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

[Captain]

It's great quality stuff that Cape Grim.  I wish I could get some locally.

[weedy]

On 4/7/2018 at 8:33 PM, ImportantElements said:

Did some steaks last weekend in the sous vide. 

 

2 hour at 110, then super fast grill sear for 1 minute on each side, and a baked potat

 

 

110 degrees is unusually low, but that certainly looks beautiful inside.

 

 

[rotuts]

Some may not appreciate SVEverything

 

but once you get over their ' Style ' ,  adjust their seasonings to your personal prefs , and Time/ temps you prefer

 

there is a lot to learn :

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UDFO-ifqC8

 

this compares defrosting methods for Steak SV.

 

[weedy]

Too much other testing (usually more carefully and scientifically done) contradicts them for me to take any advice from them. 

He leaves in way too many variables and inconsistencies in his “tests” to make any conclusions meaningful. 

 

but they are entertaining as as far as it goes. 

 

 

 

 

[rotuts]

Taste is scientific ?

 

good to know.

 

its all about calibrating and offsetting.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

.......

this compares defrosting methods for Steak SV.

 

Thanks for posting this as it was a question in my mind. I suspected all along that slow defrosting over a 24 hour period in the refrigerator would yield the best results.  But being that I never know what I want to eat until it’s almost mealtime I’m equally pleased to know that using the sous vide to defrost is a close runner up. 

[rotuts]

way before SV

 

I recall reading that the slower you defrost the better

 

it your defrost-tee is in a sealed bag

 

all the better

 

I try to do this myself

 

I think the differences are not enough  to remember one vs the other

 

when only doing one.

 

side by side , easier to tell.

[Anna N]

2 minutes ago, rotuts said:

side by side , easier to tell.

 I think I would be inclined to up my game and go for the slow defrost if I had a piece of really high-quality meat. Side by side comparisons are not something most of us try at home.

[weedy]

For example:

 

if you dropped the frozen steak into the bath 30 mins or so before the thawed one (because you shouldn’t be counting THAWING time as cooking time, just like you’re not for the refrigerator thawed sample) and then took them both out an hour or two later, I don’t believe the difference would be much if anything. 

 

 

[Anna N]

11 minutes ago, weedy said:

For example:

 

if you dropped the frozen steak into the bath 30 mins or so before the thawed one (because you shouldn’t be counting THAWING time as cooking time, just like you’re not for the refrigerator thawed sample) and then took them both out an hour or two later, I don’t believe the difference would be much if anything. 

 

 

When my ship comes in I shall buy a bunch of steaks and reach my own conclusions.   In the meantime I have to rely on others and when their conclusions lineup with my thought experiments then I’m happy to accept their results. 

[rotuts]

I re-therm Fz SV all the time.

 

its already cooked of course , the rapid chill -> Fz.

 

I like to do an overnight thaw before I re-therm for dinner.

 

can't say its analogous to the above info.

 

Ive always though the slower something defrost the better.

 

that might not hold for fish , possibly .

 

[weedy]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

When my ship comes in I shall buy a bunch of steaks and reach my own conclusions.   In the meantime I have to rely on others and when their conclusions lineup with my thought experiments then I’m happy to accept their results. 

 

pretty sure that other reputable sources have weighed in that cooking SV from frozen is just as good (whether that's Food Lab or Chefsteps or individual chefs) 

 

and it's what I've found.

 

those 'SV Everything' guys say a lot of things that many others disagree with.

 

 

[Anna N]

5 hours ago, weedy said:

those 'SV Everything' guys say a lot of things that many others disagree with.

 

Indeed.  But they confirm my own biases.

[paulraphael]

19 hours ago, rotuts said:

Taste is scientific ?

 

 

Very much so. In that evaluating taste requires more scientific rigor than most other senses. Scientific methods are designed to eliminate the influence of bias. Bias (expectations, associations, moods, habits) play a huge role in taste. Scientific methods also work against experimental bias (biases toward one result or another that are inadvertently built into the experiment), unrelated variables, and chance.

 

It's not so uncommon today, when one chef says to another "X method tastes better than Y method," to ask, "did you do a blind triangle test?"  10 years ago no one would have known what that meant. Soon it's going to be Triangle-Or-It-Didn't-Happen. 

[Shelby]

14 hours ago, weedy said:

For example:

 

if you dropped the frozen steak into the bath 30 mins or so before the thawed one (because you shouldn’t be counting THAWING time as cooking time, just like you’re not for the refrigerator thawed sample) and then took them both out an hour or two later, I don’t believe the difference would be much if anything. 

 

 

I do this all the time because, like Anna said, I often don't know what I want to eat until close to time to eat.  

