FeChef

What does good Octopus taste like. I love all seafood. Squid, scallops, everything. That said, and Franci made a good point, I have never tasted good Octopus. It was always bland with the texture and taste of sucking on rubber. Ive had it in a cold seafood salad, in a sauce with mushrooms, and deep fried. None where worth eating. Also in my neck of the woods its expensive and always frozen, never fresh.

Ironically i flash chill stocks to quickly set the fat layer on top so i can pull it out before pouring the stock into cube trays to freeze for a flavor boost to dishes. Just today i made a stock from the bones of 10/lbs of chicken thighs. I dont know why but my chicken stock turned completely white as milk. I read this is a good thing and people purposely try to get this complete white color.

You do not need to flash chill stocks. Especially if they were brought to boil temps like 212F. Due to the nature of sous vide cooking alot of people cook at really low temps that "barely" pastuerize. I think this also brings out the worry warts so these people tend to over think things. I ony flash chill when i know i cooked something med rare and dont plan to eat it that same day and want to leave it in the fridge instead of freezing. If i plan to freeze i just put it in the fridge for a few hours and right into the freezer. No need to flash chill.

I have tried a recipe that called for fish sauce. It definitely was not the flavor in question. What is Maggi sauce? I seen a bottle of it at the asian market but did not buy it. There was no english print on the bottle so i couldnt read what it was but for some reason i imagined it was something like gravy masters or kitchen boquet. Which is basicly carmel coloring used to darken gravys. That definitely would not be what there using as this is a very light color sauce, even lighter then the picture of my mei fun from last night.

Its just a bunch of julienned vegies like carrots, napa cabbage, celery, green onions, minced garlic, minced ginger, a few eggs scrambled and fried, thin rice noodles or angel hair pasta cooked al dente and quickly chilled. Then you add some oil to a wok and quickly stir fry the vegies and set aside with the fried eggs. Add more oil to the wok. You can add some thin strips of cooked pork, chicken, shrimp at this point and toss in the noodles and let them warm up for a minute or two, then add a mixture of 1/4 cup pork OR chicken stock ,2 TBSP soy sauce and 2 tsp of cornstarch and toss till liquid bubbles and is absorbed. Toss in the other already cooked ingredients and serve. And yes i made the pork. Im pretty sure you read the thread i made about chinese roast pork. Its leftovers that i had sliced and froze.

Its funny you brought that thread back up. I have since then traveled 70 miles to a Asian market where i was able to buy many popular ingredients that are not found in local grocery chains. I found Pearl River Bridge Delicious Light Soy Sauce to be the best ive ever tasted. I used to be very sensitive to soy sauce but this stuff i can douse on anything. Well maybe im exaggerating a bit but this soy sauce is by far the best ive tasted. Now back to topic, I went out on a limb and tried adding a sauce that consisted of heavily reduced pork stock, light soy sauce and cornstarch. I may have added too much soy sauce, but the flavor profile was very close to what i get at local Chinese take outs. So i know im on the right track. Heres a pic of tonights Pork Mei Fun.

I dont know about mayo in cheese but who the F doesnt like mayo on a cheese burger? Or mayo on a BLT w/cheese. Ham and cheese sandwich w/mayo.Or a turkey club with mayo? Cali cheese steak w/mayo. If you dont like mayo on these sandwiches, my guess is you just dont like mayo period.

Has anyone had Mei Fun @ americanized Chinese take out restaurants? Not the Singapore version. There is other versions like chicken, pork, shrimp, and house (which is a combination of the last 3 listed). There is a "flavor" that is NOT curry (singapore version). I cant figure this out. What is strange is that this flavor is not specific to one local place. This flavor is similar from place to place. But what i did notice is this flavor is not consistent. Some times it bold, and sometimes its bland. I have tried lotsof ingredients besides the basic (fried eggs,chinese cabbage, carrots,scallions,ginger,garlic) Its definetly not just soy sauce. Ive tried XO sauce, that not it either. Its very light color so i will also rule out dark soy or oyster, hosin..ect. Could this be a simple chicken stock mixed with light soy and cornstarch? It does seem to have some liquid on the bottom of the plate (although white in color). This has been bothering me for a few years. Its one of only a few dishes i want but cant seem to duplicate. Any help would be very much appreciated.

I gave my wife a slice. She could not believe it was chicken.

