[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012]

The obvious next step is a scorching hot fry pan. One of the reasons I took the effort to flatten the meat whilst chilling was to make it easier to get an even finish when frying. I was talked into roasting in a hot oven at the last minute by a chef at work.

I'm not sure if it would make too much difference cooking with only oil/fats in the bag when cooking at temps this high. A moderate amount of fluid is going to come from the belly during cooking and surround itself in one way or another. Maybe the key is high heat, plenty of oil and put the pan in the oven at 200C.

Thanks for the input

[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012]

I'm experimenting with Sous Vide Pork Belly and I'm having a hard time getting the skin crispy. I brined the belly for 24 hours and then cooked at 71.1C for 24 hours in a SVM / Rice Cooker combo. I then chilled the belly in an ice bath under a weighted tray to keep the belly flat.

So far so good.... Tender, moist Belly, flattened nicely and sitting in vac packs ready for action

I tried roasting in a combi oven at 250C for 20 mins but it didn't get much crispier using that method. I then took some of the oven roasted belly and deep fried in cottonseed oil and it got a tiny bit crispier but still not what I was hoping for.

Any tips guys? I"m not particularly keen on separating the skin pre-water bath if I can avoid it...

[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012]

Thanks for the info. The salt issue makes sense to me but most sous vide guides and recipes I have read recommend the use of salt in the bag before a 72 hour cook... Maybe I'm more sensitive to this flavor or maybe I'm reading the wrong blogs! I'm not going crazy with the salt but I'll be sure to skip it next time to see the difference.

I have tried Chuck steaks at 55C for 48 hours and short ribs at 57 for 72 hours and in both case the texture has been great but the flavour is very strange... almost like corned beef (silverside). As for seasoning, I only used salt and pepper on the chuck, whereas I used a decent beef stock (but no additional seasoning) on the short ribs. In both cases the flavour was lacking.

"Beefyness" can decrease somewhat with long cooking. This is a good reason to chill LT/LT beef after it's cooked, then give it a good sear in a hot pan to develop a crust and Maillard flavors, then rethermalize and serve.

Also, if you are getting a "corned beef" like flavor and texture, this is because you have salt in the bag and the salt is effectively "curing" the meat in the bag as it cooks over 48-72 hours. It's no different from brining the meat for 48-72 hours, which we would expect to result in a corned-like flavor and texture. You should only salt the meat once it is finished cooking and out of the bag, and this will avoid curing the meat.

[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012]

I suspect you might be right here. The chuck was salted and the ribs were in a salted stock.

I guess I wanted to check if these flavours are normal... it sounds like they are not! I will try some more experiments, keeping the meat high in quality and leaving salt out until the end sear.

On long cook times, pre-salting can lead to a "cured" flavor in the meat. The solution is to post-salt instead. As for keeping the meat warm, well, sous vide. If it's at the same temp, no more juice is going to be extruded. This is trivial if you have a ziplock, slightly harder for vacuum bags.

[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012]

In the case of the chuck steak it was cheap supermarket stuff but the ribs was top notch from the best butcher in town. Both shared a similar cured typed of flavour.

If the flavor is suspect then it sounds like your meat is not of very good quality. I also would not put stock or anything like that into the bag with short ribs. I have done a lot of shortribs and the only times they were anything short of amazing was when the quality of the meat was not very good. I wouldn't put stock in the back. A little bit of salt is all you need -- I have sometimes put a small amount of liquid smoke. Cooked like this and seared, you should get something that is as tender as a filet and more flavorful than a great prime rib.

[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012]

I like the idea of reducing to simulate pan fond. What's the best way to keep the meat warm in the mean time?

There have been quite a few posts in the past dealing with bag juices. You can separate the liquid from fat, then bring to a boil (I usually use the microwave), then strain out the proteins that coagulate. Member Nickrey came up with an interesting method to pan fry the coagulated proteins until they become the typicaly brown bits that accumulate on teh bottom of a normal roasting pan - you can deglaze with the bag liquid and any other flavorful liquids to get your jus. Works very well.

[Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012]

I have been trying out long (2-3 days) cooking times for the first time and have mixed feelings about the results so far.

I have tried Chuck steaks at 55C for 48 hours and short ribs at 57 for 72 hours and in both case the texture has been great but the flavour is very strange... almost like corned beef (silverside). As for seasoning, I only used salt and pepper on the chuck, whereas I used a decent beef stock (but no additional seasoning) on the short ribs. In both cases the flavour was lacking.

In the case of the ribs I wanted to use the bag juices (with the stock inside) to make a sauce but it was very fatty and to be honest not particularly enticing. Is there any way to turn this scrappy bright red liquid into something resembling a dark rich beef jus?

I'm using a sous vide magic with a very well insulated Tefal Rice Cooker and have found it to be very stable and evaporation to be almost nil with a little glad wrap around the steam valve, this is also where my probe sits beautifully.

Any thoughts?