Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment (Part 4)

[KennethT]

Sam - very interesting - this is the first time I've done a SV turkey - what happens to the skin that you don't like? Do you find it similar to what happens to chicken skin?

[derekslager]

Keller does not seem to like strong flavors - notice how he wraps his aromatics in plastic when cooking sous vide - and he may feel that the flavor of the aromatics in the juices is too strong.

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The herb sashes are not designed to suppress flavor, but to prevent the herbs from overwhelming the portion of the food they are in contact with. The sides are left open so the flavors can mix freely with other liquid in the bag. It's simply a technique for distributing the flavors evenly.

[slkinsey]

Sam - very interesting - this is the first time I've done a SV turkey - what happens to the skin that you don't like? Do you find it similar to what happens to chicken skin?

Somewhat similar, yes. Except that turkey skin is overall considerably thicker and tougher than chicken skin. SV chicken skin can be reasonably crisped up with a blowtorch, or a very short trip in a blazing-hit frypan. Not so turkey skin, IMO, which takes considerably longer to render out (there is a layer of gelatinous subcutaneous fat under the skin). Either way, it seems to end up either tough as a board or flabby. either way, not the treat that chicken skin can be.

[origamicrane]

could iit be possible to use a rolling pin and to roll out the skin and reduce the thickness?

[slkinsey]

Meh. Why? The reward isn't that great.

[qrn]

I have a FoodSaver that has the Pulse vac feature and removable drip tray. I sometimes freeze the marinade in ice-cube trays BUT I usually don't. With the pulse feature, you get only a little liquid (which goes into the removable drip tray) when you get the air out. It works well-enough that I rarely free the marinade ahead of time.

I have a foodsaver pro 2 (and another older,completely manual one) Is there something like that I am missing with these things to do SV???

Any direction would be appreciated...

Bud

[savvysearch]

Anyone planning on cooking a turkey sous vide?

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I am. Making 2 turkey ballotines out of 1 whole bronze turkey.

I'm going roast off one of the ballotines as normal in an oven

and the other i'm going to SV.

I plan to Jaccard and butterfly the breasts.

Make a stuffing out of diced brown meat with sage and onion and then form

the roll.

Vacseal it and SV at 65C for 4 hours.

The turkey skin I'm going to made into skin crackers.

how are you planning to make your?

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I'm going to cook it with butter, sage and thyme and garlic. There's a video of Grant Achatz on youtube cooking it this way. He does it in a ziplock bag. I don't have a plastic vac so I'll have to do it this way.

Edited November 27, 2008 by savvysearch (log)

[Ruth]

Since it is virtually impossible to extract all the air from a ziploc bag how do you prevent it from floating? I ask this question because even though I have a Foodsaver occasionally my bag of vegetables seems to retain a little air and it floats.

[dougal]

Ballast?

Maybe a teaspoon would be excessive, but a few ceramic baking beans should do the trick, shouldn't it?

[Ruth]

Thank you. I was just thinking of going out to the back yard to collect some pebbles. Presumably the beans would be a touch more hygienic!

[Toufas]

so any person in the uk...whats the cheapest method of doing this in a home?

[e_monster]

I have a FoodSaver that has the Pulse vac feature and removable drip tray. I sometimes freeze the marinade in ice-cube trays BUT I usually don't. With the pulse feature, you get only a little liquid (which goes into the removable drip tray) when you get the air out. It works well-enough that I rarely free the marinade ahead of time.

I have a foodsaver pro 2 (and another older,completely manual one) Is there something like that I am missing with these things to do SV???

Any direction would be appreciated...

Bud

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What is it that you'd like to know? If you don't have the pulse option on your FoodSaver then you probably want to freeze any liquids that will be in the bag. If that is the case, then either seal one end of the bag and put the liquids in the bag and then freeze before vacuuming and sealing. Or, freeze the liquids in ice cube trays and add them to the bag before vac'ing and sealing.

If I totally misinterpreted your question, re-phrase.

[jackal10]

so any person in the uk...whats the cheapest method of doing this in a home?

←

Auber Instruments http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=pr...6afb0e707fbc467 ship to the UK

Pair that with a low cost slow cooker, rice cooker or a steam table.

For professional use CLifton Industries http://www.cliftonfoodrange.co.uk/ or Grant Instruments http://www.grantsousvide.com/ tend to be used

You can buy foodsavers or vacuum sealers online from many sources

[qrn]

I have a FoodSaver that has the Pulse vac feature and removable drip tray. I sometimes freeze the marinade in ice-cube trays BUT I usually don't. With the pulse feature, you get only a little liquid (which goes into the removable drip tray) when you get the air out. It works well-enough that I rarely free the marinade ahead of time.

I have a foodsaver pro 2 (and another older,completely manual one) Is there something like that I am missing with these things to do SV???

Any direction would be appreciated...

