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

[Steve Irby]

How's this for cooler overload?  Right at 30#'s of meat in a 48 qt. ice chest in my homemade SV contraption -15# pork loin, 12# chicken thighs, 2# longaniza and 1# chicken tarragon sausage.  20 thighs were deboned and rolled around the longaniza, 8 thighs were deboned and sandwiched/slabbed around the chicken tarragon and the loin was sectioned to fit in the 12" x 12" vac bags. Sous vide temp of 145 F for 1.5 hours for the chicken and 3 hours for the pork.   I pre-heated the water bath and the 1150 watt heater had no problem maintaining the temp.  

 

The end game was pork paprikash, chicken with tarragon cream sauce and chicken rolls with a take on Blake and Alison Rushing King Ranch Chicken.  No pictures of the final product as things got pretty hectic toward the finale. 

 

Pre-bath

 

 

Off the grill

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Steve Irby (log)

[rotuts]

I use both a 36 and a 48 qt cooler.  both hold a lot of SV !

[daveb]

Beef Tenderloins for a charity benefit.  15 of them this year.  131F for 3 hrs then seared.

 

 

86

 

[Anna N]

Not "cooking" but reheating a conventionally cooked chicken stew. 

[haresfur]

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

Not "cooking" but reheating a conventionally cooked chicken stew. 

 

SV is brilliant for rapid defrosting

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Ah, I anovaed two nice boneless ribeyes, 57 deg C. two and a half hours.  I was planning to use my new Falk pan for searing but did not have the courage of my convictions.  If I had I would have posted in the current cookware thread.  Alas, too many variables.  I measured the anova bath set to 57 deg C. against my new Thermapen Mk4 -- 57.1.  I cannot live with this imprecision.

 

Dinner was not a success.  Not that everything wasn't wonderful.  The baguette was about as good as ever.  And I actually achieved seven slashes.  Counting is not always my thing.  Hollandaise was perfect.  Steak was flavorful, pink and juicy.  Broccolini was bright green and tender crisp.  Zinfandel, Smoking Loon, was lovely.

 

But I could only eat so much.  I finished half of half of one of the two steaks.  About a third of the baguette.  The bit of Boursin I had with it all but made me gag.  I almost cried as I spooned half the hollandaise into the trash.  I couldn't get through more than a third of the bottle of the Smoking Loon.  And believe me I tried.

 

What was interesting though is that I noticed seriouseats has now partnered with anova.  A clever move on someone's part.  No more "cooler cooking".  Kenji has come out squarely against adding oil to bags of sous vide cookery, which sets him directly up against the ChefSteps folks.

 

Compare and contrast.  Discuss.  Tonight I ordered some popcorn from nuts.com.  I'll be here watching.

 

Meanwhile, enjoying some rye, Colonel Taylor, at the moment.  Unlike rum, good rye takes up relatively little room in the tummy.  Try it!

 

[Anna N]

7 hours ago, haresfur said:

 

SV is brilliant for rapid defrosting

 I frequently use it for defrosting but this was the first time it occurred to me that if you can reheat protein that has been Sous Vide'd you can surely do it with conventionally cooked food.  I am not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. However next time I attempt this I will make sure I choose a temperature much closer to 75°C than to 60° I chose!

[kayb]

Going to try that ribeye and @cyalexa's Vidalias in gochujang and honey, wrapped in bacon, this weekend. Photos to come.

[ElsieD]

Today I bought three top sirloin roasts,  3.5 to 4 pound each, graded triple A.  I am planning to cut them in half and then cook them sous vide @132F.  I had thought to cook them up as I would a chuck roast, that is, cook  for 48 hours as I think of it as a tough cut of meat.  However, since  returning home I have done some googling and the prevailing wisdom seems to be to cook it for about 12 hours, at most 14.  Has anyone cooked this cut and if you did, how long did you cook it for?

 

Thank you.

[pbear]

Haven't done top sirloin but I have done bottom several times.  I agree with the more modest cooking time.  In fact, I do it a bit less, eight hours.  If you go long, it'll taste like pot roast.  Even at the moderate time, it'll taste a bit pot roast-ish, but not nearly so much.  Meanwhile, I don't think it's tender enough cooked just to temp.  Of course, YMMV.

 

ETA: To clarify, I also didn't think the long cooked bottom sirloin (what we here on the Left Coast call tri-tip) made a very good pot roast.  The texture was too tight for my taste.  For pot roast, I prefer chuck.  Again, YMMV.

