Grilling season is here. Deep frying season is also here, at least in my house. I just got a deep fryer. I can’t express how happy I am that I did. I should have done this years ago. I cook a lot of meat at home and I like a good sear on it. I usually rely on my cast iron pans and lots of oil to do the job. The smoke, smoke detectors going off all the time… and the oil splatter drives me nuts… the cleaning, the nightmare… but that’s just a bad memory now.
Enter Deep Frying.
Deep frying is all I’ll be doing from now on when I need to sear any meat. Deep fryers have a bad reputation in the world of healthy eating I guess. I’m gonna disagree. I think some of the foods cooked in a deep fryer could definitely be on the unhealthy side but I couldn’t blame deep fryers for making them unhealthy any more than I would a pan and some oil. Deep frying meat is not that different from pan frying it or pan searing it, same basics, get the oil hot enough to brown it quickly. More or less the same amount of oil will end up on the meat anyways and you can always remove the excess with paper towels. Meat is mostly water (about 70%), and really bad at absorbing fat which is great.
Sirloin Tip?
Sirloin tip, not to be confused with top sirloin. Sirloin tip tastes like top sirloin but it’s a lot tougher. Probably too tough to be cooked rare the way you would a top sirloin steak for example. The result would just be too tough. Sous vide is a way around this issue, otherwise, you’d get tough meat or overcooked meat and I don’t like either. By allowing meat to cook slowly at a low temperature, the required breaking-down of connective tissue takes place and the final ideal doneness is achieved, rare for this recipe. I love this stuff. I love how sous-vide cooking can transform protein. Amazing texture, amazing color. And then… I deep fried the whole thing and it was awesome.
Ingredients:
Sirloin tip, 2lb
Salt.
Cooking the sirloin tip.
Rub with salt generously and allow to rest in the fridge overnight. The next day. Place the meat in a plastic bag. Vacuum seal or not… I just get most of the air out of the baggie via water displacement and add some vegetable oil. Cook sous vide at 53.3C for 24 hours. Remove from the bag. Pat it dry with paper towels. Deep fry at 375F or hotter (if your deep fryer allows it) for about 3 mins. Allow to rest before slicing, like 10 mins. Serve. Done.
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23 comments
Looks wonderful! So moist and such a nice crust.
Thank you Ronit!
The deep fried sirloin tip has an amazing colour! And cooking it sous vide sounds great.A sous vide and avaccum seal has been on my Christmas wish list for a long time! It looks delicious 🙂
I hope you get them this Christmas! At least the sous vide. You don’t really need the vacuum sealer. Thanks for your nice comments!!!!
Amazing. You even manage to make raw meat look delicious. Enjoy that fryer! I can only imagine the good things coming out of that.
Thank you Amanda!!!! I wouldn’t say it’s raw, but it is pretty close hahahah 🙂 oh, and it’s pasteurized too.
Hi Paul, great looking piece of beef and some good points about deep frying. I’ve never done anything sous-vide for such a long time at such a low temp, always stay above 54C/129F for food safety reasons. However, if your water bath is accurate enough you can in fact pasteurize at 53.3C like you did, and the beef will be more rare.
Hey Stefan! thanks for the nice comment of course! My new sous vide machine from anova is pretty dead on, probably running only 0.1 degrees below the temperature on the LED display. I checked with both my probe and infrared thermometer. I love this thing, it’s so quiet and the heating element is pretty powerful. Heats up the water really quickly compared to my old polyscience unit.
Hi Paul, I now have two units, one of which is the Anova and you are right that it is pretty accurate. As for the heating element, I always fill with hot water to save time on heating up.
Yeah, I have 2 as well, my old star wars model and the super slick new anova one haha. Yeah, I sometimes also heat up the water before getting going with the immersion circulator. Comparing my old one and my new one, my new one heats water faster. My old one… i think it’s more accurate, it’s lab equipment hahah has to be 🙂 love both.
I think 0.1C is accurate enough 🙂
Yes 😉
PS best to deepfry beef in… beef tallow for the best beefy flavor. We use it for fries — although it is used less because of the cholesterol police.
That’s right! now.. where could I find that here? I don’t even think is legal anymore hahah. I will have to as somebody at a McDonalds joint 😉
Beef tallow is fat rendered from that around the kidney. If you can find a butcher that does his own butchering (which any proper butcher should be doing), he should be able to help you.
Is it a solid fat at room temperature? has to be right? I’d love to find some, I have a pretty good butcher here in Vancouver, he would know. Thanks for the tip Stefan!
Yes, it is solid at room temperature. If you do find it, don’t forget to make fries, too 🙂
Hahah absolutely
I love my sous vide machine. It is an amazing invention. I finally bought a deep fryer about 5 years ago and haven’t used it yet. You’ve convinced me about searing the meat using the deep fryer, but I bought a mini version. darn it. But it makes total sense!
Thanks Mimi! yeah, a deep fryer is like a sous vide machine but really really hot 🙂 I love mine so far!!!
Looks good. I would worry about it being salted for so long though (fridge beforehand and then while cooking). That didn’t change the texture?
Not a all mike! the sirloin tip is a bit tougher than the rest of the loin so it was not a problem. You should try it. The texture was amazing.