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

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, rotuts said:

shelby

 

"""      I do think I left them in the bath a bit too long   """

 

what aspect of the roll gave you this impression ?

They weren't as juicy as I thought they should be.  Still good, but too done.  

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

I guess I'll graduate over here....I'm still a newbie, though.

 

Thanks to Rotuts help I did a couple of stuffed chicken breasts yesterday.  My stuffing ability leaves a lot to be desired but it was still good.  I do think I left them in the bath a bit too long....was finishing up the rest of dinner and some soup for today.  None the less, these were good.  Yes, you guys were all correct, SV is an excellent way to enjoy chicken breasts.

 

I stuffed them with spinach, mozz cheese and some pepperoni.  I tied them...and still felt they were going to lose their shape so I also wrapped them in saran before vac. packing them.

 

 

Those look really good, Shelby.  I also tried making stuffed chicken breasts, because even though everyone said SV was great for them, the idea of plain, boneless, skinless chicken breasts made me think of cottony buffet food!

I didn't tie mine, just wrapped in Saran wrap before bagging.  I also think I could have gone with a shorter time but I thought they were tasty and looked sorta fancy!  

 

I tried ham & cheese:

 

And pesto:

 

I noticed that boneless, skinless thighs are $1.69/lb at Sprouts this week.  I prefer chicken thighs with the bone and skin for roasting in the oven but at that price, I wondering if I could do the same stuffing business with them.  I may give it a try.  

 

Edited January 26, 2016 by blue_dolphin (log)

[Shelby]

Oh yours look SO good.  Sure, show off your perfect rolling abilities   My husband would love the ham and cheese ones I bet.  Was it cheddar?

[blue_dolphin]

 on the rolling abilities!  You will notice that there are only 3 slices of each in my pictures !    For the ham and cheese version, I spread the pounded chicken with a bit of dijon mustard and used swiss cheese.  It was quite tasty.  I bet the Boursin that @rotuts  mentioned in the other thread would be excellent here, too.  

[Okanagancook]

Ha, ha, duelling chicken rolls.  It's a tie 

[Shelby]

A while back we bought a pork loin that I whacked it into 6 portions, seasoned some up with a BBQ rub and others with just s&p and garlic, then I vac packed and froze them.  Took one from frozen and threw it in the bath yesterday at 140F for about 5 hours or so.  Disappointed that the BBQ taste wasn't as strong as I would have liked, but the meat was very tender and good.  I'll probably slice it up for sandwiches.

 

[KennethT]

Another good weekday meal, cooked in advance....  this was a thai curry.  A couple weeks ago, I fried some NIttiya red curry paste (the best prepackaged curry paste I can find) in a little virgin coconut oil until very fragrant, and slightly darker in color.  Then added frozen coconut milk (thawed) and simmered for about 5-10 minutes, adding a little palm sugar and about half of the fish sauce I normally would.  This was then poured into a ziplock bag with 4 skinless chicken thighs and cooked at 150F for about 3 hours... then chilled and refrigerated, until tonight.  Popped the bag into a 135F bath while the rice was cooking.... about 30 minutes later, the chicken was removed from the bag, and the curry was added to a saucepot for a final seasoning... a little more fish sauce, and lime juice.  Came out really well - the chicken juices integrated into the coconut milk curry, and the chicken was juicy, tender, and full of flavor.  The curry sauce itself had a great mouthfeel, and the flavor was spot on.

Edited February 2, 2016 by KennethT (log)

[Anna N]

This is very interesting to me. It means not just a protein  but a whole meal can be frozen using sous vide.  I have been frightened away from cooking the protein in a sauce by dire warnings that it would concentrate flavours too much.  Thank you for sharing your experience.  

[KennethT]

I commonly cook the protein in a sauce, for a few reasons: the sauce helps get the air out of the ziplock bag, the sauce flavors the protein nicely and it more closely resembles traditional cooking methods like braises, but it's a lot more convenient, and less cleanup!

[EnriqueB]

My only issue with cooking in a sauce is that, if a low temperature is used (around <=65ºC), some water soluble proteins leak out of the meat, unlike in braises because at a high enough temperature those proteins are denatured fast enough and are no longer soluble. They are not very pretty and are usually removed by boiling and filtering the raft that forms. Also, the leaked juices are usually quite thin and lighten the sauce, which, to compensate, must be denser to begin with. Not big issues, just an additional step that must be taken into account. I think using temps above 70ºC this problem is avoided.

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, EnriqueB said:

My only issue with cooking in a sauce is that, if a low temperature is used (around <=65ºC), some water soluble proteins leak out of the meat, unlike in braises because at a high enough temperature those proteins are denatured fast enough and are no longer soluble. They are not very pretty and are usually removed by boiling and filtering the raft that forms. Also, the leaked juices are usually quite thin and lighten the sauce, which, to compensate, must be denser to begin with. Not big issues, just an additional step that must be taken into account. I think using temps above 70ºC this problem is avoided.

Thank you.  That is very interesting  and something to consider.

[KennethT]

Enrique, you're correct on all counts, but in some cases it doesn't make much difference.  Most of the sauces I cook in are not thick - they're either some form of stock, or like the thai curry discussed above. In the thai curry example, the curry is already pretty thin, so the chicken juices enhances flavor, but doesn't change consistency all that much.  Plus, during the seasoning, I don't raise the heat that much since that will also affect the flavor of the lime juice, so I don't wind up with coagulation problems.

