MartinH

A "quasi-custard" perhaps? It is similar to a custard being egg-thickened, but water-based rather than milk-based. I haven't tried it SV, but I can think of two different ways to do it. Either cook the egg+liquid then whisk in the butter; or, slightly warm the egg+liquid enough to blend in the butter and then cook. No idea if either works.

Far from being overkill, I find it easier to do a custard (defined broadly) by the SV method rather than in the traditional ways on the stove top or in the oven. Wouldn't it be overkill to purchase a thermomix or a new kenwood for this when a SV set up does the job just fine? May I add that SV more generally is not unnecessary, not overkill, not more than is needed to do the job for the simple reason that it is often the best way to do the job.

I've been experimenting with SV custards of various kinds, that is egg-thickened creams such as crème brûlée, crème anglaise, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and even eggnog. A few things I've learned: SV is an excellent method for cooking custards. While custards thicken when the egg proteins in the mix are heated, they curdle when the egg protein is overheated. Traditional methods to prevent curdling include preheating the milk, stirring, adding flour, or placing ramekins in a waterbath in the oven. But SV is much more accurate, more dependable, and far easier. Preparing the mix couldn't be simpler. Its just a matter of combining the basic ingredients: egg, liquid, sugar, salt, and flavoring. The liquid can be milk, cream, coconut milk, cream cheese (for a chesecake) or variations and combinations thereof. Ratios vary. An eggnog would be about 1 egg to 1 pint of liquid. A soft custard (English-style custard or crème anglaise) would have about 1 egg to 1 cup of liquid. Firmer custards would have a greater proportion of eggs. Either whole eggs or yolks can be used. Yolks add a little more color and richness, but do not have greater thickening capacity. Some flavorings appear to work better than others in SV conditions. Vanilla is superb. But strong flavors such as citrus zest (often used in cheesecake recipes) or pungent spices (as in pumpkin pie filling) can be too harsh. Strong flavorings can be toned down by precooking, then cooling and adding to the custard mix. A temp of ~83C/181F does the trick. Interestingly, this is higher than the ~64C/147F at which egg yolks set; diluted eggs in need a higher temp for their proteins to coagulate. SV cheesecake or pumpkin pie clearly depart most from the traditional method, since the crust and the filling must be cooked separately. But the traditional method often produces a dry, cracked, hard product. SV cheesecake or pumpkin pie is much more creamy, soft, and delicate. A modernistic cheesecake sprinkled with cookie crumbs, or a new pumpkin pie garnished with a wedge of pastry can be fun. Since vacuum sealers do not work well with liquids, custards can be cooked in ziploc bags or in small mason jars. I'd be interested in hearing what anyone else has discovered in this area.

In similar situations, I have fridged it and had no ill effects. (I had to smile at the combination of your kosher name + the pork loin )

If you SV some meat or bones for stock, this is what I expect would happen: (a) you won't get as much liquid released from the meat - a good thing if you want to eat the meat, a bad thing if you want to eat the stock! (b) the soluble proteins given off by the meat won't coagulate at low temps, so you'll just have to boil the stock later to coagulate them and strain it anyway. But I look forward to hearing what actually turns out.

I just SVed a delicious leg of lamb. My family much prefers meat in the well done range and so it went in at 70C/160F for 24hrs. This worked well. (In the past I have done it at temps down to 55C/130F also for about 24hrs and that worked fine for a more rare result. But one advantage of well done is that the plentiful fat becomes softer.) I don't see why the netting would be a problem since presumably it is the type designed to go into an oven to be roasted at much higher temps. Sometimes I've had beef with netting and left it on in the SV bag and noticed no ill effects. By the way, the lamb I cooked was from New Zealand, and I noticed a little symbol that the meat was "halal". I wonder if NZ meatpackers automatically slaughter to halal rules for unbelievers and believers alike.

Looks like KitchenAid is making a foray into the market for sous vide equipment with a system called Chef Touch. It has a chamber vacuum unit, a freezer/chiller unit, and a steam oven unit - but oddly no water bath - all stacked together in a stainless steel tower. Here's a YouTube video. I imagine the system is only avaliable in Europe, and no doubt shockingly expensive.

Discs of sheep's tail fat -- the foundation of a true Turkish doner kebab. There's a wonderful video clip of the Hairy Bikers building a delicious fatty doner here.

Thanks derekslager, those pics look awesome.

On Rick Bayless' SV carnitas, this is all I have found: Rick shares his own state-of-the-carnitas concept: sous vide pork (cooked very slowly in a vacuum-sealed packet), shredded, formed into a loaf, chilled, sliced and pan-seared in a stunning modern presentation. (here) Interesting, but no details.

I'm told that Rick Bayless, the TV chef and Chicago restauranteur, has a signature recipe for sous vide pork carnitas. Does anyone know how he does this and has anyone tried anything similar?

Next, a provocative chapter on food and health examines many of the most common beliefs about what we should and should not eat to stay healthy—and finds disappointingly few that have survived careful scrutiny by the scientific community. (From the intro to vol 1). Could it be that Modernist Cuisine will be another voice in the growing criticism of the lipid hypothesis? Judging by the generous use of suet in the ultimate hamburger recipe upthread, Modernist Cuisine seems happily free of lipophobia, the irrational fear of fat. If so, more cheers for it.

On YouTube there's a video called "Cooking in Silico: Heat Transfer in the Modern Kitchen" which features Nathan Myhrvold and Chris Young showcasing some images and ideas from the book, their recipe for the ultimate duck breast, among several other things. (I haven't noticed a link to this either in this thread or on the Modernist Cuisine website, but it is well worth viewing.)

