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.

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 

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.

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.

Sous Vide Eggs

Ironic that eggs are apparently the 'entry' dish into sous vide cooking! I think that cheap beef should take that title as it's such a successful dish for me!
Anyway, I say ironic because eggs are not a good sous vide ingredient. Also, eggs come in their own perfect cooking vessel, but you need to vac pack these in case they crack in the Sous Vide bath. Worse if you have a circulator!
I always thought that egg whites cooked at a lower temp than the yolks, but the opposite is true. 
So if you cook the eggs at around 64c, the yolk will be soft and lovely. The whites however, will be like snot, as the 2 proteins in the whites don't solidify until around 80c, at which point the yolk is grey and ruined! That's why eggs are perfect for traditional boiling.

Sous Vide Confit Duck Leg 12 hours @ 75c

Bought a couple of cheap ducks from Co-op so had to do something with them!
Skinned, took the breasts off, took the legs off but left the skin on, took the wings off and cut the carcass in half.
I roasted the carcass with some onions and made a stock with it.
Put the skin in a pan and rendered the fat on a medium heat. After it had rendered I took the scissors to the skin and chopped it into scratchings. Continue cooking in the fat until crispy.
I bagged up the breasts and saved them.
I made a rub for the legs and wings with salt, fresh oregano and bay leaves. Coated the legs with the mix and put them in the fridge overnight. The fat was also setting during this time.
Next day, wash the legs, pat them dry on kitchen towel, bag up with a spoonful of fat for each leg. Do the same for the wings. Cook at 75c for 12 hours.
Never had better confit du cannard! Absolutely melt in the mouth fantastic! Even the wings were awesome.
One negative was that I spilt a glass of red over the vacuum sealer, and broke it! Bugger!

Sous Vide Pheasant

Bought a whole Pheasant from the butchers. De-boned it. 
Bagged the legs and cooked at 75c for 8hrs.
Bagged the breast and cooked at 64c for 60mins. The reason I cooked it at this temp was that I was also cooking a Rabbit saddle that I thought needed this a higher temp. 
It was good but would be better at a lower temp. 
Next time I'd cook the Rabbit at 60c for 45mins.
The Pheasant probably only needs 55c. 
I'll keep an eye out online for others ideas.
Afterwards I realised that I'd got the bags of leg and breast mixed up! The breast was dry and over cooked but the leg was very good!  

Sous Vide Rabbit

Bought a whole Rabbit from the butchers. De-boned it with the help of youtube.
Bagged the legs and cooked at 75c for 12hrs.
Bagged the saddle and cooked at 64c for 60mins. The rabbit was good but maybe the temp was a little high? It seemed a little grainy, which I guess Rabbit is. Next time maybe 60c for 45mins.
The legs were lovely. The best rabbit I've ever had. I'm thinking that the saddle is the same as game breast and therefore should be no higher than 57c. 
The rabbit legs would make an amazing pate or terrine. It's definitely going to be a Christmas dish!

Sous Vide Lamb Half Shoulder

Bought a Half Shoulder of lamb from the butchers. 
It looked very good and I was looking forward to eating it. I vac packed it on the day I bought it, think it was Saturday, then started cooking it on the Wednesday @ 57°c for 72hrs. I took it out and chilled it in ice water then it was in the fridge for 24hrs. I took it round to a friends house to have with some Greek salads and dips. I put the oven on at 200°c, cut the bag open and was hit with a really strong smell of parmesan cheese! I told everyone that it was smelly but they didn't seem to be concerned so I carried on. 30 mins in the oven later and out came the lamb. The smell had dissipated but not gone. I tasted the meat and it was obviously ok but it was tainted with that smell! I was gutted as the texture was awesome. Another few lessons learned here. 
1, don't leave meat too long in the fridge before cooking. 
2, trim fat where possible
3, Roast in the oven for longer, min 40mins
4, 12-24hrs is enough. Lamb benefits from long cooking but 72hrs is overkill. 
The wife commented that the meat needed a bit of flavour going through it. I think this is due to the length of time it was cooked as the fat has pretty much gone after this length of time.


Did a second half shoulder today (17/12/2011). This time I did it for 12hrs @ 56c. Took it round to the in-laws with the Beef Topside! This time the lamb was a triumph! No cheese smell! It was quite rare around the bone. I think some were suspicious of the rareness, maybe thinking it wasn't cooked. Maybe crank the heat up to 62-64c next time? 

Sous Vide Venison joint

I bought a Venison joint from the butchers. I've found an instructable that says cook @ 54°c for around 12 hrs. This sounds perfect, I'm looking forward to it already!  
I took this around to the in-laws for sunday dinner.
After the rest of the meal was prepared and the roast potatoes were 30mins away, I put the venison in a hot roasting tray and roasted it for around 20mins.
The texture and taste of the meat was close to liver! It was better than if I'd just roasted it, but if I did it again I think it only needs an hour or 3 in the bath at around 57c, then 30-40mins in a 200c oven. That would be enough cooking for it. A haunch might be different?

First impressions of the SousVide Supreme

I used to be a chef and have seen Sous Vide working in restaurants, so I knew what to expect. When I got the SousVide Supreme it looked like a big deep fat fryer. I was pretty disappointed as I'd spent £400 on it and the Andrew James vacuum sealer! 


A lot of people on the web were saying that they'd converted a rice cooker etc for £10 so I was starting to think I'd send it back and try the cheap method! 
Maybe I'd send it back after I'd tested it?
It came with some strange metal bits inside that look like a toast rack and a bottom tray and another bit that I'm not sure of the purpose?