Phaz

Last weekend I was doing a few really thick bone in ribeyes. The kitchen I was doing them in didn't have a gas burner, so I didn't want to try the Ducasse method, plus doing multiple steaks, time was an issue. So like the above post, I did them SV. However, to sear them I threw them under the chimney starter (as talked about in another thread mentioning Alton Brown). It was insane how strong of a crust they built up. Within 20 seconds you could see the proteins on the top of the steak bubbling, 1 minute per side was plenty for a good sear. Here's the only shot I got of them (they were cut and devoured pretty quick): link That one I did 1 min 30 sec on both sides to see what kind of difference it built up. As good as those were, I still don't enjoy ribeyes that are done SV. The fat never seems to render as much as it does on the grill. When I grill a ribeye I can eat the entire thing and really enjoy it all. When I SV them, even with this searing, they come out sub par. I have to cut the fat away because it just isn't as juicy or appetizing.

I got my VP112 today and just played with it a bit tonight. My first few attempts had no vacuum, you really have to press down on the lid a bit. I made some french toast which worked well, but when I tried to do something in a bag it didn't work. I could see the vacuum going and everything, and it seemed to seal, but there was still air in the bag when it sealed. I gave it plenty of time to pull a vacuum (the liquid inside started to boil) so I'm not sure what was wrong. I think my seal time was 5 seconds and I was using the bags from amazon somewhere earlier in the thread. I'll try again tomorrow with some other stuff and see if I can do better. Does it matter how much the bag hangs over the sealer bar?

I had my first failure tonight. I tried the pasta recipe (using the tipo 00 flour and xanthan gum) and couldn't get it to work. I scaled everything properly (I believe) and the dough was just too brittle. instead of staying together it would just flake apart. I tried kneeding it to fix that but ended up adding more water. Once I got it to the point where it was more elastic I couldn't get it to work with the pasta machine. It just kept breaking apart if it would even grip at all. It's almost like it was too oily and at the same time just wouldn't hold together. I'm no expert pasta maker, I've only done it once before (with Thomas Keller's recipe) so it's likely I was doing something wrong, but that was a little disappointing. On the bright side, I got my vacuum sealer and tried the french toast which worked quite well. I used the chorizo milk as the recipe in the book has. It was really custardy in the middle and had a nice crust on the outside. The chorizo flavor just barely makes it through enough. Overall it's quite good. I'm going to make some more tomorrow morning and share it with a few people for their opinions. I also want to experiment with more flavors in the milk.

Does anyone know what kind of salt is supposed to be used? Other books (like Keller's) specify the kind (usually kosher for him) and brand (Diamond Crystal). I know that going by mass is better than volume, as it equalizes between brands, but maybe there's a difference in 2 grams of table salt and 2 grams of kosher or sea salt?

I made the Bacon chips last night. They were pretty easy. You mix up a syrup using maple syrup, water, sorbitol, isomalt and Glucose Syrup DE 40. I couldn't find any of that (well I could, but didn't need 5kg of it) so I went with light corn syrup. After that you let the bacon sit in the syrup for 2 hours then dehydrate it at 140 for 12 hours. They came out pretty good. They are a little chewy but when you are chewing on them the sweetness and savoriness start to mix for an interesting combination. They say to use thin 1/16th of an inch bacon, which was hard to find other than cheap store bought stuff. I did a few pieces of double smoked thick bacon as well. I liked the double smoked stuff. It wasn't quite as dried out but the smoke flavor added a lot, plus having more bacon and less syrup (ratio) made it less sweet, which I like (but I know almost everyone likes things more sweet than me). Getting the bacon out of the dehydrator was a challenge. One tray worked fine but the other two were a PITA. I'm thinking spraying them with something first or putting them on something would make a big difference.

So would you say it was about as much as in ? Where it shrinks in size some but takes on a MUCH deeper red color/flavor?I'm curious to see someone try the Curry Apple from MC as well as the strawberries with basil/creme. (I don't think my sealer will be here for another 2 weeks or so)

Thanks for the update! Overall do you see any limitations of this or things you won't be able to do (that you are aware of obviously)? I wonder if doing thing like adding bricks to the chamber (to lessen the amount of air you are starting with) does much.

