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

[rotuts]

@Kim Shook 

 

w SV  the selected temp is " doneness "    rare , med , WellDone

 

overcooking w SV is time in the bath   :   at some point meat sometimes gets

 

"" mealy "" and has an un-plesant mouth feel.

 

if you like  120 f   for a thicker steak , you will like it for the thinner steak.

 

the issue on the thinner steak is "" Sear Time  ""

 

some people might chill that thinner steak

 

so you  get the sear you are used to but do not over heat the steak ,

 

and change the " doneness "

Edited April 14, 2020 by rotuts (log)

[Okanagancook]

4 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I have a couple of 1-inch NY strips.  Normally, I would SV steaks at 120F.  and then sear.  But these are so thin that I was thinking of reducing the temp of SV so that searing wouldn't overcook them.  What do you all think?  115F?  Lower?

We use the technique of setting the ‘de-bagged’, dried steak on a rack in the fridge for ten minutes while the pan heats.  This way the steak can brown with less chance of cooking the interior.

[kayb]

5 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I have a couple of 1-inch NY strips.  Normally, I would SV steaks at 120F.  and then sear.  But these are so thin that I was thinking of reducing the temp of SV so that searing wouldn't overcook them.  What do you all think?  115F?  Lower?

 

35 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

We use the technique of setting the ‘de-bagged’, dried steak on a rack in the fridge for ten minutes while the pan heats.  This way the steak can brown with less chance of cooking the interior.

 

Agreed. Cook as usual. Chill. I usually chill more than 10 minutes; I'll just throw the whole bag in the fridge for a couple of hours, or a day, then pull it out and sear from cold. Otherwise I invariably overcook it.

[Okanagancook]

@kayb  and is the steak warm in the centre with that long in the fridge?

[Kim Shook]

Thanks for all the advice.  I did the steaks at 120F for 2 hours and then put them in the fridge for about one hour.  Seared in a cast aluminum skillet in ghee.  Nice sear and they weren't overcooked at all:

 

[barista]

7 hours ago, kayb said:

 

 

Agreed. Cook as usual. Chill. I usually chill more than 10 minutes; I'll just throw the whole bag in the fridge for a couple of hours, or a day, then pull it out and sear from cold. Otherwise I invariably overcook it.

Will the centre be cold when you bite into a chilled, then seared meat?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, barista said:

Will the centre be cold when you bite into a chilled, then seared meat?

 

Only if it's out of focus.

 

[kayb]

13 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

@kayb  and is the steak warm in the centre with that long in the fridge?

 

Yep.

 

9 hours ago, barista said:

Will the centre be cold when you bite into a chilled, then seared meat?

 

Haven't had that problem. But my steaks are generally not more than 1 1/2 inches thick, either. (The butcher who processes beef for my farmer apparently is averse to thick steaks.) I would not chill that long for, say, a 2 1/2 inch thick sirloin.

 

[barista]

22 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Only if it's out of focus.

 

Out of focus???

[JoNorvelleWalker]

29 minutes ago, barista said:

Out of focus???

 

If I spend enough time trying to photograph my dinner it gets cold.

 

[Bernie]

OK here is one from way out of left field.

 

Has anyone cooked pastry in their SV?

 

I started to think about this because I am a fisherman and like to have hot pies. What I came up with was freeze pies and vacuum sealed them in a bag and then just heat them in boiling water. Results are excellent!

Pie is hot, the already cooked pastry does not dry out, the water is available to make tea. Longer time in the water doesn't matter.

So I started to think.

I wonder what temperature shortcrust pastry actually cooks at? If I was to make frozen raw pies vacuum package them and  put them directly in a SV would they cook ? It may need to be in a pie tin before vacuum bagging. By freezing, the pastry should start to cook before the filling has a chance to  mix and make the pastry soggy. Then the filling can be cooked long and slow.

