What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today? (Part 1)

[FauxPas]

I used to obsess about this kind of thing but I don't anymore. Most commercial cryovac bags are polyethylene, so there's not much of an issue. Even if they were one of the nastier BPA containing plastics, the temperature and time on something like fish (or a medium rare steak) isn't high enough to concern me. I assume that if it looks like a SV safe vacuum bag, it probably is a SV save vacuum bag. YMMV.

 

Yes, I'm totally thinking that the lower temp for fish removes some concerns! Would you thaw first, or just cook from frozen though? And how do you adjust for frozen if it's only small pieces like this? 

 

And yeah, it's a professional operation - they are using proper materials and tracking their lots and so forth. It looks like a good quality vacuum package. 

Edited February 19, 2015 by FauxPas (log)

[btbyrd]

For beef, pork, or chicken, I often cook from frozen. For fish, which is more delicate and whose texture can really suffer from enzymatic breakdown, I thaw before cooking. I usually throw it in the fridge a day or two before I think I'm going to cook it. If I'm in a time crunch, I'll thaw it in cold water.

[FauxPas]

For beef, pork, or chicken, I often cook from frozen. For fish, which is more delicate and whose texture can really suffer from enzymatic breakdown, I thaw before cooking. I usually throw it in the fridge a day or two before I think I'm going to cook it. If I'm in a time crunch, I'll thaw it in cold water.

 

Thank you! 

[EnriqueB]

I also cook fish sous-vide from frozen with excellent results. That said, I keep my freezer at around -30ºC, which freezes better than the standard -18ºC.

[btbyrd]

Last night's dinner: 48 hour short ribs, chive butter, ChefSteps triple cooked chips. Fried everything in smoked lard.

 

 

Served with a hyperdecanted cabernet sauvignon.

[ElsieD]

Btbyrd, I've never heard of smoked lard. Is this something you can buy?

[btbyrd]

Nope. I bought lard and cold smoked it, and then used that to fry like 5 pounds of smoked pork belly. It's basically bacon fat without the salt.

 

Since this is the SV thread, here's a pic of the pork belly dish, "Bacon, egg, and cheese."

 

 

Brined, cold smoked belly cooked 48hrs @ 62C. Chilled, pressed, portioned. Stuffed with Kerrygold cheddar. Topped with 64.3C yolk and Maldon salt.

Edited February 19, 2015 by btbyrd (log)

[KennethT]

Yes, I'm totally thinking that the lower temp for fish removes some concerns! Would you thaw first, or just cook from frozen though? And how do you adjust for frozen if it's only small pieces like this? 

 

And yeah, it's a professional operation - they are using proper materials and tracking their lots and so forth. It looks like a good quality vacuum package.

I read from a shipper of Florida Gulf coast seafood that it's better to open the bag before thawing frozen, commercially vac packed fish. The logic was that the fish is flash frozen without the bag, and then vac packed with high vacuum. If the fish were to defrost with the packaging intact, it may be squeezed and damaged.

[rotuts]

re: cooking in bags from the 'grocery'

 

"Cooking for Geeks"  they said its fine

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Geeks-Science-Great-Hacks/dp/0596805888

 

just make sure the bag does not have tiny holes in it

 

TJ's frozen fish has this problem 22.7 % of the time

 

 

for fish Id thaw in cold water first then pop in the 120 - 125 bath

[Anna N]

Pork chops that are not shaved as most of them seem to be in our supermarkets. These came from an independent store. The two of them cost less than eight dollars which is quite a bargain compared to an equal weight of beef from almost any cut.

One is bagged with duck fat and one with oil as I wanted to test if my edge sealer would deal with the oil. With the help of gravity I was able to seal the bag with no problem at all.

They will be cooked for 45 minutes at 60.5°C before being seared in a cast iron skillet.

Actually only one will be seared tonight the other will be chilled down and refrigerated for another day.

