Sous Vide First two attempts

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jvanis

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I have had my a nova a while but was slightly intimidated, but the other day I went to give it a shot and hard boil some eggs and I learned a few things.

I undercooked my eggs by going from tap water not at temp. Thus I ended with more poached eggs than hard bliled... but my 4 year olds were crazy for these "special eggs"
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Last night I decided to give beef tenderloin a shot. 130 for 2.5 hours and it came out wonderfully, most of the fat had rendered or deconstructed to be chewable without issue. Quick sear with rosemary and thyme afterward. My wife's said she thought it was better than any other cook. The texture was more along medium rare, but was still super tender. Paired it with butternut squash noodles and twice baked potatoes.

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Keep at it! It gets a lot easier over time ... also if you just add a few extra eggs you will get exactly what you want but ckecking the ones a little early.

A few other links (if you don't already have them form section of the forum);

Baldwin http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

Mondernist http://modernistcuisine.com/2013/01/why-cook-sous-vide/

Kenji/SeriousEats http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/10/understanding-sous-vide-cooking-heston-blumenthal.html

but my favorite source is from the folks at ChefSteps / Join the site it is really a great source of info (Sous vide or not ...)

https://www.chefsteps.com/

Have fun with it!

Tom
 
Fat? Tenderloin? Where are you getting your meat?

Are you steaking first then SV the filets? Or SV the loin, steak and sear? For whole loins I like 129F for red meat eaters. 131F for good medium rare. Whole loins for at least 3 hrs. Steaks for 1.5 - 2.

Sounds like you done good, just have to do it more often. Hint: Pork loin for 3 hr @140F. The wife will be buying you diamonds.4
 
Fat? Tenderloin? Where are you getting your meat?

Are you steaking first then SV the filets? Or SV the loin, steak and sear? For whole loins I like 129F for red meat eaters. 131F for good medium rare. Whole loins for at least 3 hrs. Steaks for 1.5 - 2.

Sounds like you done good, just have to do it more often. Hint: Pork loin for 3 hr @140F. The wife will be buying you diamonds.4

These were cut from a loin, but someone else gave them to me after cleaning it up so there was a few spots that did not get trimmed off.

These were individual steaks so I did SV then sear.

Thanks for the links above and I will have to look into doing a pork loin in the future! Maybe instead of diamonds she will buy me a new knife or bike :)
 
No hints really but I have been very happy with "sear" then SV for proteins at least ... SV beef short rib is SUBLIME! and PINK!

Jusr my $0.02 ... definitely the SV moment for me ... but there are SO MANY OTHER things it actually can do - bottom line is PLEASE KEEP POSTING as it really helps us all!

TjA
 
No hints really but I have been very happy with "sear" then SV for proteins at least ... SV beef short rib is SUBLIME! and PINK!

Jusr my $0.02 ... definitely the SV moment for me ... but there are SO MANY OTHER things it actually can do - bottom line is PLEASE KEEP POSTING as it really helps us all!

TjA

This! try searing first, then SV! you can sear again after if you want the crispyness.
 
Something I've been messing around with is resting the SV protein at room temp, as opposed to chilling directly from SV bath.

These days, I buy "choice" steaks individually vac. from Restaurant Depot. I take steaks directly from the freezer, put them into water and set SV to 128 for a couple of hours. Then pull them, rest on counter for an hour or so, remove from bags, wipe clean, season, rest them a hour or so until ready to sear.

Come out perfect and I still get great texture and flavor from a lower quality cut of meat. I think not chilling right gives the enzymes more time to work. Just conjecting, but I also think the meat reabsorbs some of the juices squeezed out from cooking.
 
Something I've been messing around with is resting the SV protein at room temp, as opposed to chilling directly from SV bath.

These days, I buy "choice" steaks individually vac. from Restaurant Depot. I take steaks directly from the freezer, put them into water and set SV to 128 for a couple of hours. Then pull them, rest on counter for an hour or so, remove from bags, wipe clean, season, rest them a hour or so until ready to sear.

Come out perfect and I still get great texture and flavor from a lower quality cut of meat. I think not chilling right gives the enzymes more time to work. Just conjecting, but I also think the meat reabsorbs some of the juices squeezed out from cooking.

Aren't then your steaks cold in the middle? If you leave them out of SV for 2h and then only sear?
 
Pro tip - season on all sides with sea salt and fresh black pepper, Sear your raw steaks on side one, after the flip add a pad of butter, 2 crushed garlic cloves, a whole rosemary sprig cut in half, and a good amount of thyme, baste the steaks in the foamy hot butter till just before rare (115-120) and pull them off, drain the butter and garlic/herbs into a bowl to cool so it will not melt the bag. put everthing in the bag a SV for how ever long you think best, for a well aged piece of prime meat you don't really need an extended amount of time. Pull from SV and drain the liquid reserve, let rest for 5 min. Re sear hard to get a very dark crust, pull and rest for how ever long you seared. Durring the rest, bring the drained brown butter with a little vinegar (3:1)to a boil and brush it on the steaks before you eat them, finishing salt to tatse if you like it.
 
