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I do pork roast in the SV, BUT I then finish for 10~15 min in a hot oven to improve the look and feel of the outside. I do Beef basically the same way. Lamb roast I find DOES not work well in the SV (not sure why) so do that in the oven in an oven bag with Rosemary, ripping open the bag to release all that lovely liquid for the last 15 mins to flavor the roasted vegetables in the same pan. This also scents the kitchen with lamb & rosemary.

Here is an interesting phenomena that may apply to corn beef We quite like pork steak (usually sirloin) but they can be a little dry after cooking, so I brine them for 24 hrs (6%). I then SV at 65C for ~3-5 hrs, then do a sear to serve. I normally vacuum pack into meal size (2 pieces) when i buy in bulk, then freeze. So I usually thaw, brine cook. Well I thought to cut down the process time a little. So Brine then freeze then they can go straight to SV with or without thawing. Whether they are thawed or put straight in the SV the end result is the same. The amount of liquid in the bag is perhaps 3 times what I get compared to the original method. Perhaps as the water freezes, it expands and when it thaws it has lots more room to exit the tissue. The meat itself is drier but probably not as dry as without the brining. I wonder if Corn Beef does the same, though it would be hard to tell because it has a lot more salt (and therefore more liquid).

Okay! Thank you both for this information. I'll pull it soon and report on the results when I try it tomorrow.

I don't think I've ever SVd a pork tenderloin...they are so tender to begin with. Pork loin is a different matter of course. Yes, longer times would be bad with this cut. Usually I pan sear and finish for 15 min at 350 or so. But if I were to SV I'd do 140 or a little less for an hour or 90min

Happily, the bottled Doritos hasn't made it to China. Yet.

For 3 inch it’s 4 1/2 hours, I just looked and the time is the same (at least for 3 and 4 inch thickness), not sure about leaving it for 24 hours, I probably wouldn’t.

Quick dinner tonight. Pan fried halibut, cilantro lime rice, and zucchini.('but was a nice 50 pounder so quite tender)

Thanks, @DesertTinker. This tenderloin (I didn't measure it, and should have) is no more than 3" thick at the thickest. The photo may not show it, but there's considerable taper to the meat. It really looks like a tri-tip although that isn't how I labeled it and I don't know whether anyone applies that label to pork. If I remember correctly, leaving it for a longer time at a given temperature -- in this case 140F -- will change the texture but not the doneness / color. Does that sound right? Am I flirting with disaster to leave it for 12 hours? The corollary question, of course, is "what disaster?" given the amount of time it's been sitting frozen. 🙂 Other readers ( @rotuts, @gfweb for starters) may feel free to chime in.

Arriving tomorrow. These tomatoes are an Amazon subscription option and a few days ago Amazon told me that they were out of stock and it was unknown when they'd be available again. Not a big deal as there are always a few cans of tomatoes in the pantry, these or one of two brands of San Marzano dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino. But I don't like to get too low. Well, Amazon came through and shipped them much sooner than expected. But what made them the most fun is that the price dropped by abut 20% from past orders, and in these days of rising prices that's real fun. And from TJ's this morning came this item: Thanks to @blue_dolphin for making me aware of it. I'm hoping I'll like it enough, and that it'll work well in some of my recipes, that I'll have no need to drive into Berkeley to get my feta. There are a few recipes in which I'd like to try this cheese, and maybe I'll get to at least one of them in the next few days.

From the Breville/Joule app, for a frozen 4 inch thick pork loin 7 1/2 hours at 136°F gets you Same time at 144°F

I quite like Doritos and many crispy salty good-for-nobody snacks so I looked it up at my Total Wine - it’s $61.99 for a 750 ml bottle! Now, I’d spring for a little airline bottle but no way am I paying that much! Also, the reviews were mostly bad. The one positive review recommended adding a splash to a dirty martini or a Bloody Mary. I can imagine that working but I’m not a fan of either cocktail and a soggy Dorito has zero appeal, even for me.

It’s a decent substitute, and has some of the flavors of regular gin. It has a different mouthfeel, as do basically all non alcoholic spirits. This is the thing I notice most about non alcoholic mocktails. At home, my mocktail of choice is light tonic water mixed with preserved lemon pulp and a pinch of salt and sugar over ice with olives. I do have a small collection of n/a spirits, but have not really experimented with them to date.

Since I'm running that warm water and circulator anyway, I decided to repackage, treat and cook a pork tenderloin I bought quite some time ago and vacuum-packed for sous vide (or storage), only to get resistance from my darling. He always looked askance at sous vide meats -- meaning, he rarely if ever appreciated the results. In addition, he looked askance at any lean cut of pork. Pork steak, pork roast, ham, bacon...those were good. I had limited success with my efforts at cooking pork loin and arriving at something we both liked. So here that tenderloin has sat, frozen, for far too long. I unpackaged it, coated it liberally with a blend of cumin, garlic powder and mild Hatch green chile powder, and put it into a new bag. Then I added a few pats of butter, sealed the new bag, and tossed it into the 140F bath. I'm guessing that 24 hours will be enough to cook it adequately, but I'm open to suggestions. It went into its bath at 1830, an hour after the corned beef brisket (which is going to get 36 hours). I'm hoping for a few bites of good tenderloin, then some good taco fodder.

I'm disappointed in you 🤣

Beef curry with spinach. Beef chuck (sub for lamb) was cubed and marinated with pureed ginger, garlic, jalapenos, yogurt, and cumin. Fry black cardamon, cloves, and bay leaf, slowly sautee onions, and then add ground coriander and cumin. Simmer with the meat and marinade, crushed tomato, and tomato paste. When almost done, mix in pureed spinach and sprinkle with ground nutmeg. Tasted better than it looked - I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately. Turmeric rice with black cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon stick, topped with scallions. Sliced and salted cukes.

That's quite the mascot!

I'm sure. It isn't that they're unavailable here. Sadly, they are. It's just I don't eat this kind of industrial crap, especially when it is made from the evil pestilence that is cØrn.

This definitely falls into the OMG category. I thought I must be misreading -- that is, not correctly processing what I was seeing -- until I read liuzhou's comment: I'm no fan of Doritos. IMO you aren't missing a thing.

And that's what I'm trying. It went into its 140F bath just now, and will come out early Wednesday morning. It's the other point cut I purchased, and being cooked from frozen, so I should have a good comparison. I'm writing more about it here.

Okay then. I've just repackaged my other point cut corned beef (Kroger's, purchased last March and promptly frozen) and plopped it into the hot water bath. It's set for 140F. The only spices are what it came with -- that is, the original treatment and the little spice packet. I'll give it around 36 hours, give or take. (That amounts to 05:30 Wednesday and I won't set an alarm to get up and pull it then, but I'm usually waking up around then anyway.) Since it's the same make and model, so to speak, but it's being sous vided from frozen and has been frozen since I bought it, that should make a good comparison with the previous corned beef I wrote about here.

I'm in no position to comment on this as I've never tasted Doritos in my life, but I remember reading this a couple of years ago. Interesting back story. Didn't make me want to run out and buy either the edible or potable kind, though.

How did you like the N/A gin? - I have been looking into the N/A spirits but haven't bought any yet. And thank you once again for showing me a place that I will never likely visit as much as I would love to,

I don't blame you one bit - yuk!

Seen on the shelf at Total Wine this weekend: Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. Readers, I did not take one for the team.

This sounds inspired! With or without the oysters! Thanks for another fine trip.