Short Rib, The Meat

Prime short rib , even if it is more expensive than "choice", gives you a much better result. It is like buying a meat that can never been over cooked. Only 2% of beef is certified prime by the USDA in the US market. 

Winter in Chicago seems to ask for more meat, especially braised. It just brings comfort and satisfies the appetite. Braising in a traditional way is when a meat has been cooked for several hours in the oven, with a garnish or a stock, to bring flavor and some moisture to the meat. The meat itself looses all its natural juices, but there is an osmosis between the fat and the collagen. That is the reason why it becomes so tender. To the opposite, when you grill over high heat you sear the meat, cook it barely and keep all the natural juices. In that case the fat softens and brings up flavor of the meat but there is not a real osmosis.

Thinking of these two way of cooking we have tried to combine them both into a precise way of braising. First we have seasoned the meat with sea salt and let it seat for 12 hours in  a cooler. The salt maintain the natural pigmentation of the meat. Then we sear the meat and cool it down quickly. We marinate the meat with a small amount of wine and leave it for another 12 hours. The wine will flavor and tenderize the meat.

Lastly the meat is slowly cooked for 48 hours to a temperature which is warn enough to create the osmosis of the fat but not to the point where the collagen loose its moisture. This range of cooking is between 63-67 degrees Celsius which is the equivalent of medium. The result offers a meat which is pink but that can be easily cut with a fork. Before being served the short rib is seared on a plancha and glazed with the sauce.

Comments

[Roberto N.]

It looks quite interesting. What's the ratio of salt and wine on meat?

Thanks

[AB]

speaking of plancha, ever tried this one?
www.evoamerica.com

[laurent gras]

1% salt and 5% wine.
Evoamerica plancha no but if you want us to test one you are welcome to send it.
Laurent

[Matt]

I guess this doesn't produce any braising liquid? Do you save the juice from the bag? or just make a seperate beef sauce.

[Kevin]

WHAT TYPE OF PLANCHA DO YOU USE AT L20?

[Roberto N.]

Thank you very much.

[Andrew]

Bruno Goussault was actually was talking about this technique today at a Sous Vide workshop here in Dubai, its interesting because he said that to do the same technique with european meat would take nearly double the amount of time!