[rotuts]

Most Excellent

 

AnnaN

 

Im most interested in the Darker parts of both those pieces

 

the darker parts are hard to fine and so much more delicious and actually tender

[rotuts]

all i can say is :

 

Tasty is Tasty

[Anna N]

Most Excellent

AnnaN

Im most interested in the Darker parts of both those pieces

the darker parts are hard to fine and so much more delicious and actually tender

Strange you should say that. That was the part my husband loved but I always found it just a little too tender. I like my meat to put up a little bit of a fight.

Edited to make sense

Edited February 19, 2015 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

Both dark and light meat were incredibly juicy and tasty. I still prefer the more chewy side. I think if I was challenged to prove to a nonbeliever the value of Sous Vide I would choose a pork chop. I might adjust my temperature down a degree or two next time.

[rotuts]

try ' 55 '  or ' 56 '

 

you may or may not need to add a bit of Time

 

just not too much 

 

Yum they Look.

[Hassouni]

Made some 63ºC eggs. No photos. They came out OK, but have lots of LTLT egg questions (to be posted later).

[JoNorvelleWalker]

To pasteurize eggs I use my anova.  To cook eggs in the shell I recommend a pressure cooker, thanks to pazzaglia,

[daveb]

A Duroc getting ready.

 

 

 

 

Going to be a fun weekend.

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Ah, very nice David. Keeps us posted

[Anna N]

63.5C (x 1hr) eggs. Yolks are perfect; whites not so much. I do know of all the proposed solutions to this but prefer not to make it a multistep process.

[rotuts]

AnnaN  the thread that cover this is encylo-paedic

 

if I want firmer eggs, I have another plain pan of water at a higher temp , and depending on that temp plunge the eggs in that hotter

 

water for a minimal amount of time, again, depending on that hotter waters temp thenpluge the whole shebang in ice water and cool

 

I then wipe dry and place back in a clean egg container.

 

I re-therm in warm water pre-eating, tap water in a plastic bowl, eggs, microwave 30 secs

 

then again most of the time I dont might the runny yolks as they soak in the bread ( and butter ! ) and thats that.

[Unpopular Poet]

The 65 degree egg made this salad. Duck fat crispies from rendering from Friday's dinner also helped..

[Anna N]

AnnaN  the thread that cover this is encylo-paedic

 

if I want firmer eggs, I have another plain pan of water at a higher temp , and depending on that temp plunge the eggs in that hotter

 

water for a minimal amount of time, again, depending on that hotter waters temp thenpluge the whole shebang in ice water and cool

 

I then wipe dry and place back in a clean egg container.

 

I re-therm in warm water pre-eating, tap water in a plastic bowl, eggs, microwave 30 secs

 

then again most of the time I dont might the runny yolks as they soak in the bread ( and butter ! ) and thats that.

Thank you. I am so aware of all the methods of improving the texture but having spent an hour waiting for my egg to cook I'm not big on doing anything else to it. I would rather pursue experiments with minimal increases in temperature/time so it becomes a one step process. I am likely chasing a unicorn but I can still enjoy the chase.

[Doofa]

image.jpg

63.5C (x 1hr) eggs. Yolks are perfect; whites not so much. I do know of all the proposed solutions to this but prefer not to make it a multistep process.

 

Anna N, They look wonderful, and I have been on same these last two days. This generates a question with me. I was watching one of the Harvard Youtube lectures, ( Iv'e seen all 10x). The one that raised the question is the Dave Arnold & Harold McGee session. Mr Arnold does a visual demonstration of the results of eggs cooked sous vide at different temperatures etc. Did he have a bunch of water baths in the back or is there some other way of doing this demo. I'd like an answer because it's puzzling me and I want to do this for myself. I do hope this is not in wrong place.

I've found that I even like these eggs just on a warmed plate with S&P. Coeliac so bread is out of bounds.

Mark

[mmille24]

I want to sous vide some baby back ribs...I was looking at the recipe on ChefSteps, however they pre-salt prior to sous vide. Isn't that a big no no?

 

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/dry-style-baby-back-ribs