SLOW COOKING

At Rockpool Bar & Grill functions and parties we offer a very special beef dish — either a rib-eye or sirloin that is cooked in a whole piece. It’s seasoned, vacuum-sealed and cooked sous vide in a water bath at 53°C (127°F) for 4 hours. It’s then seared on the wood-fired grill to create a gorgeous crust and smoky flavour. To serve, we slice it into 200 g (7 oz) portions and top it with my modern béarnaise. It’s a truly wonderful, melt-in-the-mouth dish.

As most of you won’t have this equipment at home, I have included a method for the home cook where all you need is an oven and thermometers, simple inexpensive devices. I think it’s a fantastic way to cook beef for a party at home and once you buy a meat thermometer you’ll never look back. I’ve had a long time to perfect this method. You’ll need to do a little adjusting yourself, but the good news is that with meat and oven thermometers you’ll always be in control of the situation — it’s foolproof.

CONTROLLED COOKING

To follow this method successfully, two things are essential: an oven thermometer and a digital meat thermometer. The first is needed to keep a check on your oven’s true temperature, and the latter is so you can check the core temperature of large joints and birds to make sure they’re cooked to your liking every time.

Controlled cooking is a matter of knowing what core cooking temperature you need to reach to achieve rare, medium and well-done meat after allowing for the residual cooking that occurs during resting. Refer to the temperature chart below illustrating the different final core temperatures and corresponding states of doneness for meat and poultry. Keep in mind the chart refers to the final core temperatures after resting so you will need to remove your meat from the heat source several degrees before your desired doneness and let the residual heat finish off the cooking process. The amount of residual cooking will vary depending on the temperature at which the meat or poultry is cooked. Remember, the higher the oven temperature you cook at, the more the temperature of the meat will rise during resting. These final core temperatures are international standards and are a very good guide to doneness.

When checking the temperature of a piece of meat with your thermometer, make sure you push the thermometer into the fleshy part of the joint but don’t let it touch the bone if there is one, as it will give you a false reading and you’ll probably overcook the meat.

	RARE	MEDIUM	WELL-DONE
BEEF	55°C (131°F)	62°C (144°F)	70°C (158°F)
LAMB	55°C (131°F)	62°C (144°F)	70°C (158°F)
VEAL		64°C (147°F)	70°C (158°F)
PORK		74°C (165°F)
CHICKEN		70°C–75°C
		(158°F–167°F)