Later On

First, the stage is set:

Lamb chop, garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary, and Penzey’s Northwoods seasoning. Also used kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Bagged:

The bag after I tried to vacuum-seal it:

It wasn’t a very good vacuum seal, and in fact it leaked. But, hey, I’ve had lamb cooked in water before, and it didn’t leak much. I tried to fix.

The key fact I overlooked is that the beer coolers are designed to keep heat out, not keep heat in. Thus the bottom and sides are well-insulated, but the top not so much—no need if you’re packing cold stuff: cold air sinks, so once the chest is cold, it will stay pretty cold even without a lid (as anyone who’s tried to defrost something in a deep bowl has discovered), so the lid that’s there is thinly insulated—at least more thinly than it would have been if these coolers (significant name) had been designed to also keep foods hot.

So the insulating cover of towels is very important to maintain heat, as I discovered: without them, the heat drops fairly fast.

Still, the chop was in water around 145ºF for three hours: it was definitely done. I discarded the aromatics, heated a little oil in a cast-iron skillet, and quickly browned the chop on all sides, particularly the fat.

Incredibly tasty and juicy and good. This really does work well. I immediately ordered a better way to vacuum-seal bags, and tomorrow when I cook a swordfish steak sous-vide (only with olive oil instead of the butter suggested at the link, and also thinly sliced Meyer lemon, crushed garlic, thyme, chopped Kalamata olives), I’ll use some freezer bags I have that use a double-ziplock seal and hope that keeps out the water. And tomorrow I’ll remember the layer of towels.