Ghetto Sous Vide

So this is the best way I found to cook cheap meat. Once it’s cooked, you can make whatever with it. More on that in future recipes.

So here’s what you need:

• Cheap meat. get something with fat in it. Any beef cut will do.
• Onion
• Garlic
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Mason jars

Quantities are whatever you want, by whatever amount of meat you use. Here goes.

Cut the meat to pieces you can fit in the mason jars. add some salt and pepper (not too much) and mix it to be pretty even over the meat pieces.

Cut the onion to half rings.

Place some onion pieces at the bottom of a jar (half an inch or so) and two-three garlic cloves on top. then fill the rest of the jar with meat and tightly seal the jar with its cover. Repeat with more jars until you run out of meat. I usually make 3-4 jars in a batch.

Place the jars in a big/deep enough pot to contain them (if the jars are a bit taller than the pot that’s fine too if you can place a cover on the pot). Fill the pot with cold water to the top. It’s important to start with cold water to let the jars heat gradually.

Bring to a boil with high flame, then lower to end-high and let boil for 10-15 minutes. Cover, lower the flame, and let cook for at least 4-5 hours. 8 hours is even better, can be overnight.

Turn off and let cool (an hour or so).

What you get is sealed jars full of cooked meat. Closed they can last for a very long time, months and even years, even not refrigerated, as long as they are unopened and sealed.

The fat will be separated and form a layer at the top. The meat is tender and flavorful, and can be made into anything – I make a great Beef Stroganoff with it, chili, mix it with rice, Sloppy Joe etc. I use the onion and garlic from the bottom with stuff I cook.