♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Bridget and Julia make a showstopping, sous-vide prime rib with mint persillade, Adam reveals his top pick for vacuum sealers, and Julia makes Bridget perfect popovers.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

♪♪ -Prime rib is an intimidating cut of meat.

It's big, it's expensive, and it's usually reserved for holidays and when you have company coming over, so no pressure.

But luckily today, Bridget's gonna show us a foolproof recipe because you have a lot of experience cooking prime rib.

-I do.

I have a little bit of experience cooking prime rib, like maybe once a week.

-[ Laughs ] -No, not really.

But I do have some restaurant experience with it, and I think that that can actually help the home cook, too.

You said holidays.

This is also just a great roast for a special occasion.

-Mm-hmm.

-But you want to cook it right.

So I think one of the most important things is knowing exactly what to buy, because even the name prime rib is a little bit misleading.

Prime rib doesn't mean the grade of the meat.

It actually comes from the primal rib cut.

-Aha.

-And the cow has 13 ribs on each side.

That's a huge cut, but the prime cut is ribs 6 through 12.

-Mm-hmm.

-I'm telling you this because you can actually specify the ribs that you want to buy at the butcher.

We want a first cut, and that is ribs 10, 11, and 12.

-Three ribs.

-Three ribs.

It's closer to the loin.

You end up with a really nice eye there.

-Yeah.

-Big meat muscle.

And that's really good, and it's also very tender.

Now, before I start to really butcher into this, I want to get rid of some of this fat.

You want about a half-inch fat cap on here.

I'm just gonna take a boning knife.

You can use a chef's knife, but a nice, flexible boning knife is just going to shave off the fat and leave the meat behind.

Take your time.

Notice that I'm not really digging in there too much.

I'm gonna leave some on here because it's going to help to baste the meat.

But, also, you want to prevent moisture loss as much as possible.

So that fat is also acting as a heat shield.

-That makes sense.

-Alright.

So this is looking pretty good.

I want to remove these ribs.

-Mm-hmm.

-I want to I remove them in one piece, but I want to leave as much meat on the roast as possible.

So find the ribs, and you insert, again, a thin knife.

You can use a paring knife to start this, as well.

And you start to make a cut straight down for your first cut, just like this.

And then once you start to make that first cut -- I'm gonna turn it around -- you can pull apart the meat just like that.

Alright.

That should clear it, and it'll fall.

Yay!

-[ Chuckles ] -Alright.

I'm just gonna set this rack aside for a second.

Couple more things to do.

We're gonna do a little crosshatching.

So I'm gonna take a knife, and we want to cut through here and just make a little crosshatch pattern through the fat and down to, but not into, the meat.

And this is going to do a few things.

One -- it's really pretty.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's gonna make a lovely pattern.

It's also going to allow any seasoning to penetrate into the meat.

And, also, it's going to help that fat in the fat cap render and baste the meat as it cooks.

So, I'm gonna space these cuts about one inch apart.

-I like how you're taking your time just to go through the fat, but not the meat.

-And the fat isn't always even, either -- the thickness.

-Right.

-So you definitely want to take your time.

Going to season this.

And this is kosher salt.

It's 2 tablespoons.

And the sides.

Alright, and seasoning this top, as well.

And now I want to gently work some of that salt in between the cuts that I made here.

-Mmm.

Yes.

-Alright.

Alright, so that is looking great.

And we need to give the salt plenty of time so it can pull out some of that moisture from the roast and then work its way all the way back in close to the center.

But we're gonna put it into the fridge.

So can't forget the ribs.

Put these right on top.

And then this is going to go into the fridge for at least 24 hours, but you can do this up to 96 hours in advance.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-Covered or uncovered?

-Uncovered.

We want to let the surface dry out because we're going to sear later on.

But again, it's 24 hours minimum, 96 hours maximum.

-Okay.

♪♪ -Hello, old friend.

Hello, old friend.

-You can see the meat has turned a little bit darker, which is what happens after it's salted.

-Yeah.

It really does dry the fat on top, so it looks very different.

It also firms the meat a little bit.

