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

[Okanagancook]

Weedy, your duck sounds wonderful!  I'm making a note this recipe in my SV file!

cheers and thanks :-))

[btbyrd]

I'm currently cooking a corned beef tongue and the beef cheek pastrami from MC. Should be done in a couple of days...

[weedy]

tonight:

 

NY Strip steaks

I ground some Sichuan peppercorns and did a very light rub of that and some Worceter powder on the steaks, then vacum seal

 

132F for 2.5 hrs (only because the soup my wife was making took that long, otherwise they were probably ready in an hour based on theor rough 3/4" thickness. but the extra time didn't hurt)

 

out of the bag, a little salt, and then quick sear in cast iron pan.

 

roasted red pepper coulis and a salad

 

simple but perfect.

 

I know some people disagree here, but I LOVE 'good cuts' done this way, as it yields that perfect med-rare through and through, and seems to bring out the 'beefy-ness'.

[Okanagancook]

I'm currently cooking a corned beef tongue and the beef cheek pastrami from MC. Should be done in a couple of days...

I will be interested to know how the tongue turns out seeing I have one in the freezer.

Did some head and shell on medium shrimp at 132f for 20 minutes. Quite nice, juicy but perhaps a little overdone. I tried a bag at 125f for the same time but once I cooled the 132 bath down to 125 I forgot to turn the thermometer down so had another forking bag of the same thing. Serves me right for trying to watch the Masters and cook at the same time.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

tonight:

 

NY Strip steaks

I ground some Sichuan peppercorns and did a very light rub of that and some Worceter powder on the steaks, then vacum seal

 

132F for 2.5 hrs (only because the soup my wife was making took that long, otherwise they were probably ready in an hour based on theor rough 3/4" thickness. but the extra time didn't hurt)

 

out of the bag, a little salt, and then quick sear in cast iron pan.

 

roasted red pepper coulis and a salad

 

simple but perfect.

 

I know some people disagree here, but I LOVE 'good cuts' done this way, as it yields that perfect med-rare through and through, and seems to bring out the 'beefy-ness'.

 

I may be one of those folks you are thinking of.  I've reported poor results cooking rib eye sous vide.  On the other hand I believe I since wrote somewhere that I had a quite nice filet mignon sous vide.  So the sous vide jury is still out for me with regard to tender beef.

[Okanagancook]

I am of two minds about tender meats done sous vide also. However, the most impressive thing is the convenience of sv meat. Especially when you have guests....with the same doneness preferences.

If I had a nice 1 1/2 inch ribeye or tenderloin done on a smoking hot charcoal grill producing a crusty layer of grilled goodness and an almost blue interior I would be more than happy.

[weedy]

If I had a nice 1 1/2 inch ribeye or tenderloin done on a smoking hot charcoal grill producing a crusty layer of grilled goodness and an almost blue interior I would be more than happy.

 

so would I

 

I just wouldn't be AS happy as if it were perfectly med rare through and through.

[rotuts]

I found some turkey breast in the SV freezer.  hadn't had this for a while :

 

 

"hand sliced"   

 

140 X 4 hrs   Sauer's Roast Prime Rib Rub.  you can't buy turkey this delicious.

 

moist.  tender.  the rub is perfect w turkey

 

chose not to show you the Sandwich. didn't want to be cruel.

 

homemade (M) bread.  lettuce, tomato, bacon, mayo, horseradish.

[FeChef]

I threw a porterhouse on the grills searing burner for 1 minute per rotation cross hatch style and then into the SV at 132F for a few hours, does that count?

 

Technically it was done before it went into the SV but it was getting dark out and i wont be eating for a few hours till the wife gets home so i figured it will atleast be even more tender.

Edited April 16, 2015 by FeChef (log)

[daveb]

Counts for me - though I don't like steaks to be med well.

 

I don't see it mentioned often but I do a lot of reheating in the SV.  Last weekend I grilled 20 something duckbreasts as part of a cooking demo.  I had a leftover cooked breast so bagged it and in a seperate bag had a pt of mole.  2nite I dropped both bags into 128F bath and puttered around about an hour.  Had it with some yellow rice.  No "leftover" feel to it.

[FeChef]

Counts for me - though I don't like steaks to be med well.

 

I don't see it mentioned often but I do a lot of reheating in the SV.  Last weekend I grilled 20 something duckbreasts as part of a cooking demo.  I had a leftover cooked breast so bagged it and in a seperate bag had a pt of mole.  2nite I dropped both bags into 128F bath and puttered around about an hour.  Had it with some yellow rice.  No "leftover" feel to it.

med well? 132F is med rare in my SV water ovens.

[Okanagancook]

Size 18/23 head on shrimp packed with a little oil, cooked at 132F for 20 minutes.  These pictures  go with my post #342.  Just found them.

 

[chris_s]

rack of lamb, rubbed with black pepper, garlic, thyme, basil and rosemary. 2 hours at 136.5, taken out of bag, rubbed with coarse salt (I didn't want it to cook with the salt on it) then seared on grillgrates for 2 min/side. Was a little more medium than medium rare, but still very juicy and tender. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Just less than two pounds lamb shoulder, envisaged for tomorrow's evening meal.

 

Large Berkshire pork chop, well salted and dressed with rosemary and organic garlic powder.  For tonight's dinner.  A few moments hence.  (The rosemary is organic too but it's not from the plant that takes up much of my dinning room.)

 

 

Both at 59 degrees C.  (Since sorrowfully I have but one anova.)

[Ranz]

59C for 6 hours worked a treat of my leg of Lamb. Next time I'll do 62C for 4 hours since not everyone appreciate the red juiciness.

