Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment (Part 8)

[Charcuterer]

The site looks great. I can't wait to use it.

[rotuts]

I'm In !

[paulpegg]

I have a problem. I registered but my login is not recognized. I get the OOPS message.

[paulpegg]

I have a problem. I registered but my login is not recognized. I get the OOPS message.

Sorry, it took a bit longer to activate than I expected. All is well.

I am cutting up a 15 pound beef strip loin today and will create about 24 individual servings in 24 bags. It would be nice to be able to specify the number of bags to be entered and have the system create the listings automatically. Duplicating the first bag 23 more times is a bit tedious. There will be lots of requests like this as we start to use it.

Thanks for getting it going.

[Nowayout]

I was watching a youtube video from the USA distributor of Henkelman Chamber Vacs and heard something brand new regarding sous vide bags. Well brand new to me anyway!

They are doing a general overview of the sous vide process. After they seal the steak in a chamber Vac, at 1:50 in the video, they say that you should use a shrink wrap bag and plunge it briefly into boiling water to shrink the remainder of the bag to help seal the meat juices in. I have never seen this mentioned before.

So my natural question is, would this really reduce juices leaking from the meat? I have heard of a shrink bag to help maintain the shape of a food item, but never to be used to reduce liquid leakage from meat.

I guess I can logically see how it might hold the juices closer to the meat, but would they just run out anyway when you cut the bag open, ending up with the same moisture loss as in a regular vacuum bag?

Has anyone tested this? If I can find a shrink wrap vacuum seal bag I am up for the test.

Thoughts?

[jjahorn]

I have seen discussions about Ziploc bags and safety for sous vide, but not paid too much attention until now, because I didn't have an oppertunity to cook sous vide.

I've been assembling the parts to make one now, and was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction.

I was looking at the food bags we have here and they say on the box safe from -40C to +115C.

I was hoping they would be ok for my first attempts at sous vide, until I know I want to invest in a vacuum sealer.

[nickrey]

I very much doubt that you are going to cook at either of those limits. If they say food safe from those temperatures rather than just they won't disintegrate within that temperature range, you should be free to use them.

[jackal10]

Tesco had Ox cheeks in the butchery. A revelation when cooked SV.

Blanched first (1min in boiling water from kettle) to kill surface bacteria I cooked them at 58C for 72 hours with 1 tbs each of balsamic, soy and red wine (aromatics like bay leaf optional but I didn’t)(need to be slightly acid to guard against botulism) Can sear but not necessary, reduce bag juices serve hot or in thick slices cold

[EnriqueB]

(need to be slightly acid to guard against botulism)

Inmediate consumption or fast cooling plus limiting refrigeration time to 3 to 5 days (depending on your fridge temperature) or freeze should be enough for protecting against botulism, I cook oxtail regularly for 100 hours without any acid in the bags.

[jmasur]

they say on the box safe from -40C to +115C.

The good news is that, by definition, cooking sous vide in a water bath pretty much limits you to the 0-100C range. Unless you're using a different liquid for the bath -- nitrogen, perhaps?* -- you have no reason to fear.

_{(* No, you're not. This is tongue-in-cheek.)}

Edited March 8, 2013 by jmasur (log)

[jmasur]

Announcing open free registration to the Modernist Cooking DB site!

A short time ago, we announced a request for pilot users for a new website we created to track your sous vide efforts and your freezer inventory. We had several pilot users and fixed some bugs along the way, as well as adding some great features. Thank you to our great pilot users who inspired those additional features and helped find the bugs. The pilot period is now over and registration is now open for anyone. The site is free, and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we do.

The site is: www.modernistcookingdb.com

You can create your own login on the site, or use your credentials from one of six popular social networking sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google.

Todd: Both login methods appear to be broken; I get a 500 Internal Server Error.

[Todd in Chicago]

Announcing open free registration to the Modernist Cooking DB site!

A short time ago, we announced a request for pilot users for a new website we created to track your sous vide efforts and your freezer inventory. We had several pilot users and fixed some bugs along the way, as well as adding some great features. Thank you to our great pilot users who inspired those additional features and helped find the bugs. The pilot period is now over and registration is now open for anyone. The site is free, and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we do.

The site is: www.modernistcookingdb.com

You can create your own login on the site, or use your credentials from one of six popular social networking sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google.

Todd: Both login methods appear to be broken; I get a 500 Internal Server Error.

Jmasur....

Thank you for reporting this, and our webmaster will review this as soon as possible.

