Two Day Sous Vide Lamb Shoulder

It had been a while since i’d done anything in the Sous Vide bath so I thought I’d try my longest cook yet.  I picked up a whole shoulder of lamb and thought I’d cook it for two days at 59c, previously the longest i’d cooked anything was a rib of beef that had cooked for around eight hours.

I went for 59c as this was just on the more medium side of rare and from everything I’d read two days at this temperature should yield very moist, succulent pink meat with a fantastic flavour. I sealed the shoulder in a vacuum bag with salt, pepper, dried garlic and some sprigs of rosemary then simply plopped i into the water bath for 48 hours.

To accompany the lamb i made some stock with lamb bones that i got from the butcher along with standard stock vegetables, rosemary and white wine.

After simmering for a few hours i strained the stock and then added about 300ml of red wine and then carried on cooking until the sauce was reduced by half and a lovely dark colour.

After 48 hours i removed the lamb from the bath and took it out of the bag, draining the liquid. Cooking at this temperature means the lamb is very tender but not falling apart like say brisket if you cooked it at a higher temperature. The meat retains its integrity.

Then i seasoned the shoulder and put into a hot oven for about 20 mins to just brown the outside of the joint.

The meat was as tender as good fillet steak and absolutely jam packed with fantastic lambiness (there’s a new word for the dictionary!) I served it with some creamy mashed potatoes and the red wine stock reduction as well as some pan fried asparagus.