What to Do With Sous Vide Juice

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Whenever you cook meat, there will be some juices left in the container. What to do with sous vide juice? The sous vide preparation not only cooks the meat well, it also leaves behind juices. Get to know what you can do with this juice instead of wasting it.

What to Do With Sous Vide Juice

Sous vide juice is a rich, flavorful fluid left in the bag after you complete the cooking process. Instead of throwing it away, you can use it in various ways. This juice is thick and similar to meat stock with all the spices or herbs you used to add flavor to the prepared food.

Cooking meat with herbs and spices on a black frying pan

This juice is released naturally when the meat in the vacuum bag is fully cooked. Juice can be rendered fat that melts as food cooks, or it can be protein fluids that are excreted from the fibers.

What is important here is that the higher the temperature of your cook, the more fat will render out, and the more fluid will be forced out of the muscle fibers.

Sous Vide Juice Is Different

When you cook protein in a pan or pot on direct flame, the water in the meat is released. However, the protein released along with this juice coagulates because of the heat. Since this special process of preparing meats does not use high temperatures, the protein in the juice does not coagulate.

However, when you remove this fluid from the vacuum bag and heat it, the meat protein will begin solidifying, forming a dark and almost gelatinous paste. Many cooks find this unappealing, although it may taste great. The protein released from meat cooked on the flame will not be visible separately because it either solidifies with the heat or gets braised around the cooked portion.

Many do not notice any water loss from the food I cook. The truth is that when you cook meat on high flame, it may lose more fluid. Since I can see the amount of juice in the vacuum bag, I feel that only this method causes it.

A good way to test this is to cook chicken breasts in a pan or on a grill and separately cook one in a sous vide. You will notice the sous vide one is markedly larger when it is done cooking. This is because much less water was forced out of the meat.

Some Ideas for Using the Sous Vide Juice

All kinds of innovative and creative things can be done when you are cooking. The best part is that you can decide what to create. The meat fluid or juice can also be used in many creative ways. You can use it to make:

  • Gravies
  • Sauces
  • Marinades
  • Vegetable curries with meta flavoring
  • Soups

Cooks and chefs can devise the most creative ways to use sous vide juice. You can try so many things and see how people use this rich and flavorful stock juice to get ideas.

A Tasty Gravy Idea

Gravies are always a good combination for steaks and roasts. You can make a beef steak in the sous vide and use its juices to create a delicious gravy too! Here is a quick idea for all those who want to utilize the juice in a tasty way.

Ingredients:

  • The juice
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • White wine or cider
  • A few teaspoons of plain flour

Method

  1. Heat a saucepan and add a cube of butter to graze the base
  2. Add onions cut into small pieces and sauté until translucent
  3. Add garlic and plain flour and stir fast
  4. Add the juices from the vacuum-sealed bag
  5. Let the gravy come to a boil, and add wine
  6. Mix the gravy well until desired thickness is achieved

You can make gravies using a famous recipe, and change the chicken or beef stock to the juice left from your prepared meal. The results cannot be poor because the juice will be delicious. It has the essence of all the spices and herbs you add to the meat before vacuuming the bag.

A Delicious Sauce With Juice

When you have sous vide juice in the house, making a rich sauce for all kinds of foods is so easy. It can be a good condiment for vegetables, fries, and even pasta. You will get all the ingredients at home so try this simple recipe out:

Beef patties garnished with herbs cooked in a black frying pan on an electric stove

Ingredients:

  • Meat juice from the bag
  • Crushed garlic, almost one teaspoon
  • Paprika, one teaspoon
  • Tomato paste, one tablespoon

Method

  1. Add some butter to a saucepan and let it melt
  2. Add crushed garlic and tomato paste
  3. Add the juice and stir to blend all the ingredients
  4. Season with paprika for color and the final zing

This recipe can be altered according to taste, and you can add just about anything that you want to have in your sauce. Cheese, mushrooms, and even cream can be added ingredients to create a rich and delicious sauce.

Soups and Other Ideas

Soup is a comfort food that everyone likes. You can make soup with sous vide juice in easy and simple steps. You can add vegetables, corn, mushrooms, chilies, or any ingredient according to the soup you want. Pumpkin, tomato, and cream are also good additions. Moreover, you can make chowder.

The leftover juice can be added to marinades and other dishes when you prepare a meat portion using this special cooking technique. If you are making vegetables or even pasta, this stock-like juice can add flavor to the dish.

Another good use of this juice is adding it back to the steak you cooked. This can moisten the meat and will add more flavor to it. After all, the juice was a part of the steak, and adding it on top or braising the meat portion will give your food more color and flavor.

Conclusion

People may wonder what to do with sous vide juice when they prepare meat in a vacuumed bag in water. There are many exciting ways to use this fluid, which can add more taste to your new recipe. People use it for sauces, gravies, soups, and other foods.

Nathaniel Lee is an avid cook, drawing on his decades of home cooking and fine dining experience. He is a contributing chef at Mashed, and his recipes and contributions have been featured in Tasting Table, Edible Arrangements, Insanely Good Recipes, and The Daily Meal.