kayb

Huh. Interesting. Wonder what another eight hours in the pot will do? In any event, i'll be prepared to do another batch with starter tomorrow. Just have to go get some more milk. @Shelby, I use YoGourmet, because I can get it at the natural food store here in town. Two-day Prime shipping is wonderful, but when you're as impatient as I am....

Ok, all you Instant Pot yogurt-makers out there -- I have a question. I made yogurt, using a powdered culture and a quart of milk, a week ago. Worked perfectly. So, when I set about to do the same last night, I upped the milk to a half-gallon and decided to use the remaining yogurt I had (a bit less than a cup) instead of a culture. Steamed and cooled my milk, stirred in the yogurt. Set the pot and went to bed. This morning, after it had been fermenting about 9, 9 1/2 hours, I turned it off and let it cool a bit; then I popped the lid off and started to strain it. Imagine my surprise when I found it had created only about a tablespoon of curds, and those curds did not taste very tart at all! I am, needless to say, puzzled. After contemplating the bowlful of -- well, milk -- that remained, I put it back in the pot and set it to yogurt again. I'll see what another cycle does for it. Does anyone else have any experience with this? Do I need to just resign myself to using a commercial starter every time I make yogurt? I guess I can do that. I'm just curious.

Thanks! I'll put it on earlier than I'd planned.

Brunswick stew in the Instant Pot tonight. Meh. Acceptable. Not the IP's fault; just not crazy about the recipe. Which is unfortunate, because I have a boatload left.

Quick SV question, and as I came to this thread more quickly than any other SV thread -- I'm going to make beef stroganoff tomorrow night. I've laid out a couple of top sirloin steaks, about 1.5 lbs total; they're cut about 3/4 inch thick. They're from my grassfed, farm-raised steer, so they tend toward being a little tough, so I thought I'd SV them for a while before searing them and going ahead with the regular SV prep. Suggestions on temp and time? I will have plenty of time I can SV and then chill, or SV and take them straight out of the bath and add to the skillet, either one. I'd thought of 125 to keep it rare to start out with, and count on the pan cook to raise it to medium rare. Too high? Too low? Suggestions? Had also thought in the neighborhood of two hours to break down connective tissue and make the meat good and tender. Yes? No? Longer? Shorter? All assistance appreciated!

See Shelby's first blog for a detailed explanation of butchering, etc.

Akin to punching the button on the coffeemaker and walking away, forgetting to put the carafe underneath.

I want details. And pictures. And samples would be nice....

@HungryChris -- Lusting after those crab legs. @Kerry Beal, the pa jun looks pretty wonderful, too, as does the teriyaki.

Breakfast for dinner: Yogurt made in the Instant Pot, granola I made today, a drizzle of honey, some cut-up grapes. Because I was too hungry to let the Brunswick Stew finish cooking. I can eat it tomorrow.

One of my favorite drinks to keep in the fridge is a pitcher of water with sliced cucumbers and limes. Needs no sugar.

Not being a huge fried chicken fan (yeah, take my Southerner credentials away), I'll grant you Loveless has decent fried chicken. But you MUST eat fried chicken at Gus's in Memphis. You just must. That's all.

My grass-fed beef supplier does the same. I have come to prefer the arm roast to the basic chuck or shoulder roast simply because of that bone, or more particularly, the marrow in it. I scrape it out, mush it up finely, and add it to the beef when I make my vegetable beef soup. Flavor explosion! My dirty little secret when it comes to making vegetable beef soup -- Lipton's French Onion soup mix. <<hangs head in shame>> I dice/shred up the beef, add it and the jus and the marrow, if there is any, along with any leftover onions; a quart of canned tomatoes (I puree mine first), a pint of tomato juice, a bag of frozen mixed veggies, and the onion soup mix. While that's cooking (30 minutes in the IP, however long I want to leave it on low in the slow cooker), I dice up any leftover carrots or potatoes from the pot roast. Those get thrown in just in time to get hot all the way through in the soup. Finishing touch is some Worcestershire sauce. Don't know what it is about that onion soup mix, but it's the perfect seasoning/tie-it-all-together element for VB Soup. FWIW, my roast is generally cooked in some wine and beef broth first.

UNLESS, in my case, you tend to then overcook your meat (especially steaks) while searing. I find it works well to SV, refrigerate in the bag, then sear later. Yep. This may not be an issue for those who are more proficient and/or have better tools for searing than I do. If you have a dog (or probably a cat, either), they'll love you for drizzling bag juices over their food. I failed to pick up Chris's final comment, that a properly-done sear affects only the outer layer of the meat. That is very likely true, BUT, for those like me who either (a) aren't as proficient at searing, or (b) don't have the best equipment for it, it's a useful alternative. It's also a timesaver if you want to cook, say, steaks ahead of time, and just sear at the last minute.

I like mine about 1.5 inches, but I disagree with mgaretz on one thing: to me, it's good to brown the beef (I prefer to flour mine first), then saute some onions in the instant pot, first. Then I add the beef back in, some red wine and beef broth (I don't do mushrooms in mine, but certainly no good reason why you shouldn't), and cook 20 minutes; quick release, add carrots and potatoes, another 15 minutes, and there you go. Also excellent with a good stout instead of red wine.

Panera Bread, one of the few "fast casual" chains I favor. Tomato soup and a half a turkey-avocado sandwich.

Bother me any time you want. I'll be anxious to hear your results. I have cooked only one tenderloin SV, usually choosing to go with a bigger loin roast. I did a sous vide tenderloin for an hour and a half, then stuffed it inside a fresh pineapple, wrapped it in bacon and slapped it on the grill. Badly overcooked as far as texture goes. I understand it's a chemical in the pineapple that does that.

That is a lovely meal. I can almost taste it.

I love The Splendid Table and am a regular Saturday morning listener. Have at least one of her cookbooks, and have cooked a few things from it. Oddly, I find I almost always have to increase the amount of spices she calls for. Did you find that to be the case?

There is a food truck in Nashville that makes a peanut butter-banana jam and Benton's bacon sandwich. I am counting the days until I can get to Nashville, hunt down said truck, and try it. They even use my kids' artisan peanut butter (shameless promotion of family product here: www.nutbutternation.com). It did convince me to try my hand at making banana jam, which isn't half bad.

I was scheduled to hook up with fellow eGulleter @cyalexa yesterday and browse some of Memphis' finer culinary shopping destinations. One I was particularly looking forward to was Porcellino's Craft Butcher, a relatively new restaurant-cum-butcher shop where they make in-house marvelous charcuterie. Unfortunately, germs had a different view of my plans and kept me at home getting over strep throat. Cyalexa, hope you found it OK and got all kinds of good stuff -- I may wind up making a run over there early next week!

You have a GOOD sister!

I tend to stick to the oven for my chuck roasts, rather than the slow cooker or sous vide. I find that 5 hours at 275 provides me with perfectly tender, still a bit toothsome, pot roast from my grass-fed, locally raised beef. Possibly my favorite treatment for cow. As for repurposing the leftovers -- vegetable beef soup!

Looks like it has a built-in clamp that attaches it to the side of the container. Is that right? How wide does the clamp open?

Looks lovely! I've always wanted to go to Highlands. One day...