Sous Vide Pork Leg

As a cooking technique, Sous Vide has a lot to offer.  As a cooking technique, Sous Vide takes a bit to wrap your head around.

I have been cooking for a while and am not too bad when using the traditional tools of ovens and frying pans.  Sous Vide, however, has pushed me to another level.

Take the traditional pork leg roast as an example.  Take everything you know and throw it out the window then start from scratch.

First, I looked up the safe internal temperature guide for cooked pork; 72 degC.  Then I had a think about it, and decided, rightly or wrongly, that this would take about 10 hours.  The good thing about Sous Vide is that you cant overcook anything and dry it out like you would in an oven.  (Unless your temperature is far too high.)

I took a 3kg leg of pork and boned it out, before slicing in half and removing the skin.  This left me with a reasonably uniform lump of around 1.2kg.  I rolled it and then seasoned it with salt, pepper, oil, and about 10 sage leaves before rolling in a large bad and sealing.

I placed it in the pre-heated Sous Vide water bath for the 10 hours.  And then I waited.  The skin was scored and heavily salted and left in the fridge uncovered for the day to make crackling.  Beautiful crackling that I ate all of.  Sorry, no photo.

The idea is that the lean pork will be gently cooked, poaching in its own fat, before a quick turn through the frypan to crisp it off and give it a bit of colour.

Ingredients

1.2 kg boned out lump of pork leg.
10 sage leaves
salt and pepper for seasoning

Method.

Preheat Sous Vide to 72 degC.

Bone the leg and remove the skin.

Wrap into a uniform round and tie up tight with kitchen cotton and seal in a vacuum bag.  Immerse in the sous vide for 10 hours.

When ready, take out of the bag and brown in a hot frying pan for a couple of minutes on each side.  Slice and serve.

For the skin:  Roast at 220 degC in an oven for 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 180 for 20 minutes.  Beautiful.