ChefKevin

Interesting article in the NY Times today about the Health Department fining restaurants cooking "sous vide" and determining that the methods are "illegal" until a uniform code can be established.

All the big boys (Benno, Cuisine Solutions, etc.) are quoted.

I do not vacuum bag my food for storage. I season, bag, cook and eat. I don't blame the health dept. for being concerned. You would not want that chicken breast bagged in a warm kitchen and kept in the cooler for two weeks. The restaurants that were mentioned are all very experienced sous vide establishments that are being victimized by something that might happen at a second rate restaurant. I hope that the NY Times article does not affect any of the many people who have enjoyed my cuisine. I will continue with experimenting and the expansion of my knowledge regarding sous vide cooking.

(At the risk of killing this thread).

ChefKevin -- I've read through this thread (and your reply to RaisaB on the foie gras thread), and I have a large conceptual gap:

You're cooking times seem awfully short. How does something get "cooked" at 65 degrees C for 30 minutes? It would seem to me that the surface temp of the food might equal to the water temp, but not the inside temp. From other reading on this method, it seems like one of the benefits is the ability to cook something for a long time at the low temperature, and, yet, not "overcook" it. What am I missing?

Meats are cooked differently depending on the cut. Is it grilled or braised in liquid? Fish cooks fast at low temps. Therefore foie gras has its own guidelines and is a delicate organ that would suffer with extended cooking times. You still need to pan sear the liver when removed from the bag. The vacuum process and water baths changes the rate of heat transfer through the proteins which reduce cooking times in certain items. The low temps. for long periods are established to break down connective tissues in tough items such as short ribs or briskets.

Saturday Night

Appetizer: Carmelized cantelope with sous vide pork belly topped with a Caribean thyme sauce.

Entree: Mullard Magret duck breast with a guava port wine reduction and skirt steak with bacon both done sous vide, asparagas with a walnut vinagarette and risotto with mushrooms.

Salad: Superb

Desert: Vacuum bagged watermelon heart topped with rasberry sorbet and finished with whipped cream flavored with Chambord.

OK Folks,

Here are a couple pictures of the finished product. If you have a scratch and taste feature on your monitor check it out! If not you will have to trust my judgement "It was AWESOME". You can see the layers of bacon between the steak. If you like well done steak this ones not for you!

Plenty of sufficient BTUs cooking the 'old fashioned way' at home on the new Miele cooktop for searing meat. My question relates specifically to meat that has been cooked using sous vide. What do you do to get a char on the outside of meat that has been cooked sous vide? Are you tossing it in a hot pan after removing it from shrinkwrap to add that texture/taste or are you foregoing a seared outer crust in favor of meat that is the same texture and color edge to edge?

I put a little butter and olive oil in a pan and sear the meat. The butter helps the browning effect and the olive oil raises the burn temp. of the butter. I do not get a heavy char which makes it easier to get thin slices. I generally slice all my meats that are sous vide before plating. Don't forget to remove it from the bag! I have served Norweigan Salmon without any searing after cooking with great reviews. I like to top the salmon with a champagne beur blanc. Excuss any misspelling please.

What was the internal temperature? That's the key.

I'm in the process of purchasing a hypodermic fast response thermocouple to insert into the meat while cooking. These items are a little costly but will contribute to greater accuracy while cooking and prevent that rubbery syndrome from overcooking. In response to the char effect, the hotter the pan the darker the char without effecting the inside temp. That is the problem with most home cooktops is not enough horsepower (BTU'S) to get a good "char".

I always fry them. As for the oil, it depends what I am cooking. For the baby artichokes I use EVOO, for potato chips, I like something very neutral, and go with a vegetable or canola oil. Sometimes, I will use peanut oil, but really all that matters is that the oil is fresh, and has not been heated to its smoke point.

I have used my mandoline with the wavy end to make sweet potato waffle shapes and fryed them in peanut oil. The brand of mandaline I have is a Bron Coucke made in France and am very pleased with the quality of the item. If you do not have a lot of experience with using a mandaline don't forget to use the sliding guide. Be careful its sharp!

Having the steak and the bacon "bond" together sounds vile to me.

Check it out! The combination of the 2 items is not something you would eat dailey with your Cherrios. But once in awhile is heavenly!