Please, anyone that is reporting problems for the site, please send an email to: webmaster@modernistcookingdb.com

Fellow eGulleteers, eGullet was kind enough to let us post about our site here, and I really want to make sure that we respect the purpose of this site and want to make sure that "support" is not handled here. Please do feel free to post about how this site helps you as it relates to the topic "Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques, and Equipment 2013", but for answers to questions or for support, please do use the webmaster@modernistcookingdb.com address. Once again, asking this out of respect for our community, which I'm so grateful that eGullet provides that.

Jmasur, thanks again, and we'll have the site back up and running as soon as possible.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

[aa2093]

Hi all.

This is my first post. I just bought a SideKIC after reading about it here and am ready to try my first test. Does anyone have suggestions for time/temp for a breast of lamb. I was thinking of boning it and maybe even gluing it together to get a thicker piece of meat before cooking.

Thanks!

[aa2093]

Sorry one more question- at the moment I'm putting the SideKIC on a pot BUT does anyone have a cooler that they're using with it that fits the size well?

[pbear]

(need to be slightly acid to guard against botulism)

You're crossing up two things. The spores of Clostridium botulinum are extremely hardy and laugh at sous vide temps. Indeed, only the high temps achievable in a pressure cooker will kill spores. The reason they're so hardy, though, is that they're not doing anything. Once they come out of suspended animation, the normal vegetative state of the bacterium is a delicate little flower, active only between 38º and 113ºF (3.3 to 45ºC). See here, citing Hauschild, A.H.W. 1989. Clostridium botulinum. In Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens. Doyle, M.P., ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, NY. Recommended sous vide temps generally are well above that, and those that aren't are for brief cooks of foods safe to eat raw..

ETA: Bear in mind no authority (at least, of which I'm aware) recommends using acidity in sous vide to prevent or control botulism. I'm just trying to explain why.

Edited March 14, 2013 by pbear (log)

[rotuts]

I dont have the sideKIC but Ive seen it here in a cooler. any reasonable size will do if: you insulate the top and seal it in a way that there is low moisture loss AND use hot water for a starter to not over tax the unit.

[scubadoo97]

Sorry one more question- at the moment I'm putting the SideKIC on a pot BUT does anyone have a cooler that they're using with it that fits the size well?

I did this

[ChrisTaylor]

Weeknight beef ribs: sous vide at 58C (no seasoning or etc) for 24 hours then hit with a simple dry rub (salt, pepper, sugar, chipotle, garlic powder) and smoked w/ hickory for 20-30 minutes.

[jmasur]

Mmmmm. I have a SideKIC with a pump that just stopped working. Duncan is sending out a new one and was very quick to respond but makes me wonder if these home based units are built well enough to provide years of service. Is that an unrealistic expectation?

Mine failed as well. Very strange. But kudos for the quick turnaround on the refurbed or replaced unit.

Latest adapted recipe: Ersatz Chicken Piccata. I followed Giada DeLaurentiis' recipe, except for the chicken preparation. Instead of butterflying the breasts, I seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked at 140 F for about two hours, snipped the corner off the bag and harvested the juices to make the piccata sauce, resealed and returned to the bath to keep warm. When I was five minutes shy of serving, I put my serving platter in the water bath, then patted dry and seared both sides of each breast on a nonstick electric griddle at 400 F -- I didn't add fat or dredge in flour -- then sliced each across the grain in approx 1/4"-1/3" thick strips. I dried the serving platter, placed the chicken in it, sauced, and served.

The verdict: Awesome. Our guest emailed me the day after to reiterate her praise -- particularly noteworthy since she had enjoyed veal piccata at an excellent restaurant the night before, and pronounced this far superior. The juiciness of SV chicken continues to impress.

I'm planning to try harvesting the juices the next time I make Ersatz Chicken Marsala. Seems like an excellent technique.

And now a question: I'm sure this has been dealt with before, but does anyone have a recommendation for blow torches? I have a small one right now that really doesn't do the trick.

[nickrey]

A lot of people on eGullet use this torch.

[jmasur]

A lot of people on eGullet use this torch.

Sweet; thanks. Any idea how it's different from this one, which has the benefit of being Prime-eligible?

[nickrey]

A lot of people on eGullet use this torch.

Sweet; thanks. Any idea how it's different from this one, which has the benefit of being Prime-eligible?

Nope, looks the same to me.

[e_monster]

A lot of people on eGullet use this torch.

Sweet; thanks. Any idea how it's different from this one, which has the benefit of being Prime-eligible?

Nope, looks the same to me.

I believe they are the same.

[jmasur]

Excellent. Order placed. Looks like hardware stores and Asian groceries are the places to get the canisters?

Sorry for the topic drift.

[e_monster]

Excellent. Order placed. Looks like hardware stores and Asian groceries are the places to get the canisters?

Sorry for the topic drift.

Restaurant and chefs supply stores also often carry them. A local restaurant supply store has them for about $1.50 apiece.