A Winter Sous Vide Odyssey

[nathanm]

So collagen is mostly present in joints? i.e. cartilage and bone?

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Collagen and connective tissue is in joints and bone, but you don't want to eat those things! They are useful if you want to turn collagen into gelatin for a rich stock or aspic.

Collagen is also found in tougher cuts of meat - and that's why they are tough.

[Marc Olson]

Jumping in a bit late on the thread, but I thought I'd share my duck breast experiment to go with Bryan's. Similar approach--skin the breast (Moulard from Preferred Meats), bagged at 62 C for 5 hours. I also bagged the duck skin and put it in the bath with short ribs for 18 hours, then crisped the skin in the oven at 400 after salting the 'inside'. I served the breasts seared and sliced, slices of the 'duck bacon' as I called the now crispy skin and a spoon of lingonberries.

[BryanZ]

62C for duck seems a little warm to me. I'm sure it was still very tender but I think you might lose out on some of the beautiful rosy color. Just a thought.

[nathanm]

For rare duck breast I would go between 124F/51C and 130F/54.4C

[bmj]

i've found that for post sous vide cooking, specifically meats, a quick flash in a small fryer provides the maillard reaction you're looking for and also keeps the meat cooked to the perfect doneness that sous vide allows. also, seasoning is done once out of the bag, prior to the quick fryer bath.

[BryanZ]

This is probably my last significant post in this thread. I'm traveling this weekend and will be going back to ol' Duke early next week.

Here we have pork tenderloin sous vide and foie gras sous vide.

An elegantly small pork tenderloin vacuumed and seasoned with salt. I cooked at 61C for about 4 hours. It wasn't as pink as I wanted at the end but still very tasty and tender. As usual I browned very quickly in a pan afterwards.

Plated with drizzles of artisinal honey, maple syrup, and foie gras fat. The honey added a nice floral sweetness, the maple syrup gave a nice rich sweetness, and well foie gras fat is delicious no matter the application. I served this with lightly browned potatoes and sprinkled with some Maldon sea salt for a little more texture. This dish was very heavily inspired by a dish I had at Alinea.

Slice of foie gras out of the bag. I cooked at 60C for about 20 minutes. It melted out more fat than I thought. Next time, I'll probably use a lower temperature. Thankfully I was able to use most of the fat to drizzle the pork with. The texture was also very, very soft, almost to the point where it had lost almost all of its structural integrity.

Sliced and plated on little toasted slices of baugette. I topped this with a lightly pickled apple. The apples were quickly cooked in just a bit of butter and some salt until just softened. I then soaked in cider vinegar, sugar, and some mirin for about 10 minutes then rinsed. They were sweet, with a slight hint of pickled acid.

This was a very tasty meal, and really quite simple.

[I_call_the_duck]

Oh, Bryan, delectable as always. I’m going to miss your sous vide entries. You’ve been an inspiration. Good luck at Duke.

[Corinna Dunne]

Here's the egg I've been talking about.

The white is exactly how i want it, custardy, smooth, eggy.  The yolk is still a bit runny but I would like it more so.  I've got eggs going into the water bath left and right and I'm watching the temperature like a hawk.  I'm still working on it though.  So far I've eaten my "experiments" in sandwiches, salads, and by themselves.  A little truffle salt and you're golden.

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Bryan... I just caught this thread. Fascinating and great shots. Thanks for taking up the egg challenge. It looks really good, runnier than the one I had. If you can get your hands on some black boudin type pudding, it will go really well with them if you embark on the project again... although sambos with truffle oil sound pretty good too!

Good luck with your studies... my husband's alma mater... now famous for amateur chefs as well as basketball!

[chancery]

Hi folks! I'm not sure that this is necessarily the right place to post this, but I thought someone else might find it useful.

I have just been experimenting with cooking corned beef sous vide. I've done it twice so far and both times it's been rewarding.

The first time I put the meat in a vacuum marinator with just salt, habanero powder, and water. I bagged it and cooked it at around 145F for a couple hours. Tasty, but not as corned-beefy as I had hoped.

The second time I used salt, ground mustard, and beet powder, in the vacuum marinator for a few days. Cooked at around 150F for 24 hours. This time it was *astounding*. The meat was falling apart just like real corned beef is supposed to.

All of this was done with pretty low-tech equipment--no vacuum machine, no immersion circulator: Ziploc bags in a Dutch oven on top of a gas stove.

[ChefCrash]

Hi folks!  I'm not sure that this is necessarily the right place to post this, but I thought someone else might find it useful.

I have just been experimenting with cooking corned beef sous vide.  I've done it twice so far and both times it's been rewarding.

The first time I put the meat in a vacuum marinator with just salt, habanero powder, and water.  I bagged it and cooked it at around 145F for a couple hours.  Tasty, but not as corned-beefy as I had hoped.

The second time I used salt, ground mustard, and beet powder, in the vacuum marinator for a few days.  Cooked at around 150F for 24 hours.  This time it was *astounding*.  The meat was falling apart just like real corned beef is supposed to.

All of this was done with pretty low-tech equipment--no vacuum machine, no immersion circulator:  Ziploc bags in a Dutch oven on top of a gas stove.

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Welcome Chancery

Ya ya you're cool here. Are you saying you corned the beef in the "marinator" and then cooked it sous vide? Or are you using beef already corned (if so, why more salt)?, and what cut of beef are you using?

Other than color, what does beet powder bring to er.. the party?