But all of this is to ensure that we get a gorgeous crust on our prime rib.

So we're gonna sear it, and I've got a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

We're gonna heat this oil over medium-high heat until it just starts to smoke.

-Okay.

-Let's talk a little bit about sous-vide.

Here's our large container -- 12 quarts.

-Mm-hmm.

-Big cut, big container.

And if you're unsure how much water to use, when you bring this home, you can put it in a bag, submerge it in water, and use that as your measurement before you go ahead and season it and dry it and everything.

That's the great thing about sous-vide -- we're going to cook the beef at the temperature that we're going to serve it at.

-Brilliant.

-Or very close in there.

So it's heating up.

It's set at 133.

Got our oil heating up.

We're gonna put this right into the skillet.

[ Sizzling ] -Ooh, that's a good noise.

-Fat cap side down.

We're gonna brown this on the sides and that fat cap for between six to eight minutes total.

You don't really need to brown this other side.

It's curved, so it's hard to get a good, even browning on it.

-That makes sense.

-Just browning that last little bit down there.

Thank you.

-Oh, that's beautiful.

-Good?

-That smells delicious.

Smells like a beautiful brown steak.

-Now, before I tie everything together, we're gonna let this cool down just a little bit.

About 10 minutes.

-Okay.

-Done.

It's cooled off.

Now I can handle it.

So the bones are sitting underneath the roast.

We're gonna reattach them.

That's both for flavor and, also, it acts as, again -- remember I said moisture loss was an issue?

We don't want that.

So we want to make sure that as little liquid escapes from the meat as we cook it.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I'm tying these between the ribs.

So just make a nice, little knot here.

I would be so happy if I got that as a gift.

-[ Laughing ] I would, too.

-Just cut off the excess twine here.

There we go.

And, since my hands are a little bit messy, if you wouldn't mind giving that a good peppering.

-Sure.

Do you have a preference on your grind, Madame?

-Ladies' choice.

-[ Laughs ] I'm gonna go right in the middle.

Alright.

-I'll flip it over when you're all set.

Thank you.

-Oh, the smell of fresh pepper and ground beef.

-There you go.

-[ Laughs ] -And, again, we don't need to salt at this point because we salted ahead of time.

-That's right.

-So that looks great.

So now we're going to put it into... -May I hold this for you?

-...our large bag.

This is a 2-gallon zipper-lock bag.

-I was gonna say this is not your average zipper-lock bag.

-I know.

This is huge.

Zip it up, almost all the way.

Now, if you had a vacuum sealer, you could absolutely use that.

Now, the problem with any cut of meat when you're using a sous-vide method is the air in the bag.

We want to get rid of as much of that as possible.

-Right.

-So I have left a corner of this bag open here.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I'm gonna work out some of the air at this point.

Alright, so, I'm just slowly lowering this so that the meat is submerged.

And you see as I'm lowering it, keeping that one open corner, that air is all out of there.

Now I can seal.

Make sure it's all sealed.

So now, in order to ensure that the seam doesn't go below the water, we're gonna use a good old office binder clip.

-Love it.

-Which I stole from your desk.

-[ Laughs ] I'll look for that later.

-It's set at 133.

We're gonna wait now.

-[ Chuckles ] -Minimum 16 hours.

That's how we'll know it's done.

Let it sit in there for up to 24 hours if you need to.

-Wow.

That's convenient.

-It's convenient.

It's also going to make the meat more tender.

-Mm-hmm.

♪♪ -Alright.

We are done with our sous-vide here.

So, I'm just gonna take this out.

Now, we need to get this out of the bag.

I've got a little trick that I use when I'm cooking with sous-vide.

I get a pair of scissors, and I just clip that.

-That is clever.

-Just so you don't want to be handling hot juices out of that bag.

So we're gonna put this out on a rack.

Now, it's set over a piece of foil, which has been sprayed with some vegetable-oil spray, because we are not done cooking it yet.

And you can see why.

-It's a little wet-looking.

-And we don't want that.

We want crackling that's nice and crisp.

So we're gonna let this rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

And during that time, the meat is going to reabsorb some of those juices.

Alright.

