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

[KennethT]

I've been ruminating making a mutton curry using sous vide where I brown the meat, sous vide for tenderness, then mix the meat into the curry for a shorter cook. Think it will work?

 

I prefer using mutton to lamb for curries for the depth of flavour it brings, but I'm worried that will be lost if the curry is cooked separately as above.

I've done this before with good results (not with mutton, but with other meats). Save the bag juices and add them to the curry. I would first briefly boil the bag juices so that the proteins coagulate - you can then strain these, or as some do, saute them in some oil till nicely browned, then deglaze and strain to get all of the flavor out. Edited March 10, 2015 by KennethT (log)

[ElsieD]

Daveb and KennethT, thanks for your response. I did the steak at 132F for 3 hours and 40 minutes and it was lovely. I had taken the fat cap off and rendered it and used that fat to brown the steak. I have the Sous Vide Dash but when I plugged in size, temp. etc. I kept getting a cooking time of 5 hours and 32 minutes which I was pretty sure wasn't right, so I'm glad I asked.

[Ranz]

I've done this before with good results (not with mutton, but with other meats). Save the bag juices and add them to the curry. I would first briefly boil the bag juices so that the proteins coagulate - you can then strain these, or as some do, saute them in some oil till nicely browned, then deglaze and strain to get all of the flavor out.

 

Thank you

[Okanagancook]

 

The meat was from one of our grass fed lambs we get up valley.  They are very tender animals.  I cubed the lamb leg meat into about one inches pieces.  They were seasoned with salt and pepper and then given a good browning in lamb fat :-).  I took out the meat and browned some finely diced onions with a little fresh rosemary and slivers of garlic.   Deglazed with red wine and boiled until most of it was gone.  All this went in the Sous Vide bag along with lamb gravy left over from braising some lamb shanks.  In the bath at 131 degrees F for 10 hours.  Then it was served straight from the bag with grated Romano cheese on top.  I did take a picture but didn't attach it the first time 'cause it's not that great but I think you can see the piece of meat I cut open.  Poplar Grove 2007 Merlot to go with.  It's a local wine from one of our good friends who started his winery way back in the day when there were only about 5 wineries between here and Penticton (16 kms) and now there are over 30 wineries.

[rotuts]

my plan as also for a lamb curry.  browned or not.

 

I use 'Simmer Sauce'  Patak and Maya Kaimal  if you dont want to make your own 'curry sauce'   the MK Vindaloo is one of my

 

favorites.  .  Ive doen this w SV CkBr, Tj's Fz Shrimp

 

just do not raise the 'Meats' above serving temp as they are already cooked.

 

Illl be having the MK CkBrSV  vindaloo tonight.

 

lamb in the future !

[rotuts]

OK  thanks for the pic

 

that lamb looks perfect to me  !

 

[Ranz]

Need some advice please. For long sous vide cooks I add no salt to the bag, but I don't mind doing so for shorter cooks like rib-eyes or racks of lamb. I picked up some racks for a good price, and want  to bag them and freeze them. If I add in salt then freeze, will it give it that cured texture?

 

Also, how long extra should I add if I'm cooking a smaller cut from frozen?

[rotuts]

do you Cook-Chill-Freeze-ReTherm ?   if so Id leave it out.

 

for such pricey meat, if you Bag-Freeze-SVfrom Frozen, to be safe Id leave it out

 

I have no experience w such cut using the above method, i just thing it would be a shame to not get them cooked

 

perfectly.  I bet on short SV salting after the SV might be so close to salt-short SV that you might not be able to tell the diff.

 

I do salt ( seasoning mixture containing salt ) on SV's 4 hr or < and am happy with the results

 

SV-chill-freeze-retherm

 

but on cuts like boneless skinless CkBr, sirloin tips as flat meat  etc.

[Ranz]

I bet on short SV salting after the SV might be so close to salt-short SV that you might not be able to tell the diff.

