Sous Vide Adventures Pt. 2

[greybb1]

Ate the last of my chuck roast bbq today for lunch. Decided I didn't like the Texas chili mix I used so I tossed that. I will definitely buy another chuck roast to make beef bbq with though.

I ate the last two beef ribs tonight and they are so greasy! I guess that's what makes them so good. Can't wait to do the short ribs.

I bought a pack of rib eye's at Costco the other day and I sealed them up tonight. Left one out to cook tomorrow and threw the rest in the freezer. It only takes a couple of hours to cook a rib eye, so it won't be a 3 day wait on this. I'll report back tomorrow with pictures!

Charski, still waiting for your next creation!

[Charski]

Greybb, you're a sous vide'n fool! And I mean that in the best possible way.

I need to get to Costco and see what they have for short ribs - that's what I'm hankerin' for!

[greybb1]

I am a sous vide'n fool! Thanks to you. I've had my machine for a while now but I didn't really use it until you inspired me. I've forced myself to use it and now I'm using it all the time.

Steak tonight!

[greybb1]

I cooked the rib-eye at 137 degrees for about 1hr 15min. I took it out and placed it, still in the bag, in a deep foil baking pan with cold water and ice to quick chill it and placed it in the fridge.

I'll have it tomorrow for dinner, but I kinda wish I had waited and eaten it tonight.

Tomorrow night I'm putting in pork ribs for Friday night dinner. Doing onions this weekend for French Onion soup next week. Using Emily's technique for the sous vide caramelized onions.

Pictures of the rib eye tomorrow!

[Charski]

I bought a corned beef today - plan to try it at least overnight, maybe longer, in the sous vide. WooHoo!

[EllaP]

Here's a couple of threads I've seen on SV corned beef... looks like it can range from 16 to 72 with varying temps. I may pick one up and do a 72 hour SV.

eGullet

ChefSteps

[greybb1]

I've got something for you gals to think about. What do you think about using the SV to make beef stock? Here's what I'm thinking...

Roast the marrow bones and whatever veggies in a 400 degree over for about 45 minutes until browned. Set aside to cool & deglaze the roasting pan. Put the liquid from the roasting pan in an ice cube tray or some container it can freeze in fast. (this is so you can seal it in the bag without a problem)

After the bones have cooled and the deglazing liquid has frozen enough to seal in the bags, add the bones, frozen deglazing liquid, ice cubes (in place of water), any veggies & spices and vacuum seal. Put in the water over set at 190 degrees and let cook for 36 hours or so.

Flash cool the bags, pour the contents directly through a strainer lined with cheese cloth and put broth in fridge to cool and separate the fat from the liquid.

So what do you think? The sous vide step eliminates the step where you are constantly watching the simmering broth to make sure it doesn't start boiling and having to keep adding water to it.

You could truly set it and forget it.

[Charski]

That MIGHT work and is certainly worth an experiment - my first thought though is that as the ice cubes melt they're gonna release oxygen too and the bag will blow up - not as in "explode" but as in "lots of air in it now" - which may or may NOT matter anyway.

But I wouldn't be surprised anyway if that does happen!

[DiggingDogFarm]

Originally Posted by greybb1

I've got something for you gals to think about. What do you think about using the SV to make beef stock? Here's what I'm thinking...

Roast the marrow bones and whatever veggies in a 400 degree over for about 45 minutes until browned. Set aside to cool & deglaze the roasting pan. Put the liquid from the roasting pan in an ice cube tray or some container it can freeze in fast. (this is so you can seal it in the bag without a problem)

After the bones have cooled and the deglazing liquid has frozen enough to seal in the bags, add the bones, frozen deglazing liquid, ice cubes (in place of water), any veggies & spices and vacuum seal. Put in the water over set at 190 degrees and let cook for 36 hours or so.

Flash cool the bags, pour the contents directly through a strainer lined with cheese cloth and put broth in fridge to cool and separate the fat from the liquid.

So what do you think? The sous vide step eliminates the step where you are constantly watching the simmering broth to make sure it doesn't start boiling and having to keep adding water to it.

You could truly set it and forget it.

I'm not a gal, but I'll join in anyway.
It certainly works, I've made stock via sous vide, but, IMHO, it's best to use a pressure cooker if you happen to have one....more flavor is extracted.
You can even do it in canning jars in the sous vide bath, which, again, IMHO, is handier than using bags.