So that looks great.

-Okay.

-While that's resting, We can make our sauce.

So we're gonna make a really quick sauce.

You could serve this, of course, with the traditional horseradish cream.

-Mmm!

-So good.

You could use a chimichurri.

We're making a persillade.

-Ooh, I love persillade.

-So this is, of course, a parsley sauce, but it has mint in it, too, so a little kick here.

-Nice.

So, we've got a cup of fresh parsley leaves and a cup of fresh mint, three peeled garlic cloves, and three little fishies.

-Oh, nice.

-We've got three little anchovies.

We've rinsed these and patted them dry.

A teaspoon of grated, fresh lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper.

Alright.

So we're gonna pulse this about 15, 20 pulses until it starts to look broken down.

Alright.

And a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

We're gonna pulse this until that's combined.

Scrape this into our bowl.

Last step -- just going to whisk in 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil.

We're doing it here instead of in the food processor because, you know, the food processor can kind of bring out bitter flavors in the olive oil.

-That looks delicious.

-Mm-hmm.

And that is all she wrote for the sauce, so we're gonna leave this here.

The roast has a few more minutes, and then we'll get back to it.

So it's about to go into the broiler.

And to ensure that this gets nice and crisp, we're going to pat it dry with some paper towels.

Alright.

So that is good enough.

-Mm-hmm.

-So now we want this to broil evenly, and it's curved.

So we want to make sure that this fat cap... -Ooh!

-...is raised up.

Yeah.

-I like this.

-That's just a loosely balled-up piece of foil.

-It's a pillow.

-This is going to go under the broiler and the rack is set at middle.

-Mm-hmm.

-So it's got a little bit of space between it and the top of the broiler.

We're gonna leave it in there for about four to eight minutes.

We want this to be all nice and crisp and bubbly and crackling... -Mmm!

-...but not burnt.

Oh-ooh-ohh.

-Oh, goodness!

Come to mama.

-Now, that's a looker.

-Alright.

So, this doesn't need any more resting time.

It was just a few minutes under the broiler -- again, four to eight minutes -- but we rested it earlier, so we are done at this point.

-Nice.

-I do want to release it from the bones, so... Alright.

And transfer it to our carving board.

-Because now it's not only gorgeous, but it's easy to slice 'cause the bones are not there.

-That's exactly right.

And it lays nice and flat, not having to worry about the bones at all.

-Oh, my goodness.

-How is that looking?

-Um...it looks pretty perfect.

I mean absolutely perfect.

Look at that rosy color from the very center all the way to the outside.

-Oh.

Beautiful.

-Gorgeous.

-That is for you, ma'am.

-Oh, that's a beauty.

-And don't forget our beautiful mint persillade.

-Beautiful job, Bridget.

-Thank you.

-What part do you go for first?

-I always go right for the eye.

Look how tender that is.

That's a beautiful medium rare.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Mmm.

Mmm.

-Like butter.

-Mm-hmm.

Perfectly cooked.

The meat is so tender, it's seasoned throughout, and it has a really strong, beefy flavor that prime rib is known for.

That is perfection.

Thank you for showing me how to do this, because prime rib, you know, is intimidating, and getting the doneness just right is the name of the game, but using a sous-vide just takes all the guesswork out so you nail it every time.

-Good.

-Great job.

-Thank you.

-So if you want to make the ultimate prime rib, go sous-vide.

Start by separating the bones from the meat and salt the meat for at least 24 hours.

After browning the roast, cook it sous-vide.

Before serving, run it quickly under the broiler.

And don't forget the herb sauce.

From "America's Test Kitchen," a foolproof recipe for sous-vide prime rib with mint persillade.

♪♪ I don't own a vacuum sealer, and here's what I do instead.

[ Inhaling ] Works pretty good for me, but Adam's telling me there's a better way to handle this task.

-Julia, eye roll all the way back in the head.

That's kind of sad.

We are gonna set you up with a countertop vacuum sealer that will save you the meat breath from now on.

We tested five different sealers.

We got them for a price range of about $60 to $382, and they all work in pretty much the same way.

The food goes into a specially designed bag.