Won't the fats in the butter absorb most of the aromatics (rosemary and thyme in this case) and not allow them to permeate the meat?

Wouldn't you be better off adding the rosemary and thyme (plus maybe some garlic cloves and sliced shallots) directly to the pouch sans the butter?
 
Won't the fats in the butter absorb most of the aromatics (rosemary and thyme in this case) and not allow them to permeate the meat?

Wouldn't you be better off adding the rosemary and thyme (plus maybe some garlic cloves and sliced shallots) directly to the pouch sans the butter?

In essence you are looking to have the finished steak glistening in herby/garlicy/brown butter. If you baste with herbs correctly, they actually fry and become crispy and delicious (especially the rosemary), taking on a whole new flavor, and you can serve the steak with the crispy fried rosemary on top. But obviously you pick that off before the bag because they will get soggy from the meat juices.
 
Basting doesn't impart flavour into the centre of the meat. Ruins the crust too.

Cheers.

Also bkultra I'm confused why would fat prevent the flavour from permeating? It's actually physics that prevents that :wink: you should know many flavours (ie odorant compounds) are fat soluble or indeed hydrophilic
 
Basting doesn't impart flavour into the centre of the meat. Ruins the crust too.

Cheers.

sorry to disagree but it does not ruin the crust, if it is when you are doing it your butter is not hot enough. And nothing imparts flavor into the center of a steak other than aging. or injection but thats ghetto af
 
Generally pan basting is a poor technique steeped in dogma. If you are basting something that has been seared imo you are making a grave error. People think it looks cool, but it doesn't provide anything special imo.
 
And I'm saying imo so often because I'm not trying to be a dick I actually detest the technique. I know some guys swear by it and they usually don't appreciate my spiel
 
My point is based around sous vide. If you placed butter in along with the aromatics, the butter would be what absorbs the aromatics. If you left the butter out it would be the meat absorbing the aromatics.

"Next we move onto the final variable I tested: adding aromatics to the bag. For the sake of this test, those aromatics consisted of three sprigs of thyme, and a sliced garlic clove. In one bag, I placed the steak (seasoned with salt and pepper), thyme, and garlic, while in the second, I placed the same ingredients, along with 2 tablespoons of butter.

My hope was that as the butter melts, it would pick up all the fat-soluble flavor molecules from the garlic and thyme, helping to distribute their aroma evenly over the meat, and further enhancing its flavor. I also included a single, non-aromaticized steak as a control

The results were a shock: tasters unanimously picked the non-butter version as the most aromatic. Some even had trouble telling the difference between the buttered version and the version with no aromatics at all!

How could this be? I looked at sous-vide bags the steaks had been cooking in and had my answer: the bag with the buttered steak contained a large amount of highly aromatic, melted butter. Turns out the butter absorbing the fat-soluble flavor compounds in the aromatics was working against me. Rather than traveling into the meat, where I wanted it to go, it was ending up getting thrown away along with the bag.

Of course, I could use the melted butter and juices from the bag to make a tasty sauce, but if I'm going to do that, I might as well add butter-less aromatics to the steak bag, and use fresh butter and fresh aromatics for any subsequent sauce to double-up on flavor.

Conclusion: Aromatics are fine, but leave out the butter if you want to maximize their flavor."
 
Where does this idea of anything travelling into the meat while it is cooking come from? I'm curious. I've never really seen that happen.

I have seen people make compressed fruit in a vacuum sealer and they have also flavoured those fruits using the technique of adding so to speak "dry" herbs to the bag to impart flavour. I suspect this may be the mechanism of action responsible for the results above
 
Well TBH I would never SV a steak no matter what, and I don't want to be a douche, but Id say a combined 100 Michelin stars of experience of cooks and chefs I have worked with/for all cook like this, so I am obviously biased.
 
Cook like what? Basting? ??? But most of the classically advanced benefits of a pan baste have indeed been disproven. Unless you're doing a very quick baste noisette I don't see how you can maintain decent temperature without yielding a beurre noir. What's more butter is not pure butterfat, it is butterfat protein and water emulsified (as much as 20 percent by weight is not butterfat). It is not a very controversial thing to say, water or any moisture, will make quick work of any crust.
 
Cook like what? Basting? ??? But most of the classically advanced benefits of a pan baste have indeed been disproven. Unless you're doing a very quick baste noisette I don't see how you can maintain decent temperature without yielding a beurre noir. What's more butter is so well loved by chefs due to its emulsified water content (as much as 20 percent by weight). It is not a very controversial thing to say, water or any moisture, will make quick work of any crust.

