HowardLi

There are a few topics but I think this one is the one you are thinking of. Excellent info and pictures. Thanks for the link. I'm going to use that style of roast pork in a Banh Mi with a smooth chicken liver pate. I'll be doing another one with red-cooked pork and pickled watermelon instead of vegetables. Now that's going to be a really red Banh Mi! http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/12/the-food-lab-deep-fried-sous-vide-36-hour-all-belly-porchetta.html Kenji uses a secondary rub consisting mainly of baking powder. Apparently the effect is similar to using lye in the aforementioned thread.

Steel-cut? If you have a powerful blender, they're a great way to add calories to a protein shake.

I think that is EXACTLY why we should throw such techniques away -- if our facts are wrong, discard them. Kind of like the "searing meat seals in the juices" statement I hear on Food Network every week. I know it's wrong, you know it's wrong, the celebrity chef in question probably (maybe?) knows it's wrong. Yet we're stuck with "searing seals in juices" because decades of chefs believed it to be true -- without bothering to pull out a scale and verify it. A worthwhile read to challenge debunkers on the subject of sealing juices. http://culinaryarts....alinjuices1.htm What a load of worthless tripe. Worse than even the usual article on about.com.

Right now for me it seems like salting long before is the right way to go, except for ground meats in which I don't want too-strong binding or cohesion.

I like it on mashed potatoes.

I think one of the reasons why cooling overnight is sometimes recommended is because if you serve right away, the pieces of meat fall apart. IIRC the time while cold helps the meat restabilize?

Color is the most reliable for me.

Playground sand (safe for kids) would be sold at your local home improvement store. I bet you could cook with it, as long as you rinsed it first.

I don't think you needed the water. Also, you should've set the oven to 200F to begin with.

125F will not appreciably hydrolyze any collagen, no, but usually when it's served, it's sliced very thinly against the grain. JK Lopez-Alt recommends cooking sirloin tip (flap meat) to at least medium-rare to avoid mushiness.

Since the interior of the muscle is (assumed to be) sterile, this shouldn't be a major concern: the outside surface will come up to the oven's temperature reasonably quickly and it's smooth sailing from there, from a food-safety standpoint. Unless you've jaccarded the meat, of course. I hear ya, but in this instance we don't have the crutch of SV and really are depending on a rule of thumb.

I wouldn't cook anything in the oven at such a low temperature. The meat would be in the danger zone for way too long. I'm assuming you have a probe thermometer? If you don't, get one right now. Having said that, I would do the roast at 200F until the inside registered 135F, then I would drop the heat to 140 F (verify with oven thermometer) and keep warm with the roast wrapped in foil to prevent evaporation.

There's no need to sous vide it. Just put it into an oven at 200F. At this temperature, there will be negligible thermal carryover (perhaps 1-2F), so set your probe thermometer to 140F. As Shalmanese stated, doing it in the oven allows for better final browning. For the browning, set your oven as high as it will go after you remove the meat, and make sure it's 100% clean before you turn it on. Smoke alarms don't take kindly to burnt sugar.

If the syrup gets added to the yolks, won't they curdle?

Seems as though this would eliminate one of the major advantages of induction cooking, that being immediate response to thermal input.

Modernist Cuisine suggests submerging the already low temperature cooked burgers in liquid nitrogen then deep frying in very hot oil. The technique freezes the outer layer of the meat, but not the inner. As the burger cooks at a high heat the frozen portion defrosts and browns while the inner portion is insulated from the heat. From all reports, the result is a rare, but extremely crisp burger. If I were in your situation (assuming you don't have access to liquid nitrogen), I would probably get dry ice, wrap it in cheese cloth and set it on both sides of the burger for 30 seconds to a minute, then grill. This should mimic liquid nitrogen closely. I would also probably skip the glucose. To be honest, I've never found it necessary. I get great maillard reactions without any additional additives, just a smoking hot pan and some high temp oil. So I seared the burgers three ways: on a NG grill, with a blowtorch, and with a charcoal chimney, in order of worst to best. The grill took way too long to develop a good sear, and while the blowtorch could certainly deliver the BTUs, the heat was disproportionately transferred to the asperities of the meat, leading to blackened spotting before the whole of the surface developed good color. The charcoal chimney gave a nice, progressive, uniform sear, which was both fast and easily moderated. For anybody else interested in searing atop a charcoal chimney, I would recommend filling the chimney at least 3/4 full otherwise the heat output will be lacking. Appending a note to this post as it's too late to edit it: you know when the chimney is hot enough when you can only hold your hand above the fire for 2-3 seconds at 3 FEET above the chimney.

They were tasty, but a little on the sweet side and they didn't rise quite as much as I wanted them to. Oh well, they were worth making. EDIT: These were from the KA recipe. Sorry for the orange peels.

Modernist Cuisine suggests submerging the already low temperature cooked burgers in liquid nitrogen then deep frying in very hot oil. The technique freezes the outer layer of the meat, but not the inner. As the burger cooks at a high heat the frozen portion defrosts and browns while the inner portion is insulated from the heat. From all reports, the result is a rare, but extremely crisp burger. If I were in your situation (assuming you don't have access to liquid nitrogen), I would probably get dry ice, wrap it in cheese cloth and set it on both sides of the burger for 30 seconds to a minute, then grill. This should mimic liquid nitrogen closely. I would also probably skip the glucose. To be honest, I've never found it necessary. I get great maillard reactions without any additional additives, just a smoking hot pan and some high temp oil. So I seared the burgers three ways: on a NG grill, with a blowtorch, and with a charcoal chimney, in order of worst to best. The grill took way too long to develop a good sear, and while the blowtorch could certainly deliver the BTUs, the heat was disproportionately transferred to the asperities of the meat, leading to blackened spotting before the whole of the surface developed good color. The charcoal chimney gave a nice, progressive, uniform sear, which was both fast and easily moderated. For anybody else interested in searing atop a charcoal chimney, I would recommend filling the chimney at least 3/4 full otherwise the heat output will be lacking.

I have a bottle I just bought, not yet past "best by" date, but it doesn't taste good. Should I return it or live with it?

Out of curiosity, did you ever do some blind MSG tests to see if that was, in fact, what caused your headaches?

Makes sense. At those temperatures, though, don't you risk losing the seasoning of the cast iron? I was worried the first time I did it, but I've never had a problem. My lodge pan still feels like glass and I've never had an issue with it sticking. Nice. I picked up some avocado oil today. Will I get a better crust if I press down on the patty?

Makes sense. At those temperatures, though, don't you risk losing the seasoning of the cast iron?

I wish I could "see" the thermal gradient in the burger throughout the process. Do you get a better crust on a cast iron skillet or an SS skillet?

I'm planning on using a charcoal chimney to emulate a salamander for some burgers coming from an SV bath. To what degree should I allow the beef to cool before starting to sear? Should I go for uniformity of cooling or do I want just the outside cooled down? Will I get faster browning if I spritz on a glucose solution a la Baldwin? Does it really matter with the heat from the chimney?

http://www.seriousea...ect-steaks.html So I should salt the meat cubes before food processing, and food process them into ready-for-patty state the night before I SV them? EDIT: No, I think I will salt only before cooking, and only after grinding and forming. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/12/the-burger-lab-salting-ground-beef.html