Sous-vide 7-bone roast

This is mostly tech notes. No pics, sorry. Allow me to set the table, as it were. "Sous-vide" is a French cooking tecnhique that amounts to "boil in the bag". Unlike an old-school boil in the bag dinner, though, sous-vide is typically done nowhere boiling temp. Sous-vide is used as a means of controlling the cooking process of meats where you want a low temp for a long time. Unlike braising or other "low and slow" techniques, sous-vide keeps all the juices in the meat. My first sous-vide was a pig head. This time around, I'm doing a 7-bone roast, much more "family-friendly" one might say.

My plan was to sous-vide the roast, then grill it on the barbecue. I got a nice piece of roast from Carr's (i.e. Safeway), it's probably 1-1/8" thick, was what, 3 or so pounds, and was reasonably priced at a tad over $12. I had the 7-bone roast marinating in some Goya brand Mojo Crillio sauce for a day, so that took care of any need for salting or seasoning the roast. Just prior to church today, I vacuum-sealed the roast in a FoodSaver bag, and put it a stainless steel stock pot filled with hot water. I got the stove set to it's lowest setting, 170° f. In went the whole thing, pot and all. After getting home from church at 4 p.m., I got the grill going and it was time to put some fire on that roast.

Now here's the deal: That roast was done, and actually overdone. 170° f. was just too warm for a sous-vide-then-grill. I had that roast done on the grill along with a single chicken breast, and both went on and came off at the same time, about 10 minutes maybe. Eight minutes? Ahh, I don't know, but it was pretty fast. Mind you, this is indirect grill, but that thing was going hot. I have a closed grill and it was rockin' at over 325° f. So yeah, in a few minutes I had a seared roast and a chicken breast for my daughter who was for sure gonna pull the "I don't like meat" thing on me.

"So how was it" you ask? Ehhh, well, it was a bit tough, actually. I think the time spent in the tank was right, but the temp should have been 150°, not 170. Sous-vide is a tricky technique to master, and getting the time/temp formula right is the challenge. I think next time I'll attempt it on the stovetop instead, where I can get a lower temp going. I'm for sure going to give it another whack, as there were some occasionally great bits to that roast. There was promise in there, unrealized promise, but promise nonetheless. I'll be back.