The bag goes into the machine.

There's a chamber here with a little gasket and there's a port in the chamber.

The bag goes over a heat bar, goes into that chamber, you seal it up, you hit the button, and off it goes.

So what's happening is there's a port inside of that chamber that is sucking the air out.

Plastic is tightening around the food.

There's a little indication about when the vacuum cycle is complete.

When it is complete, what will happen is that heat bar that we put the plastic over will heat up and seal the plastic.

And then you have a nicely sealed container of coffee.

Look at that.

-So there's not a little dude in there with a straw?

-There's not a little dude with a straw.

Let me tell you about the tests.

Testers vacuum-sealed strawberries, which are very delicate, ground coffee like we just did, ground beef, chicken-leg quarters, steaks, and individual portions of lasagna, and those all got stored in the freezer.

They vacuum-sealed cereal and pretzels, which got stored at room temperature in the pantry.

And they also vacuum-sealed chunks of butternut squash, which they cooked sous-vide.

In addition to the food, testers also sealed in these, these are oxygen-sensing tabs.

They're pink when there's no oxygen around.

They turn purple when there is oxygen, which would indicate a leaky seal.

Beyond that, they also tested the vacuum power with a vacuum gauge.

-That is cool.

-Check that out.

Now, that gets rated from zero to 100.

Zero is normal atmosphere.

100% is every last molecule there is absent.

Most of these machines performed within a range of 68% to 78%.

One enthusiastic editor with a straw -- I'm not naming names -- got 30% of the air out of the bag.

Now, most of these performed really well actually.

We checked the food over a period of months, periodically.

All of the food in the pantry, that being the cereal and the pretzels -- condition unchanged... -Wow.

-...which is to say it was great after four months.

In the freezer, the coffee looked great, the strawberries looked great.

The lasagna looked great.

So based on just performance, we could recommend any of these.

But none of these machines are gonna get used if they're tricky or hard to use.

So controls, we wanted those to be simple and straightforward.

A lid that was easy to open and shut.

They also determined that having an automatic mode and a manual mode is totally necessary, and it was nice to have, like, a pulse feature or a gentle feature.

So when you're doing delicate foods like cereal or strawberries or something like that, you have more control over the suction.

In the end, this model that we used in the demo at the beginning stole the show.

This is the Nesco Deluxe Vacuum Sealer.

We got it for about 90 bucks.

It ticked all of our boxes.

It worked really well.

It was easy to use.

We knew when the lid was shut and secure and also it only weighs about 6 pounds, so it's really easy to pick up and stash in a drawer somewhere when you're not using it.

-So it sounds like if you store a lot of stuff in the freezer, like I do, this is gonna help prevent a lot of freezer burn.

-Definitely.

And you can retire your straw.

-So there you have it.

If you're in the market for a new vacuum sealer, check out the Nesco Deluxe Vacuum Sealer for about $90.

♪♪ -Popovers can be real tricky and using a random recipe to make popovers and expecting success is kind of like using scratch lottery tickets as your retirement plan.

Things are not gonna work out for you.

Well, Julia is here and things are working out for us because she's going to show us popover perfection.

-[ Laughs ] No pressure on my part.

-No, just -- just perfection.

That's all we expect.

-Okay.

Well, the thing about popovers is that it's a very simple recipe.

In fact, this batter only has four ingredients.

And so with simple recipes, the devil is in the details, and you have to get each part right.

-Okay.

-So starting with the pan.

-Now, this is a popover pan.

This recipe is really foolproof.

If you didn't have this, you could use a muffin tin and that would make 12, and you'd have to adjust the cooking time a little bit, but it totally works.

Popover pans are gonna give you those really tall popovers... -Yeah.

-...which is kind of a hallmark.

I sprayed this popover pan with some vegetable-oil spray, and I'm wiping most of it out.

You just want a nice, thin layer, almost like seasoning a cast-iron pan.

You're just seasoning the popover tins.

Alright, so that's set aside, ready to go.

Now this is 1 1/2 cups of 2% milk, and now we're gonna heat it up.

We want the batter to be on the warm side.

