Sous Vide BRT Lamb Leg

The sous vide thickness charts are really used for tender pieces of meat which shouldn't apply to a leg of lamb. In Beginning Sous Vide we recommend cooking a boneless leg of lamb for about 18 to 36 hours at either 131°F or 141°F. If you're leaving it whole and tied up I'd err more towards 27-36 hours. If you're removing the ties you could probably get away with the lower times. Either way, anywhere in that range should be pretty tender and tasty.

A rub would definitely be good to apply before you brown it, it's a great way to add flavor.

I hope this helps some, if not let me know and I'll try to address any follow up questions.

I just cooked a boneless leg of lamb according to the time in the book (Beginning Sous Vide). I cooked it tied at 131 for about 27 hours. It was tender, but probably too tender, almost mushy, and it couldn't be cut in anything resembling medium thick slices. I had marinated it using wine, and I don't know if that might have broken down the meat.
I've roasted lamb at 225 for several hours, and I liked the results better, because there was still some texture to the meat. Is there a better way to sous-vide it and get that result?
Thanks

A lot of the tenderness depends on the actual lamb used (how it was raised etc) so it might have been a little more tender to begin with and the marinade could have broken it down some as well. I'd try it for a shorted amount of time and see if the results are better. One good way to test for tenderness is to initially cut off several small cubes of the meat and seal them in separate bags so you can taste them as you go. Here's some more information about how meat and affect the cooking times: sous vide cooking times explained.

One of the big advantages of sous vide is the ability to experiment over a range of temperature and times to achieve different results. On saturday I butterflied a leg of lamb and cooked it with some thyme, lemon zest, garlic powder, salt and pepper, 72C for 4 hours and was well received by the diners. I tend to find that in a larger group not everyone likes rare meat so I tend to cook to medium whereas with a small group I am happy to go more rare.

We do a lot of whole roast, 12 -14 pounds each. We use a little different technique; we have a delta of 10 degrees between the water temperature and the desired finished internal temperature. So, if we want 140 F. IT, we set the water for 150 F. Now, like roasting in the hot air oven, the meat will over cook if left in the water too long, so the time now becomes very critical to how done the meat will be. You really need to experiment with the time unless you have a temperature probe in one of the roast. We use a special bag that has a probe inserted into the center of the roast and has a seal so the water will not enter the bag.

Hope this helps!

John,
Where did you get the bag that allows you to use a temperature probe? This sounds like a great innovation.
Thanks!

You can use "closed cell foam tape" to use it with pretty much any bag. Here's a link to at least one place that sells it.

Cell Foam Tape

Do you think this would work? http://www.amazon.com/M-D-Building-Products-2253-Density/dp/B00005202X

Yeah, I think so. I think it's the "closed cell" part that allows it to remain waterproof. Thanks for the link!

Just for a data point, I used the M-D tape and it worked fine for me, the only difference is I have the 3/4" X 3/8" which makes a larger area to seal around the probe. This was the first time I got to use my data logger to track the internal temp.


GeneK

Hi,
I noticed in the Sous Vide Grilling (page 129)cookbook the recommended time is 2-3 days. I am trying to find out if it is really tender. Has anyone done it by touch? If you have used this recipe and have feedback that is great.

Jeff

Hi Jason and fellow SVres

I've had exccellenjt SV lamb chops, racks and shanks but am doing a boneless rolled and tied leg from(where else but Costcoi) and thinking to cut the netting away. open the leg as butterflied since I plan to brown it on the grill. I'm planning 20 -24 hrs at 132 F. Sound ok?

Thanks

Yesterday I took a CostCo boneless leg, cut away the net, and pretty much hacked it into 6-8 oz portions with a little trimming of connective tissue.

I've cooked two so far. Each was presalted (sprinkled with coarse kosher salt) and bagged. I cooked them at 131F - one for 2 hours and one for 4 hours. Both were excellent, but I preferred the 4-hour: the meat still had excellent chew, but the CT and fat were both softer and dare I say more forgiving if I didn't trim carefully before eating a bite. (leg has much ct in places)

I can't imagine the texture after 20 hours. Sure, larger pieces take longer to get the center to the target temp, but overall won't the meat turn into wet tissue paper? I've found that beef short ribs stand up to very long cooktimes, but beef short ribs are not "good at 2 hours and great at 4."

I am curious to know how your 20-24 hour run turns out.

Thanks