THE ULTIMATE SOUS VIDE PORK CHOP GUIDE

Inledning

Sous Vide Pork Chop Basics

Traditionally-cooked pork chops cook hot from the outside in, and it’s very difficult to gauge exactly what temperature it is from the edges to the center. This presents a problem, especially when you have a bone to contend with. In order to ensure that the center of the chop is cooked through and safe to eat, you inevitably have to overcook the outer layers, leading to a dry, stringy texture.

With sous vide cooking, you’re cooking at precisely the temperature you want to serve the meat, which means that by the time you’re done, the pork chops are cooked perfectly from edge to edge, with a juicier texture than you’ve ever had.

Traditional sous vide pork chops consist of an easy, two-phase cooking process:

1. Tätning the pork chops in a plastic bag using either a vacuum sealer or the water displacement method and cooking it to the desired final temperature in a temperature-controlled water bath.
   1. The temperature of the sous vide bath during the initial cooking phase is what determines the final texture of your pork chops.
2. Searing the chops to develop color, flavor, and textural contrast.

If you’d prefer to introduce new sous vide techniques into your arsenal, you can also use the Anova Precision™ Oven to prepare sous vide pork chops. Because of the way we’ve designed the temperature sensors and humidity control, the oven will precisely maintain the cooking temperature you set.

You can choose to bag and cook your chops in the Precision™ Oven just as you would with a Precision® Cooker, or you can use the oven’s food probe to tell you exactly when the core of your chops have hit your desired temp.

Just like traditional sous vide, using Sous Vide Mode in the Anova Precision™ Oven typically is a two-stage cooking process: First, bring the pork chops to your desired internal temperature, then sear them to create a flavorful crust.

We like using bone-in center-cut pork rib chops, which have a nice big eye of meat and are very tender. Blade-end pork chops will have a little more flavor and more connective tissue (you’re trading off tenderness for flavor). Shoulder chops are even more flavorful, but again, they’ll be a little tougher. Pork loin chops have a large T-shaped bone with an eye of meat on either side. They tend to be rather lean and mild in flavor, but very tender.

Bone-In or Boneless?

Unlike when cooking directly in a pan or on a grill, where the extra flavor of the connective tissue around the bones has no effect on the rest of the meat, in sous vide cooking, that flavor will actually spread around the whole chop. Bone-in chops cooked sous vide are tastier than those cooked without the bone.

There are a couple of disadvantages, however. Bones can be sharp and you run the risk of puncturing your sous vide bags if you’re using traditional sous vide methods. Wrapping the ends of the bones in a paper towel before bagging them can mitigate this.

Bones can also make it difficult for the chop to achieve full contact with the pan resulting in areas right around the bone that aren’t browned as well. Overall, though, the gains you get in flavor more than make up for these challenges.

While eating any meat cooked to a rare doneness poses health risks, particularly for the elderly, pregnant, or very young, these days, pork is just about as safe to eat rare as it is to eat beef. That is, so long as you are working with properly-stored, cleanly cut meat and are searing the exterior before serving, the risk of illness from consuming rare pork is very minimal. (The United States Department of Agriculture recommends cooking pork to 145°F with a three-minute rest.)

With sous vide cooking, you have another advantage: pasteurization. At 130°F, bacteria are being actively destroyed on the surface of that pork. Every moment that it is in the cooker, it is becoming safer to eat. At higher temperatures, the rate of destruction is even faster. Because of this, sous vide is a great introduction to the wonderfully juicy world of rare pork.

Temperatur och tidsinställning

When cooking quick-cooking meats like steaks, pork chops, or pork tenderloin, the texture and juiciness of the finished product is directly related to the temperature to which it is cooked. Pork starts to firm up and expel moisture around 120°F (49ºC) or so, with its firmness and dryness increasing as the temperature goes up. With sous vide cooking, you have complete control over exactly how cooked your pork ends up, so pick a desired temperature, and go!

With traditional high-heat cooking methods, it’s necessary to cook at the exact right temperature for the exact right amount of time to achieve the doneness you’re after. With sous vide cooking, the timing is much more forgiving. Temperature is by far the overriding factor. By adjusting the temperature of your Precision Cooker or Precision Oven, you can cook your pork chops anywhere from a pink, juicy rare (130°F / 54°C) to a firm but still moist well-done (160°F / 71°C).

Bear in mind that the hotter you cook, the more moisture you’re going to squeeze out of the pork. Here’s a breakdown of the texture and juiciness you can expect at various temperatures:

Rare (130°F / 54°C)

Your meat is still nearly raw. Muscle proteins have not started to contract much and will have a slippery, wet texture. The meat will be extremely juicy, but it’ll be hard to break down muscle fibers between your teeth, as the meat doesn’t have enough firmness to stand up to chewing.

Medium-Rare (140°F / 60°C)

Muscle proteins have begun to tighten and firm up. You lose a bit of juice due to this tightening, but what you lose in juice you gain in tenderness. This is our favorite temperature for pork chops. They come out extremely juicy and tender, but have a natural meaty bite to them, without the off-putting slipperiness of 130°F / 54ºC meat.

Medium-Well (150°F / 66°C)

The muscle fibers continue to toughen up and expel juices. The pork will still be flavorful but loses a lot of its tenderness by this stage.

Well Done (160°F / 71°C)

The meat is completely well-done with a texture that is chewy, albeit juicier than if they were cooked via more traditional methods.

It’s true that timing for sous vide cooking is much more forgiving than with traditional techniques — your window of well-cooked meat opens up from seconds or minutes to hours — but even so, it is possible to over or undercook meat.