[kayb]

Today, SV was an interim step in the cooking process. It's steak tips and rice, planned for Sunday dinner. I went pawing through the freezer for the couple of top sirloins I was pretty certain were in there, and only found one. One top sirloin will not do dinner for four, not when one of the four is a big ol' boy of 6'4", 250, and the other three have middling decent appetites. So I looked further. Found a two-pound package of round steak.

 

H'mm, sez I. I brought it in, pitched it in the SV bath in the vac-packed bag in which it came from the butcher (part of my quarter-steer), after peeling off the label, and let it go at 130 for eight hours overnight. Pulled it this morning, cubed it up, tossed the cubes in seasoned flour, browned it, and let it simmer 30 minutes in a combo of the jus and beef broth. Pulled out the son-in-law's portion, added caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms to the remainder. (The boy's odd; he won't do either onions OR mushrooms. Sigh.)

 

 

A quality control sample indicates a success. We shall see, come noonish.

 

[paulraphael]

I can imagine that with some very lean, delicate proteins there could be an advantage to defrosting before cooking. At least with larger portions. Not because the speed of defrosting makes a difference, but because defrosting and cooking in one step will necessarily lead to the outer portions staying at cooking temperature longer than if you started thawed (the outside will defrost quickly; the insides much more slowly as they're getting heated by conduction). This could lead to the outsides being a bit drier. But I haven't tested this. It's possible that other people have and found no problems.

[rotuts]

fair enough.

 

as with keeping a braise in the refrig for the next day , as its ' better '

 

Im wondering if a slow defrost adds ' jus ' ( from the freezing process , which damages membranes )

 

back into those da

[rotuts]

@kayb

 

nice

 

testimony to " sauce "

 

so important.

 

yours looks very very tasty.

[kayb]

Update: The finished product.

 

Over rice, with peas and corn, and a side of cucumber salad as it was starch heavy. Steak was perfect.

[gfweb]

SV shrimp with pimenton, garlic, butter and sherry vinegar. 15 min 139 F.   A tasty tapas-ish thing. 

[weedy]

Fwiw I’m not suggesting it’s a scientific ‘proof’ that something ‘tastes better’

 

those guys are entitled to their taste. 

 

But they often compare one item to another with multiple variable differences. 

I’m just saying their ‘testing’ is pretty loose. 

I don’t feel that way about chef steps or food lab. 

[rotuts]

As Ive posted before :

 

I boned out two Fz TurkeyBr

 

and removed the tendons

 

the SV's them  at my usual :   142.5  or 6 hrs

 

nothing new there

 

Ive discovered this year

 

that cold smoking both the TB's and the St.P's corned beef

 

after the SV

 

gave me outstanding results.

 

those have been posted before

 

here is a thing of Great Beauty :

 

 

using the Weber very early in the AM for cold smoking 

 

8 packets of TB's

 

as before

 

however

 

this time I took a bit of the Jus from the packets :

 

 

which I freeze and save for adding to Gravy 

 

one might note that 1/2 of the dirt cheap but very reusable container 

 

is missing 

 

I decided to add a large TB of the jus that came from 2 TB's  i.e. 8 tied up TB's after SV

 

I then froze them

 

as in the past

 

as delicious as these TB's  are for sandwiches or reheat for a Turkey Dinner

 

Ive noted that they are a tiny bit dry

 

its such a small thing 

 

I hesitate to mention it

 

tender , juicy these TB's are

 

Ive just decided to take one out and have it for some TB's sandwiches now

 

what is my point of this post ?

 

all most all of the Jus that I added to the bag had been reabsorbed by the TB meat.

 

interesting Id say

 

and Im looking forward to some tasty and juicy sandwiches soon.

 

cheers

 

 

[Smithy]

That's a neat trick @rotuts - adding the jus from sous-videing one batch of meat to the sous vide bag for another of that meat. I still have some chicken jelly with citrus juice from citrus-roasted chicken. Do you suppose that adding the citrusy chick jelly to a sous vide bag worth of chicken breast would be a good thing?

[rotuts]

to be a bit more clear :

 

the jus was from the SV'd batch that I then opened and did a cold smoke on

 

they got re-bagged in fresh bags for the freezer after their enjoyment of the Smoke.

 

why not , I had it ?

 

and I think the jus added to the final p smoked TrBr's

 

the second bag did not get SV'd  just cold smoked.

 

in your case you are asking if previous SV Jelly can new added to a new SV batcxh

 

of something similar , starting from scratch.

 

Id say yes.

 

if your process is similar to the first batch

 

you are going to add flavor to the new batch

 

and get more Jelly after the SV

 

for the next batch

 

more or less like

 

Old Fashioned Balsamic vinegar  

 

but w a moder tasty twist.

Edited April 29, 2018 by rotuts (log)