[gfweb]

On 4/11/2020 at 6:13 PM, Okanagancook said:

I ordered some one inch rib pork chops from our favourite butcher/sausage maker.  Into the bath they went at 132F for 2 hours...I've done some from another 'organic' butcher last week and this treatment resulted in really tender and juicy meat.  Not this time with these pork chops...like shoe leather.  They were juicy but I had to slice them super thin on the plate just so I could masticate them into a bolus that could be swallowed.😟

 

Lesson learned:  a perfect method with a crappy piece of meat ends badly.  Thing is, I've had really good meat from them before.  I will call, they will appreciate the feedback. 

 

Hoping for the best:  I have some of their really nice looking beef short ribs in the bath at 144F for 48 hours (our preferred treatment).  We've had great success with their ribs before.  Fingers Crossed.....toes too, truth be told.

 

 

I bet another few hours in the pool might fix the texture

[gfweb]

3 hours ago, Bernie said:

I wonder what temperature shortcrust pastry actually cooks at? If I was to make frozen raw pies vacuum package them and  put them directly in a SV would they cook ? It may need to be in a pie tin before vacuum bagging. By freezing, the pastry should start to cook before the filling has a chance to  mix and make the pastry soggy. Then the filling can be cooked long and slow.

 King Arthur says 210F is "done" for pastry.

 

So boiling would work, as you've shown.

SV can reach 210F, but that's pretty much boiling. Would SV add any advantage?

[Bernie]

7 hours ago, gfweb said:

 King Arthur says 210F is "done" for pastry.

 

So boiling would work, as you've shown.

SV can reach 210F, but that's pretty much boiling. Would SV add any advantage?

What I was thinking is that the filling could cook long and slowly. SV at close to boiling for say 20 mins and then drop the temperature to cook the filling for a much longer time.

The other idea was to cook the pastry first. The vacuum bagging with the pie tin would mean it holds its shape without drying out.

Time to play, I think

[btbyrd]

Pastry needs to dehydrate as it cooks for the texture to turn our right. That’s not going to happen in the bag.

[Soupcon]

Not quite cooking sous vide ... but... I make yogurt using my sous vide bath. I heat the milk, and skim milk powder up to  180*F using a large open top container (not submersed) and the sous vide. Hold the milk mixture at 180*F for at least 30 to 60 min and then cool the container with the milk down to 110*F as well as cooling the sous vide bath down to 110*F fairly rapidly. Add the yogurt starter, or a couple of tablespoons of previous batch or commercial yogurt you like the taste of,  to the cooled milk mixture,, mix in well and decant into sealable containers, return sealed containers to the bath (I happen to not submerse my containers but both ways work) and hold at 110*F for at least 4 hours or until set. The longer the yogurt cooks at 110*F the more sour it becomes. Remove from bath and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Enjoy. I use sealed wide mouthed canning jars for the containers.

 

[Kim Shook]

Can I SV in this wrapper from the store:

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

Can I SV in this wrapper from the store:

You can, but usually the underside has a layer of absorbent material, so it'll cook slower where that is.

And you can't salt it.

We eat a lot of flat irons. Tasty, tender, still cheap!

Edited May 7, 2020 by gfweb (log)

[lemniscate]

2 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Can I SV in this wrapper from the store:

 

I do, but I put the entire package in another sous vide bag because I have found there are a higher probability of holes in the original packaging that you just can't see until the sous vide water is full of meat juice.   I season after the cook, so I don't have a need to open the store package.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I would re-bag myself.  Maybe cut in portions while I was at it.

 

[Anna N]

Not a fan of sous viding the “diaper” that is often a part of this packaging.

[Okanagancook]

For the measly cost of a bag, I re-bag then I know it'll be safe and it can be salted/seasoned pre-seared as you like and you don't have to worry about the sani-pad like bottom cover on the meat that who knows where it was before it was put under the meat.

 

[robirdstx]

16 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Can I SV in this wrapper from the store:

I would not.

[rotuts]

I also would not.

 

I don't see a good reason to.   

 

and there is plenty of up-side to a re-bagging :

 

seasoning , portion size , etc.

 

 

[Porthos]

I thought I'd just pop in here to let you all know that I sous vide about twice a week but it's nothing to post about. A protein of choice with seasonings, nothing special. But the proteins I cook this way are done sous vide to keep them moist enough for my Sweetie. The only exception to that is steaks. I like the control of doneness it provides, and a quick sear finishes it off.