Category: Uncategorised

30-hour Sous Vide Whole Beef Eye of Round Roast

A few days ago, I bought a whole beef eye of round roast from Freshco.  It was on sale for $2.77 per pound.  This big piece of meat weighed over 3 kg and costed less then $20.  Since this cut of beef contains little fat and a lot of connective tissue, I think cooking this roast in the oven will likely produce a dry and tough piece of meat.  So I decided to try cooking this using my Anova Sous Vide cooker.

After researching on the internet, I decided to cook the whole roast sous vide at 135F for 30 hours.  I don’t have a big enough sous vide bag to hold the whole roast in one piece so I cut it into two pieces.  I seasoned the meat with salt and pepper then seared it using a hot cast iron pan.  After searing, I put each piece of meat in a separate sous vide bag and added thyme and olive oil.  Due to the long cooking time, I decided to used sous vide bags made specially for sous vide cooking instead of the regular freezer zip bags that I normally used to avoid possible leakage.

I started sous vide cooking this roast at around noon on Friday and it was ready for tonight’s dinner at around 6pm.

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After 30 hours of sous vide cooking, the sous vide bags held up well and there was no leakage.  I removed one bag of meat from the water bath and chilled it in cold water then put it in the fridge for later use.  I took out the bigger chunk of meat from the other bag.  After pad drying the meat with paper towel, I seasoned it with salt and pepper.  Then I seared the meat in a hot cast iron pan using grape seed oil.  Grape seed oil has a higher smoke point then the other cooking oil I have on hand.  The beef juice in the bag was saved for later use.

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I cut the roast into 1 cm thick slices.

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Then dinner was served!

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The beef was tender and not dry.  I think it turned out better than if I would have cooked it in the oven.  The texture has some resemblance to prime ribs.  Flavour is acceptable.  Since I am not a big fan of prime ribs or roast beef, if money is not an issue, I will choose strip loin instead.  I prefer its texture and flavour. However, this roast fed 6 people tonight with a small piece of leftover and don’t forget, there is another chunk of meat that was reserved for another meal.   So for less then $20, you can feed 10 to 12 people and it tasted pretty decent.  I think I will make it again.  It just require a little bit of planning ahead.  May be next time I will try slicing the eye of round into 3 to 4cm thick pieces before sous vide cooking them for a couple of hours.

Apple Watch Series 2 vs Garmin Swim

I received my new Apple Watch Series 2 yesterday afternoon so I went to the pool this morning to try it out.  I wore the Apple Watch on my left wrist and my 3-years-old Garmin Swim on my left wrist.

To me, the Apple Watch feel less bulky on the wrist.  I always find the Garmin Swim a bit too bulky for my taste.  During the swim, the Apple Watch shows time, cal, lap and distance.  It does not show heart rate during my swimming workout.  I am not sure if you can select what data to be displayed on the watch during workout.  On my Garmin Swim, I can choose what data I can display, and I chose time and distance.

After the workout, you can review the stats on your iPhone using the Activity app.  The photos below show the stats you get with Apple Watch versus Garmin Swim.   The total time registered on both devices are about the same.  Garmin gives me higher len/lap count but it is normal for the Garmin Swim to give me 3 extra laps.  My guess is the Apple Watch registered one to two lengths less than actual.  Total calories is about the same, with Garmin being slightly higher than Apple.  I think it is because of the 5 extra length counts on the Garmin.  Speed is a bit slower on the Apple Watch.  The Activity app shows my average heart rate as 139 BPM but the Garmin Swim does not provide this information.  However, Garmin Swim gives you other stats that Apple Watch does not provide such as SWOLF (“Swim Golf” , a score obtained by adding together your strokes per length, and the time for the length) and the number of stroke per length.  I rarely look at those data though.

Apple Watch Series 2 First Swim
Apple Watch Series 2 First Swim

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I noticed two short comings when using the Apple Watch as a swim watch.  First, the Apple Watch’s screen go blank during the swim while the Garmin Swim stay on during the entire swim session.  I like to check my len/lap count or distance when I reached one side of the pool before I turn.  With the Garmin, I will just steal a glance but with the Apple Watch, I have to tap on the screen to wake it up.  For me, this is my first and biggest complaint.  Second, it is difficult to pause the Apple Watch during the middle of a swim session.  With the Garmin Swim, you just press a button and it pause.  With the Apple Watch, as soon as you start the pool swim workout in the fitness app, the watch screen will lock.  You have to press and turn the crown to blow out water and unlock the screen before you can pause or stop the workout.  It does not bother me too much because I usually don’t stop in the middle of my swim session but I think the pause feature may be important to some swimmers.

Overall, I like the Apple Watch Series 2 as a swim watch.  It is less bulky to wear and it provides pretty accurate lap count.  Also, it provides heart rate information.  Although I prefer getting the heart rate information during my workout rather than after the fact, it is better than not getting the data  at all.  Another benefit of using the Apple Watch as a swim watch is that my swim workout data get recorded in the Activity app and added points to my daily activity goal tracker automatically.  No syncing or importing data is required.  I am happy with my Apple Watch Series 2 and I think you will like it as well!