I've done sous vide carrots using this recipeand found them fantastic. It looks like the difference between the two is a bit of sugar. They were basic carrots for sure, but somehow more... carroty... than normal carrots. My first recipe from the book was Bacon Chips with Butterscotch, Apple, and Thyme from 3·189. It came out great. My food dehydrator only went to 160, not the 175, so I cooked the bacon for 4 hours instead of 3. It was some of the best bacon I've ever had, and that was cheap grocery store stuff because all the premium bacon I usually get is more than the required 1/16th of an inch thick. Cooking bacon this way is now my go to method if I have the time. Even though they are called bacon 'chips' they aren't really crispy. The amazing part about cooking it this way is that there is no grease in the dehydrator. It seems to take all that grease you normally have left in the pan, and leave it in the bacon. You can really taste it when you bite in, it's almost juicy. I can't wait to try with better bacon. The butterscotch was also great. I haven't done any candy type stuff before so this was new to me. The first step of heating the corn syrup and sugar takes a while, and when it starts getting close to the 375 degree temp you want to make sure and take the heat way down to slowly reach that point. My first batch I had the heat going fairly strong and took it off at 375 and it climbed up right past 400 and burnt into a mess. This seemed simpler than a lot of the recipes I looked at online, yet so amazing, and I typically don't like sweet things at all. The apple leather was fairly straight forward. I didn't have the plastic required to set it on or the non-cook cooking spray so used some parchment paper and olive oil, which worked fine. It's really important to get that stuff as level/even as possible, and if you are doing it in multiple 'sheets' to fit the dehydrator like I did, make sure they are all the same thickness so they'll cook properly. These were really good. Here is a photo. Nothing like they look in the book (I was in a bit of a rush) but still the taste was quite awesome. I'm sure I can find more uses for that butterscotch. I'm going to try the other bacon chips with the syrup this weekend.

All the recipes that require smoking seem to smoke at lower (and precise) temps and humidity. That just doesn't seem possible with a standard egg style charcoal smoker. Has anyone found a smoking solution that works? I see that Bradley has a digital version which can smoke at temps starting at ambient (which should be fine for the book) but the built in temperature probe it uses to control the temp seems rather questionable according to people online with swings of maybe up to 20 degrees or so in accuracy and depending where the food is in the smoker.

Has anyone had any luck finding Glucose Syrup DE 40? Some of the websites imply that it might simply be basic corn syrup (or that would work as a substitute) but I can't find any info for sure.

Yeah, this has been asked a few times. I think several people are curious before they pull the trigger. I'm curious with other stuff too, such as the curry apple in MC. In that recipe it says to hold the vacuum for 4-5 minutes (If I remember correctly). It seems like the 112 can only do a max of 1 minute. I'm not sure what "hold" means though. Like, if that means suck the air out for 4-5 minutes straight, or if it means to suck the air out, then keep the vacuum that is already there (but not create more) for 4-5 minutes. The 2nd option seems like it might be possible if you can delay things like that.

I'd guess conditionally true. You'll encounter a point of diminishing return around the maximum vacuum the pump will draw. According to the manual, for this machine the maximum vacuum is 90 percent. I don't have this sealer to test that. Thanks. I think that one comment I've been reading around the various websites is that the VP112 is set to timeout after 35 seconds. I don't know what happens if you extend that; perhaps it can exceed 90%. I suppose I will be able to find out soon... From the manual it says the seal time can be adjusted from 25-60 seconds. I think a lot of people are in the same boat as me. They want to get one of the VP112s but aren't sure if the vacuum is strong enough to do everything we want with it with removing 90%. I.e. compress watermelon, infuse fruits, make the MC perfect fries, etc. It sounds like it will be possible, but we'll see. Hopefully someone with one can let us know. Does anyone know roughly how strong the standard vacuum sealers (like food saver) are? Do they get near 90%?

When did you place your order? Just curious how far back in the queue they are. August 13th.

I just got an email saying mine shipped, so it looks like Amazon either got some of the next shipment already or found a few more. Good news for those of us who thought we'd be waiting a few more weeks.

Wah! The same thing just happened to me. I ordered August 15 and the expected delivery was March 9....until the morning of March 8: I just got the same message. The 18th happens to be my birthday but the extra wait is hardly a present . Though, from the sound of Nathan's post it looks like they might come sooner than that. Also, for more salt in the wound, it looks like we missed the first shipment by just a few days (I ordered the 13th, someone on the 9th got their copy).

