Two and a half pound chuck roast, first time cooking one this way. I can start it Saturday morning or Sunday morning, so both are possible, but the 24 hour version means running the circulator overnight in a flat with thin walls. Which one gives the better result, and is the overnight noise worth it?
Middle option nobody mentions: 12 hours at 140F. Slightly pink, sliceable, and the fibres have started to give. It suits chuck well and fits in a single day if you start early. Worth trying once you have done both extremes and know which direction you want to move.
Whichever you pick, deal with the bag juices. Chuck throws off a lot and they make an excellent sauce reduced in a pan with a spoon of the fat skimmed off, but they will also make your sear steam if you do not dry the meat first. Two separate jobs, do not skip either.
Strain them through a fine sieve first, there is always more coagulated protein in there than you expect and it burns in the pan.
On the noise: a circulator is roughly fridge level once you put a lid on the container, and most of what people hear is water splashing at the surface rather than the motor. Foil over the top plus a folded towel under the container kills nearly all of it. I have run 36 hour cooks in a small flat without waking anyone.
Towel under the container is a nice touch, mine sits on a hollow worktop that acts like a drum.
@sear_after_sam · 12mo ago · 3 replies
They produce two genuinely different dishes, so the question is what you want on the plate rather than which is better.
24 hours at 131F gives you something that slices like a steak, pink throughout, chewy in a pleasant way, with the connective tissue softened but the muscle fibres still intact. Great with a hard sear and a knife.
8 hours at 150F gives you a pot roast, brown grey inside, fibres that separate under a fork, and juices you can turn into gravy. That is the familiar Sunday roast texture.
If you have never had the first one, do it once because it is genuinely surprising. If you are feeding people who expect a roast dinner, do the second, because the first one confuses guests.
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@flat_fix_finn · 12mo ago
Feeding my in laws, so pot roast texture it is. Confusing guests is exactly what I am trying to avoid.
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@krausen_line · 12mo ago
Sensible. Save the 131F version for a weekday when nobody is watching and you can eat the whole thing yourself.
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