Bud

←

What is it that you'd like to know? If you don't have the pulse option on your FoodSaver then you probably want to freeze any liquids that will be in the bag. If that is the case, then either seal one end of the bag and put the liquids in the bag and then freeze before vacuuming and sealing. Or, freeze the liquids in ice cube trays and add them to the bag before vac'ing and sealing.

If I totally misinterpreted your question, re-phrase.

←

Both of my machines have an area that catches stuff that flows out of the bag on vaccuming , but the liquid still fouls the seal..

I guess that I don't know what the "pulse" option is or if I have it...the older machine is totally manual, and you can control when you seal. The Pro 2 has an overide of the vac process so you can vac as much you want before letting it seal. or seal at any time..What does the"pulse " option do???

Sorry for the confusion...

Bud

[e_monster]

The pulse option has a button that you press that vacuums while it is held down. So, you can 'pulse' it for a second. And then pulse again and keep on doing that until the air is out and little or no liquid has been pulled out of the bag. When the bag is vac'ed to your liking you then press the seal button. Even if some liquid gets pulled out, my FoodSaver has no problem making a seal. Mine is maybe a year old. My old foodsaver did not seal well when the bag in the sealing area had liquid in it. So, I think that they have made some improvements in that respect.

Does the liquid prevent your foodsaver from making a good seal?

[slkinsey]

I have a Pro 2300 from these guys, and have not found bagging with a fair amount of liquid to be any problem. For Thanksgiving, I made several Keller dishes from Under Pressure (more on this anon) which included much larger amounts of liquid than I would ordinarily ever put into a SV bag. For various reasons, it proved impractical or unfeasible to pre-freeze the liquids. I figured I'd just keep my eye on the vacuum chamber and hit the "manual seal" button if a lot of liquid started coming out of the bag. I never actually had to do this. I held the bags so that there was always a clear "channel" for the air (no air pockets at the back of the bag). The air was always evacuated first, and while a small amount of liquid (perhaps 1/4 tsp) would typically come out of the end of the bag, the machine would always go over to sealing just at that moment -- before I had a chance to hit the manual seal button. The result was bags sealed with plenty of liquid and no residual air.

[qrn]

The pulse option has a button that you press that vacuums while it is held down. So, you can 'pulse' it for a second. And then pulse again and keep on doing that until the air is out and little or no liquid has been pulled out of the bag. When the bag is vac'ed to your liking you then press the seal button. Even if some liquid gets pulled out, my FoodSaver has no problem making a seal. Mine is maybe a year old. My old foodsaver did not seal well when the bag in the sealing area had liquid in it. So, I think that they have made some improvements in that respect.

Does the liquid prevent your foodsaver from making a good seal?

Yes if its wet, it does not seal well. The proII has a seperate button to seal, so I guess I could keep and eye on it and hit it if the liquid starts to go towards the sealing area...It seals better than the older one, but still not good wet..Thanks..

Bud

[Toufas]

so any person in the uk...whats the cheapest method of doing this in a home?

←

Auber Instruments http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=pr...6afb0e707fbc467 ship to the UK

Pair that with a low cost slow cooker, rice cooker or a steam table.

For professional use CLifton Industries http://www.cliftonfoodrange.co.uk/ or Grant Instruments http://www.grantsousvide.com/ tend to be used

You can buy foodsavers or vacuum sealers online from many sources

←

thank you very much

will this : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MORPHY-RICHARDS-6-5-...A1%7C240%3A1318 be allright with it?

[jackal10]

so any person in the uk...whats the cheapest method of doing this in a home?

←

Auber Instruments http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=pr...6afb0e707fbc467 ship to the UK

Pair that with a low cost slow cooker, rice cooker or a steam table.

For professional use CLifton Industries http://www.cliftonfoodrange.co.uk/ or Grant Instruments http://www.grantsousvide.com/ tend to be used

You can buy foodsavers or vacuum sealers online from many sources

←

thank you very much

will this : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MORPHY-RICHARDS-6-5-...A1%7C240%3A1318 be allright with it?

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Don't see why not. You want to make sure it does not have a fancy electronic control/timer, so that the external controller can vary the heat by turning the power on and off.

[zEli173]

Found a long lost bone in strip steak in my freezer and decided to turn it into my first sous vide steak. The beef was dry aged, prime. After defrosting I hit is with salt, pepper, and a bit of frozen olive oil. Cooked it about fifty minutes at 57.7 degrees then seared a single side in a roaring skillet for about 40 seconds. I flipped it over for just a few more seconds because the gray sous vide exterior is so unappetizing. Finished with some more fleur de sel and very good olive oil. Results were phenomenal.

[origamicrane]

I'm probably asking something on par with turning water to wine

but anyone know how I can turn SV turkey into something that would actually be nice?

I made two turkey ballotines yesterday one with a leek, sage and onion stuffing and one with a porcini, mushroom stuffing.

Bagged them and cooked them at 64C for 5 hours.

The flavours were nice but i really didn't like the texture.