Is anyone else stuck with me? I ordered the middle of August on Amazon.com. It sounds like people who ordered just before me (4 days) were getting emails saying they've shipped (and books already arriving), and those who ordered a bit after saying it's been delayed. Even now mine says it's due on March 9th (2 day prime shipping). But, I feel like if they did have one to ship they would of already shipped mine with the others. Not knowing is driving me crazy!

It looks like the VP112 is the exact same machine as the SVS one right? So basically the decision is between that and the VP210. The comment about 90% air kind of worries me. I have done sous vide with both the ziplock hand pump vacuums and one of the standard counter top ones. Both have the same problem when I do something at high temp (like confit at 176). After a while the air that is in the bag starts to puff up and the bag starts to float. With the ziplock system I can just pump that air back out and then things are fine, with the sealed vacuum bags I don't have that option and they just float and the meat doesn't get equal exposure to the water. Can anyone with the VP112 or VP210 comment on this? Is the vacuum they create enough to avoid this problem and do all the fun things that (I assume) are in the Modernist Cuisine book (like the watermelon chips they featured on their blog)

Kim, When did you order yours? August 8 Was that with Amazon.com or Amazon.ca? I ordered on August 13th and haven't heard anything yet. I'll be sad if I just missed the cutoff and have to wait for the next batch.

Would you mind sharing details with how you did the baileys and kahlua? I've tried with alcohol a few times (especially tequila) and never even gotten close to anything that works. After I put it into the bath it just kind of disperses.

I was considering doing the exact same thing and came here to ask the same question. I was going to base mine off this. That has you butterfly the breasts, make a sausage from the leg meat then cook it all. He cooks it at 275 for 3-5 hours until it hits 145. He says that if you are careful in removing the silverskin and getting just the dark meat from the legs, then you don't have to worry about cooking it to a higher temp, and it will be 'done' at 145 with the rest. My main concern is if SVing the breasts takes too long. I know some protiens get mushy and unappetizing after too long in the bath. If these take 3-5 hours in a 275 oven I have no idea how long they would take in a 145 water bath. On one hand the water bath is a better way to transfer heat, but it's a much lower temperature. I think if the time scale is similar it would be doable, but if it takes 6-10 hours or something then it might not come out too great.

On Saturday I had a couple racks of baby backs I've been cooking that were outstanding. I started with two racks of baby backs, each cut in half. I took the silver skin off and then rubbed them with what probably many people would consider a strong amount of liquid smoke (you could see a color change in the meat). I then put a simple dry rub on them, threw them in the bags and threw them in at 135 degrees. 72 hours later I took them out and threw them on the grill for a few minutes on each side with a sauce. Outstanding. I couldn't even get pictures because of how fast they went. It wasn't just fall off the bone tender, but fall off the meat tender. They also had a good amount of medium-rare pink look to them as well. I flipped a set over to cut them (so I could see the bone) with a sharp knife, and in that process the meat separated from itself and left a chunk on the plate. If you weren't overly cautious you ended up eating a good portion of your ribs off the plate with your fingers because it fell off. The flavor was good. I didn't do anything fancy with the rub or sauce so plan to work on that a bit, but unlike others I've heard I didn't find the meat bland on the inside. Though next time I think for the last 24 hours I might take them out of the bags, rub them with some sauce, then reseal them for the last 24 hours to see if the sauce flavor can penetrate a little more.

Has anyone tried this with Keller's Ad Hoc recipe? I like the idea of SVing the chicken first but it seems like with a recipe as precise as his that could lead to over cooking. Or do you bring the chicken to room temp or something beforehand?

I've had awesome success with The Food Lab's Blue Label Burger Blend. He did a lot of testing with 8 cuts of meat and found a great blend is 6oz of sirloin, 5 oz brisket and 12 oz of oxtail (trimmed comes out to about 5oz). The oxtail is hard to work with, especially when making 10 pounds of this stuff, but it's amazing.

How long does it take to cook them at 72 degrees? Do you ever add anything besides half and half to the bag, or do you wait to add any chives/butter/etc when they are done? Do you have to mix them during cooking at all like other methods I've seen?

Thanks! I did try scrambled eggs just after I got my SVS but got a little carried away with the truffle oil and it kind of turned me off of it. That's a good reminder to try again though, it certainly had potential. I should do some research on good recipes/techniques.