TdeV

Much messier this way. But done (dunked). Thanks for the quick response.

7.4 lbs leg of lamb with partial bone has for 2 days been in brine. Rinsed off, dried and vacuum sealed. It's been in the water bath for 2.5 hours. I forgot to dip the package into boiling water for 60 seconds. Is there any point to my dipping the package into boiling water now? Temp= 142F. Planning for Thursday dinner (~30 hours)

The notable differences between the two lamb shanks were: i) smell (one good, one "bad") ii) gelatinous pale red stuff all over the "off" one. The congealed stuff was the colour of a good dark vin gris. That's what made me think of blood. How long does one dip the vacuum sealed packet into boiling water (in order to kill off bacteria)?? Thanks. As for consequences, we don't know yet.

I've just cooked two lamb shanks sous vide for 72 hours at 141F in separate bags. When I opened the first bag, the shank looked and smelled great. The second bag, however, smelled bad (to me). The shank was covered in gelatinous red stuff. My husband is less smell-impaired than I, so he ate that one. The two shanks were purchased from the meat market associated with the Department of Animal Sciences at the local university where the students will have butchered the animals. I'm wondering if what's possible is that one of the shanks did not have all the blood drained out. And that the smell which I've associated with "bad" is actually the smell of blood.

I see I was misreading Douglas Baldwin who says bottom round steak or round roast should be at 130⁰F (140⁰F for medium) for 48-72 hours. I suppose there's no trouble if I put the left overs in the slow cooker? I have a second packet of cut up meat cubes which was cooked along with the first. So I should I cook it for an additional 48 hours, or, start the count from the beginning a cook it for 72 hours? Next time, I should buy different meat? Which cut do you recommend?

Had an excellent, tender, verrrrry slow cooked beef stew recently, so I thought I'd make it better. Bought bottom round. Cut pieces quite large (1 1/2" x 2 1/2"). Seared them in hot grapeseed oil. Sous vide at 132⁰F for 28 hours. Was tough and chewy. What'd I do wrong?

A shrink wrapped package in my freezer was badly labelled, so I guessed it was pork shoulder and cooked it sous vide for 3 days at 135 ⁰F. It tasted okay but it fell apart like crumbs and it's a bit dry. (It was a pork loin roast probably). I was thinking of grinding it up with some whipping cream (food processor) and making a pâté (based on Julia Child's suggestion about salmon mousse). Should I add anything else to the mix? What condiments? Or should I do something else with it? I've got 1.5 - 2 lbs of it.

I'm saute-ing a 1 1/4 inch piece of sea bass. I'd like to know what temperature to shoot for. Thanks.

Pedro, this is a much larger setup than mine. My pot is 7.5 liters (7.5 quarts) with a 380 watt heater.

Evernote, for me. Actually, it was to document my recipes (before moving thousands of miles) that I got Evernote in the first place. And a sheet fed scanner.

Because of stckciv, I found this most excellent write up: http://www.chowhound.com/post/info-immersion-blenders-810839 It does seem like Dynamic International is worth looking into!

After not too long, the top part separated from the body part of my immersion blender. It's a KitchenAid Model KHB1231CU0. From their website, this model looks like a 2 speed blender. KitchenAid says there's no warranty. Prior to the "accident" I thought the top part of the blender was a tad loose. But what "did it" for this blender was mashing a mixture of potato and sweet potato. Lots of suction power, I didn't a ton of water. I'm looking for an immersion blender which will hold together. Recommendations? TIA.

I have a 7 quart slow cooker to which is plugged into a PID Temperature Controller from Auber Instruments. I have been using this setup for more than three years. Per Douglas Baldwin's instructions, I gave the fish a salt bath in the fridge before putting in the cooker. Maybe next time I should start with the water at a higher temp (140?) before adding the fish. We'll see about the side effects. I'll let you know.

It ended up taking all 20 minutes to get the water back to temperature. Then I cooked 20 minutes and checked--the fish was a little rare, so I cooked 5 more minutes. It was edible. It could have taken more, was raw-ish but I could cut through the fish and the edges were beginning to flake. We ate it with some hot teriyaki sauce which was absolutely the right thing.

Baldwin says to cook my fish for 15-20 mins (for med rare) at 122F. Problem is that I put in the cold fish and now the bath is at 89F. Do I wait for it to return to 122F before I start counting the cooking time? It's grouper, btw. Thanks.

Earlier this thread, several folks mentioned dipping the bag into boiling water. Do you mean turn the bag inside out and then dip it? Don't you then have to wait for the bag to dry in order for the vacuum to seal properly? Are people saying it would be satisfactory to dip the oxtail in boiling water for 5 seconds?

Hello Crepes, How do you make savoury pancakes with veggies? Do you mean that the veggies are in the batter, or the pancake is wrapped around some veggies? Thanks.

OK, rotuts, but that means I won't want to have another deckel cut of brisket again . . . (I did look at the SV thread).

Unlike other cases, this time the fat is intertwined with the meat. I've got to do some research about what temperature melts this fat.

I did 24 hours at 145F. The connective tissue was soft. It was easy to pull the meat away from the fat. But there's way too much fat. I'm going to investigate what temp to cook the rest tomorrow, so as to melt the fat.

Oops! Rotuts, I see I started that discussion in 2013 but didn't find it in my google search for corned beef. The one I was looking at was started in 2003 (not by me). So, 145F for 24 hours BUT my brisket has already cooked 56 hours at 131F So what would you do additonally? The full 24 hours? Edited for clarity.

I've been reviewing A corned beef thread, but I don't know if it's the right one. (It's about a brave chef in Vancouver doing a taste-test experiment in making corned beef... in 2003). What am I supposed to be finding out?

It was quite tough when we ate it the first day. The "fat" is not just fat, there's some connective tissue which didn't break down at the low sous vide temp. It can't be cut off very easily because there's not much meat in between the tissue.

I had something labelled brisket which was 4+ inches thick. I cooked sous vide for 48 hours at 131F. To my surprise the interior was heavily fatty. From some reading on egullet, this may be a deckle. I was really hungry so I ate some anyway, but I don't know what to do with the rest. Put it back in the cooker at 145F? 157F? And for how long? Ideas welcome.

We tried out a blow torch for the first time this evening: skirt steak done 29 hours at 131F. Usually I use the broiler in the oven to finish, but it takes a long time and I was worried about the thickness of the skirt steak. I had put about one tablespoon of olive oil and there was very little "scum". Tasty, of course!