Delicious Sous Vide Veal Picanha

Today I am taking on the task of preparing Friday night dinner for the family. The choice of meat fell on a nice looking Veal Picanha. Follow along for instructions on how to prepare and cook the most delicious sous vide veal picanha.

If you are looking for time and temperature for another cut of meat, check out our best sous vide cooking time and temperatures guide.

The Picanha cut has really started to rise in popularity over the last couple of years. One of the reasons for this is no doubt the praises that the YouTube sous vide king Guga has song for this cut of meat. He usually goes for the more traditional beef picanha, but the veal picanha is a little bit more delicate both in flavor and size.

This cut of meat is not always called Picanha. Sometimes it would be named as the top sirloin cap, rump cover, rump cap, or culotte. Picanha is the word used in Brazil, but we are seeing it spread all over the world now. This has always been a little funny to me, as where I’m from (Denmark), we have traditionally called this cut of meat a culotte.

It makes for a perfect cut of meat if you are not planning to serve for many people – or if you are not a fan of the intense flavors of more red meat. In our case we are only two adults and one toddler, so a sous vide veal picanha is perfect for us. You should ensure to get it with the fat cap still on, as this is where all the delicious flavors reside.

As this is a larger piece of meat, it does require a longer cooking time. However due to the current climate in the world with the virus taking its told, many of us are forced to work from home. So why not utilize this to start cooking your picanha sous vide during the day!

If there are any meat left from the dinner, it will make for perfect cold supplements for a leftover sandwich during the weekend. Or in my case, I will be utilizing it by cutting it in shreds and use it as toppings for the pizza I am planning on doing on Saturday.

Let us know in the comments down below if you have tried or are planning on to sous vide this delicious sous vide veal picanha.

Delicious Sous Vide Veal Picanha

Course: DinnerCuisine: Other world cuisine

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

5

hours 

Temp

55.5

°C

Temp

132

°F

Follow along for our take on a delicious sous vide veal picanha. We are aiming for a temperature of 55.5 °C / 132 °F with a cooking time of about 5 hours which should deliver a delicious medium-rare cut of meat.

Ingredients

• Veal Picanha

• Salt

• Pepper

• Oil for pan frying / searing

Directions

• Fill up your water bath and set the temp of your sous vide machinery to 55.5 °C / 132 °F
• Take your Picanha out of the fridge, unpack it
• Pat dry your picanha so it looks something like this
• Trim of any excess fat and the silver skin on the bottom of the picanha. Make sure to remove the silver skin as this will not render while cooking. Please do not remove too much fat, as this is where the flavor resides. On the picture I have left a piece of the silver skin for illustration. This part needs to be removed.
• Cut / slash the fat cap. I usually go for a square trim, however this is up to your own desire. Often straight lines will work great also, as you can mark it so it functions as a guideline for how the fibers run in the meat. This is important to know once we cut the meat.
• Season your meat with a generous amount of salt and make sure to rub it into the fat. Add a bit of pepper also, but do make sure not to over do this – unless this is a preference of yours.
• Add your picanha to your vacuum bag. If you use a Ziploc bag, follow the water displacement method and disregard step 7 and 8.
• Vacuum your picanha. Ensure that the bag is firmly sealed.
• Your water bath should now be hitting our desired temperature of 55.5 °C / 132 °F.
  Add your picanha to the water bath. Sit back and relax for the next 5 hours.
• Once the 5 hours have passed, take your picanha out of the water bath.
• Pat the picanha dry. I usually use some paper towel.
• Heat up a pan or grill on maximum heat, fry the meat on all sides to your desire. Be careful with the fat cap as it easily burns. I gave mine a bit too much to my liking.
• Finally cut it against the grains and serve. Enjoy your delicious sous vide veal picanha.

Notes

• Should you leave your meat for longer than 5 hours, do not worry. It will be fine! As we sous vide we ensure the temperature is kept steady, so it will be fine. At some point (after the 16-24 hour mark) we will of course have left it for to long. Which will render the meat to a very tender structure. It becomes a sort of shredding texture, which to our liking is a quite special mouthfeel.
  
• Do not throw away the juices that will build up in your bag as you sous vide. It makes for a fantastic sauce!
• At the end of your pan-frying try and throw in a chunk of butter as you finish off you browning of the meat. This will a bit of buttery love to your meat.

How To Cut A Whole Sous Vide Veal Picanha

When cutting the a whole picanha it is important that you cut against the grains. The fibers in a whole piece of picanha tends to twist and turn as you cut through it, so pay attention to this and change your angle as appropriate.

We want to cut against the grains as this shortens the fibers which in turn gives us a more tender mouthfeel. Cutting with the fibers will often result in a much more chewy bite.

If you have a look at the final picture, you can see that my first cut was with the fibers, where as the rest of the cut was against. This is what you should aim towards.