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I plan to infuse cubes of watermelon, pineapple and cucumber with cocktail mixes (mojito, pina colada and gin tonic respectively) using vacuum chamber sealer and serve them as cocktails on a stick. How long ahead can I do it? I am concerned that at some point the fruit may get an off putting texture. I have to make 150ish of those so time is critical. Any advice is highly appreciated!

In my thread about liquid smoke, someone posted smoke chicken recipe from ChefSteps: http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-chicken I am thinking to use sous vide instead of low-temperature-oven (90C), because I don't trust my oven can hold the temperature stable. So, here is the plan: - Cut the whole chicken into 2 parts half-chicken - Make smokey brine: water + liquid smoke + salt - Brine the half-chicken (overnight???) - Bag the chicken prepare for sous vide - Sous vide the chicken ... After sous vide finished: - Pat dry the chicken - Glaze with some BBQ sauce (add liquid smoke as needed) - Broil under very hot oven (395F / 202C) to brown and crisp the skin My question, what would be the temperature and time to sous vide half chiken? Chicken breast usually at 150F / 65C for about 1 hour. Chicken thigh usually at 165F / 74C for about 1 hour. I am thinking, for half-chicken is at the average of that 158F / 70C for let say 1,5 hour. And the brining time, overnight is not too much? I don't want too much smoke flavor What do you think?

Ive been making Corned Beef SV for some time. I take advantage of the local St.P'sDay sales and stock up. I generally cut off all of the external fat, cut the large whole CB down to smaller size and SV. I soak in ice water 12 - 24 , or overnight to hopefully get rid of a little salt and do 142.5 - 145 for 24 hrs. it has worked well for me in the past. these notes are in the CB thread. this last year I ended up with a new problem : note the 'jus'. ( 'jus' sounds tastier than 'transudate' ) this bag had 500 gms of meat and 210 gms of 'jus' the jus was thick and full of gelatin and very tasty. it would make a very nice gravy doctored up a bit for appearance on any ' Corned Beef Dinner ' on the potatoes , cabbage etc. it was salty. this was probably 24 hours ice water soaked, w several changes of ice water, and always refrigerated. 145 x 24 the meat was almost mealy but not quite. it tasted fine. it fell apart and whole piece was quite soft and 'wet' I salvaged some as slices which i dry fried to get color and these worked well in a sandwich. the cuts that were softer worked well as shreds dry fried until crispy : and crisp: I made a Bibb lettuce roll : it was nice but did not need the Mayo and mustard. tastier just with tomato and lettuce and some fresh ground pepper. My best SV CB was cooked and then smoked out of the bag on the weber @ 130 for two hours. just not this batch. this was in the CB thread. best CB Ive ever had here is the question : the only thing different this time as far as I can tell is this batch of CB , in the store bag, sat im my refrigerator, which is quite cold, until almost the noted 'cook by ' date on the packages. I just didn't get to it until then this might have been as long as 2 months after purchase, but before the cook-by or use-by date. here is the question: is this effect of 'wetness' and 'jus' a result of that extra 'curing' or did I do something different I did not make note of ? the CB is not a total loss, but a real disappointment . next St.P's day Ill get the stuff processed sooner, and only do < 12 hour soak or just a few hours. I'd really like to know why this happened. the only two variables I see are the extended time in the cryovac's package brine and the soaking in ice water. any serious thoughts about this outcome form those you study CB via SV ? many thanks

I got an immersion circulator (anova PC) for my birthday and have been playing around with it. After looking into cooking times for steak and chicken breasts (and other meat that is not being tenderized) I'm quite confused. Most recipes for steak say cook a 1.5" steak at 129f for 1 hour for medium rare. While it is often stated that the time can go beyond 1 hour, 1 hour is the preference using serious eats page for reference). However, based on the sous vide dash app it looks like the steak will have a core temperature below 129. For the 1.5" steak, it takes 3:20 to get up to temp and at 1 hour it looks like it is around 120f, almost a full ten degrees under the target temperature. Therefore the steak will come out rare, rather than medium rare. The case is similar for large chicken breasts (a .75" breast will be at temp in 1 hour) with a 1.5" breast taking 3:15 to get to 150 and typical times for cooking breasts listed at 1 hour. I will mention that in both cases the surface pasteurization is complete within the hour. Am I missing something, or are people cooking these items so the core temp is below the bath temp (which would lead to a temperature and doneness gradient within the meat)? Monti