Like I am out of my depth talking technique. But want to add a little science... after 100C there ain't no water left... and I am assuming if you are searing or cooking steak your pan and butter have definitely passed that point.
 
Well TBH I would never SV a steak no matter what, and I don't want to be a douche, but Id say a combined 100 Michelin stars of experience of cooks and chefs I have worked with/for all cook like this, so I am obviously biased.

Any reason why you would SV steak? Just don't see the point? No real benefit?
 
The butter is hot enough to continue the maillard effect and continues to crisp the crust. If it is a big steak you have to de-fat and re introduce fresh butter, which also means you must regulate pan temperature, its not constant basting...its baste for a min, re heat for a minute, turn the steak, baste for a min, back on the eye(french eye). If it was easy everyone would do it but I promise you most top restaurants in the world thats cooking in a thick cast iron pan cooks beef like this. even if you are cooking protien on a hearth, weather direct or indirect heat, the protien is being basted (either with a brush or spoon/ladle) with hot flavor infused fat, being butter or its own fat.
 
Any reason why you would SV steak? Just don't see the point? No real benefit?

prolonged SV of steak is to break it down into a more tender piece of meat, but if you are cooking real wagyu(no mater the region its from, miyazaki, kobe, etc) or a very well aged angus (75-175) SV isnt necessary since these meats are incredibly tender, and SV if done multiple times (like a pre service sear/sv/cool for roulades to cut off of) for too long creates a grey ring.
 
Thanks for the info. Along the same lines as I thought.

And not an issue for me as a homecook. As i dont do a lot of the rest and reheating etc. And also because i think that some tenderizing is required, because while I know I get extremely good quality meat, the truly great stuff unfortunately either goes to restaurants or leaves our shores.

Plus sometimea I do dig that almost broken down consistency you can get.
 
Like I am out of my depth talking technique. But want to add a little science... after 100C there ain't no water left... and I am assuming if you are searing or cooking steak your pan and butter have definitely passed that point.

Your logic is very questionable. And we're talking about emulsions not straight water. A literal reading of this suggests it's impossible to boil water (where did it go)

Pan basting is a great way to achieve a nice glaze but good for little else in my estimation.
 
Thanks for the info. Along the same lines as I thought.

And not an issue for me as a homecook. As i dont do a lot of the rest and reheating etc. And also because i think that some tenderizing is required, because while I know I get extremely good quality meat, the truly great stuff unfortunately either goes to restaurants or leaves our shores.

Plus sometimea I do dig that almost broken down consistency you can get.

Makes sense. Do you buy pre-portioned cuts or whole cuts? Ive used a Australian grass fed and finished flat iron thats very tender, its wet aged for only 21 days and it cooks up on a griddle or pan very nicely without SV. Either way im not saying SV is hocus-pocus for beef, but I think its important to try it without SV before hand, for me it simalar to edge pro vs hand sharpeining, both do the job, but a ripping hot pan and a **** load of butter and aromatics is more rewarding. Just IMO. Most fish I have done is in this style (seared with or without skin) too, just cooling the pan down more before the butter and aromatics are added is important to not get brown speckles of milk solids.
 
[video=youtube;3eHFhaocni0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eHFhaocni0[/video]

I Know 2 cooks that have worked here and were responsible for this dish. Good beef, good butter, salt, hot pan, technique
 
Your logic is very questionable. And we're talking about emulsions not straight water. A literal reading of this suggests it's impossible to boil water (where did it go)

Pan basting is a great way to achieve a nice glaze but good for little else in my estimation.

Sorry but my logic is based on science not estimates... the only way to stop water boiling at 100C is to either raise the pressure (aka how a pressure cooker works) or to break the water apart (but that again just gives you gases at atmospheric pressure and temp.

Can I ask what do you think is happening when the butter is bubbling in the pan? That is the water boiling and evaporating.

Sorry but its science.
 
Makes sense. Do you buy pre-portioned cuts or whole cuts? Ive used a Australian grass fed and finished flat iron thats very tender, its wet aged for only 21 days and it cooks up on a griddle or pan very nicely without SV. Either way im not saying SV is hocus-pocus for beef, but I think its important to try it without SV before hand, for me it simalar to edge pro vs hand sharpeining, both do the job, but a ripping hot pan and a **** load of butter and aromatics is more rewarding. Just IMO. Most fish I have done is in this style (seared with or without skin) too, just cooling the pan down more before the butter and aromatics are added is important to not get brown speckles of milk solids.

Most of the time i buy a whole piece of rib eye or new york strip and portion it myself.

When I am time poor I do just use a pan, but I follow Hestons method which is continually rotating the steak (15-30 seconds per side and flip) repeat that for 3ish minutes. I will have to try your method next time.

I have only recent gotten myself a lodge cast iron pan. So also nees to try that method with a screaming hot pan. Still learning how long it takes to heat it up.
 
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