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My first sous vide effort


pacman1978

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Radtek: " high temp pump" can you elaborate on this? Id love to have an inexpensive immersion circulator for my largest SV cooler/cooker.

Well depends on your idea of "inexpensive". It's a March 809 high-temp food-grade pump. They retail for around $130. It's not submersible.

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Ok so I have a little confession... Normally coking a loin I would sear it then roast it but I was so desperate to use the SV I just got delivered to work and only had a couple of hours from getting home to needing to serve food. So just part of the learning curve really, but today I bought some inch and a half thick rib eye steaks from this incredible butcher called ginger pig at borough market in london (london based peeps will have heard of if) and SV'd them for 3 1/2 hours then flash fried in a pan. Given the thickness of them I knew they would not dry out and I can honestly say I am lost for words. I love the way all the fat is edible and not just the fat but the sinew everything. You hear the science behind the collagen rendering and all that but to actually taste it is something else. My first thought now is to try a really well marbled wagu steak as using this method you just know you are not going to ruin it! I can totally see how it really suits the slow cooked fibrous cuts and so keen to crack on with them. That said I have an amazing recipe for braised short ribs that people are always amazed by and I don't think SV could offer any more so to me it's just an understanding of where and when it can advance your food as opposed to being the default answer.

Thanks for the tips

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That said I have an amazing recipe for braised short ribs that people are always amazed by and I don't think SV could offer any more so to me it's just an understanding of where and when it can advance your food as opposed to being the default answer.

Well put. With that said, though, short ribs are one of my favorite cuts to SV. If cooked right, SV short ribs can have an almost steak-like quality (or the more flaky traditional texture as well).

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Interesting comments on smoking but I get the impression that americans are much more into home smoking that us brits. Generally we eat a few smoked foods (Bacon, kippers, etc) but very rarely do we try to carry that out at home. I tried it once with some Mesquite wood and I upset the neighbours due to the smoke plumes drifting across.

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Baselard, thanks for the suggetsion. I am cooking this dish this weekend for a dinner party as the main course and so might slice of a rib and SV it as an experiment to get an idea of the end result. The success of it to me though is the mirepoix, plus smoked bacon, red wine and chicken stock then all the marrow from the bone rendering into the liquid that I then skim and reduce to make a fantastically intense jus. So if you are to SV the ribs what do you do at the end - the meat might be nice but you still need to impart some flavour otherwise it's just another steak with mash/chips(fries)/etc

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I received my FMM this week and finally got to sous vide something :) My first effort (not having a vacuum sealer) were eggs at 63C for around 45 mins. I made three and only used two, and while the yolk was amazing, the whites were a bit runny, despite putting them in boiling water for 3 minutes. The next day I cracked the remaining egg into a low pan with some bacon fat, and the results were not unpleasant at all. Will be going back to this soon.

My butcher kindly vacuum sealed some pork ribs for me, after I put on some Alton Brown style rub. They went into the bath at 60C for 24 hours, and were finished under the broiler, and served with chimichurri. I thought they were good (and the family loved them) but not as tender as I'd hoped.

IMG_2030-Edit.jpg

I currently have some Momofuku ribs in the FMM, will be going for 48 hours as per Chang's recipe.

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I received my FMM this week and finally got to sous vide something :) My first effort (not having a vacuum sealer) were eggs at 63C for around 45 mins. I made three and only used two, and while the yolk was amazing, the whites were a bit runny, despite putting them in boiling water for 3 minutes. The next day I cracked the remaining egg into a low pan with some bacon fat, and the results were not unpleasant at all. Will be going back to this soon.

My butcher kindly vacuum sealed some pork ribs for me, after I put on some Alton Brown style rub. They went into the bath at 60C for 24 hours, and were finished under the broiler, and served with chimichurri. I thought they were good (and the family loved them) but not as tender as I'd hoped.

IMG_2030-Edit.jpg

I currently have some Momofuku ribs in the FMM, will be going for 48 hours as per Chang's recipe.

At 60C, I would have left them in for 72 hours. You'll find that they are so tender that the bone slides out.

Check out the original sous vide topic and you'll find variants that include 67-68C for around 24 hours, and 72C for 20 hours.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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At 60C, I would have left them in for 72 hours. You'll find that they are so tender that the bone slides out.

Check out the original sous vide topic and you'll find variants that include 67-68C for around 24 hours, and 72C for 20 hours.

Thanks :smile: I did find a sous vide thread for pork ribs, and worked from there. Don't get me wrong, they were better than most ribs I've had, just not the magic I expected.

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Many suggested the blow torch. I have tried it a few time and got a non-pleasant bitter taste. Is there a trick for doing it properly?

You need to make sure your torch is fully combusting the fuel, or you are essentially spraying your food with fuel. I believe this generally means you should only have a blue flame, not red/orange.

Agreed. Also, I find it helps to maintain a decent distance from the meat, about six inches, and to move the flame around a bit. Three passes at distance works better for me than a single intense one very close. What I think is going on is that the former more nearly replicates the Maillard reactions of natural roasting, where the flavor molecules are built up in layers.

Further, for dishes that will be reheated, as opposed to taken straight from SV to table, I find a heat gun works better than a torch. This is slower and you need to chill the meat before browning (otherwise it will take on too much heat), but the flavor is better, IMHO. I think that's because this even more closely replicates natural roasting.