I am planning on doing cured-brined, smoked, and seared pork chops, in that order. I will do a short 2 day brine using Prague Powder #1, salt, and sugar. The chops will be injected with brine as well as the surface jaccarded. After brining, they will be dried off, coated with rub and cold smoked for 7 to 8 hours. Once the cold smoke is finished I will vacuum pack and sous vide. That is where I am having a problem deciding time. And feeling a bit dense. Looking at Douglas Baldwin's figures for a 2 inch piece of pork, I'm seeing 2 1/4 hours at 68.2C. That will pasteurize it, but is that enough? Given I just did brisket for 36 hours at the same temp, 2 1/4 hours seems like it barely has time to get warm. I have friends asking for the chops, finished and frozen, to be reheated later. I want to be sure I provide a moist, tender, and flavorful chop that is safe. Emphasis on the safe aspect. I expect to chill the chops quickly as they come out of the water bath and then move promptly into the freezer. So, for the sous vide time ... I guess I will go 5 hours, since over cooking should not be a factor with sous vide. Unless the bone in chop - normally 1.5 inches to 2 inches thick, demands a longer time?

I had something labelled brisket which was 4+ inches thick. I cooked sous vide for 48 hours at 131F. To my surprise the interior was heavily fatty. From some reading on egullet, this may be a deckle. I was really hungry so I ate some anyway, but I don't know what to do with the rest. Put it back in the cooker at 145F? 157F? And for how long? Ideas welcome.

NOTE: This continues the discussion in What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today? (Part 1) A New Zealand Strip Steak. The animals are kept on what they call a zero, zero program. No antibiotics, no hormones, grain fed with no gmo. Lightly seasoned, and into a 129F bath for 2 hours. Seared on the little BGE and served. ]

This stuff has popped up on my radar recently, and I don't see any discussion on it here. IT seems that chickpea canning liquid plus a good beating turns into a air filled protein matrix that does the job of egg white meringue in a lot of applications. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExpx2BzIOQ Anybody here done anything cool with it?

Sous vide meats tend to come out of the bag with a grey scum. I've tried removing it with a paper towel, but this isn't very effective. Can I wash the meat under the water faucet? What do you folks do? Thanks.

I've seasoned them Chinese dim sum style with black bean sauce etc but I don't know what temperature or how long to cook them for with my immersion circulator any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Is there any tangible advantage of the Sous Vide/Poly Science unit over the Anova? My local culinary store just started carrying the $399 PS. I ask because I have enough store credit, discounts and gift cards that I could buy the unit without going out of pocket. There is nothing else in the store in that price range that I want or do not already have. I tried but can't redeem store credit for gift cards. And I have two Anova's that serve me well. Somebody would have to go. The biggest difference I've found with google-fu is not in the PS favor, the "made in China" unit is not considered repairable though it will be replaced while under warranty. Any others?

As a result of a failed attempt at coconut gelato I have a batch of (for lack of a more precise term) coconut paste: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144208-home-made-ice-cream-2013–/?p=2019595 The stuff is wonderfully delicious and at refrigerator temperature about the consistency of ice cream or lard. Like coconut marzipan but perfectly smooth. Any ideas what I can use it for...besides eating out of the pot?

I've done a lot of online research but can't find any recipe that uses both smoking and sous vide. I've recently added a vertical box smoker to my arsenal and would love to incorporate it with my sous vide methods. In other words, meat in a smoker generally only takes on smoke for the first hour, so what would be the harm in smoking something like a tri tip for an hour, immediately vaccuum sealing it and placing it into a bath at 132 or so? It seems like an ideal way to get the best of both worlds. A good idea? Bad idea? Why aren't there more recipes using this combination? I'm aware of incorporating liquid smoke into pouches, but this seems like a pefect way to achieve both smoke and tenderness. Thoughts?

Help! I'm trying to make an Onion Sugar. Its Onion Juice, glucose, and sugar (or isomalt for a reduced sweetness). Chris Hennes tried this back in 2012 and got the same results I did: very dark, slightly burnt, still slightly sticky and impossible to grind back into powder. Has anyone tried this with success? The sugar needs to reach the hard crack stage so it can be ground back into a powder, but basically remain as clear and un-carmelized as possible. Help me Gods of Glucose, Sultans of Sucrose, Kings of Caramel, Masters of... whatever. Any ideas? Thanks! Seth

I'm looking for a way to whip milk into a whipped cream-like topping perhaps stabilized with carrageenan in my isi whipper. Has anyone done this? Any ideas or recipes? I can't seem to find anything on the web. Any help would be appreciated.

Another take on constant temperature cooking: http://www.kitchenaid.com/shop/-[KSM1CBL]-408088/KSM1CBL/# Thanks to Kerry, who posted the picture from France, I now have one of these things on order. From what I have read the temperature control is not precise enough for sous vide cookery, however it should be more than acceptable for, say, ice cream. I understand the temperature setting is in two degree increments Fahrenheit. The Precise Heat Mixing Bowl has an adjustment range from 70 to 222 deg F (21 to 105.5 deg C). The unit may be used as a standalone slow cooker (or I guess not so slow), as well as being used as a mixing bowl with certain model KitchenAid stand mixers. I really hope the bowl fits my KitchenAid KSM5OP. It may be an excuse to get the KSM5OP out of the living room.