That'll help you get that rise in the oven.

-Okay.

-Moving on to the flour.

We're gonna use bread flour here.

Bread flour has more protein, more gluten, so it makes taller popovers that also are a bit more crisp.

-You need the structure.

-That's it.

Now, we could measure the flour using the standard dip-and-sweep method.

That'd be 1 1/4 cups.

But in this recipe, when there's so few ingredients, weighing it really takes a lot of the guesswork out.

So it's 6 3/4 ounce of flour.

There we go.

"Poifect."

-"Poifect."

-Into this goes 3/4 teaspoon of table salt.

I'm whisk that in.

Alright, so flour, salt, milk.

Last but not least -- eggs.

This is three large eggs.

Now, a lot of recipes make this batter in the blender, but we saw no reason to dirty that pan.

It's just as easy to make this in a liquid measuring cup, because then you can easily pour it into the popover pan.

-You are the blender.

-Exactly.

Alright.

So three eggs into the liquid.

Alright.

So the milk is right in that sweet spot of 110 to 120.

Gonna add this to the flour.

I mean, such a simple batter.

Alright, into the prepared popover pans it goes.

-This is so much safer, too, because a lot of recipes will start with a super-hot pan.

-Oh.

-Hot fat in the bottom of the pan, almost like a Yorkshire pudding.

-Mm-hmm.

Alright.

That's six nice big popovers.

Alright.

So these popovers are ready for the oven.

Now, a lot of recipes crank the oven at the beginning to get that first puff... -Sure.

-...and then turn the oven down so they cook through.

But we found that really isn't a reliable recipe for multiple ovens because different ovens act differently.

So using a steady 400-degree oven temp for 40 to 45 minutes is perfect.

-You are breaking all the rules.

-I'm a rebel.

Will you help me get the oven door?

-Sure will.

-Alright.

-Pull that for you.

-Oh, full service.

-The hallmark of popovers is the steamy airspace inside them.

After the batter is placed in a hot oven, the first thing to happen is that the proteins on the surface are set into a solid but stretchy skin-like layer.

As the water in the batter turns to steam, it begins to expand and inflate the popover.

Eventually, the once-stretchy surface becomes a crisp, rigid shell, which prohibits any further inflation.

Our pre-warmed batter ensures that the steaming and inflation process happens more quickly than when using a chilled batter, and the result is steamy, airy, lifted popovers.

-♪ Mmm ♪ -[ Gasps ] -♪ Dun dun dun da ♪ I know.

-Wow.

-I know, right?

-Talk about a statement -I know.

Just so impressive.

I mean, this is -- this is a restaurant quality.

Alright.

We're gonna get them right out of the hot pan.

Oh, oh.

-Oh!

-Oh, yes.

Whoo!

Hot popover.

-Aren't they gorgeous?

-And they come right out of the pan so easily.

Oh, my goodness.

Alright.

Got to eat them while they're hot, you know?

-That is the law.

-And the thing is, there's no butter in the batter, which means you can put a little extra butter on now and be totally okay.

-These are great because you're supposed to serve them nice and hot.

Oh, and then you break it open?

Break it open.

-Oh, oh, oh!

That custardy inside.

-Alright.

Schmear there.

-This is good butter.

-Yes, it is.

-Mm.

You can imagine this with a nice, hearty stew in the dead of winter when it's freezing outside.

-Mm.

-It is just so comforting.

-These are popover perfection.

You've delivered, and you broke all the rules.

-I did.

-Thanks, Julia.

-Anytime.

-So if you want to make the ultimate statuesque, crisp popovers at home, heat the milk to create a warm batter, use bread flour for structure, and bake at 400 degrees.

So from "America's Test Kitchen," lofty, statuesque, voluminous perfection.

No-fail popovers.

And you can get this recipe and all the recipes this season, along with product reviews and select episodes from our website.

That's americastestkitchen.com/tv.

-Love how you have a little butter lake going in there.

-♪ I've got a butter lake, and you don't ♪ -I'm a little jealous.

-Oh, come on.

See?

This is butter gravy boat.

-Mmm!

-Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm.

♪♪ ♪♪