FeChef

I took a meat cleaver and a hammer and chopped it into 4 ounce portions. It was still frozen solid. I Vacuum packed them immediately and put them back in the deep freezer. All is good. But, now i have 500g of green flying fish roe frozen that need to figure out how to portion out while frozen... Im thinking it would be nice if i could thaw it out and spread it really thin between plastic wrap and refreeze and cut into strips the length of a sushi roll. But not sure how well that would work out? Any opinions/suggestions?

What would be the best approach to portion out a large chunk of frozen sushi grade tuna. It was very expensive and i only want to use small amounts for sushi rolls. I really dont know why i bought this. I could probably go out to a sushi bar/buffet 4x for what i payed. Damn impulse buy i guess. I suppose the fact that i live 40+ miles away from the nearest market that sells "sushi grade" had alot to do with it. Anyway, I was thinking i could closely watch it partially thaw in the fridge just till its soft enough to chop it into small portions. I am sure as long as the fridge temp is below 40F and i dont let it get to thawed it will be safe to eat raw. But what about the texture going from frozen, to partially frozen, and back to frozen? Will the texture change alot if its was still kept in a semi frozen state? Also, we dont prepare it in thick strips in the rolls. We slice it very thin (shaved) and it gets wrapped over top the rolls. So i wonder how noticeable texture change would be. Has anyone tried this? If so, what are your thoughts?

If its a prime loin roast then 3-4 days will turn out like mushy saw dust. Even pork butt/shoulder roast i never cook for more then 30 hours @ 145F for tender slicing and 33 hours @ 155F for the most tender/juicy pulled pork. I would do a loin no more then 12 hours @ 135-140F.

Most of MC stuff is for "hipsters" but the reason for using sodium citrate is so the cheese doesnt turn back into a hard solid cheese, or seperate when you add milk or cream..ect..ect. Basicly its like using a cheese sauce you buy in the jar, without all the processed crap tht comes in them.

Some types of cheese will give you that sour/bitter taste aswell. A good way to determine is to use a mild cheese like mozzarella. I have made mozzerella cheese sauce using the amounts i mentioned and not notice any sour taste. Another thing to consider is if you have the temp too high and burn the milk or cheese, you will get a sour taste.

I never buy tomato sauce. Its way too acidic. If im not using fresh, i will use tomato paste and add water till i reach desired consistency. Sometimes i will skip water completely and use cream and vodka, for a vodka cream sauce.

Im throwing a monkey wrench into this subject by mentioning on the label of just about every US tomato sauce can it will say ingredients are tomato paste, water and some preservative.

This would be a good experiment to try with Sous vide + rotisserie. I would probably Sous vide @ 145F for atleast 12-24 hours, then finish in the rotisserie till internal temperature of 155-175F. Less if the skin crisps up sooner.

I told you that MC recipe uses too much water and too much sodium citrate. Next time, try using 7g sodium citrate, 8oz cheese, and 1/4 cup of milk to start, once the cheese is melted gradually add another 1/4 cup of milk or stop when you reach the thickness you prefer.

Tri2Cook, As ive already mentioned, I have the same size container as the OP, from the same company and mine does NOT look anything like the OP's. Mine looks just like CH's picture. Very fine granules.

It is alot. I use only 7g for roughly the same amount of cheese. It seems they use alot of water aswell. I do prefer the sauce to be thick and gooey so i start off with only a 1/4 of liquid and add while stiring. Probably less then 1/2 of the liquid MC recipe calls for. I also think using milk instead of water reduces the sour taste aswell. Cant imagine why anyone would like that recipe.

I have sodium citrate from Will powder aswell BUT, mine is very fine granules. Yours looks like little small beads of calcium citrate or calcium chloride used for pickling. I am wondering if you got a batch that was labeled wrong? Also when i make mac and cheese i use roughly 7g of sodium citrate and 8oz of cheese and 1/4 cup of milk. I add more cheese or milk as i go but never more then 7g of sodium citrate. Sorry i dont know the gram conversion off hand and im too lazy to look it up.

I am not sure if this is an insult, or a compliment? I dont know what paulraphael's steaks tasted like so it would be tough to judge, ya know what i mean? I can say that a 1 1/2 inch ribeye on a 700F infrared searing burner for 2 min per side results in a charred rare-med rare steak. Maybe she doesnt like charr, or rare-medrare. My wife loves rare-med rare, but doesnt like charr (she calls it burnt)

Hot dogs and scrapple are made with "lips and @$$holes" but i still eat and love both. Its ironic i said this earlier today, but ignorance is bliss.

I picked these ribeye's up last week. They were choice grade. They were $5.98/lb with a $2.00 off coupon because the sell by date was the next day. I did the 3 day paper towel wrap fridge age. And cooked them on the infrared sear burner for 2 min per side. Best steaks we had this year and cost less then $5.00 for both steaks. I would never pay $30/lb thats nutz.

Can you explain what exactly is the benifit of cooking in the "unsafe" zone for 4 hours? I am having trouble understanding. If its a tenderizing method, wouldnt cooking at a higher temp of lets say, 132F (a pastuerization temp) for a longer period make it just as, if not more tender? Also, if its a flavor method, dont you think between dry ageing, pre and post searing, theres plenty of flavor compounds going on there. It just seems your playing with fire for very little benefit.

Doesnt this bacteria growth cause unpleasant taste? I have had a batch of short ribs that i pre seared before a 33 hour bath that smelled like, and im quoting another member that had the same effect...baby poo. Yes, mild smelling $hit. That said, i will never play games with unsafe temp zones.

Sorry, my wallet, and brain doesnt allow my eyes to even see what $30 beef looks like. It automagicly passes that section of the meat cooler case.

I have used those drybagsteak bags a few times with NY strip, ribeye, and beef tenderloin and they work very well. I keep my basement fridge around 35F. With SV, a cheaper grade ribeye comes out better then some prime rib ive had at steak houses.

I use my dry aged beef trimmings for making a bold stock for a hearty beef stew, stroganoff, or pot roast.

Ouch $8 for chuck? Even if its prime, Its common in my area of PA to get angus choice ribeye for $5.98/lbmore marbled then that chuck roll. Obviously it doesnt come dry aged but thats what drybagsteakdotcom is for. Hope it turns out well for you though. Never heard of 4 hours in the "unsafe" zone before though.

Wow thats cheap. I dont think there is any bakery dealers in my area though. We have bakery supply stores but they dont offer those kind of services, that i am sure of. And there is only two of them within 50 miles. But i will definitely look into getting this vessel coated with something if its less then $25

You guys are probably right. I was considering even something like that flex seal in a spray can. Its like liquid rubber that dries quickly after you spray it on. I dont know what the temperature rating on it is, but it should be high considering it can be used to seal roofing and gutters that can get pretty hot in the summer. I dont know how toxic it would be if someone ate a piece dried, but im thinking once dried its toxic level is probably low.

Well, sometimes you get a leak in a bag and i would hate to throw away something if some water got in the bag. Also, when i sous vide something smoked, the smell gets out of the bags even without a leak, and triple bagged, so it seems possible that if a smell can get out, something toxic could get in. Am I right?

I have been building sous vide rigs out of deep fryer/steamers for a few years and the only con i have is some of the vessels to hold the water is made out of steel that has a cheap enamel coating that everntually starts to deteriate and develop rust spots. I am wondering if anyone knows of a food safe paint or coating that i could buy at places like lowes or home depot to prevent these rust spots from getting worse. I would like to buff out the rust spots now before they get worse. I would replace the vessel with stainless steel but it is a double size fryer with an odd shape/size dimension.