BryanZ

In nearly all sous vide meat cooking there will be excess liquid in the bag. I do not let it cool in the bag for more than a couple minutes, ie when I'm preparing other sides, garnishes, etc. Normally you don't lose much juice at all during slicing. In this case, however, I chilled the roast before slicing because I knew I would be using it for sandwiches and other cold applications, so there was no liquid lost at all during slicing. The eye round still stayed relatively moist and buttery, considering the cut of the meat.

The eye round roast sous vide was a moderate success. The cooking process took what was a pretty poor and boring cut of meat and turned it into something respectable. Sous vide can't turn eye round into tenderloin, but the finished product was akin to a nice piece of sandwich-style roast beef. I cooked it at 56C for about 14-15 hours. The meat was tender but not falling apart. The color, as usual, was even and pleasing. Applications like this show how sous vide isn't only for luxury items and can be used for more humble foodstuffs. Seasoned liberally with salt and pepper and browned lightly on all sides. I added 1/3 of a clove of garlic to the bag before vacuuming. This little bit of garlic gave the beef a noticeable but pleasant perfuming. I also think that the browning before hand gave the meat a certain richness that was not present when I cooked my short ribs sous vide without pre-browning. Sliced thinly, this would go great on a crusty baugette.

113F seems to be the most commonly used temp. Some people suggest 103F for salmon, making it even more "sashimi-like", but personally I like the smooth flaking that the 113F cooking provides. I found the 103F to be even a little foreign to me--not quite raw but certainly not cooked. As for vegetables, I honestly haven't tried anything yet. nathanm has suggested 180F+, but vegetables sous vide isn't as widely discussed in most sous vide threads.

[Moderator note: The original [CHI] Alinea – Grant Achatz – Reviews & Discussion topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: [CHI] Alinea – Grant Achatz – Reviews & Discussion (Part 1)] The tour was totally awesome and inspiring and unique. I'm joining the "Alinea is the best restaurant in the United States" camp for someone with tastes similar to my own. I will post more later, but for now let me say it was an inspiring and memorable eating journey that was nearly priceless.

They will if you ask for it at JG. The table next to mine this past Friday went through alot of olive oil, and they were NOT regulars. ← Oh trust me, I know. I ask for it all the time and am, unfortunately, not a regular.

Do you find the pasta to be significantly different that just being cooked in lobster broth? Is there any point to the single ladles? It seems to me that pasta doesn't absorb liquid in the same way as rice does so the same effect would be achieved either way. ← Surpisingly, it is quite different. The slow addition of the stock and constant stirring really give the pasta a creamy risotto-style texture. It's really nothing like pasta prepared in the traditional way. Just like any risotto, you can easily stir in other vegetables like mushrooms, asparagus, etc, about halfway through the cooking process. Throw in a handful of cheese at the end and you're set.

Lobster tail sous vide was the project of the evening, among other, non sous vide, offerings. Here, I'll focus on the lobster. I found it to be quite good. Very firm, perhaps a smidge chewy, but not at all objectionable. Similar to scallops and shrimp sous vide, the firm texture might be strange to some, but I find it more pure than a strirated, stringy piece of tail meat. I also discovered that searing off the lobster meat after the sous vide cooking gives a more "traditional" lobster texture while still maintaining some of that smooth, firm texture that the sous vide process contributed. This was about an 11oz lobster tail. It was of good, but not great quality--firm and full of dense meat but not necessarily the sweetest. I doused it with boiling water and let it sit a few minutes before prying off the shell. I used the shells to make a lemongrass infused lobster stock. Seasoned liberally with salt (I found I would need even more salt than expected after the bathing) and cut in half. I added black truffle butter to one of the bags and plain, unsalted butter to the other. Sliced the tail into medallions and plated with porcini mushrooms and served over pasta. I cooked the penne as one would a basic risotto, adding ladlefuls of stock while constantly the stirring. The pasta was infused with a hint of lobster essence from the stock I had made and was just a little creamy. The lobster from the truffle butter bag had just the right amount of truffle flavor and aroma. As a whole it was a great dish. If I was serving lobster sous vide to a crowd, however, I would probably give the pieces a quick sear in some butter to round out the richness of flavor and add a more familiar texture. I'll be taking a day off from experimenting tomorrow since I'll be going to Alinea tomorrow for some 24-course chef's tour action

In retrospect I'm not sure how much the extra features add in terms of sous vide cooking. The instant seal is pretty useful if you find that the pump is suking an unexpected amount of liquid. I haven't really used the extended vacuum feature yet--to be honest I haven't even tried it and don't exactly know how it works--but perhaps I'll run some tests for those of us not able to afford vacuum chambers. I definitely like that I have the "extended seal" feature. This is featured on most of the higher models and is definitely necessary. When sealing meats or anything with even a slight amount of liquid you want that longer seal time to ensure a good seal.

Medallions of lobster tail cooked sous vide with black truffle butter and poricini mushrooms over risotto-style pasta. The pasta was cooked slowly in lobster stock by adding one ladleful of stock at a time and stirring until the liquid is absorbed, similar to a risotto. This is one of my favorite ways to prepare pasta, as it imparts flavor into each piece of pasta and gives the dish a creamy texture. Halibut with a light asparagus cream sauce. I love the combination of halibut and asparagus (the idea for the sauce was suggested by the g/f); the sweet, grassiness of the asparagus goes great with the fish.

flinflon, do you remember if they offered any other tasting menus? If so, how many courses and how much are they? I'd like to know what to expect when I go next week.

