EatingBen

I'm the same with temps, well the opposite to you. I can't get my head around F, 149F is just weird to me but 65c means everything (also not to stick my hand in the water for long) but I can convert between to two with ease.

I originally learnt metric and have since learnt imperial and freakin jocky screams it's hard to get your head around. Metric, 1's, 10's, 100,s 1000's so in grams 1gram, 10grams, 100grams and 1000grams (which equals a kilo) 1 into 10 into 100 into 1000. Wherelse the imperial scale of measurement is "I'venofreakinidea, somesortofnutorberry, athingythatnoonehasseenin100years, something, a lamb, two nuggets, a thumb, someonesmaimedfoot, afootballfield and a gallopinghorse(sizeunspecifiedipresumeapony) or something along those lines. I'm not saying Metric is better or worse since if you understand either you'll end up with the same results but metric is a lot more linear then imperial so once you start to understand it it becomes a lot more simple.

I've only just gotten into Sous Vide cooking and have been trying all kinds of things. Pork is incredibly, as is steak. Chicken I've been a bit hit and miss on but vegetables done sous vide have been insane. The appeal for me is that the Pork Belly (and anything else I've made with pork) is cooked to perfection, it's tender moist and well cooked. I can change the flavours how I want and still end up with tender, moist and properly cooked pork (or any other meat) which means my imagination can go wild and I can be confident that I"ll end up with moist tender meat. It's really not boiling in a bag, it's just a heat medium that carries the heat into the food. Anyway that's me with Sous Vide, can't believe it's taken me this long to buy a real sous vide machine.

Well, what ever it is I got less then a teaspoon of fat and I've made a few more batches and they are the same. It's fantastically good!

oh, that thing is an old style aquarium water polisher from years ago when people didn't have as amazing filter pads and pumps. They also use this same technology to remove spiralina from water for drying. They work well and just overflow as you fill it up and the solids move to the outsides but it's slow. I've never used one for food but I have helped an old fella with his tanks that swore by one.

that looks astoundingly delicious! I've never heard of that cut before but I'll have to find it to try!

Tonight I had chicken thigh 90 minutes, 74c, Kenji advises that the meat will have a steak like texture and he was right. Super juicy, did carrots, asparagus and polenta all sous vide and made a pan sauce with the juices from the chicken with a touch of dijon mustard. Super amazingly delicious all round and no real effort. Reading this threads I need to do some stuff chicken breast and I've a massive steak in the freezer ready to go sous vide tomorrow but will the about 3 hours to cook, so much I want to do sous vide and so little time to do it all

Not my intention to confuse, the chicken stock was done in a bag and the stock removed from the bag to a pot to cool in the fridge after it was done in the sous vide water bath. I had expected a layer of fat to form but it never did I just got these tiny flecks that I couldn't get out, I thought something had gone wrong. The stock tastes amazing but I've never had stock with so little fat before I think I just got prematurely worried. I'm so used to the cook chicken stock with lots of water, reduce, reduce, reduce. Even doing it in a pressure cooker I never got this.

Well I put the stock on a digital hot plate and got it up to 55c.. there are small droplets over the surface of the stock but no large fat layer like I'm used too. I think that it might be that the fat just didn't get rendered as fully, it's a beautiful stock and one I"m super impressed and proud of and will do it again but it's definitely lacking fat that I can get too. I'll leave the stock warm for a little while and then chill it back down and freeze.

That's what I normally do then I reduce the stock. But the stock turned to jelly pretty fast and the fat didn't have much of a chance to rise to the surface.

Usually I defat by cooling the stock and removing the solidified fat, then I'd reduce the stock. Unfortunately that's not what happened here the stock solidified and only small amounts of fat where on the surface. I managed to get about a teaspoon of fat off the top of the stock but there is more that I can't seem to get out since the stock is still somewhat oily but it seems to be somewhat stuck I'm really not sure how to get it to rise to the surface. I'll just heat it back up and keep trying until I get it all. amazing stock but it solidifies so fast.

I made chicken stock in the sous vide, a kilo of chicken wings (on special and I went too) with a little onion, celery and carrot with 1.5L of water. I started at a temp of 90c for a few hours and then dropped it too 65c over night and unleashed the amazing this morning when I snipped off the corner of the bag and let the incredible liquid flow into a pot. I have never ever tasted stock that was so utterly perfect, I've made stock in the pressure cooker, old fashioned stove top, done it low and slow in slow cookers and super fast in pressure cookers and a combination, I've doubled stocks, tripled them to intensified flavours and reduced the hell out of them and never gotten this. BUT I need to defat the stock but it's already turned to jelly in the fridge which kinda makes it a little more difficult to get the fat out of the stock, when I pulled the stock out to remove the fat I was more astounded that I had made chicken jelly that was so intently chicken and smelt so good even cold. So really, if there any new methods that I might not know about to remove the fat? or maybe a way to emulsify the fat into the stock and it be stable? I can't wait to try beef stock and make vegetable stock, what an amazing and lazy way to make such amazing stocks!!

Thanks Smithy, it has been a while since I've been actively cooking turns out I'm rather rusty especially baking bread but its slowly coming back and I look forward to learning everything I can. I'm impressed with the changes this place has had since I stopped coming, its really grown into something a lot slicker and with a heck of a lot more knowledgable people offering up information. You guys have done some great things with the site and the community.

LOL somewhat but heres hoping its not! the vacuum packer just turned into a brilliant purchase, I just packed 3 kilos of meat for the freezer! Now for the SV to arrive!

Hi, I'm Ben I used to be a member of this place ages and age and ages ago and then life happened and I stopped cooking as much or as interesting. But hopefully that will all change, I ordered a Polyscience Chef series Sous Vide thingynameIcan'tthinkofwhattocallit. Along with the Polyscience vacuum sealer, it's not a chamber which I think I'll ultimately upgrade too down the track but it is pretty cool. Ultimately I went with the Polyscience because I'm hoping that A, it's a fantastic machine and I love precision and B, damn it I just spent a bucket load on a piece of kitchen equipment and I hope that propels me to get back into cooking as much as I used too. Also I don't need nor want WiFi or Bluetooth or other bippity bops, just something I can set the temp with and walk away and just know it'l be doing its just reliably! My cooking style is both old fashioned, kinda modern (never done a foam) and somewhat "I have a recipe, I think it went into the bin with the garlic skins cause I can't find it anymore HEY I MADE THIS!!" I love making some of the old fashioned things and I'll make stocks and sauces and thankfully I still won't eat mayo that hasn't been home made (or kewpie) Anyway I'm looking forward to my Polyscience stuff arriving and making chicken, some yogurt and I've been seeing recipes for a chocolate cheese cake? that looks interesting as does a custardy flan. Also making veg SV sounds good I like the idea of corny corn and some really nice asparagus and all that butter in everything OMG I'm going to get fat! So anyway, HI!