Re: Sous vide
 

I've always been skeptical of sous vide for smaller items (like scallops). My thinking is that with something relatively small, the skillet would have a more pronounced effect. And if that IS the case, why sous vide at all vs. just tossing them in the skillet for a bit longer?

Interested to hear your thoughts, Peter.

Re: Sous vide
 

Your alternate approach is sound, Vin. The same could be said for ahi and swordfish.
However, the sear on both sides took all of 90 seconds. I found Sous vide to be worth the effort in this case. Scallops were decent size - U15.

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I was at at spice shop over the weekend and picked up some curing salt (prague powder #1), at some point give SV fake-smoker brisket a shot (going for smoke ring/smokey flavor)

Re: Sous vide
 

Made a beef roast the other day using the curing salt, I don't think I used enough, I should have weighed it out for future reference. The roast turned out fine, it was very tender but that was probably due to the 11 hour cook time, no "smoke ring" or anything indicating a different process than normal seasoning. I'll try again in the future giving it a thicker coating instead of a sprinkle

Re: Sous vide
 

At the butcher last weekend and picked up a few extra thick slices of their house made hickory bacon, gonna put them in the tub tomorrow morning for 24 hours then fry them up Sunday morning for breakfast following the serious eats method. been wanting to do this one for a while, looking forward to giving it a try :dr

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Re: Sous vide
 

nice... I've done that with a vac sealed pack of thick cut from Sam's club...dropped it in overnight right in the packaging....magical...

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The Serious Eats method says "Bacon can be cooked directly in its package"

Since most bacon is packaged in overlapping layers does this affect the amount of time it needs to be in the water bath?

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I've gone as short as 12-14 hours and as long as 36, never saw any adverse effects from the overlapping.

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This link was posted on a FB group I belong to. Thought some of you might find this useful, especially the temp/time charts.

http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Table_5.1

Re: Sous vide
 

Wow Bob. That's some great info there. Thanks for sharing.:tu

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I'm doing the Thanksgiving turkey sous vide. I'm using this recipe I found
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities...est-feast-ever
I'll let you know how it turns out. I cooked 5 sides and bagged them too. I will heat them up in the immersion bath as well.

As an aside, Amazon has started early Black Friday deals. Anova and a lot of brands I don't know are on sale.

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That link looks interesting, Jeff.
Let us know how your turkey turns out.

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The turkey was great. Next time I'm gonna cut back on the sugar and salt. It was a bit sweet and salty, but you could tell it tenderize the flesh. Fresh sage too. One or two leaves per quarter so be fine. I browned it all under the broiler. By far the most moist bird I've ever had.

Re: Sous vide
 

Sounds great — I will have to give it a try!

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Made some brisket on Sunday, didn't plan ahead so I only ended up with 12 hours to cook it so I did it at 176* and it turned out pretty good, not fall apart but I wasn't really going for that anyways

The reason for the post is I used the curing salt again, this time not measuring and just using the amount I would have used of regular salt for a rub on the outside. I forgot to take pictures, but when I sliced it the "smoke ring" was more prevalent than the typical red/brown brisket color, really interesting to look at although I couldn't tell any other differences besides aesthetics. I'll probably keep doing it on meats like this if for nothing else than it makes it looks like a smoked brisket, but maybe mix it with some normal salt next time

Re: Sous vide
 

This is kind of a dangerous practice that could lead to excessive nitrite levels, which could result in health issues. Prauge #1 should used at a max ratio of 1:400 by weight (about 1 tsp per 5 lb of meat) iirc.

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I used probably double that, about 1sp for a 2.5LB piece, no extra added for the sear. gonna monitor more closely next time, I remembered reading something about that but I was rushing when I was prepping

Re: Sous vide
 

I'm supposed to do a pulled pork for Xmas. It's going to rain here the next 3 days, so I'm thinking of trying it sous vide.
Anyone have any success? I know Vin did one and wasn't impressed.
Any tips?

