What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today? (Part 2)

[gfweb]

Chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto and fontina, in a tomato/garlic/basil cream sauce

 

[rotuts]

@gfweb  

 

thanks looks SV'd-ish    if so  what time and temps did you use ?

[gfweb]

@rotuts It does look SV-ish.  I'd love to find a way to get rid of the seams that doesn't involve cutting off the end.

 

140F for 2.5 hours.

[rotuts]

solution :  more sauce   

 

"  You can never have enough sauce , especially if the sauce  is French Inspired "

 

--- Rotuts

 

consider cutting the CkBr in 1/2 for presentation effect.  Sauce all the plain chicken surface.

 

i do these   " en bulk " when CkBr go on sale and I have room in the SV Freezer.

Edited August 28, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[chefmd]

I did not cook this steak but receivd this photo as part of Anova email promoting their Sous vide device (which I have and love).  Look at the pool of bloody juices that steak is sitting in.  Doubt that it was cooked sous vide.  Definitely was not rested after cooking.  The beauty of cooking protein with sous vide is keeping the juices in while reaching precise temperature.  Not sure it was the best photo to promote Anova.

 

[Okanagancook]

I agree about the pool of juices.  Doesn't seem right.

i've got two wing steak for the bath tonight.  Can't wait.

[Anna N]

@chefmd

 

 I always understood that resting protein after Sous Vide was redundant.  There is little reason to wait for the temperature to equalize.  It should already be consistent across the mass of the protein. Agree that the photograph is suspicious as I don't recall any steak "bleeding" like that after sous viding it. 

[scubadoo97]

7 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@chefmd

 

 I always understood that resting protein after Sous Vide was redundant.  There is little reason to wait for the temperature to equalize.  It should already be consistent across the mass of the protein. Agree that the photograph is suspicious as I don't recall any steak "bleeding" like that after sous viding it. 

It's too darn perfect 

[rotuts]

PhotoFoodP0rn.  by a FoodStylist.

 

its a staged pic.  same as most publicized food pics

 

I don't see this a a pool. its barely enough for a Cat to Lick up.

 

as most people  

 

(  very few here BTW )   associate some Jus  under their Steak   so it was added by the Food Stylists.

 

note the knife   I doubt it Cut the Meat.

 

and    if a steak ' bleeds '  the the surface of the steak reflects this.    this Tranche does not

 

 

Bad Bad  boys and girls at Anoiva.   Bad !

[rotuts]

I see it this way :  

 

take a few chunks of meat  , vacuum bag them.

 

place each similar bagged meat in a different temp'd water bath :  130 , 135 , ... , ... , 180.

 

let them all equilibrate to a the bath's temp.

 

you will note that as the temps increase for the various bags, there will be more fluid in the bags  ( '' jus '' sounds tastier than fluid ) 

 

that has to come from the meat  as the various proteins contract which it temp dependent.  the 180 bag is more or less a braise. it has the max contraction

 

thus more fluid ion the bag.

 

if you opened each bag while at the bags temp , I doubt you would get much more fluid out of that meat. its already in that bag

 

if you had a roast in a hot oven , a thick steak on a very hot grill , or a traditional burger on that same hot grill

 

then cut them all immediately  you would get ' jus' out of all the meat  , unless of course you had ultra well done meat. a char-burger

 

note that the Jus is quite red  , id  ' bloody'  ifs of course not blood , but squeezed out jus from the rarer center.

 

the envelop of the hot oven or grill has created a shell around the meat   char for a bit of gilled outside , grey-er as you move into the center of the meat.

 

if you do not cut the steak / burger / roast   the envelope  which is uniformly  ' tight ' around the meat cannot squeeze the center to let the center's

 

juice out.   cut it then you get a non-uniform pressure  and that gives you the  ' rare meat juice ' on your carving board.

 

let the meat rest    the proteins that are contracted and not completely denatured  relax a bit and the central pressure on the meat

 

decreases.  the char'd and delicious shell is completely denatured and is not involved.   its the grey-er shell just inside that relaxes.

 

think about that Steak or that burger on that very hot grill :  it bulges as it cooks , Yes ?

 

that the pressure of the contracting proteins  

 

well , you say   why should it bulge ?  after all , the whole meat is subject to the high heat  

 

well not quite  :  your steak and burger are not completely round  are they    it they were  and the high heat was uniform

 

then there would not be a bulge ad the forces of contrition would be uniform all around.

 

going back to SV :  

 

PedroG and M.C. folks some time ago outlined the various proteins in meat that got denatures at various temps

 

some lower than obvious.  if one did a step-wise  SV  taking the time at these various temps to completely denature each protein

 

group before moving on the the next  etc etc

 

then by the time we got to a '' braise '' temp  the actual muscle   ( actin - myosin ) would not be forced to contract by this other elements 

 

as they would be denatured way beforehand  

 

and Voila !   a braised meat w less jus in the bag   and more in the meat.

 

 

so yes   SV meat  at uniform temp does not bleed as a Roast  CharSteam or burger does.  its already done in  and

 

it the jus  lots or little that you see   temp dependent   in the bag

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Simpler explanation:  the chef cut his or her hand slicing through the steak, then wiped the knife off on their pants.

 

[Anna N]

4 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Simpler explanation:  the chef cut his or her hand slicing through the steak, then wiped the knife off on their pants.

 

And so the "blood" on the board is the chef's?  Hmmmm....  I like the food stylist explanation better.

[daveb]

Food stylist.  For the sear to be that uniform, some form of hot fat had to be basted over the steak.  The puddle is likely the basting juices.  