Turkey cost more. Especially if you buy just the breast. I can get individually vacuum packaged boneless skinless chicken breast for 1.99/lb from Wegmans. Thats an everyday sale. Seems the cheapest option since there is no waste.

Here is a pic.

I did not see a point to posting a pic since it just looks like a sous vide chicken breast. The muscle fibers are tight due to the brine/cure just like ham. But other then that, nothing really to showcase.

The experiment was a sucess in terms of flavor. It did not turn pink for some reason. I suppose i did not add enough MTQ but there was enough MTQ to give it a "hammy" flavor. The tsp of liquid smoke was perfect amount. Next time i will add the liquid smoke from the beginning. I think i will also double the amount of MTQ next time. It was not too salty so i think doubling the MTQ would be in the perfect range. The long brine also gave the chicken a ham texture. Really all that was missing was the pink color.

Math never was my strong suit. I was always under the impression that 1000g water for every 10g salt would equal a 1% sodium brine. I never took weight of protien to be brined into account.

Two breasts each breast was probably 8oz or less. So 1lb in total.

Sure why not. Just dumped a tsp in and shaked the bag around. I'll probably give it atleast another day soak.

Thats the problem. I dont know how much liquid smoke to add. For the brine i used 500g water and 20g of MTQ.

Well i do like the taste of processed deli meats like smoked turkey breast. If you read the label on the packages they do say smoke flavor added. Pretty sure thats liquid smoke. Just not sure how much and when to add it. Im thinking i probably should add it during the brine/curing.

Well its either going to have a hammy flavor, or just taste like an extremely long brined chicken breast. Shouldnt taste too salty since its only 4%. Im just curious if its enough to turn it pink. If you cure something long enough it will turn pink before cooking, but you can also cure something for a short amount of time and turn pink during cooking, for example, fake smoke ring on pork and beef.

Got any ludes?

I did look at a few recipes for Torihamu but to me they just sound like a salt brined chicken breast which i always do anyway. And thats not what i would call chicken ham and not the flavor im going for. I am basicly going for something similar to deli smoked turkey breast or even better would be a real smoked whole turkey. But of course im trying this with chicken breast. I just want to see what flavor and color using morton tender quick will produce on chicken. I am not sure if i used enough mtq though.

Anyone try making some? I didnt find any recipes online that make use of nitrites/nitrates. I wanted that "ham-e" flavor so i used some morton tender quick that i had on hand. Morton says you can use it as a replacement for salt so i went with a 4% water/MTQ brine. I have a few boneless chicken breats soaking for two days so far. I am wondering if thats enough MTQ to give it that pink "ham" color or if i should up the percentage? Also, how many days should i cure them. They are not very thick breasts. At most 1 1/2 inches at the largest end. Also, what do you think about adding some liquid smoke into the brine? To give it that smoked flavor.

Brining the chicken slices in salt/papain solution did not seem to tenderize any more then without. Since the slices were only 1/4 inch thick i only sous vide them for 1 hour at 140F. Maybe the papain percentage was too low to be effective but anymore would have made the slices too salty. I need to source pure papain powder to test this further. Also 1/4 inch was probably a bit too thin for this experiment. Next time i will slice 1/2 inch.

I decided to postpone the experiment till tommorow. Right now the slices are brining. Papain is only active between 140F-160F so the longer brine time shoul not make much difference. Also the sodium percent is on the lower end so i dont expect too much difference in taste. Now to answer your question, yes i have in the past tried various times from 90 minutes to upwards of 12 hours. I have only noticed a fall apart texture, not a softer pliable one. Has nobody noticed this with sous vide cooking? I find it hard to believe i am alone in this. Again, i am not talking about tenderness or juicy, i am only talking about the firmness of it.

I decided for educational purposes to try a salt/papain brine solution of roughly 3%. I could not get my hands on pure papain powder so i had to settle for 1% papain, 19% sodium per 1g. I used my hobart to make length wise 1/4 inch slices a a whole breast to simulate a filet. I will try a few different experiments with using a cornstarch slurry and sous vide at 140F and also quickly deep fried (1-2 min) and also without a slurry. Also considering a flash fry of 30 seconds and then sous vide to see if it changes the pliability aswell. Any other suggests welcome before i begin. Going to give the chicken an hour to absorb the brine.