Re: Sous vide
 

Dom, I tried this recipe a long time back and found it to be good:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...er-recipe.html


It's no substitute for stuff cooked in a real smoker, but it beats crock pots by a mile.

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Thanks Adam.
That's the recipe that I was looking at, so I'll give it a try.

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That looks great Adam. Thanks for sharing that.:dr

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I've had luck as well, don't remember the time/temp I used but it turned out great. I think it was the same/similar as what Adam posted, I get a lot of my info from them

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I did the pulled pork following the recipe Adam posted and it turned out better than I ever imagined.
Going in I thought it was going to be a fail. I figured the best case scenario would be that they would never ask me to do it again.
I was mistaken.

I substituted salt & pepper with smoked Kosher salt and smoked black pepper in the rub, and didn't use the liquid smoke or Prague Powder that were optional.
You couldn't really taste the smoke, but you could smell it.
The butt split into 2 pieces while I was taking it out of the bag, but since I was roasting in the oven, it wasn't an issue; more surface area for rub.
I couldn't detect a difference in texture, and the meat was tender and juicy.
I did cook it at 170° instead of 165°. Not sure why I didn't follow directions.
Sorry, no pics.

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Yum Dom. Amazon post holiday sale has the Bluetooth Anova on sale for 99 bucks. Nice deal for a great tool.:2

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Bet a "smoker gun" would add some smoke flavor!! :D

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Glad to hear it worked out. When I did it, I also skipped the liquid smoke and the instacure #1.

Something I found that works well for smoke in recipes including sous vide, without having to resort to liquid smoke, is smoked onions. These things are sponges for smoke. Just slice up a bunch of brown/yellow onions and throw them on a lightly oiled perforated tray in your pellet grill. Set it to "smoke" - on mine that's about 168F + smoke. And just leave them. Stir them around every few hours for about 8-12 hours.

They won't fully dehydrate, but will get very thin and soft. I use these in sauces, in SV bags, etc. I've changed a few recipes that used liquid smoke to use these instead as even the best quality liquid smoke just tastes chemically weird. You can do a sh!t ton of them too, 5-6 lbs of onions will smoke dry down to a quart zip lock bag with room to spare and they last months in the refrigerator.

Re: Sous vide
 

Got a beautiful 4.5LB chunk of brisket from the butcher last weekend, putting it into the bath tonight for a 133* 48hr cook so it's ready for dinner Thursday. To try to get a smokey flavor without liquid smoke, yesterday I filled up a container with peeled pearl onions and sliced garlic, and every now and them when I was passing by (probably 10 times total) I filled the container with applewood smoke from my smoking gun. Right now the container smells like smokey garlic, but gonna put those in the SV bag with the brisket, and a heavy coating of salt and pepper on the steak.

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looking forward to seeing results! :tu

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Better yet, Ben could mail us both a pound..... :noon

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Come visit Denver and I'll cook up a full rack of Colorado Lamb :dr

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As long as we can stop by the "herb" store on the way to your place. -(P

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The brisket turned out amazing, ended up in there for about 50 hours at 133*, followed by about 4 minutes per side under the broiler. In the bag was the brisket with salt and pepper, the smoked pearl onions/sliced garlic and a few pads of butter to keep things lubricated. I sliced it up about 1/2 inch thick after it came out of the broiler, but for eating there was no need for a knife, a fork cut through it no problem. There wasn't much of a noticeable smokey taste, which wasn't completely unexpected, the smoking gun just doesn't impart flavor the way I'd like. I will definitely be cooking brisket this time/temp again :dr

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nice!...:tu

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nice!...:tu

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That brisket sounds great. How many lbs was it?

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4.5

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Looks awesome, Ben!

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Beautiful Ben! Maybe some smoked sea salt instead of plain next time.:2

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Very nice, Ben. The slices look a little like corned beef.

