What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today? (Part 3)

[FrogPrincesse]

Host's note: this delicious topic is continued from What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today? (Part 2)

 

 

Duck breast, 57C for 90 min, pre and post sous-vide sear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the texture was not significantly different from what I get with my usual technique, which is grilling over charcoal. But it's more uniformly pink, and there are no slightly overdone spots. I am pleased with the results even though searing in the house means a ton of smoke and duck fat everywhere!   (I did it on the stove in a cast iron skillet, next time I will place the skillet in the oven)

Edited February 26, 2017 by Smithy
Added host's note (log)

[daveb]

More than a like - that looks outstanding.

 

You could do your searing outside and eliminate the smoke / fat inside by using the cast iron on the grill.

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Four eggs for ravioli, five rib lamb chops, fifty five degrees.  In the ice bath now.

 

[scubadoo97]

I've got 4 bone in short ribs in the bath at 132.5.  Doing a 72 hr cook for Sunday.   Smoked them at very low temp for an hour this morning, bagged and gave them a quick dip in boiling water before heading into the bath 

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

More sous-vide confit chicken. 8 hours @ 74C. I've become a big fan!

 

The second example was with sous vide braised green cabbage, 4 hours @ 83C. That one was ok but not nearly as succulent as a traditional braise (I love Molly Steven's braised cabbage recipe); it was a bit crunchy still, and less flavorful (it would a bunch of aromatics to become interesting). So this won't be a repeat, unlike the confit chicken.

 

 

 

 

[Anna N]

I find the contributor of the sous vide cabbage recipe is most definitely NOT someone I rely on. I wonder how well she tests her recipes. I have made a couple of hers and definitely the food was not cooked through.  And judging from the comments that appear on some recipes I'm not alone.  

[FrogPrincesse]

Just now, Anna N said:

I find the contributor of the sous vide cabbage recipe is most definitely NOT someone I rely on. I wonder how well she tests her recipes. I have made a couple of hers and definitely the food was not cooked through.  And judging from the comments that appear on some recipes I'm not alone.  

Good to know! Thank you.

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Here comes the egg. I wanted a poached egg texture and went with 15 min @ 75C. The result was a fabulous egg yolk, very custardy, a bit runny still, pretty much perfect in my book. However a good part of the white hadn't had a chance to set at that temperature, and what was set wasn't very set. I will probably play a bit with sous vide eggs but I've never been a fan of the texture of the white with that technique.

 

I have an extra egg that I cooked at the same time, so I will be curious to see if I like the texture better after it's reheated.

 

 

 

 

[MelissaH]

We tried a variation on the Anova recipe for eggplant parmesan yesterday for dinner. We were not impressed.

 

The eggplant was a PITA to cook sous vide, because it's terrifically buoyant. The recipe specified single-layer packing, which I did. I sliced the large eggplant specified in the recipe a quarter-inch thick on our Oxo mandoline, salted and then rinsed and dried the slices, and packed and sealed them. That took four big bags plus a small one. And by the time I did all that, I couldn't fit it all into the larger of the two water bath containers we usually use (a 12-quart square cambro-like container that we got at the restaurant supply store, with one lid that we cut an Anova-shaped hole in and a second lid that we kept intact. I had to hunt down the shallower large rectangle bath that we use with the homemade SV rig constructed by my husband from a PID controller, three immersion heaters, a mechanical stirrer propeller, and an electric motor salvaged from lab. But then that container isn't tall enough to clamp the Anova to; I had to set the cambro-like container right next to it, to use as an Anova stand. Wonder if it would be possible to rig an old-fashioned ring stand and either a clamp or an iron ring to hold an Anova?

 

And there really wasn't much of a savings, because after all that (or even if we hadn't had to go through the rigamarole of changing water baths and sinking the eggplant bags), you STILL needed to coat and fry the eggplant slices, construct the parm (we used some fresh campari tomato halves and some mozzarella sticks, and broil (or, in our case, bake long enough to make the frozen cheese sticks nice and oozy).

 

Next time, we'll just go back to our previous kludge of buying the frozen breaded eggplant slices from Trader Joe's. So much easier and neater!

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, MelissaH said:

We tried a variation on the Anova recipe for eggplant parmesan yesterday for dinner. We were not impressed.

 

The eggplant was a PITA to cook sous vide, because it's terrifically buoyant. The recipe specified single-layer packing, which I did. I sliced the large eggplant specified in the recipe a quarter-inch thick on our Oxo mandoline, salted and then rinsed and dried the slices, and packed and sealed them. That took four big bags plus a small one. And by the time I did all that, I couldn't fit it all into the larger of the two water bath containers we usually use (a 12-quart square cambro-like container that we got at the restaurant supply store, with one lid that we cut an Anova-shaped hole in and a second lid that we kept intact. I had to hunt down the shallower large rectangle bath that we use with the homemade SV rig constructed by my husband from a PID controller, three immersion heaters, a mechanical stirrer propeller, and an electric motor salvaged from lab. But then that container isn't tall enough to clamp the Anova to; I had to set the cambro-like container right next to it, to use as an Anova stand. Wonder if it would be possible to rig an old-fashioned ring stand and either a clamp or an iron ring to hold an Anova?