Our general rule of thumb is to allow around 15 minutes of cooking time per half-inch of thickness, adding on an extra 10 minutes or so just to be safe. This is enough time to allow the meat to achieve thermal equilibrium and be cooked through to the same temperature as the water bath. Beyond that time, meat will not lose much juiciness, but eventually, as muscle proteins break down, will become somewhat mushy, shredding as you bite rather than tearing.

At four hours, the meat has begun to lose some of its resilience and by eight hours it is tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. We limit cook times for pork chops to under four hours.

So long as you’re cooking at above 130°F / 54ºC, there are no real health risks associated with prolonged sous vide cooking.

Traditionell Sous Vide

Sous Vide Express

We do not recommend cooking rare pork chops using Sous Vide Express.

How to Cook Sous Vide Pork Chops, Step by Step

Steg 1

Attach an Anova Precision® Cooker to a water bath and heat to your desired final doneness temperature or preheat the Precision Oven to your desired temperature.

Season the pork generously with salt and pepper on all sides. If you are planning on leaving the un-cooked pork in bags for more than a few hours before cooking, skip the seasoning step and instead season them just before searing.

Steg 2

If vacuum sealing, add to a bag with aromatics like thyme or rosemary sprigs if desired. Seal the bag with a vacuum sealer. If using the food probe in the Anova Precision™ Oven, insert the probe into the center of the largest pork chop.

Steg 3

Drop the bag in the water bath or place into the oven and attach the probe. Cook according to your desired time and temperature or until the probe reaches its target temperature.

Remove the pork chops from the bag or oven and place on a paper towel-lined plate. Pat dry very carefully on both sides. If you did not season before cooking, season generously with salt and pepper.

Steg 1

Place a heavy cast-iron or stainless steel skillet with 1 tablespoon (15ml) of neutral oil and 1 tablespoon (15g) of butter over high heat. Swirl until the butter is melted and starting to brown.

Steg 2

Carefully place the pork chops into the skillet, laying them down away from you. Carefully lift and peek under the pork as it cooks to gauge how quickly it is browning. Let it continue to cook until the crust is deep brown and very crisp, about 45 seconds. Flip.

Steg 3

Continue to cook them browned on the second side, or for more flavor, add another tablespoon of butter along with some thyme, rosemary, garlic, and/or shallots. Spoon the butter over the pork chops as they cook.

Steg 4

Once the pork is browned, use a pair of tongs to brown the edges.

Steg 5

Transfer the cooked chops to a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet. Pour the pan drippings over them before serving.

Steg 1

Make sure to have your grill preheated before your pork chops are finished cooking sous vide. Light one chimney full of charcoal (about 5 quarts of coal). When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate.

Set cooking grate in place, cover grill, and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Alternatively, set half the burners on a gas grill to the highest heat setting, cover, and preheat for 10 minutes. Scrape the grill grates clean with a grill scraper, then oil the grates by holding an oil-dipped kitchen towel or paper towels in a set of tongs and rubbing them over the grates 5 to 6 times.

Steg 2

Place the chops directly over the hot side of the grill and cook, turning every 15 to 30 seconds, until a deep, rich crust has formed, about 1 ½ minutes total. If the fire threatens to flare up as the chops drip fat into it, suffocate the fire by closing the grill lid until the flames die out. Alternatively, transfer the chops to the cooler side of the grill using a set of long tongs until the flames subside. Do not allow the chops to get engulfed in flames.

Steg 3

Transfer the cooked chops to a cutting board or serving platter and serve immediately.

A Closer Look at Seasoning Pork Chops

Do I need to brine sous vide pork chops?

Brining — the process of soaking meat in a saltwater solution in order to help it retain moisture better in the future — is entirely unnecessary when it comes to sous vide cooking. Your pork will still come out plenty juicy.

When should I season my pork chops?

If we’re putting the chops straight into the cooker or oven, we’ll season our pork chops before bagging and cooking them. If, however, we are going to bag them and let them sit in the fridge for a day or two before cooking, we’ll bag them unseasoned. Salt can interact with pork muscle fibers giving it a cured, smooth, almost ham-like texture. This is not entirely undesirable (ham is delicious, after all), but it’s up to you whether you want that texture or prefer a more traditional meaty texture.

Can I add aromatics to the bag?

Yes! Aromatics added to the bag can give the pork great flavor. Just be aware that sous vide cooking tends to concentrate the flavor of spices and herbs so go light. Fresh sprigs of whole herbs like thyme, rosemary, or oregano are great, as are alliums like garlic and shallots or spices like paprika, cumin, coriander, and black peppercorns (either whole or sprinkled on ground). Feel free to experiment.

Måltidsförberedelse och förberedelse Sous Vide

One of the big benefits to cooking sous vide is that, because you’re portioning food in individual bags, it can lend itself well to meal prep. But there are a few things to keep in mind, especially if you’re planning to reheat your food.

It’s true that given a high enough temperature (130°F / 54.4ºC or higher) and a long enough time period (several hours), the contents of a sealed sous vide bag should be close to sterile, which means that rapid chilling via an ice bath followed by rapid reheating should pose no health risks, though we still strongly recommend against it whenever avoidable: It’s not doing any favors for the quality of your pork. Moreover, it takes just as long to reheat an already-cooked sous vide pork chop to its final serving temperature as it does to cook that same pork chop from scratch so you really aren’t saving any time by doing it.

Word of warning: Never chill and reheat any food that has been cooked or held at a temperature lower than 130°F (54.4ºC). These temperatures are not hot enough to destroy dangerous bacteria.

On the other hand, you can seal seasoned, ready-to-cook pork chops in sous vide bags and stack them in the freezer. When ready to cook, pop them directly in the water bath or oven and allow an extra hour of cooking time to fully thaw before you begin timing it for doneness.