Bernie

I have a nice recipe for Lamb shanks Rogan Josh. The recipe uses Greek style yogurt and stock along with the various spices and a long slow braise (3 hrs plus) 7 out of 10 times the result is that the sauce has the appearance of having split the yogurt from the stock. It does not seem to affect the flavor at all, its just the appearance. Is this the result of cooking at too high a temperature at some stage during the cook?

Did Lamb shanks to this recipe https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/sous-vide-moroccan-spice-lamb-shank but with a few modifications. I simmered the marinade for about 15 minutes and then allowed it to cool. I think this is a better way to incorporate the spices. I have found that spices remain a little course and don't combine and develop their flavors as much when used for long low temperature cooking I used 62C for 48 hours then 68C for 12 hours. I also wrapped the shanks in foil and placed in a warm (60C) oven after the long cooking while I did the next step, because the next step took about 20 mins. I hate just warm food rather than hot food. I also did what one of the comments said about the chick peas, that is strained the cooking liquid, added the chick peas and apricots and then reduced the cooking liquid to form a sauce. Texture of the meat was excellent, very moist, falling off the bone but still close to its original volume, the sinews had softened and a lot of the fat was rendered out. As usual more interested in the result and forgot to take pictures. Served with garlic bread (to sop up the sauce afterwards), though I think there was more than enough meat /chick peas/apricots. Next time I will add a 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper just to the cooking liquid, just to give it a tang. We have a favorite "Lamb Shanks Rogan Josh" conventional recipe we had tried a few days before. Its a "braise" for 3 hours and used to be the standard for Lamb Shanks in texture and flavor, but now its firmly in second place.

I did beef short ribs at 62C for about 16 hours. But i put them in a marinade with equal parts red wine & beef stock, 1/2 teaspoon each of cardamon, paprika, cumin (all ground), a teaspoon of black peppercorns. The marinade I put in a saucepan simmered for a few minutes then cooled. Vacuum bagged 3 largish short ribs with marinade. When done I opened the bag emptied everything in a casserole and heated for 20 minutes in a 180c oven. This gave the meat a nicer finish. This also rendered out a lot of the fat. I was going to reduce the marinade to make a sauce, but that would mean skimming the fat. I was too impatient to do that. We ate it without the sauce, with lumpy mash spuds, and garlic bread on the side, and a nice Brown Brothers Malbec. I let the juices cool completely and saved the fat for later use. It seems to have a lovely savory flavor so should be good to roast or finish off sous vide meats. You are dead right about the fat globules. Also to note that after the sous vide the meat on the short ribs was close to original size. After the roasting it had probably dropped in volume by at least 30% as the fat was rendered out, and it came away completely from the rib. I was happy with the result and I think a lot of the flavor is in the fat so I think you need at least some of it. Next time I might try 62C for 8 hrs then 8 hrs at 74C to render out the fat. One rib was sufficient for one person, and as there was only the 2 of us I got to save the other for lunch. A warm sour does roll with short rib heated in the microwave was pretty good. mmm.... sour dough roll with meat...homer would be ecstatic.... I need to increase my exercise to make up though...

Love the temperature but if the meat is good quality i would drop the time to 1.5 hrs then seer in really really smoking hot pan (use beef fat instead of oil). Its going to burn so do it outside on a preheated grill. 5 hours seems long to me and the meat may become 2 tender. I prefer a little work for my teeth so I can savor the fat throughout the meat. Don't trim the fat either, just do a extra run around the block next week to make up😉 If you cook a thick fillet steak and when tasting first cut off the outside "char" and just taste the pink meat itself, it has a very subtle flavor that is unique to each cut of steak . That said, some of the best steaks I have eaten have been prepared in the normal way (seered then grilled in a hot oven then basted in butter...there is a cheffy term for it but alas I ain't no chef) then rested. They are mouth watering and delicious but a lot of the taste is because of the maillard reaction as well as the nuttiness of the browned butter. Not too many vegetables (and no strong flavors). Add a really good robust aged red wine and there is nothing better. I think I need to be alone now and will probably need a cigarette later (funny though I don't smoke).......