~Martin

[greybb1]

Originally Posted by DiggingDogFarm

I'm not a gal, but I'll join in anyway.
It certainly works, I've made stock via sous vide, but, IMHO, it's best to use a pressure cooker if you happen to have one....more flavor is extracted.
You can even do it in canning jars in the sous vide bath, which, again, IMHO, is handier than using bags.

~Martin

LOL! Sorry Martin.

Hmmmm. That give me a good excuse to pull out the pressure cooker! Haven't really used it since I bought it.

My goal is to make beef broth to used for French Onion Soup. I'm caramelizing the onions in the sous vide after sweating them.

[greybb1]

Okay, just finished eating half of the rib eye I cooked last night. When I got home tonight I brought the SV up to 137 degrees and threw the cold steak in to warm it up.

After about a half hour I pulled it out and here's what it looked like in the bag. (not so pretty )



Here's what it looked like after removing from the bag. Again, not so pretty.



And here it is after torching.



Yum! It was tender and delicious although a bit too well done for me. It came out to be a perfect medium & I prefer medium rare. Next time I'll cook it at a lower temp for about 45 minutes. I used an Asian spice mix, ginger & garlic with black and white sesame seeds. Gave it a really nice taste.

Tomorrow night it's pork ribs again!

[Charski]

I'm a RARE gal, greybb, so I get it! LOL!! Looks edible though.

I love my pressure cooker for stocks. You know, ONE tool is NOT good for everything. I'm a firm believer in using the tools for their best purpose!

[greybb1]

Charski & Martin,
Do you roast the bones before cooking in the pressure cooker or do you just throw everything in there and cook?

[Charski]

I like to roast them if I have time. It adds a nice flavor to the stock.

[greybb1]

I'm going to caramelize onions for onion soup overnight in the SV. Gonna make some French Onion soup tomorrow. I'm also planning to make some garlic confit tomorrow.

Oh! I'm making the beef broth for the soup in the pressure cooker.

[greybb1]

Making caramelized onions & garlic confit today in the SV. I'm going to do separate threads with pictures for each of these.

[gharkness]

Wow, nobody has mentioned eggs yet?

If you are concerned about raw eggs but want to eat them anyway without risk of illness, the sous vide is for you! We have a similar setup to Charski's (controller that works with all size vessels - and boy is THAT handy!), and we put the eggs in our small crockpot and set it to 132. Once it reaches temp, we let it sit for 75 minutes, which allows the temperature to completely permeate the egg and kill any bacteria without cooking the egg. (Killing bacteria is a time AND temperature thing...132 will kill the bacteria, but not instantly, which is why it takes a little while to do its magic).

The white will get slightly cloudy looking, but otherwise this works in things like shakes, ice cream, hollandaise sauce etc. It doesn't work well for, say meringues, because the whites won't whip well.

And in fact you could also use this to cook the egg to various degrees of doneness. A perfectly-cooked soft boiled egg is around 163 degrees.

Another note of interest: once you learn how sous vide-cooked food looks, you'll recognize it in your restaurant, if they use one. Steaks and other beef will be missing that gray band right around the outside edge of the steak, and the color will be the same across the entire cut of beef.

[Charski]

Wow, Georgene, what a great idea! Pasteurizing one's own eggs for smoothies, eggnog, or whatever - love it. THANKS!!

I'm thinking I might try poaching some eggs in my smallest jelly jars and see how THAT works.

[gharkness]

Originally Posted by Charski

Wow, Georgene, what a great idea! Pasteurizing one's own eggs for smoothies, eggnog, or whatever - love it. THANKS!!

I'm thinking I might try poaching some eggs in my smallest jelly jars and see how THAT works.

Well, the problem with that is that you are going to have air at the top, which might give you difficulties with full immersion. Also I am not sure, even if you were able to submerge completely, whether the temp would be constant between the air at the top and the liquid of the egg, since air is actually an insulator in this case. On the other hand, you could try it!

Have you seen the free sous vide guide that is available? Google A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking. It looks like he has published it on Amazon, but also has the entire book free on the site, along with more information than you EVER want to know about cooking sous vide.

If you look at the link of tables, click on the link to table 4.1 and then scroll down just a bit further to "Perfect Egg." The next topic below that is Shell Pasteurization. Now, after you have looked at all that, go back to the top and read the whole thing. It has changed a bunch since I was last there (I just printed it all off and keep it in my kitchen). It now has a bunch of videos! Fantastic resource.

[greybb1]

Thanks Georgene for that link!

I tried scrambled eggs but they were a little too runny for me. I may try them again at a little higher temp. It would be great to throw some eggs in, jump in the shower and have scrambled eggs ready when I get out. No frying pan to wash!