Edited June 26, 2016 by pbear (log)

[Porthos]

Yesterday, not today. Pork tenderloin swaddled in apricot jam. 2 tenderloins, one chilled and frozen, the other for dinner. 5 1/4 hours at 140 F. I will make a sauce with the juices when we have the other one. I liked the first one but I think napping the slices will take it up a notch.

 

If I repeat this I will use a bit more jam but the time and temperature worked well.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Dinner was non-Berkshire pork that came out excellently.

 

My question is can one write on a bag with a Sharpie before pasteurizing sous vide?

[pbear]

[Withdrawn, as I like Shelby's answer (below) better.]

Edited June 26, 2016 by pbear (log)

[ElsieD]

7 hours ago, pbear said:

Haven't done top sirloin but I have done bottom several times.  I agree with the more modest cooking time.  In fact, I do it a bit less, eight hours.  If you go long, it'll taste like pot roast.  Even at the moderate time, it'll taste a bit pot roast-ish, but not nearly so much.  Meanwhile, I don't think it's tender enough cooked just to temp.  Of course, YMMV.

 

ETA: To clarify, I also didn't think the long cooked bottom sirloin (what we here on the Left Coast call tri-tip) made a very good pot roast.  The texture was too tight for my taste.  For pot roast, I prefer chuck.  Again, YMMV.

 

Thank you for your response.  Unfortunately,  I didn't see it until I got up this morning at which point they had been in their water bath for 14 hours.  I Wil make a note of your response for next time.

[rotuts]

I mark the top of my Sv bags as I do bulk and freeze:

 

cut, temp, time, date    ( abbreviated ) for future ref.

 

works fine

[Shelby]

7 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Dinner was non-Berkshire pork that came out excellently.

 

My question is can one write on a bag with a Sharpie before pasteurizing sous vide?

I do it all the time.  No problems.

[Shelby]

We got some beef roasts (I think they are rump--I'm too lazy to go check in the freezer right now lol) on sale the other day.  Brined one for about 24 hours and SV'd it at 134F for about 8 hours.  I wanted roast beef sandwiches.  Turned out pretty good.  Next time I'll either do a stronger salt mixture or brine it for two days.  The tenderness was good.  I got the big slicer down so we could make nice, thin slices.  

 

[btbyrd]

Just moved and broke in my circulator in the new kitchen. Sort of. Tonight was SV halibut -- 45 minutes @ 131F with olive oil and lemon rinds. Then a hard sear in cast iron before saucing with a dandelion/basil pesto (with mushy peas and a caprese salad). Tastiness all around. But I don't consider a 45 minute SV cook a true "breaking in" of the new kitchen.

[Gunnsr42]

On July 6, 2015 at 1:10 PM, Okanagancook said:

Tom Keller's corned beef tongue!  28 days in the corn brine.  24 hours in the pool at 158F.  Skinned. Sliced.  On crackers!  Yum, yum.  Got 600 grams of lean meat off one tongue.  A definite do-over.

 

 

Nice work. Did you cook it before or after you "skinned" it?

 

[Okanagancook]

I skinned it while it was still fairly warm out of the bath.  Much more difficult if it is cold or raw.

[Anna N]

Two beautiful rib eyes. 55.5C X 1 hour should do it. 

[Captain]

Same here @Anna N Two fat Rib Steaks tonight. I probably wont go much over 50c A quick Sear and rest they should be perfect.

[kayb]

Coming up in a bit -- roast chicken and dressing, left over from serving at the soup kitchen today (volunteers get to take home leftovers if there aren't enough to warrant taking to one of the local shelters).

 

[FauxPas]

I thought this maiden column from Lifehacker Australia looked like fun. Will it Sous Vide? 

 

Quote

Hello everyone, and welcome to the very first instalment of Will it Sous Vide?, a weekly column where I sous vide whatever the heck people want me to. This week’s most popular suggestion was onions, specifically caramelised onions.

 

MIght be fun to see what they try out. The onions seemed obviously doomed to fail. 

[haresfur]

7 hours ago, FauxPas said:

I thought this maiden column from Lifehacker Australia looked like fun. Will it Sous Vide? 

 

 

MIght be fun to see what they try out. The onions seemed obviously doomed to fail. 

 

I once tried to caramelize some onions in a saute pan with a teaspoon of baking soda (seemed like a good idea at the time). It instantly turned them to mush so there must be something else going on besides speeding up the Malliard reaction. Maybe the sous vide could be used to make super intense soup, though.

Edited August 28, 2016 by haresfur
afterthought (log)