And it's cheap, too.

For my first couple experiments I was seasoning gingerly, something I usually never do. I was afraid that the "flavor concentration" effect that others had spoken about in regards to herbs, wine, etc in vacuum bags would be offensive. I quickly found, however, that a normal amount of salt works wonderfully during the initial bath cooking. When it's out of the bag I usually reseason (ie more salt, some pepper, any other herbs) if I'm going to finish it off in a pan, under a broiler, or with a torch. The eye round sounds very interesting. The fact that it's pretty much devoid of fat makes me wonder if the sous vide process will actualy tenderize it. So far I've really only done "luxury ingredients" or things that are trendy among the foodie set. I think I should give a more humble piece of meat a try. I'm excited to see what atlanta cook comes up with.

When I first took my rack of lamb out of the package I bought it in it had a stronger "lamby" smell than other racks I had worked with before. In my limited experience, I have found that sous vide tends to concentrate flavors. With this in mind, I was worried about this lamb experiment. I also had it in the bath longer than I anticipated (was watching Brokeback Mountain) and didn't take it out until about a 6.5 hour soak. Everything could have gone wrong--offensive lamb odor, too mushy--but thankfully it didn't. This was definitely the most tender lamb I've had in my life. Again, simply seasoned with just salt, then vacuumed. Cut in half after 6.5 hours at 55C. The color and texture was fantastic. Reseasoned with salt and pepper, then added a crust of olive oil, toasted breadcrumbs, thyme, and rosemary. Put this under the broiler for a couple minutes then served with baby bok choy and mushrooms. Again, the lamb was amazing.

Rack of lamb sous vide with a thyme rosemary crust. Served with wilted baby bok choy and sauteed mushrooms. This lamb was insanely tender. The sous vide process turned "OK" quality lamb into something that tasted amazing.

Duck breast sous vide with slivers of crispy duck skin and a wild berry, ginger, and balsamic sauce. I'm not using my camera so the picture quality isn't that great, but this was an awesome dish. Duck breast sous vide damn near a revelation.

My duck breast sous vide was quite excellent. The even pink coloring of the duck and smooth texture was totally different than the pan roasted duck breast I usually make. I took the skin and fat off the breast, seasoned with just salt, and vacuumed. I cooked at 55C for about 4 hours. Out of the bag it was very firm and somewhat gray and unappetizing. I seared it for about 1.5 minutes after reseasoning with salt and pepper in some of the duck fat I had rendered out of the skin. The crust was great, and the evenly pink interior was perfect. Sliced thinly and served with slivers of crisp duck skin and a berry ginger and balsamic sauce. The duck was excellent without the sauce, but the sweetness of the berries didn't hurt either. This was my best experiment yet.

No worries, it's all very interesting stuff. I've got a rack of lamb in the bath now

That duck looks money. Like really, really good.

Percyn, you're blazing the trail and I'm simply following in your footsteps. Everything looks great. I did some duck breast today which was totally insane good, the best of my sous vide experiments before. I'll be posting pictures of it tomorrow. A rack of lamb, similar to Percyn's is up next.

I just was talking about this place yesterday and happened to walk by it. The g/f was always saying how it was a 1000 points on Opentable but still had no desire to try it. I think it's better that we left this place a mystery.

You can also use it for sous vide cooking.

I got most of my gifts early, but: -Hot water bath for sous vide -Vacuumsaver for sous vide -plane ticket to Chicago to eat at Alinea -dinner at Gilt in NYC

This holiday season has been rather unfortunate for my family. My grandmother was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in most of the major organs of her body. Needless to say, this is hard on all of us, as we usually spend Christmas at her house in Utah. To make matters worse, my mother is traveling overseas over Christmas, so my sister and I decided we wanted a little bit of Christmas nostalgia. I debated putting this meal in the gallery of regrettable foods, since, well, some might call it regrettable--under normal circumstances I would say it is. Regardless, this is the "Christmas dinner" I prepared tonight, as inspired by my grandmother. The pomegranate sorbet was a bit of an afterthought inspired by Shalmanese. "Overcooked" haricort verts ("green beans") sauteed with bacon and vinegar A potato gratin of sorts with Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup and caramelized minced onions, topped with Kraft Cheddar cheese (I shudder when I think of the ingredients that are in this) Bone dry pot roast, also overcooked and smothered with thick gravy Edited to add: finding an open grocery store on Christmas day is something I never want to do again. I drove all across New Jersey trying to find someplace that had something that resembled a "pot roastable" piece of beef. I ended up an obscure Asian grocery and had to ask the Chinese butcher to get the beef from the back. Lime jello umm jello cream thing-it's lime jello and Cool Whip (ahhhhh!) Pomegranate sorbet- a bastion of clean, pure flavors in a meal of American cuisine circa 1960 My father was pleased with this meal. He said it was just like the good old days.

Here's the egg I've been talking about. The white is exactly how i want it, custardy, smooth, eggy. The yolk is still a bit runny but I would like it more so. I've got eggs going into the water bath left and right and I'm watching the temperature like a hawk. I'm still working on it though. So far I've eaten my "experiments" in sandwiches, salads, and by themselves. A little truffle salt and you're golden.

For some reason mine drained a ton of water and was drier than I thought it would be. Strange that I cured for less time, too. Anyway, that looks very nice, great color and moistness.