Dan Rose

Update: Just did a test run (have the final round of the competition on Monday), with meatballs encapsulating... Garlic confit (see, e.g. Recipe) Very delicious, tasty, and sweet with the burst of garlicky goodness... Texture slightly off-putting - the garlic was done in oil at 85c for 90 minutes and was soft and mushy, but we took whole cloves and embedded them in the meatballs, so they still had a slight firmness at the first bite to break the outer surface, and then turned into mush when you chewed... That would have been fine, but with the softness of the meatball, the sudden firm/squishy ball in the center came off more as a chewy overcooked bit of gristle or something. Deconstructed parmesan cheese (as noted above) Delicious, although maybe a bit subtle and overpowered by the meatball spices... However, the aftertaste was pure parmesan, for several seconds. Excellent. The gel held nicely at serving temp too. Smoked gouda Wonderful, and had the texture I was going for with the mozzarella initially - with the meatballs at 54c, the gouda was a molten ball of yum. The texture was amazing and unexpected, biting through the meatball shell. Flavor was good, but not as good as the above two. Gorgonzola Tried this as an oddball idea. The salty/sour flavor went nicely with the meatball, but it was quite non-traditional. I'd do it again, but maybe changing up from the oregano/thyme flavor. It was good, but I don't think it would win an Italian-specific combination. So, for the competition, I'm going to mush up the garlic confit into a paste and combine it with the parmesan gel, with a small ball of the combination in the center of each meatball. Wish me luck!

Any tips on where to go to learn artistic plating techniques?

Yes, a simmer, and regular poaching time, say 3-4 minutes. Really, all the ramekins are doing are providing walls slightly below the water surface level, preventing the multiple eggs from mingling. I haven't done it recently, and I can't find a good picture online, but think of something like this, but with a higher sided pot and the ramekins fully submerged. The poached eggs are still floating, so you don't get the strange textures and imprints that result from normal egg poachers (or, likely, the method shown in that link), but they stay compact and separate without any effort.

I came across a method that might be even easier than the cling film method... I've got four oven-safe ramekins that fit in a large pot. Put them in, cover with water a half inch or an inch or so above them, and heat it up. When ready, crack the eggs in another ramekin, then rather than the whole "slip gently into the water and hope it doesn't run into the others or spread out," just pour them into one of the submerged ramekins. Works great, and you don't have to mess with making a vortex or anything.

Had some friends over last weekend, and we did duck breasts. I removed the tenders and put them in a separate sous vide bag and threw them in the bath with the breasts. Chilled them overnight, and the next morning, shredded them with two forks. Sautéed an onion in some rendered duck fat I made the previous night with the breast trimmings, added the shredded duck and fried it crispy, and then topped it with a few eggs over easy. Nice and simple duck hash breakfast. Lacked a potato, of course, but I'm going low carb at the moment.

I've done something quite similar with ricotta on small toasted rounds, a bit of olive oil and kosher salt, and fried sage leaves.

... have you considered dining by candlelight? /only partially kidding... reduced light might help, or you could put in a colored bulb for funsies.

Thanks, Chris! I'll give it a shot. I did a test with small mozzarrella cubes inside the meatballs, and while they were good, a stronger cheese may work better. Going to do another test with lots of different varieties of cheeses, and this will be really handy to reduce the melting temp of harder cheeses like parmesan.

Comrades, As part of an effort to win a final round of a meatball competition here at work, I'm experimenting with sous vide Italian meatballs encapsulating blobs of mozzarella. Ideally, I'd like to get the cheese runny, but not escaping the meatballs, so that it's a surprising burst of yum when the judges take a bite. Since it appears that mozzarella doesn't melt until around 60C normally, I'd like to try reducing its melting point, perhaps through incorporating additional milk fat. That said, my first attempt of melting some cheese in a pot with a few tablespoons of milk resulted in a blob of cheese in boiling milk. Where's the alleged melting at 60C? Why won't it mix with the milk? Any ideas or tips of other avenues to try? -Dan

Great idea. Will try tonight and report back. Looks like it's working... pulled a vacuum for 55 seconds, then pulled the plug. ... 15 minutes later, it's at -68cmHg, down from about -72 in that picture. Works beautifully! To release, I plugged it back in, set a 5 second vacuum time and ran the cycle. Sealed my test bag properly, released pressure right on queue. Thanks!

Great idea. Will try tonight and report back.

I just purchased a VP112 and have tested it once so far, but it worked properly... But this leads to an idea. This thread is full of ideas requiring pulling a vacuum and then holding it for a period of time. Accepting that it's voiding the warranty, would it theoretically be possible to take apart a VP112's controller to find that internal circuit and install a switch to enable/disable automatic vacuum release? ... anyone know a source for a schematic?