 

I like cooking proteins in a flavorful broth - especially for making things like Hainanese Chicken Rice.  In this case, the broth is used like a master stock, where each time being cooked enhances the 'chickeny-ness' of the stock before it.  After each time, some of the broth is used to make the rice, and the rest is brought to a simmer and infused with more garlic and ginger. It's then chilled and frozen, ready for the next time.  You are correct that the proteins coagulate during the simmer, but they're easily skimmed.

[gfweb]

Pork loin roast stuffed with cranberry and onion chutney.

[rotuts]

stuffed PL is very nice.  Ive made this both for meals but mostly for sandwiches later.

 

I remove all of the silver skin and the fat layer w the collagenous band that is under the fat.

 

 

then I trim the loin down lengthwise  perhaps in 1/2 or 1/3'd

 

pound that a bit, stuff, tie in bag sized lengths and SV

 

why trim down ? easier to slice for sandwiches.

 

[Okanagancook]

Beef shanks cooked at 144F for 48 hours after being seared and packaged with oil.  We like beef short ribs we like done this way thought this would work well with the connective tissue in the shanks.  They turned out a little firmer because I think there is more connective tissue and not as much fat.  I then made a sauce for them and let them simmer in it for about 15 minutes.  I should have done a bag with the sauce and a raw shank for comparison.

[nickrey]

Oops. this was a reply to 26th January post. Let but hopefully not useles.

 

Hi Shelby, Try putting the chicken breast between two lots of saran wrap and hitting them with a meat tenderiser to make them more thin. It's not for tenderisation but rather to make the rolling easier. They looked good. I probably would have given them 2 1/2 hours rather than 3 1/2  but it shouldn't have affect the taste overly.

Edited February 14, 2016 by nickrey (log)

[Shelby]

3 hours ago, nickrey said:

Oops. this was a reply to 26th January post. Let but hopefully not useles.

 

Hi Shelby, Try putting the chicken breast between two lots of saran wrap and hitting them with a meat tenderiser to make them more thin. It's not for tenderisation but rather to make the rolling easier. They looked good. I probably would have given them 2 1/2 hours rather than 3 1/2  but it shouldn't have affect the taste overly.

Thanks, Nick!  I will be doing these again and will take all of your advice  

[Shelby]

Ronnie came home with this the other day:

 

 

 

A challenge from him to see if I could back up my statement that you could take a tough cut of meat and make it good using SV.  An aside...I don't hardly ever buy beef and 3.98/lb seems like a lot for this, but what do I know?

 

After researching here on EG, I decided to cut a couple of 1" steaks.  I put the rest in a salt water brine to make "deli type roast beef"...more on that later.

 

I put some butter in the bags and put the steaks in at 129F for about 3 hours then seared them.  Very pleasantly surprised.  The meat was tender and flavorful....of course, not like a prime rib or something, but still good.  The meat was more rare than it looks in the picture.

 

[Anna N]

 A small boneless, skinless chicken breast which I will slice and add to a salad to fill a pita bread (assuming my pita bread turns out!)

[Kerry Beal]

I've got a chunk of Wegman's corned brisket cooking overnight at 80C.

 

[Shelby]

We wanted to see if we could make a good roast beef sandwich....and make the meat deli-like.  I scoured the internet and , of course, found what I was looking for right here on EG .

 

 So, the rest of the top round was cut into two smallish roasts and brined in salt water.  Then I pulled them out, dried them off and put tons of black pepper on.  I mean tons lol.  I put them in at 139F for about 6 1/2 hours (I pulled one roast and tested it at 5 hours and wasn't happy with it.)  I was lazy and should have gotten my meat slicer out so that I could make the meat super thin but I used a knife instead and tried to cut as thinly as possible with losing a finger.  I don't think I could make this cut of meat any more tender by doing it longer.  I just doesn't have enough fat or whatever in there.  Also, it was more like a pastrami.  GOOD, but not roast beefy.  Would like to try again and leave the brining part out.

 

Anyway, this really hit the spot. I would do this again for sure.  Debating on trying a venison roast.

 

Edited February 23, 2016 by Shelby (log)

[rotuts]

Shelby

 

I do this all the time  when tasty beef cuts are on sale  for 'deli' like sandwiches

 

try 130.1   no salt     pepper is OK if you want to go in that direction

 

don't forget St.P's day is coming up.

 

cheap corned beef, SV, freeze : best CB sandwiches all summer !

 

make sure there are no enzymes in your El Cheapo Cut.   a problem for me last year !

Edited February 23, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

""   Debating on trying a venison roast. ""

 

130.1 for how ever long it takes to get tender

 

no salt unless you want Corned Venison

 

Can' find either of those at the deli counter, eh ?

 

130.1 and always use the slicer for the rare meat.   that's why people go to the Deli

 

its the surface area / flavor  ration     SA/F. .

Edited February 23, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[jvalentino]

On February 1, 2016 at 9:23 AM, Shelby said:

A while back we bought a pork loin that I whacked it into 6 portions, seasoned some up with a BBQ rub and others with just s&p and garlic, then I vac packed and froze them.  Took one from frozen and threw it in the bath yesterday at 140F for about 5 hours or so.  Disappointed that the BBQ taste wasn't as strong as I would have liked, but the meat was very tender and good.  I'll probably slice it up for sandwiches.

 

 

Hi Shelby and all. Do you routinely cook meet from frozen sous vide? Other than adding extra time are there any other tips? Thanks!

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, jvalentino said:

 

Hi Shelby and all. Do you routinely cook meet from frozen sous vide? Other than adding extra time are there any other tips? Thanks!

I'm very new to SV'ing....that was the first time doing something from frozen.  It worked great.  So, yeah, just extra time.  I'm sure a more seasoned SV person will weigh in