[Okanagancook]

I'm currently cooking a corned beef tongue and the beef cheek pastrami from MC. Should be done in a couple of days...

Curious as to how this turned out for you.  I've got a beef tongue in the freezer which I want to do like this.  Thanks, if you have time to post.

cheers.

[Anna N]

Just put for duck legs in there at 82°C. Will let them go for about eight hours. Not confit.

[Hassouni]

Still barely putting my Anova to use, the other day I made some TJ's salmon fillets straight from the freezer, resealed in ziplocks with olive oil and salt. They went at 48ºC for 1 hour, then the skin side was seared in clarified butter in cast iron. Very tasty, but tons of albumin came out of the fish - I thought at such low temps, that doesn't happen? I've read that brining the fish for, say, 15 minutes prevents that from happening - but does that only work if the fish is not frozen?

 

Also, the fish was still quite red, despite being very flaky and very clearly cooked - any particular reason that might be?

 

(I also seared ramps and a SHITLOAD of asparagus in bacon grease and salt as an accompaniment - deeeelicious!)

Edited May 2, 2015 by Hassouni (log)

[Shalmanese]

I've been playing around with sous vide carbonara these last couple of days. I couldn't find any recipes for it online which is baffling because It's so good I can't understand why anyone would make it the conventional way.

As a rough skeleton:

Ahead of time, set a circulator to 79C

Sautee some kind of cured pork until crispy (I use guanciale but pancetta or bacon also work)

Combine 100% egg, 100% water/milk/cream, 25% parmesan/pecorino, crispy pork with fat & pepper. Do not salt at this point. (I find ~ 1 - 1.5 large eggs per serving is a good rough guideline although it can also be made in bulk).

Cook for 30 minutes in the bath, occasionally massaging the bag to break up any lumps.

Take out and store in the fridge until ready for service.

If you're cooking for immediate service, drop the eggs in cold water for 15 minutes instead. As a bonus, if you sous vide in a cooking pot, you can then immediately reuse the pot to cook the pasta.

When ready to serve, cook pasta in salted water, drain, reserving cooking water separately.

In a large bowl, whisk together equal parts of the egg mixture and the reserve cooking liquid, taste and then adjust seasonings at this point.

Toss with the pasta to combine and serve.

A couple of notes:

Sous vide carbonara has a significantly larger liquid:egg ratio than conventional carbonara (close to 4:1). Because of precise temperature control, you cook the egg to it's maximum gelling potential which gives you an incredibly silky, supple sauce. Despite this, the sauce also ends up coming out eggier than a conventional carbonara as the cooked egg notes only come out more at that temperature.

Because the eggs are cooked to pasteurization and there's no significant botulism vector, the cooked sauce theoretically has a shelf life of months in the fridge. This means you can make a large batch and have carbonara whenever you want.

I was really surprised how high I had to set my circulator to get the eggs to gel. Even at 77C for 1 hour, the eggs were still completely liquid. Goes to show just how sensitive eggs are to temperature. I still don't understand why whole eggs are hard boiled at 77C but scrambled eggs are still liquid.

Because the pork and eggs spend way more time in the bag, I also find the sauce significantly porkier for the same amount of meat. Another big win.

In short, sous vide carbonara is a huge win over the conventional approach in my books!

[chris_s]

I've been playing around with sous vide carbonara these last couple of days. I couldn't find any recipes for it online which is baffling because It's so good I can't understand why anyone would make it the conventional way.

 

 

I've often been curious about doing this, as I've found carbonara to be very stressful in minding your heat so you don't scramble the eggs. 

 

Could you clarify the volumes you use? When you say 100% egg 100% milk/water/cream 25% parm do you mean (for example using arbitrary numbers) 4 cups egg, 4 cups milk/water/cream 1 cup parm? You later mention a nearly 4:1 ratio of liquid:egg which is confusing. 

 

thanks! 

[Anna N]

I've often been curious about doing this, as I've found carbonara to be very stressful in minding your heat so you don't scramble the eggs. 

 

Could you clarify the volumes you use? When you say 100% egg 100% milk/water/cream 25% parm do you mean (for example using arbitrary numbers) 4 cups egg, 4 cups milk/water/cream 1 cup parm? You later mention a nearly 4:1 ratio of liquid:egg which is confusing. 

 

thanks!

Thank you for asking these questions. They were the ones in my mind but I wondered if I was misreading something! Also I am guessing that if you make it in bulk you still divide it into serving sizes before bagging it and cooking it.

[ElsieD]

Could I add: could you also please include the amount of porky goodness?

[Shalmanese]

I've often been curious about doing this, as I've found carbonara to be very stressful in minding your heat so you don't scramble the eggs. 

 

Could you clarify the volumes you use? When you say 100% egg 100% milk/water/cream 25% parm do you mean (for example using arbitrary numbers) 4 cups egg, 4 cups milk/water/cream 1 cup parm? You later mention a nearly 4:1 ratio of liquid:egg which is confusing. 

 

thanks!

Yes, 4 cups of egg to 4 cups of liquid, which is then tempered with another 8 cups of pasta cooking water, giving the 4:1 ratio.

[Shalmanese]

Thank you for asking these questions. They were the ones in my mind but I wondered if I was misreading something! Also I am guessing that if you make it in bulk you still divide it into serving sizes before bagging it and cooking it.

I've only made it a single serving at a time (although I'll use some of the leftover sauce for breakfast the next morning) but yes, I'd bag them in roughly single serving quantities before cooking if I were planning to make a lot.

[Shalmanese]

Could I add: could you also please include the amount of porky goodness?

I've been going by eye every time so I honestly have no good idea. Maybe 100% scaled to eggs when uncooked?