Words by Sam
4 mins
While we’ve all been revelling in this week’s Indian summer, tomorrow (to the chagrin of some) marks the dawn of the Autumn equinox. And we all know what that means – the return to a humbler form of cooking and quick, comforting, simple dinners. As the season cools off, what I continuously reach for shifts from the vibrant, grill-happy cuts of summer to our richer and more unctuous quick-cook products.
Amongst our more recognisable butcher’s cuts, we've got a range of sous vide products that come in really handy when you've got a bit less time to cook but don't want to skimp on flavour. In fact, we make the most of this slow-cooking method to utilise products that are a bit more challenging for home cooking like duck legs, beef brisket and pork shoulder, and turn them into simply heat-and-eat options! Just pop it out of the packet into a pan, warm through, and bish, bash, bosh – you've got all the makings of a meal full of free-range deliciousness, ready in less than 20 minutes.
But rewind – what is sous vide?
Adored by Field & Flower-ites and Michelin-starred chefs alike, the method itself is pretty simple. First, we vacuum pack the meat with all the good stuff like stock, butter, aromats and spices, then we slow-cook it in a temperature-controlled water bath over several hours. The temperature of the water bath runs at the exact temperature you want it to finish it at – if we want pink beef we run in at 53 degrees, if we want shredded pork it runs at 99, and after a few hours the product within matches the temperature without. Our goal is to cook everything to the point where it is perfect - this means that shreddable products reach the point where proteins break down and pull. Our free-range crispy half duck yields enough to come cleanly off the bone ready for pancakes and hoisin, and our 'Simple Dinners' range, ready to drop into your choice of sauces, is cooked to the point where it holds together but remains juicy and soft.
The beef brisket is ready to shred up. Last week, I mixed it through a rendang curry I made when my sister came round. Adding an extra dimension of slow-cooked, rich shredded beef is always a winner.
The turkey thigh is one of my favourite products that we've ever launched – turkey legs and thighs are the extreme example of carcass imbalance, with 70% of turkeys in the UK purchased as a breast or crown, but we do our bit right through the year to level the playing field. Cooked simply in butter, salt and pepper, it breaks apart the moment it feels the heat and is fantastic with BBQ or buffalo sauce stirred through and dropped into sliders as a lean take on pulled pork.
Perhaps the more exciting part of sous-viding product is that it lets you cook big things in far less time, something we’re making the most of in our early Christmas shop. We’re going to be sous-viding turkey breasts right through December for that inevitable ‘Friendsmas’ or 'early Christmas’ with the in-laws, and the joy if it already been slowly cooked is that you can get home from work, bang the oven on and have a 2.5kg turkey breast joint cooked inside an hour – it takes as long as your potatoes! As you can imagine, the cooking method also keeps the breast meat juicy because it locks all the flavours of the turkey, bacon and stuffing in. Our sous vide turkey breasts are available from 27th November right up to Christmas.
If you’re low on time, worried about things cooking through or just don’t trust your dippy oven with the mother-in-law coming round, give our sous-vide cuts a try to serve up something fork-tender and keep all the credit yourself – we won’t tell if you don’t.
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