Sous Vide Pork Shoulder

[Dave the Cook]

Why not use mustard seed or mustard flour?

[Chris Hennes]

My thought was that I cook pork with prepared mustard all the time, so I have some sense of how much to use. With dry mustard I have no idea. Suggestions?

[Dave the Cook]

I think -- very generally -- that prepared mustards are half-seed, half-liquid, much of which is vinegar and the rest water, wine or verjus. So it seems like you could start with milled seeds in half the amount of prepared that you would normally use. Dilute it with water or stock, maybe?

[Robert Jueneman]

Last week I cooked a large pork shoulder for 24 hours at 58C. I then opened the package, and sliced the meat into three sections each about 45mm thick, rebagged them, and continued cooking one, while chilling the other two in my chilled vodka bath, then froze them. I sliced the cut pieces and served them with mustard and horseradish sauce., accompanied with starch-infused ultrasonic French fries. Delicious! If I had a smoker, I might try that but these were just fine, and nice and tender.

I'm going to retherm one of the frozen pieces for 5 hours today, and serve them with some ultrasonic onion rings that I'm going to try for the first time. See the onion ring thread.

[slkinsey]

Chilled vodka bath?

[Blues_Cookin]

Last weekend I did smoke a shoulder for 7 hours at 150, then Sous Vide for 36 at 150. Used a rub and injection for the smoke, along with a water pan with apple juice and water to maintain humidity. Smoke was cherry wood.

Overall very happy with the results, great mouth feel, nice smokey flavor, and the bark remained essentially intact. However, I may pull it out of the water bath a bit quicker next time. I think a probe thermometer in the meat while in the bath where you could note the time that the center basically got to temp, then figure on the amount of time you would need to keep at temp to break down the collagen may be the right measure to watch.

Chris - i was thinking about doing a shoulder with vindalho type spices. Pork holds up well to vinegar, and with dehydrated garlic and the other traditional Vindalho spices I think it could work out.

I also want to know about the chilled vodka bath. I use chilled vodka too, but usually just for inspiration. :-)

Tom

[Blues_Cookin]

Had a chuck roast in the bath last night for a pot roast, and after 12 hours or so, the bag opened about and inch at the seal and I ended up with boiled beef. Had a small hole in the bag from my pork shoulder last week too, but I caught that early. Never have problems with smaller cuts, but the big ones seem to be having issues. I use a FoodSaver V3835, and I do make sure the edges of the bag are clean and dry. The roast held a good vacuum seal for maybe 30 min on the counter before I put it in the bath, so I know that it originally was in good shape.

Any tips or tricks? Double seal? Double bag?

Thanks

Tom

[KennethT]

I find the biggest thing is to keep a clean seal area to start with. Try folding the top of the bag back so it stays clean while filling.

[Robert Jueneman]

I also want to know about the chilled vodka bath. I use chilled vodka too, but usually just for inspiration. :-)

That's what the bourbon is for!

I keep three or four 1.5L bottles of the cheapest vodka I can find in the freezer, at about -8F/-22C. Then depending on the size of the piece I'm trying to chill, I either pour that into a Cambro cold-holding tank that has a cold gel in it, also stored in the freezer; or I put it in a metal pan on top of my Anti-Griddle, which can get down to -30F if it is well insulated, e.g, by covering it with a Styrofoam cooler.

I'm not necessarily trying to freeze the bagged meat or whatever -- sometimes from cook-chill, but sometimes just leftovers -- but rather just cool it down rapidly, so I can put it in the fridge or the freezer, and not have to wait an hour or two.

Obviously a -22C bath is going to chill foods a whole lot faster than a 0C bath will, and on top of that, I don't have to buy big bags of ice, or use up all of the ice in the ice maker, just to chill the food. And the vodka is reusable, assuming I don't overfill the funnel while pouring it back into the bottle.

But you could also add ice cream salt to your ice bath, if you don't mind the additional cost, and the mess if you spill some. I don't think it will get down to that temperature, but I haven't tried it.

I've asked Vengroff to add this lower temperature bath to his Sous Vide Dash app.

[Blues_Cookin]

I find the biggest thing is to keep a clean seal area to start with. Try folding the top of the bag back so it stays clean while filling.

Yep, I do that. The fact that the bag held the initial vacuum would indicate that the original seal was intact, right?

Bourbon is for contemplation and political conversation - not inspiration. Or did I get the quote wrong?

[Chris Hennes]

I was thinking of trying something with mustard, but am a little worried about the acidity over such a long cook. Any advice?

It turns out I needn't have worried: I went ahead and used a quite acidic prepared mustard, cooked at 65°C for 30 hours, and the meat texture suffered no ill effects (and tasted fantastic).

[torolover]

Is it OK to Sous Vide a whole Boston Butt with bone? Wouldn't it take a long time before the center reaches 60C and therefore be in the danger zone?

[Realeaty]

It's perfectly fine to sous vide a Boston butt.

[Alex Parker]

What ipad app is that Vengroff? That looks fantastic.

[KennethT]

Vengroff designed a great ipad app that many of us use called Sous Vide Dash. It's available in the apple app store. Highly recommended.