Here is a question out of left field. Does anyone do 2 stage Sous Vide? By that I mean cooking for say 40hrs at 62C and then cooling in cold water and put in the fridge for a day or so and then repeating the cooking again for another 8 hours at 62C then proceeding as normal. A couple of times I have had a longish cook and had plans changed and had to store in the fridge and to serve I just heated up to the original cooking temperate I thought the taste and texture improved. I normally did this just for a half hour to get some temperature into the meat prior to browning. Could it be that the transition from cold (~6C degree) to the final cooking temperature (usually ~60 degrees ) actually re activated some enzymes or some such, but their effects might be more pronounced because of the changes that already occurred? One thing this allows is to cook several meals at one time. OK, its manual after the timer is set for the first meal but it means with the same run I could "overlap" and just put into the fridge. Of course after the first cook its necessary to cool fairly rapidly to avoid the dreaded safety/time temperatures for bacteria growth.

Co incidentally, in a previous life (well it seems that way) I was a Tuna fisherman. I poled Bluefin Tuna, Striped Tuna (skipjack) and long lined for Yellowfin Tuna for the Japanese sashimi markets. The Bluefin Tuna fishery was almost destroyed in this country by over fishing. A strict quota ensured there is still a fishery. Its interesting to note the American fishery towards the end relied heavily on purse seine fishing. It was certainly the most efficient method. There is still a Bluefin Tuna fishery in South Australia both wild and now farmed and long line fishery all round Australia. A South Australian firm has successfully bred Bluefin Tuna artificially, the first in the world, so perhaps the wild stocks may be under less threat into the future. In Australia, most would consider the local purse seine fleet the major contributor to the rapid decline. The fleet of local purse seine fleet numbered between 2 & 10, depending on the season. Most would fish elsewhere (South Africa?) in the off season. In long line & pole fishing, the take from a school of fish is estimated to be in the order of 30% while in purse seine its about 98% or more. Fuel prices and the change in currents (global warming) meant that the returns in good years no longer offset the poor years of bad weather and no fish runs or fish runs far out to sea put paid to most of the fleet. I have seen where the ocean was blood red as far as the eye could see. A purse seine trawler tried to take a school of Bluefin tuna that was too big for their net. The purse seiner herself was almost capsized until the net was cut. Unfortunately the crush of fish in the net destroyer most of the school. Their blood covered the ocean. It was one of the most shameful & sickening sights any of us had ever seen. We were just glad the we were not on that purse seiner. I hope they still have nightmares about the incident. Towards the end of the fishery, there were a couple of American "super seiners" fishing under licence in Australian waters. These very large boats fishing with gigantic seine nets would fish whole schools of Skipjack tuna. There were so many in the nets and in the massive holds of these ships that much of the catch was crushed. The resultant mush was only suitable to be used for fertilizer. This made the fishery barely sustainable economically. These large boats were able to fish in atrocious weather but because of the size of their nets they would be restricted to deep water areas over the continental shelf. Local outrage by green activists at what appeared to be needless slaughter eventually led to the withdrawal of licence to fish in Australian Waters. Some of these boats then fished in less developed South Pacific Island waters. Russian Trawlers of the same ilk also fished these waters. Fortunately, the very lack of infrastructure mean the use of mother ships for processing which appears to have been non sustainable. I guess once you build a boat you have to use it, regardless of what part of the world you originate. Nearly all of these species are migratory round the world, though there seems to be localized migratory stocks as well.

Unfortunately, fish names and species differ from staste to state and country to country. Bendigo, I guess, benefited from being on a major inland route so transport passing through and to the area meant that there was generally efficient fresh produce to and from Melbourne. In New South Wales for instance the long haul inland routes from Melbourne & Adelaide and the time from these cities to some of the major towns mean the cost of fresh produce is prohibitive for small volumes. Any fresh fish (unless local freshwater) comes from Sydney and the transport is not as regular. It is really interesting to see how fresh food distribution effects the way who towns and population view food.