 

 

Yeah thanks, I think I'll go with this.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Ranz (log)

[EnriqueB]

(...) I picked up some racks for a good price, and want  to bag them and freeze them. If I add in salt then freeze, will it give it that cured texture?

 

Also, how long extra should I add if I'm cooking a smaller cut from frozen?

Yes, it will give the cured texture.

 

You have tables to cook from frozen in Baldwin's guide. But they are not so precise as when cooking from fridge temp as state changes are difficult to model.

[Ranz]

Thanks Enrique.

[Okanagancook]

I have a dinner party planned for next week and want to serve sous vide Berkshire Pork Leg Roast which I have not done before.  This meat is very, very tender so I don't think I need to worry about cooking it long enough make it tender.  (I have two roasts left from our pig and will practice on the smaller one.)

 

The smaller one is 2.5 lbs (1.2 kg) in weight and is thicker at one end:  9 cm (3.8 inches) tapering to 7 cm (2.8 inches) and is 25 (10 inches) long.  On the left in the photo.

 

The second one for the dinner party is 3.5 lbs in weight and is about 9 cm thick right the way through and is the same length.   On the right in the photo.

 

I want to cook the roast whole and then brown the outside before serving it with a mustard/mushroom sauce and some pork crackling (I have some belly skin in the freezer and will make that separately).  After reading all over the forking place, as usual, I think I will try this:  136 F (58C) for 4 hours.  I want the meat to be medium-rare but more on the medium side (for our guests who may not be used to pink pork the way we like it).   

 

The other option, and the safer one because I have done it before, is to slice the roast, package the chops individually and sous vide at 133 F (56C) for 45 minutes then brown.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated and I will post my results early next week.

 

 

cheers

[rotuts]

I think your plan is an excellent one.

 

I wound not mind a trache as an attachment to an email

 

if you say the meat is tender, 133 looks good.  130 might be a bit better, it still looks 'cooked'

 

but stay w what you started off with.

 

what are the 'cuts' i see on the meat, ie it looks that it has been slices and re-asmbled ?

 

for me, Id plunge the 'roasts' it a lot of ice slushy for a few minutes to cool the exterior

 

the do the sear

 

go with 133.  no higher.

 

the char you then make, after a few minutes in the Slush, will be fine

 

there is some bad news here :

 

your group are going to Be At Your Door for and

 

Encore all the time

 

you need to post a sign out side:  "Sorry, no Encore "   McDonalds  it just down the street id you are

 

pre-terminal Peckish

 

[daveb]

It's not clear if you're going to go into the bath with the bags "as is" or if you'll remove, season and seal?

 

If you're going to season and reseal (I would) then I would add seasoning that will compliment your planned sauce, save bag juices, de-fat, bring to boil and use them as a component of sauce.

 

Are the visible slice marks simple cross hatching (without the cross part)?

 

Sounds like it's going to be most delicious.

[Okanagancook]

The roasts are bound with that elastic mesh sock that butchers use to keep everything together. I was planning on taking it out of the bag, take off the sock, season with herbes d'Provence and some other spices, then meat glue it together so the slices will stay together when cut. I just made some pork stock and will make a sauce with that and add the bag juices.

Thanks for the feed back.

[Okanagancook]

Followup to my previous post.  The pork leg roast was cooked for 4 hours at 135F.  The internal temp when I took it out was only 133F but we were hungry.  It was beautifully moist and rosy and extremely tender.  Served with Modernist Cuisine at Home's pressure cooked polenta (without the cheese.....on a diet), mushroom gravy and steamed veggies.  Delicious.  So for my dinner party roast which is a little bigger I think we will go with 6 hours at 135F so it is not quite so rosy (guests may not like it that pink).  Thanks for everyone's feedback.

The first picture is the butcher 'sock' that I took off only to find the meat was in one piece so I did not need to glue it together.  I brined it in 2.5% salt brine for 8 hours and as it turned out we thought it a tad on the salty side so next time I will use a 2% brine for 3 hours.

