Sous Vide Beef Prime Rib

Sous vide literally translates to "cooking under vacuum". It's so simple, but the results are stunning. You vacuum seal your food, place in a container of water, then use a heated water circulator (sous vide machine) to gently & consistently heat the food at a constant temperature. In our case, the end product was a delicious, unbelievably tender, and evenly cooked rib roast.

Cook Time18

Course: Main Course

Servings: 8

Equipment

sous vide machine
large heat proof container
vacuum sealer

Ingredients

1 three rib roast ask your butcher to trim the fat cap & separate the bones from the roast
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 springs fresh rosemary
3 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
3 tablespoons Montreal steak seasoning
you can get this at any grocery, or, for 2/3 cup of this mix, combine 3 tablespoons kosher salt and 1 tablespoon each cracked black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, dried coriander and dried dill

Instructions

Wash and dry your fresh herbs. Peel and crush the garlic.
Next, take the meat and pat dry. Then, on a meat safe cutting board, rub the seasoning mix on the roast & bones until evenly covered.
Measure your roast by it's longest dimension and double that size to cut your vacuum seal bag. Using a vacuum sealer (we use a Food Saver), seal one end of the cut plastic. You want a long 'tail' on the bag because the larger the protein, the more juices will climb up when you seal it. It's difficult to seal the bag if it's wet at the top.
Place your roast in the bag along with the fresh herbs and crushed garlic (put those on the bone side).
Seal the open end of the vacuum bag, making very sure that it is a completely sealed seam.
Fill your container half-way full with water and set your sous vide machine to 134F (you can use 130F-135F, depending on your preference).
Submerge the bagged roast into the sous vide machine (make sure it's completely covered!) and leave to cook for 18-24 hours.
After cooking for 18-24 hours, you're ready to eat!
Retrieve your roast from the sous machine and carefully open the vacuum. Save the jus - it's been flavored by the herbs & garlic and is totally delicious spooned over the meat!
On a sturdy cutting board, slice the meat and serve.

Notes

I realize a lot of people might be skeptical about keeping their main course in a warm bath for so long, but another great thing about the sous vide is that if you are cooking anything above 130 degrees, it will self-sterilize in the bag. You can keep a roast beef in the water bath for 3 days and bacteria will never grow. The reason for this has to do with time at a specific temperature.

Here is an example, using chicken (I chose chicken because it is typically thought of as a one-temperature protein):

The FDA tells you that cooking to 160 degrees is needed to kill chicken bacteria and make it safe. What they don't make clear is that they mean making the temperature 160 degrees for 2 seconds will kill the bacteria.

But, if you use a lower heat for longer, it does the same thing. These are all equivalent:

160 degrees for 6 seconds
150 degrees for 1.2 minutes
140 degrees for 12 minutes
130 degrees for 120 minutes

So as long as you keep your protein in the water bath so that the whole thing reaches any of those temperatures / times, you have nothing to worry about, bacteria-wise.

This information isn't that useful if you're using an oven, because you can't transfer heat slowly enough to make an even cook at the temperatures above. You just try to peak at the safe cooking temperature.

But, with the sous vide, you can set your chicken to 140 degrees, leave it for 2 or 3 hours (or more, if you're busy), and it's as safe to eat as oven cooked to 160, just waaaaay more tender and juicy!