delicious tender meats.

If you need any recipe inspiration, be sure to head over to our recipe section, where we have plenty of different recipes to get your tastebuds going.

Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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