Sous vide is a method of cooking that was once restricted only to restaurant professionals but has become more popular with home chefs given the rise in popularity of the method, as well as the accessibility to sous vide equipment by online purchasing.
Sous vide basically means “under vacuum” in French, which describes half the cooking process. Meat is vacuum-sealed before being slow-cooked in a water bath to achieve absolutely precise cooking temperatures in a way that simply cannot be done outside of using the method.
Red meat is one of the most popular things to cook using sous vide methods, and tri-tip is one of the most popular types of red meat to use. The tri-tip is a triangular cut of beef from the bottom sirloin subprimal cut, which normally weighs about 5 pounds when it is untrimmed.
We’ll cover how to make great sous vide tri-tip, as well as the equipment you’ll need and where you can get it.
Sous Vide Equipment
Since this is our first post on sous vide, we’ll do an overview of what you’ll need to actually pull off the sous vide method of cooking.
There are a few things you absolutely need to sous vide, including quality plastic bags and a good thermometer. There are many different methods to sous vide, and some don’t even require the actual vacuum-sealing of the bags. While we recommend it, you can get rid of most of the air in the bag by compressing the air out before sealing if you don’t readily have a vacuumer sealer at home. The best way to do this is called the displacement method, and involves submerging an open bag with the meat and other ingredients into heated water to force out all gases.
If you’re using the displacement method, you will leave open a small corner of the bag and leave that opening above the water so that water doesn’t get into the bag, but the gases will still release.
There are, however, great all-inclusive kits available on Amazon for people looking to properly use sous vide methods at home. These can be easily found for under $100 USD, such as the Sousvide Art set, which includes a 1,000 Watt pod, thermometer, dozens of sous vide bags, and more.
If you’re looking for a really high-end precision cooker, the Anova AN500 is the top of the line choice for home chefs, but is still under $200 USD.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 pounds tri-tip roast
1/2 clove crushed or finely sliced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
2 ounces olive oil
1/2 ounce of Worchester Sauce
Instructions
Trim the fat off tri-tip to a very thin layer. Since fat doesn’t render as effectively using sous vide, it will maintain a rubbery texture if too much fat is left on the meat
Pat the tri-tip completely dry with a paper towel
Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add Worchester sauce lightly
Place tri-tip and other ingredients in sous vide or freezer bag with crushed garlic, and use either a vacuum sealer or displacement method to remove as much air from the bag as possible.
Set sous vide machine to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and cook for 6 hours
Remove the tri-tip from the bag, and pat dry again with a paper towel.
Heat olive oil in a pan at high temperature
Once pan is heated sear the tri-tip on each side for one minute to seal the seasoning
Sliced tri-tip against the grain and serve