Just came across this topic. I am new and I realize the last post is several years old. I just came back from Victoria. Fish and chip capital of Australia. Read through the posts and am amazed at some of the posts. Flake: is the generic universal name for shark. There are many different species, only a very few are protected. Gummy sharks are protected because of over exploitation. But its not as one would think, it was not line fishing it was scuba divers of the 1960 & 1970. This was a new and exciting sport along with the invention of the power head. This was a tip for a spear gun or more usually a spear. It consisted of a short hollow tube into which a 12 gauge shotgun cartridge was fitted. It had a firing pin at the base and either a spring or rubber to hold the cartridge away from the pin. To use it you just thrust it at your prey. Since gummy sharks tend to congregate close in shore and are not aggressive the sport of shark hunting resulted in many thousands being slaughtered and the species came close to extinction. Even snorkelers got in on the act. Power heads are now banned. There are many different type of shark used for flake but most sharks have some sort of enzyme that breaks down within the flesh to form ammonia, even during freezing. Though not harmful, the unpleasant taste makes them not suitable for long term storage (freezing) or consumption. Also, mercury accumulated in the fat layer close to the skin so larger sharks are usually discarded, though the high enzyme content gives these large specimens a distinct "off" smell and taste even after a few hours. It may surprise you that a great number of the "save the shark warriors" were some of the worst offenders. There are many old films of some of the respected researches hunting all types of shark with all sorts of things. I remember one husband & wife team chumming up sharks and shooting them with a machine gun. They would keep count and the numbers were in the hundreds per day. King George whiting: The bigger specimens are caught of South Australia. But they are also caught in Victoria. They are a premium product. Cook them delicately (just butter) and eat them without sauces. Barramundi: Sadly, most barramundi are farmed and as far as I am concerned are bland and tasteless. Wild caught barramundi demand a premium price but well worth the price. Snapper: The smaller snapper are much better table wise than the larger specimens They are caught round the coast from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia to Western Australia. Blue eye cod: (Trevalla) are caught offshore in very deep waters (usually over 200 meters. They are a premium fish, mostly sold in high end restaurants. Hapuka Cod are caught in the same places as Blue Eye cod. Pearl Perch: Caught in the sub tropical & tropical regions they are considered by some to be the top of the charts for taste. Personally I prefer the smaller snapper. Flat Head: Biggest catch is probably in New South Wales but it is caught in other states. Over fishing has actually increased the biomass (total tunnage of fish). There are a lot more but most specimens are smaller. Theses fish are somewhat cannibalistic with the larger specimens keeping the smaller numbers down. This is one fishery setting itself up for a catastrophic decline, because as the fish size decreases the breeding stock also decrease in size. A natural disaster (like global warming) could tip the balance. I find the taste of fresh flathead superb. It is not as delicate as whiting, pearl perch or snapper but very tasty. Lovely cooked in butter with freshly milled black pepper. Mackerel: Much loved in Queensland. Caught in sub tropical areas. Not a fan of them myself but each to his own. Blue Grenadier: Caught in very deep water off Victoria, Tasmania & New Zealand. This is a long lived species a lot of the fish take being 30~50 years old. They are usually processed on board trawlers and snap frozen. Sold as Hoki and other names (depends in which state you are in). Trout: An introduced sport fish. Also farmed. I find them bland and pretty tasteless. You can improve them with smoking. If you can catch wild trout in the small cold rivers and streams in the high country of Victoria or New South Wales, the difference in taste is staggeringly better, but the fish seem to be much smaller. Tasmania Salmon: Farmed, similar to trout. In appearance the flesh is similar to Atlantic salmon, but the taste is no where as good. Still, its a quality product and can be treated like Atlantic salmon. Hake: (marketed as Gemfish) a migratory species past the New South Wales Coast. Caught in huge numbers by deep water trawlers to the point where the greedy over fishing of these fish means the species no longer migrates in these areas. Nearly all were processed and frozen. Lovely taste when fresh and reasonable taste after being frozen & thawed. Most "gemfish" or "Hake" sold these days is actually imported frozen usually from South Africa. Fish are marketed in 3 ways in Australia. Fresh, Frozen & Chilled. Because of the limited market size its very hard to market only fresh fish. In the capital cities its fine but as soon as you get to regional centers the transport costs and keeping facilities are limited. It is a good way for a regional restaurant to quickly go broke relying on fresh fish. Chilled fish is the supermarket chain attempt to convince us to buy fresh fish. Chilled fish is fish that has been frozen and then thawed for sale. It must be kept chilled and should not be refrozen. Fresh fish may well keep for 14 days if they are bled, chilled when first caught. Unfortunately, trawler caught fish tend to die within the trawl, and may be dead for some hours before they are iced. They then may not be processed (gutted, gilled filleted) for a day or so. This reduces their shelf life by as much as a week. The fish may be still edible but may have become soft and mushy and the taste will have deteriorated. Unfortunately, most of the fish people are exposed to are farmed, then frozen, processed and imported usually from Asia. Compared to fresh local fish, most are bland and tasteless. If you have never had fresh fish, I guess these other frozen offerings are quite good. They are certainly convenient. Eat them with a tasty sauce!