I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of others on both points.

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I received my FMM this week and finally got to sous vide something :) My first effort (not having a vacuum sealer) were eggs at 63C for around 45 mins. I made three and only used two, and while the yolk was amazing, the whites were a bit runny, despite putting them in boiling water for 3 minutes. The next day I cracked the remaining egg into a low pan with some bacon fat, and the results were not unpleasant at all. Will be going back to this soon.

. . . .

See "Cooking eggs" in the wikiGullet and the topic "All about sous vide eggs". In Onsen eggs (63°C/45') you will always have a runny white which is often discarded. With the delta-T method (e.g. 75°C/16' for eggs with 142mm circumference) you get a nice set yet soft white.

Peter F. Gruber aka Pedro

eG Ethics Signatory

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Many suggested the blow torch. I have tried it a few time and got a non-pleasant bitter taste. Is there a trick for doing it properly?

You need to make sure your torch is fully combusting the fuel, or you are essentially spraying your food with fuel. I believe this generally means you should only have a blue flame, not red/orange.

Thanks. I did that. The taste was not of fuel, just burnt. It was a beef filet mignon. Does the method only work with fatty meats or am I just doing something wrong?

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Just last night, for the first time, I tried the deep fry method of browning my meat. It worked really well. Normally, in a smoking hot pan, it might take a minute per side to get the kind of colour I like, but in 200°C oil, it took only 30 seconds and it was done on all sides. I diligently patted the oil from the meat after frying and it was not oily at all when served. When I cut the meat for service, there was a distinct crust and just a very small—like 1 mm, or less in places—ring of well done meat and the rest was perfectly done in that way only sous vide can offer.

I'd been tentative about trying this method for a while, but I'm glad I did. It works really well. It was beef, not pork, but in the next week I'll be in the same position of serving pork loin to my wife and mother-in-law; I'll give this method a try and report back as to whether it works for this cut.

As promised, I tried the deep-fry method on pork loin filet. Sous vide at 56°C/133°F. Here's what it looked like just out of the bath.

01_Out_of_circulator.jpg

I love sous vide pork loin filet. It is so beautiful, pink and juicy.

After thoroughly drying the outside of the pork using paper towel, it was ready for a dunk in the fryer. I heated the peanut oil to 205°C/400°C.

I wanted to have the meat in the oil for the shortest time possible to avoid over-cooking any of the meat. When I did scotch filet beef recently, I had them in there for 60 seconds, and it was more than required. So I thought I'd start with 20 seconds.

Here is the colour after 20 seconds.

02_After_20_seconds_outside.jpg

The inside. Only a tiny ring of over-done meat.

03_After_20_seconds_inside.jpg

The colour was a little light. My partner even commented that it could have been done for longer.

I had a suspicion that 30 seconds would be a good time, but I wanted to test that guestimate by trying 40 seconds.

The colour was much improved and quite golden.

04_After_40_seconds_outside.jpg

The inside appears to have a slight doneness gradient, but still very good.

05_After_40_seconds_inside.jpg

My feeling is that 30 seconds would be perfect using 205°C/400°F oil. The colour and crust would be sufficient without adversely effecting the doneness of the inside.

Edited by bhsimon (log)
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Did convection affect the results? I suspect that oil cools rapidly when in contact with cold food and that the oil does not "get out of the way" of hot oil quickly enough to maximize the rate of conductive heat transfer. Perhaps if you swish the piece around, you would get better browning for the same oil temperature and duration of immersion.

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I received my FMM this week and finally got to sous vide something :) My first effort (not having a vacuum sealer) were eggs at 63C for around 45 mins. I made three and only used two, and while the yolk was amazing, the whites were a bit runny, despite putting them in boiling water for 3 minutes. The next day I cracked the remaining egg into a low pan with some bacon fat, and the results were not unpleasant at all. Will be going back to this soon.

. . . .

See "Cooking eggs" in the wikiGullet and the topic "All about sous vide eggs". In Onsen eggs (63°C/45') you will always have a runny white which is often discarded. With the delta-T method (e.g. 75°C/16' for eggs with 142mm circumference) you get a nice set yet soft white.

If you're going to run higher temperatures and time, why not poach and be done with it? Heston Blumenthal recommends 80C for 4 minutes. This is a lot easier (and faster) than the delta-T method.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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Did convection affect the results? I suspect that oil cools rapidly when in contact with cold food and that the oil does not "get out of the way" of hot oil quickly enough to maximize the rate of conductive heat transfer. Perhaps if you swish the piece around, you would get better browning for the same oil temperature and duration of immersion.

I’m not sure. I did move the meat around briefly at the start of the process because I was worried about the meat sticking. When I do this again, I will do a small experiment. Usually when I cook, it is for my wife and I; so I'll put one piece in for 30 seconds, untouched, and another piece for the same time but keep the meat moving around in the oil.

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was the deep fried pork in anyway oily?

Ive been studying a whole pork loin and will report my thoughts later today.

very nice trim on that pork BTW

bhsimon

I didn’t think so. I immediately wrapped the meat in paper towel after frying and this removed all the excess oil.

This was one of my concerns, too, before I first attempted the process. In fact, it was the reason I hadn’t tried before now. Modernist Cuisine at Home mentions the method and finally gave me the confidence to give it a try. I’m glad I did.

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