jmbuehler

Hey all, cheers for your feedback! It is really appreciated and I will apply these lessons into all future long-cook sessions.

Hi Chris, Thanks so much for your reply! And there you go, your explanation sounds very reasonable and explains what probably happened succinctly. Next time I will both increase the initial temperature of the water bath and flash blanch the produce before sealing it. Again, many thanks your reply. All the Best, Johannes

Hi all, I am rather stupmed at what happened in my circulation bath this week and would like to share and maybe get to the bottom of what exactly might have caused this. Quick background: I am a German chef having learned at a 2* Michelin restaurant and now CEO of a burger chain in Germany. I have a passion for biochemistry and approach virtually all cooking endeavours with an analytic mindset. As I prepared a lasagna based on braised oxtail last weekend I was left with about 1300g of oxtail chunks that didn't fit into my pressure cooker. Whilst braising I browsed my copy of MC searching for an interesting idea for said left over produce and stumbled across the 100 h @60C preparation. I scaled the recipe to the required amount of stock and boiled it up quickly as to reduce any possible pathogens. I then filled the sous vide bag with the raw, unseasoned and chilled (4C) oxtail, added the cooled stock (13C) and sealed in a chamber vaccum to -1 bar. I then introduced the bag into the water bath at 60.0C, sealed the bath with cling film and checked througout the following days. For the duration of the cook the bag stayed at the bottom of the bath and temperature fluctuations were at a maxiumum of 0,1C. Yesterday morning (thursday, I started the cook on sunday at around lunchtime) I saw that a small bubble of bombage had formed over night. Weary as to the cause, I was even more suprised to find the entire bag bloated and floating at the top of the surface when I came home last night. Unsuprisingly the smell after opeing the bag was horrible and had obviously spoiled. I am asbolutely flabbergasted as to what might possibly have caused this. Shouldn't any possible pathogen have been killed of after at least 80h @ 60C with no sign of bacterial activity? A couple of chefs I work with are equally as stumped as I and I would love, if someone on this brilliant forum could possibly offer some insight. So thanks for your feedback which I would love to incorporate into the next try; after all: failure is not an option! ;-) All the Best, Johannes

Do you have access to sous vide cooking appliances? 51-52C and a quick high heat sear should set you in the perfect temperature range. I haven't used bison yet, but when making my own ground beef from leaner cuts I tend to grind chunks of butter right in with the meat, so I'm not left with gaps once the butter has melted from the pattie. Adding a minute amount of ground anchovy to your pattie will aid the umami aspect of your flavour profile, but make sure to go very easy on them. Make sure to let us know how it went and what did the trick to go from good to 'out of the park' fantatstic!

Hi Sartain, having lived and studied in Edinburgh for 4 years, I was privileged to have spent a couple of memorable dining nights in the many culinary highlights this city has to offer: Here's a quick pick of what I think has to be experienced in the Burgh: 1. For some authentic Scottish flavours such as haggies, tatters etc. both The White Hart and The Last Drop on Grassmarket are fantastic. 2. The best fish and chips I have ever had and that have been awarded many times come from L'Alba D'Oro on 7 Henderson Row, over in New Town. Fantastic choice of batters and some high quality cod to boot. 3. Fine dining is a close tie between Number One on Princess Street (below the Balmoral Hotel) and the Prestonfield House Hotel. Both are great, although I slightly preferred the atmosphere at Prestonfield. 4. For some outstanding seafood you simply can't beat The Mussel Inn Restaurant on 61-65 Rose Street. As the name suggests, the mussels are to die for! Enjoy your trip, I hope I could help a tad! Johannes

Hi all, my first post! Very excited to join this community. I'd have to agree that I have never encountered any plastic flavours when cooking sous vide, regardless of both cooking times and temperatures used. I am, however, using a heavy duty chamber vac, so the bags I use are considerably thicker than what I have seen as advertised for suction based vacs. There's only three situations I can think of that might have brought about the plastic flavours you detected in your broth: 1. Did you perchance use any strong acid based flavourings that might have attacked the sous vide bags? 2. Is it possible that maybe a tiny snippet of plastic from the bags was reduced with the broth? As the plastic tends to be clear, it can be very hard to spot them. 3. If you didn't pat dry the ribs before searing them and instead poured them out right from the bag into your hot frying pan, the bag might have gotten damaged from contact with the skillet and burned. Other than that I'm at a loss, but would appreciate if you could keep us up to date as to whether you managed to figure out what was going on.