Josh71

I read that most of you freeze your SV cooked things ... When you defrost it, does it change the texture compare to non-freeze-SV-cooked? No? Not even a bit? Especially vegetables ... I bought frozen green beans from the supermarket in the past. After I defrost it, the texture was "different", a bit soft.

Right, I think you all right, it might be overcooked. I usually boil it more than 1 minute. Note about frozen peas, I choose not to use it because the size of the peas, they are tiny compare to the peas from pods that I bought from the market. At least that's what I got here. I do have and use frozen peas, for everyday use. But for special meal, I like giant peas I will buy some this weekend to show you and few experiments

What I meant with fresh peas are peas which are still in it's pod, which I need to open and take the peas out. I can get these from the market, usually. The frozen peas, although they are good, but they usually smaller in size compared to the fresh ones from it's pod. Obviously, there are of course smaller peas in the pod. But, on average, I can get a cup of giant peas from half kg peas pods The intention using these giant peas is for special kind of meal, giant peas are better for presentation (photo)

I usually cook peas in boiling water. This will result kind of wrinkled peas. You know, the skin would wrinkle and not nice. I tried to steam it, and same result. Is there any consistent method that can produce a nice bright green cooked peas which doesn't have wrinkled skin? Using fresh peas of course, not from frozen ones. Probably using sous vide? Which I haven't done it yet, as I don't know what temperature and how long. Just wondering if this is even possible.

How about "chicken confit in pork fat + smoke bacon"? I read about that in Momofuku "Chicken and Egg" recipe: http://www.edibleaustin.com/index.php/component/yoorecipe/recipe/204-momofuku-e2809cchicken-and-egge2809d-rice-bowl I think that confit would work with bone-in-chicken. And then sear it, I have this on my to do list

Btw, I saw 2 kind of wood chips in the store where I am going to buy. Only these 2 though. So .... ALDER or OAK? For pork ribs with kind of sweet BBQ sauce

Thanks! It does make sense. I will smoke it before putting the sauce

Thanks for all the feedback, obviously I have never used stove top smoker nor any kind of smoker I guess I am going to try to smoke first: - Put BBQ sauce on the pork ribs - Wrap tightly in aluminum foil - Let it marinade overnight in the refrigerator - Take out from the wrap and smoke the pork ribs for 20 minutes (from smoke starting to occur) - Let it cool to handle - Glaze again with marinade, because I think it will dry out after smoked - Re-wrap in aluminum foil - Oven at 160C for 1,5 hour I think 20 minutes should be enough to get smoke flavor, no? I don't really like strong smoke flavor though. I am also thinking to smoke after the oven, and add some water + marinade sauce in the "drip pan" to help with the moisture, so the rib won't be too dry.

This coming Sunday, I am going to make pork ribs and thinking to smoke it using my new "Cameron" stove top smoker. But, I have never done this, so I need some advice. Usually, I make pork ribs like this: - Put BBQ sauce on the pork ribs - Wrap tightly in aluminum foil - Let it marinade overnight in the refrigerator Then ... - Set oven to 160C - Put the wrapped pork ribs for 2 hours Then ... - Pat dry the pork ribs, blast it under super hot broil until charred I love the result, it's tender fall of the bone but still juicy inside with caramelized outside Now, coming the smoker. My initial plan would be to smoke it AFTER the 2 hours 160C oven: ... - Set oven to 160C - Put the wrapped pork ribs for 2 hours - Unwrap the pork ribs, pat try - Put in the smoker for 1 hour ... - Broil / blow-torch it to get caramelized outside? As I have never done smoking before, I am not sure with the plan. I read that Cameron stove top smoker can go as high as 190C (375F) on medium stove heat. I am afraid that 1 hour smoking would turn it into dry-rubber-ribs. Any thought? Thanks.

After reading the chefstep oil up tips, I am thinking of freezing some olive oil before putting in the vacuum bag. I think by putting frozen oil, it should be easier to seal it. Do you think this is a good idea? Except for the additional timing to wait to defrost the oil before putting in the sous vide. I am using Foodsaver, which I always have difficulty with liquid inside the bag.

That's nice, and I think much quicker than ice filtration. But it requires some special ingredient (the powder) and another chicken breast Let see if I can buy that powder to try it next time for experiment.

Can we do this using oven? I can imagine there will be a lot of smoke, no? Tempting ...

