I cooked sous vide London Broil @ 133°F for 72 hours. The water temp was accurate. Every 12 hours I checked the water level and each time there was more and more liquid in the bag. The meat ended up well done and dry. Any thoughts?
- Mark
Thanks for writing in, Mark!
London Broil can be a hard dish to troubleshoot! London Broil isn't actually a specific cut of beef, it's just a marketing term that can encompass several different cuts of meat including flank steak, top round, or chuck steak. Depending on the actual cut, the amount of sous vide time will vary.
Since the meat was well done and dry, my guess is it was simply cooked too long. I've done London Broil successfully for 12, 24, and 48 hours, but if it was a top round or flank steak then 72 hours would probably have dried it out.
It definitely is harder to over cook something with sous vide but it's still possible. Basically the longer it cooks, the more juice is lost and the more tender the meat gets. This can result in drier meat, or mushy meat if it gets too tender.
I hope this helps out. Thanks and happy cooking!
This article is by me, Jason Logsdon. I'm an adventurous home cook and professional blogger who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. I've explored everything from sous vide and whipping siphons to pressure cookers and blow torches; created foams, gels and spheres; made barrel aged cocktails and brewed beer. I have also written 10 cookbooks on modernist cooking and sous vide and I run the AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com website.
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