Sous Vide Pate from http://www.notesfromhomeplates.com
Monday, December 19, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Sous Vide Beef for 24hrs @ 56c
I discovered Douglas E. Baldwin today. I also found this pdf, which is useful. I'll buy the book eventually of course, I love cookbooks!
I set out with the idea that I'd cook a small joint of Topside beef for later consumption, maybe as a lunch item. I ended up cooking it for 12hrs, which is obviously too long! I think maybe 6hrs would be plenty, you'd probably get away with 4.
Mr Baldwin has a handy chart for cooking roast beef. He suggests that the cut should not be thicker than 7cm, so if you have a large joint, carve it up and bag it. Then cook it for 24hrs @ 55c. I have to disagree with the esteemed scientist. I found that the Topside cut of beef is quite lean, and therefore, as with the Rabbit saddle in the previous post, became quite grainy after a 24hr stint in the bath. It was still moist and tasty, but had that dusty grain of slightly over done sous vide meat.
I set out with the idea that I'd cook a small joint of Topside beef for later consumption, maybe as a lunch item. I ended up cooking it for 12hrs, which is obviously too long! I think maybe 6hrs would be plenty, you'd probably get away with 4.
Mr Baldwin has a handy chart for cooking roast beef. He suggests that the cut should not be thicker than 7cm, so if you have a large joint, carve it up and bag it. Then cook it for 24hrs @ 55c. I have to disagree with the esteemed scientist. I found that the Topside cut of beef is quite lean, and therefore, as with the Rabbit saddle in the previous post, became quite grainy after a 24hr stint in the bath. It was still moist and tasty, but had that dusty grain of slightly over done sous vide meat.
Sous Vide Christmas Turkey
The Christmas Turkey is always a worrying prospect for me. Putting the massive bird in the oven for 3hrs, making sure it's cooked all the way through, is it going to be dry? Probably. Do you stuff it? How do you roast the potatoes while the massive thing is in there?
All these problems can be eradicated by using Sous Vide to cook the bird. Not only that, but you also get a huge improvement on texture, flavour and juiciness!
Objective; Christmas diner: 25th December @ 2pm. All prep done by 24th December @ 4pm.
Method; Take 1 Turkey. If it's frozen it'll need 72hrs/3days to defrost in the fridge. Therefore you need to buy it on or before the 21st December.
Butcher the Turkey to remove the breasts and legs from the carcass.
Make a stuffing for the legs. Take
Make a stuffing for the legs. Take
Take the legs, bone them and remove the sinewy bits in the drumstick. Butterfly the leg meat so that it is uniform thickness. Stuff the leg with minced pheasant breast. If not they can be cooked as a whole. Roll them in cling film, bag, vac pack. The leg meat will need to be cooked @ 78c for 8-betweem 8 and 12hrs. I've put it in @ 5pm on 24th December so it needs to come out first thing on christmas day morning, just before the breasts go in.
Chop the carcass up into 2 or 4 bits, roast with veg to make stock, reduce further to make gravy.
@ 9am, 25th December; Take the breast, brine them and put them in the fridge. For the Brine; 2L water, 100g sugar & 150g salt. Leave in the brine for 45mins.
Take them out of the brine, rinse, pat dry, season and vac pack. The breasts will need around 4hrs @ 64c. Seeing as I'll take the legs out at around 8am, 25th December, that's when the breasts will go in.
Take them out of the brine, rinse, pat dry, season and vac pack. The breasts will need around 4hrs @ 64c. Seeing as I'll take the legs out at around 8am, 25th December, that's when the breasts will go in.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Sous Vide Sausages 4hrs @ 64c
My favorite sausages are Turkey sausages made by the butcher. He charges quite a bit, but they're very good sausages. They work out at around 66p per sausage. They're quite big. I think it was £18 for 5lbs/2.2kg.
Anyway, I used to buy in bulk, stick em in the oven, then freeze half and eat the rest. The oven always gave variable results, no there would always be a few over cooked ones on the outside.
So I thought I'd give sous vide ing them a go. One negative I thought there may be was that there would be no Maillard reaction and the sausages might have a different flavor as a result.
I bagged the sausages and vacced them. If you give them max vac in the bag, they'll all squish together. Better to only half vac them so that they stay sausage shaped.
I gave them 4 hours. They wouldn't benefit from longer cooking as the meat is already minced.
The result, I think, is lovely. They come out perfectly uniform for a start. The skin is a bit tough as it hasn't had the high temps, but I think it's tough anyway. The inside meat is like a pate or a German sausage. Thoroughly recommend this method!
Anyway, I used to buy in bulk, stick em in the oven, then freeze half and eat the rest. The oven always gave variable results, no there would always be a few over cooked ones on the outside.
So I thought I'd give sous vide ing them a go. One negative I thought there may be was that there would be no Maillard reaction and the sausages might have a different flavor as a result.
I bagged the sausages and vacced them. If you give them max vac in the bag, they'll all squish together. Better to only half vac them so that they stay sausage shaped.
I gave them 4 hours. They wouldn't benefit from longer cooking as the meat is already minced.
The result, I think, is lovely. They come out perfectly uniform for a start. The skin is a bit tough as it hasn't had the high temps, but I think it's tough anyway. The inside meat is like a pate or a German sausage. Thoroughly recommend this method!
Gammon Joint Sous Vide 48hrs @ 64c
A bought a gammon joint from the local butchers. It was already vac packed in a bag so I just dropped it into the Sousvide supreme. I was cooking ribs again and there was space in the bath.
The result was awesome again. I don't think you can go wrong with pork in the water bath. It responds well to slow, long cooking. It also retains most of it's moisture.
The result was awesome again. I don't think you can go wrong with pork in the water bath. It responds well to slow, long cooking. It also retains most of it's moisture.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sous Vide White fish 30mins @ 60c
I've used those "frozen fish in a pouch" products, that you shove in the oven. I quite like them, but they have too much butter, or what I think is butter, in them. When I thought of doing sous vide fish it was along similar lines. The reality, as I'm discovering more the more I use it, is different using the water bath.
I took some frozen white fish portions and bagged them with some butter. I allowed them to defrost in the fridge for 24hrs.
I looked up a temperature that others had used and decided that around 56°c was good, for around 30mins. When I took them out of the bag it was possible to pick them up with my fingers, they seemed quite cool. There was a lot of liquid in the bag, which I suppose was ice, together with the butter.
The fish seemed quite raw as some parts of it were still quite transparent. This would be ok if the fish was fresh, but I was a bit dubious of the frozen stuff. It tasted fine though.
I did another batch a few days later, this time I did them without butter, at 60°c for around 30mins.
These were whiter, the proteins had firmed, and the flesh was flakeyer. I preferred this texture for this fish, but I'd probably do fresh fish lower and then maybe finish in butter in a pan.
I took some frozen white fish portions and bagged them with some butter. I allowed them to defrost in the fridge for 24hrs.
I looked up a temperature that others had used and decided that around 56°c was good, for around 30mins. When I took them out of the bag it was possible to pick them up with my fingers, they seemed quite cool. There was a lot of liquid in the bag, which I suppose was ice, together with the butter.
The fish seemed quite raw as some parts of it were still quite transparent. This would be ok if the fish was fresh, but I was a bit dubious of the frozen stuff. It tasted fine though.
I did another batch a few days later, this time I did them without butter, at 60°c for around 30mins.
These were whiter, the proteins had firmed, and the flesh was flakeyer. I preferred this texture for this fish, but I'd probably do fresh fish lower and then maybe finish in butter in a pan.
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