Having received a copy of Douglas Baldwin's Sous Vide for the Home Cook yesterday, I must say how impressed I am with it. (Thumbs up as well to the Sous Vide Supreme people for sending it out so promptly.) We would expect there to be plenty of meat recipes, but beyond that there's also much more. For instance, there are ice cream recipes, a dish that hasn't featured much on this thread. There is not just advice on cooking various meats and fishes, but also lots of sauce recipes to accompany them. But best of all there's a considerable amount of reference material and useful food science. It is much more than just a recipe book. Thanks Douglas, its a great success, and it deserves to sell well. It will expand the repertoire of existing sous viders as well as bring more people into the sous vide world.

Another eagerly anticipated book is Douglas Baldwin's SV cookbook. Any news on when it is to be published?

Hi Gali, Those pressures are huge considering that surface air pressure is about 14 psi, or an hydraulic system is a couple of thousand psi, or the bottom of the deepest sea trench is around 16,000 psi (if I recall correctly). I'm amazed the food is not altered. I'm also intrigued to know how they generate such force.

A similar thought occurred to me a few weeks ago. The upshot was I made a "Mixed Anna" with layers of sliced turnip, butternut squash, and with potato at the top and bottom. It held together OK if you handled it with care. The thinking behind having the potato at top and bottom was that nothing browns quite as well as a spud. Haven't tried beets though.

Why not substitute cauliflower for the cabbage? It is low in carbs, much more pasta-like in mouthfeel than cabbage, goes wonderfully well with both bechamel sauce and melted cheeses, and unlike some vegetables copes well with longish casserole cooking. True, it isn't leaf-like in shape, but it can still be layered in a dish.

Fat is such a crucial nutrient that it seems quite plausible to me that evolution would equip us with receptors to detect it and hence give us a basic taste sensation of fattiness. But is it a sixth or a seventh taste? The case against piquancy/hotness (as being basic taste number six) is that it is detected not by taste buds but by the nerves - that's why chilli peppers produce a hot sensation if rubbed on the eyes or any sensitive spot not just on the tongue. (I doubt if rubbing a lump of parmesan on some sensitive skin gives us an umami/savory sensation - though I haven't tried it!) Evolution didn't give us any specific taste receptors for detecting piquancy, instead it just gave us nerves with general ability to warn of heat/pain. So, biologically piquancy is not a distinct taste, but admittedly culturally it could well be.

Gammon is, I think, a term used for a cut of ham so it has already been brined by the manufacturer. Another brining would seem to be unneeded, and might well make it too salty. (The word gammon is not used in North America.)

Sous vide is bit of a misnomer since a rigorous vacuum is not generally required. All that's needed is to squeeze out enough air so the bag doesn't float and there isn't a wide layer of air insulating the food from the water. Also, if you freeze it afterwards, the food avoids freezer burn. Another possible reason is to prevent the food in the bag from getting unwanted tastes from oxidization, though this may be moot because in practice with home vac sealers there's probably going to be some oxygen left in the bag. Instead of sous vide, the technique should be called something like "Low Temperature Precision Cooking" - but a mouthful like LTPC isn't going to catch on.

Its interesting that there's been almost no discussion through the whole thread on vegetables, pulses and grains. (Though upthread #3125 Dec 21 Douglas mentioned he was planning experiments on starch cooking.) There seem to be no vegetarian SVers. Anyhow, is this near-silence a tacit recognition that the SV method has no real advantages when it comes to plant-eating? I am not convinced that that the extra chore involved in bagging is worth it. Compared to the major effects of small temperature differences in cooking an egg, thanks to its several proteins, likewise also with meat and fish, temperature precision seems to be much less critical for carbohydrates.

Shalmanese, let us know how the flipping and cutting of the leg of lamb goes. Have you tried jaccarding the fat layer? Love the tongs idea. I'm wondering if the salting, drying, and even dry ice techniques work equally well when the skin is present and covering the fat (as with duck) or not and the fat is exposed (as with meat). The Chinese are said to render fat from a duck by first steaming it. I'm wondering what the optimal temp is for roasting a whole duck to render the fat. I have tried at the lowish temp of 200F which seems to work OK but I haven't experimented with alternatives.

Low-carb and paleo are a bit different. I think the main divergence is dairy: cheese, cream, and unsweetened yogurt are low carb, but did not feature in the pre-farming, hunter-gatherer diet. Also note that beer is not paleo (since it is grain fermented). Alcohol was not a part of hunter-gatherer life! I see no good reason to jettison dairy (or booze, in moderation!). After all, many humans (not all) have a genetic adaptation, lactose tolerance, to digest milk as adults, that must have arisen sometime after people first started agriculture about 10,000 years ago. Several posts have mentioned how hard it is for some people to give up, or cut down on carbs (cereal, bread etc). I have experience of this too and it leads me to think that there may be something almost addictive, or at least very habituating, about starchy-sugary things.

Like others, I like a bit of rendered fat with the meat, since it is tasty and it gives that unctuous mouthfeel. To get some fat rendering, SVers can't use high temperatures, and usually shouldn't use very long times (72 hrs or so) to avoid the mush problem (except with very robust cuts). So what is to be done? I've tried two things. One is mechanical. Just as you speed up the rendering of bacon fat by chopping it up, or of duck fat by incising the skin, so also SVers can jaccard or otherwise poke and hammer at whatever fat is on their cut before cooking. But in my experience this does not make a huge difference. The other is compensation: adding a bit of fat after cooking by searing in butter, using a cream sauce, or pouring a bit of extra virgin olive oil over it. Perhaps the best is to cut up the meat and do a hash next day, very briefly searing in duck fat. Since even rendered fat will not penetrate a large mass of unmarbled meat (see: dry roast chicken breast), the last has a lot to be said for it.