Doing a 5lb leg of lamb today.
Simple Rosemary, garlic, salt & pepper seasoning.
130° for 8hrs.

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When I did a leg a few months back it was one of the best things I've ever cooked. I cooked mine for 25 hours at 131*, then another half hour in the oven at 450*. I'm curious how a shorter cook time will turn out

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Might have to try that brisket. Dom I’m sure that lamb was perfect.

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I'm taking the high road here....:D

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I've got two chuckeye roasts going in tonight, planning on around 20 hours at 136. We will see how they come out!

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12 hours into a cook of pork tongues destined to be in tacos for tomorrow's dinner. Got about 2.5lbs of tongue, a couple shallots, cloves of garlic, tomatoes, chipotles, pinch of cumin and Mexican oregano and a couple teaspoons of pork fat.

Will peel the tongues when finished and then chop. The liquid will be strained, then puréed to be added back to the tongue pieces as they lightly fry to crisp up.

Re: Sous vide
 

Mmmmm tongue!:dr Pictures of the finished stuff would be great.

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Here you go, the money shot. Cooked for 28 hours at 170°F. Super tender. I used the Serious Eats recipe, with a few mods.

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F'n Beautiful! As my Brooklyn buddy would say.:dr Thanks for the pictures. I so need to try that.

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Something I've never said before, but that tongue looks delicious :dr

Took a 2LB tri-ip out yesterday and rubbed it down with some chimichurri sauce and vac sealed, the plan was to cook it overnight and leave in the fridge today to reheat/sear for dinner, but I completely forgot to put it in at night. Decided to just let it cook all day while I'm at work, I usually cook tri-tip at 130* for 6 hours, I've done it for 3 before when we were rushed into an early dinner and it was noticeably tougher, interested to see how 10-11 hours treats it.

Also up this week are some "smoked" pork loin chops, bagged those up last night and am very excited to cook them later this week. I'll definitely be posting up pictures and results of that one :tu

Re: Sous vide
 

Steak came out fine, no real noticeable difference from 6 to 10 hours, definitely not like when it was shorted 3 hours. I'll stick with 6 but not worry too much if it goes over in the future

"smoked" pork chops up tonight

Re: Sous vide
 

Pork chops last night were a success. Up until a few months ago I've never in my life liked pork chops, I always thought of them as "weird steak" and so tough they needed oodles of gravy, which I'm not a huge fan of anyways unless it's thanksgiving. I've only made them once so far in the SV and they were the best I've ever had, but still had room for improvement.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, Adam (TG) sent me a big bag of smoked dried onions to play around with, smoked for 16 hours turning 5LB of onions into one mostly-full gallon ziplock. The smell from this bag is intoxicating, in the most delicious of ways. This was my first try at cooking with these, I had no idea how much to use so I cut up a bigger 2LB pork loin into individual chops, salt and pepper then took out 1/4 C of the onions (wish I had weighed it, next time). I also smashed up a few cloves of roasted garlic I had left over from a head I cooked up to make some brie dip last weekend. Put all of these in the vac bag then let it sit for a few days (I knew I wouldn't have time to prep day-of). Last night I let them cook for 2 hours at 140*, then remove the onions and garlic and pat them dry and put under the broiler at 500* for about 3 minutes per side. Most of them got an herb butter parm mix slathered on top, but I did keep one as-is for control.

These were the new best pork chops I've ever had. The smokey onion taste permeated through all of the pork, not just the sections with direct contact. The one without the herb butter had the most noticeable up-front smokey flavor, however the rest with the butter were divine - the smoke was not overpowering and was truly a compliment to the porky goodness and the buttery goodness. I will call this a success, I think the 1/4 C was the right amount of onions for this amount of meat. I think the sear could have been done better, I don't know if I just cut them unevenly but the broiler didn't get as even of a burn as it usually does, next time I'll use a cast iron or really hot grill. Next up will be some sort of steak with these, I'll post an update when I get a chance to play around more. Thanks Adam!

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