I watched Heston Blumenthal "Peking Duck" and saw he made super clear duck consome. Start from minute 2:00 ... He froze the cloudy stock, then let it defrost slowly, strained using cheese cloth. I think I am going to try this

Well, the result was not quite satisfying. Here what I did... I boiled the lobster for 3 minutes and then immediately put it under cold water tap until it's cooled. Apparently 3 minutes was enough to kill it, 700g in weight. Then I separated the tail, cut the top part of the shell, brushed some garlic butter and put it under super hot oven at 250C, broiled for 5 minutes. Took it out, the garlic butter was nicely charred, shell was a bit charred as well, pretty nice looking and appetizing. Check the thickest part of the meat with digital thermometer, and it was registered 52C. Then I put it back because I want to reach the core temperature of 55C. After 1 additional a minute broil, checked again and it reached 55,4C. So, I served it and ate... The texture was a bit chewy, not really rubbery though. But you will notice the chewiness. My gf even asked "was it overcooked?". Still we finished the meal though There you go... I don't think it's overcooked, but rather, it's undercooked, no? I selected 55C core temperature with broiling because I have no idea what would be the best temperature... Read the sous vide index, there were few variations, 45C, 60C, 59.5C. Was it the broiling time was too short? Any opinion on this? I am thinking to do this next time : - boil lobster for 3 minutes - take out the tail meat - put in vacuum bag with some butter - sous vide for 20 minutes at 58C - put it back to the shell, brush lightly with garlic butter - blowtorch a bit to get charred (for nice presentation)

Any plan for Android version?

It is very nice and clear indeed. How long did you pressure cook it? And what's the ingredients? I am thinking on mine, probably it's just the chicken wing is too fatty, or the ratio of chicken vs water which was 1 kg chicken vs 2 liter water, so need more water.

How was the doneness of the meat at 65C 3 hours? medium still?

Can anyone make a photo of your stock made out of pressure cooker which is clear? I want to see how clear is it, so I can compare next time. And please state the timing Thanks.

This specific dish requires to deep fry the pigeon cut, not just the breast. Yeah, probably the birds were just old when I got it not tender.

I will deep fry at high temperature, just to get quick nice crisp in the outer. Thinking about 200C which is equal to 392F. You right, I think I don't need to air-dry before sous-vide. But, I am interested in your comment "53C for 1 hour will not tenderize significantly". Do you have other suggestion? Or why you came with that comment ... Hmmm ... or, I can do experiment. I have 2 pigeon, so I can cook 1 with sous-vide first, and the second one without !

Hmm, I have the "Fagor" kind of pressure cooker, which resulted worse in that test. Well, it's still taste nice though If I am going to replace it, I will look for that winner type one.

What is this "slow release" when using pressure cooker? I tried to make a simple chicken stock using pressure cooker, and the result always cloudy (milky creamy in color). My method: - 1 kg of chicken wings, boiled for 5 minutes or so - Rinse with water - Put in pressure cooker - Add 2 liter of water - Couple of garlic cloves - Heat up the stove - Pressure cook for 45 minutes, starting after "high-pressure" state. - Once the 45 minutes passed, I turned OFF the heat and wait until I can release the lid. It taste nice, but it's definitely not clear. The color is milky creamy white

I bought 2 frozen whole pigeon, without head and already cleaned. Thinking to make kind of Asian style dish which is pigeon marinated in soy sauce and Chinese 5-spice powder then deep fry it. I had this dish several time in the past and it was hit and miss in term of the texture of the pigeon meat. Sometimes it was succulent, soft and tender, few times it was succulent, moist, but tough (hard, not tender). I am thinking to "sous vide" it before deep frying, because I read that doing sous vide can tenderize the meat, at least I experienced that with beef steak So, here is my plan: - Cut the 2 pigeon into 4 pieces (simply cut split each of them) - Marinade with soy sauce, Chinese 5 spice powder, for few hours - Air dry it in the refrigerator over night (to dry out the skin) - Sous vide at 53C (129F) for 1 hour, this should still keep the meat at medium-raw ... - Pat dry and air dry it for 30 minutes - Deep fry Do you think the sous vide step will make it "better" (tenderize)? Thanks.

If I broil it under very hot temperature like 240C, do you think that all part of the meat will be cooked? As I understood, broiling = using the top heat of the oven. I am afraid that if I must wait the bottom part of the meat cooked, it would be too long and dried out (or burnt) the top part of the meat? That's why I said using roasting (top + bottom heat of the oven + blowing fan), to get just the meat cooked. Then use blow-torch for the Maillard reaction

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I am going to do the "30 minutes freeze" then "cut the head" way. To anyone that has done this, is it going to be "easy cutting" or I must cut through some "hard bones"? After that, I will separate the tail. I will cut open the top shell of the tail and "release" (using finger) the meat so it won't stick, something like this: Then baste with garlic butter and put it in the oven super hot oven (mine can go as high as 240C) for few minutes. And I will weigh the tail to get the idea of the timing (1 oz per minute? as a lot of articles mentioned). Just to get the meat cooked. If I need to charred it, to get nice finish, I am going to use a blow-torch