 

And there really wasn't much of a savings, because after all that (or even if we hadn't had to go through the rigamarole of changing water baths and sinking the eggplant bags), you STILL needed to coat and fry the eggplant slices, construct the parm (we used some fresh campari tomato halves and some mozzarella sticks, and broil (or, in our case, bake long enough to make the frozen cheese sticks nice and oozy).

 

Next time, we'll just go back to our previous kludge of buying the frozen breaded eggplant slices from Trader Joe's. So much easier and neater!

 I think it does such a disservice to Sous Vide cooking when people propose ridiculous uses for it. It's a matter for some people of having a hammer and then everything looks like a nail.  I want to tell them that just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[FrogPrincesse]

Does anybody have experience with sous vide pickles? Are they as nice & crunchy as the video suggests?

I was going to make a batch of pickled celery the traditional way, but I am thinking sous vide now...

 

 

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/make-crisp-flavor-packed-pickles-on-the-quick

Edited February 3, 2017 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[MelissaH]

38 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 I think it does such a disservice to Sous Vide cooking when people propose ridiculous uses for it. It's a matter for some people of having a hammer and then everything looks like a nail.  I want to tell them that just because you can doesn't mean you should.

We wanted to try it to be sure we weren't missing something. As it turned out, we definitely weren't.

 

My role was complete after the eggplant was prepped and packed. My husband took care of everything from there on out, and he commented that the recipe seemed to have other problems with the way it was written. (This made the professional editor part of me absolutely cringe.)

 

So...is SV eggplant always a bad idea? Or just in this case, and the SV miso eggplant recipe (from a different author) might be OK?

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, MelissaH said:

We wanted to try it to be sure we weren't missing something. As it turned out, we definitely weren't.

 

My role was complete after the eggplant was prepped and packed. My husband took care of everything from there on out, and he commented that the recipe seemed to have other problems with the way it was written. (This made the professional editor part of me absolutely cringe.)

 

So...is SV eggplant always a bad idea? Or just in this case, and the SV miso eggplant recipe (from a different author) might be OK?

 Eggplant cooked anyway is a bad idea in my opinion!  I still just can't imagine that it is a vegetable that lends itself to Sous Vide to bring out its best characteristics.  But as you can imagine I am no expert on eggplant.

[chromedome]

18 hours ago, Anna N said:

...just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

I've said on many occasions that if anyone is left to pronounce an elegy over our current culture/civilization, that will be it. 

[weedy]

LaFrieda burgers. Just dropped in at 131F

 

 

[Anna N]

 A lovely looking Magret duck breast that some very sneaky friend slipped into my refrigerator when I was not looking. 

[weedy]

[Anna N]

[weedy]

Very nice. 

And nice plates!

[gfweb]

I think sous vide is finally pretty mainstream. I was at a business dinner the other night. The culotte steak many of us got (from a mini menu designed for the group of about 25) was perfectly MR right to the edge. Two guys at the table said that it had to be sous vided. Two more agreed. So at a table of about 15,  at least 5 of us were using it.

 

How 'bout that!

[FrogPrincesse]

Pickled celery with mustard seeds (& clove, peppercorn), 60C for 150 minutes, using the brine from Babbo. Very crunchy!

 

 

[Anna N]

 A very tiny remnant of a pork loin roast (<500g).   Going to give it 2 hours at 58°C.

[FrogPrincesse]

Did anybody notice Tom Colicchio criticizing the use of sous-vide as a technique to cook pork tenderloin on Top Chef recently (with Sean Brock approving)? He claimed it gave the appearance of medium rare but drew the juices out. I am not a big fan of pork tenderloin personally, but I was surprised as this technique seems very popular here on eGullet for this cut of meat!

[weedy]

I not only noticed that, I tweeted to a few modernist chef's about it for comment. 

Will be interesting to see if anyone responds. 

I personally think that both Collichio and Sean Brock are just traditionalist and predisposed to dislike the IDEA of SV. 

 

There's no reason why, if done CORRECTLY, pork loin is going to be "drier" cooked SV 

 

it sounds a bit like buying the long disproved 'searing locks in juices' meme. 

 

 

Ps I love Husk.  It's just not the ONLY way to cook. 

I like Ink just as much. 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2017 by weedy (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I was surprised by that as well, @FrogPrincesse.  Particularly the part about drawing the juices out.  Seems rather the reverse to me, sous vide really helps produce a moist tenderloin.