pbear

FWIW, my experiences with cooking beef (mostly brisket and chuck) are similar to those related by e_monster in Posts #3270 and #3271. I'm generally working at 136 degrees F, but that shouldn't make a difference for these purposes. Notably, according to Douglas's prior post quoted in Post #3268 "pure palmitic acid melts at 145F/62.8C and pure stearic acid melts at 157F/69.6C." How Douglas then concludes in Post #3269 that "This is why Roy Kim found that his 72-hour brisket at 135F 'rendered the fat wonderfully'" is unclear to me. Plainly that temp and time are adequate to convert collagen to gelatin, thus enabling rendered fat to escape. But if the temp isn't high enough to melt the fat (as opposed to merely softening it), I don't see how the conclusion follows. Rather, as I said in Post #3267, it seems to me much more likely that RK cooked a lean cut (probably a well-trimmed flat) and simply didn't need rendering. Am I missing something?

If it's any consolation, you're not doing anything wrong. It's just the nature of low temp cooking. Apparently, based on multiple posts earlier in the thread, fat doesn't render below 170 degrees or so. And I can confirm from personal experience that it doesn't render at 140 degrees or below. So you should expect to see what you're seeing. The solution is either to trim after cooking or use care in selecting what cuts to cook. For example, I don't think the brisket you liked rendered its fat; rather, it was relatively lean to begin with. That's without being there, but I'm pretty sure.

Hello all. I've been lurking on eGullet for years and remember reading about four years ago the thread in which Nathan's charts first appeared (I gather there has since been a consolidation of threads). At the time, I decided to pass on sous vide because I had neither the space nor the money for a laboratory circulator, vacuum machine, etc. About a year ago, someone told be about the Auber PID controller and I've been dabbling with the technique ever since, mostly using a 6 qt crock-pot (without bubbler) and the immerse-ziploc-in-water method for bagging. Recently, I decided to take the plunge, get serious and acquire the Sous Vide Supreme. I chose this over a circulator mainly because it's more compact and more appropriately shaped for the sorts of things I want to try, e.g., low temp cooking in canning jars rather than bags (first few attempts looking promising, btw). All of which has brought me back to the eGullet thread. Between Nathan's famous charts (which I copied during my first visit) and Douglas's famous Practical Guide, I've been doing reasonably well. Yet, I felt I was missing something for not having read the whole thread. I finally completed that task a couple days ago, which reminded me a lot of a cross-country bicycle trip I did several years ago (serendipiously, the number of posts and the number of miles were about the same.) And, really, this thread is similar, in that it is a record of sous vide's journey from obscure technique with no recipes or guidelines to almost mainstream. As my first contribution to the thread, I would mention to Infernooo that, back in Post #631 (page 22), UnConundrum diagnosed his off-flavor problem with long-cooked meats as being due to using extra virgin olive oil. Don't know whether you did the same, but thought I'd mention it.