Simmer at moderate heat? Cook at a low simmer for 20 minutes? What does this mean? Ever dreamt of a way of controlling your hot plate to perfect temperature? Look no further. Simply put the temperature probe into your pot and let the controller do the rest with your existing kitchen range. Think sous vide without buying the expensive circulator. Perfect poached eggs. Slow cooking without the fuss. Use chef-created recipes to control your own range with precision. Thanks to eGullet member Vengroff and his team for this new innovation. You may know him from Sous Vide Dash. I have no proprietal interest in the technology but am one of the first backers. Check out the new kickstarter for Meld. The first 250 backers get the $149 product for $99. Other backers get it for $129.

I have a glut of round roasts in my freezer so I've cut one of them up into steaks to see if I can make edible. I did one today, it was 21 hours at 137.5f, nothing in the bag but steak and a dash of black pepper. It was tender, it was the right doneness, it had good flavor, but it was dry. There had been a bit of fat along the edge, and that part was nice. The rest was almost flakey. So here's what I think... 1) cooked too long, try it for 10-15 hours next time 2) should've added some fat to the bag, some oil or a strip of bacon maybe? 3) that's just as good as round roast gets. Any recommendations for my next attempt?

Anyone have a good time and temp for sous vide chicken thighs? I'm looking for really tender meat, but still juicy and not mealy. I have tried 156f for 3 hours and 6 hours which is pretty good, but looking for more opinions. How about Sous vide duck legs time and temps? Thanks!

I purchased transglutaminase - Moo Gloo TI from modernistpantry.com - twice, and I have failed to get any adhesion at all from it. They have been extremely understanding both times and refunded my money, but I really just want to get it to work. I am using TI because I keep strictly kosher - I understand that it doesn't bond as wide a range as RM. I have tested the TG multiple times by taking fresh chicken cutlets and attempting to bind them with varying amounts of powder, and even with a slurry. I have either wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap (torchon) or vacuum sealed them with a chamber sealer. I left the tests to bond for 24 hours in the refrigerator. It appears that the only result is drawing water out of the meat, but that might be the vacuum. The pieces do not bond at all. Is there something I am missing here? I know someone who is having success with Moo Gloo TI & kosher meat, so I don't think that is the problem. FWIW, I don't detect any "wet dog" odor when I rub the TG into a piece of chicken, but the people at modernistpantry.com say that they have found that to be an unreliable test, with many people not being able to smell anything. Thanks, SJW

I am hoping to get started with sous vide this weekend, and have a general question about preparing and sealing meals in advance. Is it OK to go ahead and put the meat and seasoning in a bag, vacuum seal it, and store in in the fridge for ~24 hours before actually cooking it sous vide? For instance, Sunday evening I buy some salmon filets, put them in bag with salt, pepper, and a slice of lemon. Seal bag. Then cook it Monday evening. Would that work, or does storing the meat for ~24 hours sealed with salt + pepper + lemon harm the meat? Any advice appreciated.

Can frozen raw meat be defrosted more quickly in a water bath? Is it safe to do that? What time and temperature are recommended? Thanks! (I did a search and couldn't quickly find anything on this subject, but if there is, feel free to point me towards it)

Good morning! I set my oven to 160 degrees F last night, to sous vide pork ribs over night. This morning I noticed that the oven had turned off (I've never had this happen before). I immediately pulled the ribs out of the water, which was at this point luke warm, and put them in the fridge. According to the appearance of the meat, and the color of the liquids in the bag, it looks like the ribs cooked through. That said, I'm not sure if these are a total loss, or if I can bring them back to heat and then sear them on the barbecue. Thoughts? Thank you all! JT

GE is entering the SV field in an innovative way. They are doing a crowdfunding approach through one of their Innovation technology centers. The device itself is also innovative in that it uses a Inductive cooktop for the heating element with a wireless temperature sensor. It's also unique in that it does not include any type of water circulation. Here's a link to the crowdfunding site: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/paragon-induction-cooktop/ What does everybody think about this entry into the field? If nothing else it certainly shows that SV has gotten the attention of major appliance makers. A few weeks ago GE also announced that one of their new lines of stoves will have the same type of temperature control as this device uses so you can do SV on your stovetop.

So I looking now, at the vacmaster.vp112,and anova pro,would love to get them both but I'm not able,so the question is,get the vp112 sealer and cheapo immersion circulator,or get whatever sealer sins you can even cook food sous vide in Ziploc bags,and get the Anova Pro circulator? What makes more sens in your opinion guys?