Sous Vide Antelope Steak

[Guy M]

Or, cell-phone antelope!

Craig, a good friend of mine who has been a part time chef for 20+ years, noted my enthusiasm for cooking and also noted my seriously under-educated skill level...

He also knew that I was a hunter, and that meat from game is often nowhere near as fatty as beef.
He recommended over a year ago that I try a "Sous Vide" for cooking. A what? "Soo-Vee" is how it's pronounced.

In the simplest terms possible, ya put a chunk of meat into a plastic bag, set it in a pot, and cook it for an hour or so. Then sear the outside in a hot pan for mere moments. The meat is never over-done, and is always juicy I was told.

Today I got a Very Early Christmas Present, a Joule Sous Vide device!

I decided to put it to work on an antelope steak from last fall. Put the steak into a zip lock bag with olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic. Pushed most of the air out and sealed it up. Then via an app on my cell phone, I set the Joule to "medium rare" for a steak. It heated up the pot of water, I put the baggie with the steak into it, and waited while some potatoes cooked. While I was waiting I also cooked up some onion, red bell pepper, and mushrooms.

Less than an hour later, I seared the antelope steak on each side, in my cast iron skillet.

Put it all on the plate, and oh my goodness! I like antelope. This was the BEST I've ever had! Moist, perfectly done, nicely seasoned... Awesome. Here's some photos:

Prepping the antelope. I'd had it marinating:

The Joule sous vide heating up to 133 degrees:

Onion & pepper in the cast iron skillet:

The finished meal. The best antelope steak I've ever enjoyed!

The Joule is almost $200, from Amazon. An alternative, half the price, is the Anova. On Craig's recommendation I went with the Joule and it worked perfectly. Oh my goodness, that was a good steak!

Regards, Guy

 

[mobenzowner]

I have the Anova and it works very well also.

 

[lilharcher]

Nice choice on the Joule and glad you are up to 21st century standards now......hahaha.

Although great on game, also phenominal on harder to cook meats like pork, duck, and chicken (especially if you like to cook through before battering it and flash frying it.......no more bloody center).

Between my brother and I this year, we have fresh buffalo, antelope, cow elk, and mule deer - all will make its way into the Joule on a regular basis.

 

[aushunter1]

I love my Anova & use it even to cook eggs.

With meats you can do it either way, seal the meat then sous vid to the end temp or the reverse. I like to sear 1st because you don't have to worry about the end temp going higher in a pan & its already rested so you don't lose any moisture.

This is a leg piece of fallow deer I did to 58 Celsius for about 4 hours.

So tender

 

[Guy M]

Made a second meal with the sous vide a couple of days ago. This time antelope roast. My goodness! Excellent. I cooked it 4 hours at 130 degrees.

Made oven-roasted vegetables to go along with the roast. So much more for me to learn about the sous vide!

 

[Guy M]

Since that first steak, I've also done an antelope roast and last night cooked pork chops with the sous vide. All the meals have been excellent, and I'm pleased to have added this device to my kitchen.

 

[Mike 338]

Thanks for the phonetic spelling of that word. So the plastic bag you cook it in... are those special bags and are they vacuum sealed? How does that thing keep from tipping over in the pot? Is it a stand-alone heating unit that does not require a stove top burner? How do you know when it's done?

 

[Guy M]

Thanks for the phonetic spelling of that word. So the plastic bag you cook it in... are those special bags and are they vacuum sealed? How does that thing keep from tipping over in the pot? Is it a stand-alone heating unit that does not require a stove top burner? How do you know when it's done?

So many questions!
1) Can use regular zip lock bags, or there are special sous vide bags, or can use vacuum sealed bags. The antelope roast, I just cooked in the sealed plastic bag from the butcher and added all the seasonings while I was browning it.

With the steaks, I added olive oil, rosemary, pepper and salt before sealing up the zip lock bags, so that the steak cooked with all those goodies in the bag too. Important to get as much air as possible out of the bag, so that it sinks into the water and the meat stays under water.

2) It is clamped firmly to the side of the pot and also has a magnetic base.

3) Does not require a stove burner. The sous vide device provides the heat, and also swirls the water around in the pot. I just placed it on the burner for convenience, didn't actually turn on the burner. One meal I just set it on a hot pad on the counter top and cooked.

4) There are recipes avail online that provide guidance re temp & time of cooking. From the articles online, I decided to try 140 degrees at four hours for the pork chops. Perfect! I think they would have been done at one hour, but the extra cooking time helped tenderize them a bit.

I'm just a newbie at this. Recommend doing a search for sous vide tips, recipes, etc. There's an amazing amount of info online.

I think I will take it to my dad's place when I visit him - he got a bunch of salmon that I think will cook up real nice with this.

Regards, Guy

 

[Kimber7man]

Nice thing is you can set it to 130 degrees and let it cook as long as you want. Steaks hold temp at 130 for as long as you want. Then just take out and sear on grill for 1-3 min on each side depending on how done you want them.

 

[Mike 338]

That does it! I'm gonna get one!

 

[FEENIX]

I love my Anova & use it even to cook eggs.

With meats you can do it either way, seal the meat then sous vid to the end temp or the reverse. I like to sear 1st because you don't have to worry about the end temp going higher in a pan & its already rested so you don't lose any moisture.

This is a leg piece of fallow deer I did to 58 Celsius for about 4 hours.

So tender
View attachment 154876

HELLYEAH!

 

[Tyler Kee]

Immersion circulators are a godsend to wild game chefs. I have a good friend who hunts in South Dakota - guy is in the field a ton. Usually has a couple deer hanging in his garage at any one time. I gifted him a Gourmia GSV130 last fall and he's a brand new man with it.

Nobody in my family will eat a rare steak from a deer (bugs!), but drop that bad boy in the bath at 125 for a few hours and show them the USDA pasteurization table and it's game on.

beyond that, it's awesome for lazy dinner prep - throw a couple frozen steaks or chicken thighs or whatever in the bath at 5:00, get the kids fed, washed, and in bed, and toss said meats under the broiler or in a pan. I'm such a fan.