 

The thyme sweeping left, the knife sweeping right, drawing the reader to the centered column of perfectly presented beef.  People get paid for that???

[Smithy]

I managed a nice bit of sous vide pork tenderloin the other day.  I posted more about it here, in eG Cook-Off #73: The Fruits of Summer, since I was determined to try a riff on pork with peaches I read about here.  The tenderloin had a sprig of rosemary between the two tenderloin halves, and a bit of salt and pepper on the outside. Per my Anova app, I gave it This was my first satisfactory pork sous vide result so far.  The texture is nice, the pork juicy.  Browned it afterward in a pan before serving.  Broiled bourbon peaches weren't appreciated by my DH as an accompaniment - I thought it had promise - but the pork itself is quite nice.  

[Okanagancook]

That looks awesome Smithy!

what temp did you do them at?  135 F?  For 90 min?   My guess.

 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

That looks awesome Smithy!

what temp did you do them at?  135 F?  For 90 min?   My guess.

 

 

Sorry! I just reread my post and saw that I had accidentally edited the time and temperature right out of the post.  I used 60C for 1 hour.  The Anova app has a time-and-temperature chart for pork tenderloin according to the doneness you want, and I went for medium: for that they specify 60C/140F for 1 - 4 hours. 

 

It is probably not a coincidence that the time and temperature were exactly as @haresfur describes for a universal starting point.  Thanks, haresfur. 

[lindag]

In a recent post by Kenji Alt's Serious Eats he post instructions for cooking halibut steaks.

I want to make my first sous vide dish.  I have some mahi mahi from Shwann's that I would like to use.

HIs instructions was for 1-inch cuts; cook at 130º for 30 mins. 

Could I cook my ¾" fish for approx. the same temp and time and have it done right?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, lindag said:

In a recent post by Kenji Alt's Serious Eats he post instructions for cooking halibut steaks.

I want to make my first sous vide dish.  I have some mahi mahi from Shwann's that I would like to use.

HIs instructions was for 1-inch cuts; cook at 130º for 30 mins. 

Could I cook my ¾" fish for approx. the same temp and time and have it done right?

 

My guess 3/4 inch halibut would end up the same as 1 inch halibut by this method.  Whether that is "right" or not is up to you.

[quiet1]

I am a total SV newbie - I have an Anova I got as a gift to break in, though, and I keep thinking I need to do something special but reading this thread I realized I should just use it already.

 

Currently I have some chicken breast I was going to do in a pan to accompany some gnocchi in sage butter sauce, but perhaps SV would work just as well with less chance of overcooking? Should I do the chicken breasts plain or should I stick some butter and sage in the bag with them? (I'm wondering if the sage flavor would be too strong?)

[kayb]

I have actually been surprised at the flavors NOT being as strong as I'd anticipated. I'd absolutely go with the sage and butter in the bag.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

@quiet1 I'd add the sage but not the butter.  Sous vide does very well for chicken breast.

 

 

Dinner tonight was corn by the Anova recipe:

 

http://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/sous-vide-self-buttering-corn-on-the-cob

 

My hope is next time I google sous vide corn on the cob this post will come up and I will never do this again.  Ever.  Hear that Larry Page?  "Sous vide corn on the cob."

 

Anova, whose hardware I love -- recipes not so much -- calls for 83 deg C. for 30 minutes.  I've had worse corn in a restaurant but this was not as good as simply boiled.  In fact, it wasn't good.  Even the Cuisinart Steam Oven does better.  I have bad teeth but had I been hungrier I could probably have masticated the entire cob without much problem.

 

My own theory is that it is important to cook corn at a lower temperature than that at which the pectin breaks down.  @nathanm has suggested 60 deg C. for 30 minutes (or in another place for 15 minutes).  To my taste 60 deg C. works much better than 83 deg C.

 

Have no fear, dessert is a liaison with the green fairy.  Sounds so much better than strangling a parrot.

 

 

[quiet1]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

I have actually been surprised at the flavors NOT being as strong as I'd anticipated. I'd absolutely go with the sage and butter in the bag.

 

 

51 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

@quiet1 I'd add the sage but not the butter.  Sous vide does very well for chicken breast.

 

I'll try some sage with at least a couple then. These are not the greatest chicken breasts ever so I don't expect them to be super flavorful plain, but everyone knows buttery sauces can hide a multitude of sins. I'll report back with how they turn out.

[rotuts]

@quiet1 

 

are your chicken breasts skin-less , boneless ?  if so , consider scraping out the two tendons , one for  each muscle.

 

if they have skin , get rid o0f the skin as it does not do well in the SV bag.

[scubadoo97]

The best thing about chicken skin in the bag is that it will have  rendered  the fat and after drying will crisp up nicely.   I put skins between two sheets of parchment and sandwich it between two sheet pans before sliding it in the oven.  No mess and they come out flat and crisp.

[quiet1]

4 hours ago, rotuts said:

@quiet1 

 

are your chicken breasts skin-less , boneless ?  if so , consider scraping out the two tendons , one for  each muscle.

 

if they have skin , get rid o0f the skin as it does not do well in the SV bag.

 

Yup, standard boneless skinless from the grocery store. I will check for the tendons, thanks for the tip. Might it be worth putting a tiny bit of chicken stock in each bag too? I have some frozen that I made from a good chicken (you know, one with flavor) - I'm wondering if it might help improve the blandness of supermarket chicken? Or just make a sauce with it to drown the chicken breast in after?