First post so please be gentle. I have been using Sous Vide for several years, mainly to cook steak, pork sirloin and lamb rump. Thought I would share experiences. I purchased pork belly from Costco. I divided into 3 so I could try 3 different methods. Each of these pieces would be further divided in 2 after cooking to produce 2 single servings. 1 Brine Made up a brine of 1/2 cup salt 1/2 cup of light brown sugar 2 tablespoons of whole black peppercorns couple sprigs of Thyme Boiled for a minute or so allowed to cool, a few ice cubes to cool, placed the first piece of pork belly in this in the fridge overnight. 2 Dry Rub 25 gm sugar 25 gm salt 1 teaspoon Paprika 1/3 teaspoon ground coriander 1/3 teaspoon ground cardamon mixed thoroughly in a spice grinder and coated pork belly in it in the fridge overnight 3 Marinade 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup dry Apera (can't call it sherry anymore) 1/2 cup of white sugar 2 Tablespoons of fish sauce 1/2 brown onion finely chopped 1 inch of fresh ginger (thickness of a mans thumb) finely chopped Mixed together place in vacuum bag vacuumed & sealed placed in fridge over night. Next morning heated bath to 62 degrees C (~143F) . Dried and pat dry the brine and dry rum pork belly & vacuum bag them. The dry rub had leached out some of the juices/water in the pork belly. Placed all three bags in the bath for 24 hrs. After 24 hrs transferred to ice bath to cool them then in the fridge till needed. The first to try was the marinaded pork belly. Heated the bag in 74 degree (~165F) bath for 1/2 hour. Then emptied the bag and patted dry the top of the pork belly and coated lightly with white vinegar & placed in the oven under the grill (the "grill" in Australia may be a separate grill chamber (broiler?) or in my case its a grilling element in the oven) Left for 25 minutes at high heat trying to get the top to form crackling. Only partially acceptable. The marinade I kept, added about a cup of beef stock (what I had at the time) and reduced to 1/3 for a sauce. Verdict: Meat texture was excellent. Fat was not totally transformed but was no longer excessively oily. The taste was great! The crackling was only just crisp, not really what was desired but OK. The sauce was excellent The second tried was the brine pork belly. Heated in the water bath the same way. Patted dry the top, lightly coated in white vinegar and Into the hot oven with the grill on high. After 10 minutes used a propane torch to try to crisp up the top. Again only partially successful. Verdict: Meat and fat texture almost the same as cured ham. Taste was excellent and the meat was not salty. The third little parcel I put in the freezer. I want to see what effect freezing has on it. Of the three packets this dry rub potion seemed to have lost a bit of moisture. Perhaps it would have been better to apply the dry rub then immediately vacuum bag to retain the liguids. My thinking was that since the run contained a fair amount of salt i did not want to sous vide in a very salty liquid. I am hoping the time in the freezer will age it slightly. Have penciled in another week to see. Unfortunately I did not take photos. Wasn't actually a member when I did this last month. As I expect most do, I got the basic recipes off the net and make adjustments to what i think I normally smoke then slow cook pork belly over a bed of vegetables (potatoes, carrots sweet potatoes, parsnips, onions, button mushrooms, capsicum, tomatoes) for a couple of hours. The vegetables are worth the effort alone. I think I will be doing the marinade method in future though

Yes God comes here to holiday...(but we make him book first)😀

Hi All Just joined. Am located in Bribie Island, Queensland Australia (not Austria with the snow & chocolates) but Australia with the Kangaroos, Australia 2 (you know the boat that first took the Americas cup ) Vegemite. Love good food & wine (quality NOT quantity). Have used sous vide for a few years now for some basic and want to learn more.