Everytime I have had turkey it has had that crumbly texture anyone know what temperature or what i can do to stop it being like that or at least make it a little bit smoother.

[jackal10]

Don't cook it over 58C

[eG Forums Host]

The following table was compiled by Camano Chef, posted here to preserve the formatting of the table. All of the contents are his.

This post is a summary of the sous vides temperatures and time for quite a variety of foods.  I compiled this list from reading the entire sous vide thread on EGullet and adding information from Tom Keller's books,  "French Laundry" and "Under Pressure".  You will note that several different temperatures/times are given for some food items, ie. fish @ 43.5 C and at 49C. or pork chops @ 54.5C and 60C, etc. these merely represent what others have reported success with.  I have given many sources for my information.  Nothing in my efforts in any way conflicts with the excellent posts by NathanM and Baldwin.

I hope my effort will, in some small way, contribute to the use and refinement of this wonderful technique.



 

C	F	DESCRIPTION	NOTES
43.5	110	FISH	RARE
45	113	LOBSTER	USE THICKNESS TABLE-ADD BUTTER-/NATHANM POST 454
			TWO TBS BUTTER PER TAIL
46	115	SHRIMP	15'-20'
49	120	FISH	MED RARE
		MONK FISH	40-35'
50	122	SHRIMP	POST # 1651
52	125	TENDER MEAT	RARE
		SALMON	MED-RARE
54.5	130	TENDER MEAT	MED-RARE
		PORK CHOPS	LONG COOK- 12 HOURS
		TOUGH MEAT	LONG COOK-24-48 HOURS
			MY BEEF SHORT RIBS
			FLATIRON & TRI TIP
55	131	LOBSTER	POST # 1651
56	133	SALMON	TRY NEXT
57	135	BRISKET	36-48 HOURS
		MED RARE STEAK	~30'-/NATHANM
		CHICKEN BREAST	"LITTLE PINK"-POST # 1145
59.5	139.1	LOBSTER TAILS	FRENCH LAUNDRY-15'
60	140	FISH	MEDIUM
		TENDER MEAT	MEDIUM
		PORK CHOPS	TRADITIONAL
		TOUGH MEAT	LONG COOK-34-48 HOURS
		TURKEY BREAST	POST # 2179
		CHICKEN BREAST	POST # 2117
		VEAL LIVER	MEDIUM-40'(+DEMIGLACE+CARMEL. ONION-POST # 1941
61	141	FOIS GRAS	PER NATHANM-POST #313
		CHICKEN BREASTS	1+30-POSTS #'S 1098 & 1517
62.5	144.5	EGG	FRENCH LAUNDRY
		FISH
63	145	EGG	EGS-POACHED OVERNIGHT-BAD RESULT
			WHITES=TRANSLUCENT, GELATINOUS
63.5	146	POULTRY BREAST	MEDIUM
		TENDER MEAT	WELL
		BRISKET	FL-48 HOURS
		PORK BELLY
64.5	148	"PERFECT" EGG	45'-1 HOUR
65	150	POULTRY BREAST	MEDIUM WELL
		ASPARAGAS	6-8'-SHOCK ICE WATER
		CARROTS	POST # 1576
68	155	PULLED PORK	24 HOURS
		PORK RIBS	24 HOURS
76.7	170	PORK RIBS	6 HRS-SMOKE FIRST-POST# 1504
80	176	POULTRY LEG CONFIT	8-12 HOURS
		BRISKET	/BALDWIN-24-36 HOURS
		PULLED PORK	8-12 HOURS
		PORK RIBS	8-12 HOURS
		LAMB SHANKS	8HOUS / NATHANM
82.2	180	DUCK LEG CONFIT	FRENCH LAUNDRY-10-12 HRS /NATHANM
		PORK BELLY	FRENCH LAUNDRY-8+ HRS-RENDERS SOME FAT-NATHANM
85	185	CORN SOUP	FRENCH LAUNDRY
		MOST VEGETABLES
		ASPARAGUS,WHITE	20'-(+SUGAR + SALT) TKELLER
		CARROTS	1+00-CUT 2" LONG- ADD BUTTER TO BAG

[zEli173]

What do the notes for the vegetables mean?

[Camano Chef]

The quote for the white asparagus is from Tom Keller in "under Pressure. It means 20 minutes plus sugar plus salt.

The quote for carrots means 1 hour with carrots cut into 2 inch long strips with butter added to the bag. I didn't add that I usually add dill and cut the carrots into about 1/4" to 3/8" by 2" long. This is derived from Tom Keller's "Under Pressure" in his vegetable section.

I commonly use ' for minutes and hour-minute format as 1+20, meaning 1 hour plus 20 minutes

Many of the temperatures are derived from the addendum to "Under Pressure". When I started this project I was compiling this data for myself and did not start adding proper attributions for the source of the information. Much other information was derived from posts to this section.

Sorry for the confusion.