[haresfur]

Nothing since my controller said, "EEEE".     Good thing I checked it before bed so I didn't ruin the ribs.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

A successful repeat of a small tenderloin steak at 55 deg C.  Perfect, just the way I like it.  Similarly perfect classic béarnaise.  Lovely asparagus.  But do you think after a single zombie I could properly prepare a simple poor potato?  No.

[chris_s]

two SV meals this weekend, ribeye steaks for guests, 3 hours at 136.5 (my anova reads 1.5º low so it was actually 138) then seared on my newly install grillgrates. Steaks were cooked evenly through, but a bit more medium than medium rare

 

then did a sirloin tip roast for 24 hours at 135.5 (actually 137) it was flat out the most tender roast I've ever had. was about the right doneness for the application. Served on buns with green peppercorn gravy. Leftovers will be served as a beef dip today. 

 

 

I don't do pictures of food, so use your imagination!

Edited March 16, 2015 by chris_s (log)

[weedy]

isn't it, relatively, easy to recalibrate the Anova??

[chris_s]

isn't it, relatively, easy to recalibrate the Anova??

 

there is a function for it in my iphone app, but I am not confident enough in my measuring to make the change. I've measured it with a $15 meat thermometer probe and an idevices igrill mini, both with the same results. 

[Shalmanese]

there is a function for it in my iphone app, but I am not confident enough in my measuring to make the change. I've measured it with a $15 meat thermometer probe and an idevices igrill mini, both with the same results.

Use an egg to measure the temp and you can get it to within 0.2F or so. Just compare your egg to published charts.

[rotuts]

I did some plain vanilla skinless boneless CkBr's a few weeks ago, as I needed some plain chicken.

 

these were 1.88 USD  3 lbs >   My SV freezer is so full hard to say what's in there

 

 

142.5  4 hours or so.  I usually do 145.

 

the plain ones  ( no salt, nothing but CkBr in the bag, after the two tendons were removed )

 

were delicious.  tender, moist, etc  ( 'delicious' = bland, not much Ck flavor  ---  but 1.88 ! )

 

but still very tender and moist.  just not much else

 

I use these for 'curries', ck salad, a treat for my Cat etc, and sandwiches

 

I decided to butterfly and pound a few thin  ( TJ's wine bottles work well for this  under plastic wrap --

 

I always have a few doz. around ).  I added a healthy amount of TJ's dijon and a rasher of

 

Benton's bacon, which my sister sent me for Xmas    about a lifetime worth I thought then

 

I tied them up so that they would hold their shape and added them w the others to the water bath, same time and temp.

 

these are on the R in the pic.

 

these sliced thin for a sandwich were Delicious.  Still tender, moist, but packed w flavor.  Lettuce, tomato, mayo homemade machine bread

 

looks like the Benton's might just hold me until next Xmas, or Ill have to re-order !

 

a real revelation !  

Edited March 17, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[scubadoo97]

I wish I could find BSCB that cheap. I SV a couple every week. 143 X 2-3 hrs

I slice them for chicken sandwiches My son takes this for lunch every day

Beats buying deli chicken at the grocery store

[rotuts]

I also do this w turkey.  when I have room in the SV Freezer  (   )  i try to process as many Birds as I can

 

they tend to go for 49 c / lbs around thanksgiving.  in the past I used to get 4 - 6   20 + lbs'ers and do two 

 

( trimmed out ) at a time   breast same as CkBr, and dark meat higher temp 24 hours.

 

maybe by this thanksgiving  Ill have room for a few in the freezer.  best turkey sandwiches ever.

 

WhiteBread turkey has a bit more flavor than WhiteBread CkBr    but the bacon/mustard was a revelations

 

all of three major markets here eventually have the ckbr for  1.77 from time to time.  they show up at the markets

 

butchered and packaged 'elsewhere'

 

go figure 

 

you are indeed correct :  SV changes how you look at the common deli meats.

Edited March 17, 2015 by rotuts (log)