What do you do about getting some variance in texture (such as external crispness) to the meat? I am so not a fan of sous vide cooking and find that the lack of a seared outer crust (for lamb and beef) and somewhat flabby internal texture seem to be the reason. Have tried many items that were cooked using this format -- lamb, salmon, lobster, etc., at various types of restaurants (I'm not equipped to try this at home) and find that this method of cooking just doesn't work for me. The lobster and salmon tend to be somewhat rubbery.

-Camille

You need to pan sear (very hot pan) to get the outer crust on. As far as the rubbery texture, that is caused by overcooking. Seafood is really sensitive to proper cooking time and temp. The food will cook faster in a vacuum so you need to keep the heat down on fish and also limit cooking to 10 - 12 minutes if you are doing something like salmon. A restaurant might want to be more cautious about thoroughly cooking your meal. I have never served a sous vide meal with complaints from guests. Check out the pictures below, one is the salmon in the bag, seasoned and a sprig of dill. The plated food includes the salmon and shortribs. No rubbery food here! Give it another chance!

So how was it? I looked up Activa, that is kind of strange...

How long did you sous vide them? How was the texture? Just curious as I really haven't used my waterbath much at all.

The "Activa RM" worked great, the skirt steak and bacon bonded like one piece of meat. I ended up cooking for 30 minutes at 142 degrees. The texture was firm and the appearance was a striking rare / medium rare. Crank up your waterbath, sous vide is a commonplace in my kitchen, I'm totally hooked on the results and its a real mind blower for your guests. Like I mentioned earlier in one of my entries, proteins are better that veggies, I have to do more experiments with sous vied veggies.

Try Ikea, and don't forget good old "GOOGLE". You will most likely get thousands of hits with GOOGLE.

I'm just finishing my morning coffee having thoughts about the culinary delight sitting in my frig. Yesterday I started with 3 pounds of perfectly trimed skirt steaks pounded to a uniform thickness and cut into strips the same size as a strip of bacon. The alternating layers of steak and bacon were bonded together with an enzyme product called Activa. The hybrid creation was then put into a vacuum bag and sealed. The bags were weighted down and refrigerated. Tonight I will fire up the waterbath and cook them at low temp., remove them from the bag and pan sear the outside. Life does not get any better than this. The recipe was found in the winter issue of Art Culinaire, I will alter the cooking temperature to 131 degrees and cook for 30 minutes before searing. I will do a follow-up with pictures and a fully detailed description of the taste and appearence of this culinary masterpiece.

Thanks to everybody for your advice. My wife and I have finished installing our cabinets and, if I do say, they look terrific (well, anything is better than our old 70's-style kitchen). The countertops will be installed this weekend and I am looking forward to cooking again.

I definitely recommend the IKEA cabinet system. About 95% of what we ordered was in-stock, so we were able to take it home the same day. There were a couple of pieces that were not in-stock that we were told would take 10 days to come in. 4 days later, they arrived! We were initially going to hire someone to do the install, however, our decision was made easier when our calls were not returned. The installation itself is fairly easy as long as you own an electric screwdriver and a level. However, some of those cabinets are darn heavy, as my wife's bloody foot proved after she dropped a cabinet on her foot. Also, be prepared to make several trips to IKEA to replace damaged/missing parts. Nonetheless, considering how inexensive the system is, I wouldn't hesitate to install them again.

I'm glad you were pleased with the IKEA, I was suprized about the damaged or missing parts. All my parts were there and nothing was damaged. I did have a few back-ordered items but customer service helped speed it up when I threatened to hold there CEO hostage.

Last night we served an appetizer of sous vide pork belly with a thyme pepper sauce and garnished with a slice of carmelized cantalope. The pork belly was prepared with Himalayen pink salt, pepper and garlic, bagged and cooked for 18 hours at 158 degrees. It was then browned off with some olive oil and sliced thin. Our guests for dinner raved about the taste and texture of the pork. Needless to say the plates where wiped clean. The main event was a surf and turf presentation of sous vide short ribs and Norwegian salmon. The only thing that bothers me about sous vide short ribs is the tendonous layer right next to the bone which remains chewey even after 35 hours of cooking at 148 degrees. I have some large short ribs in the frig and next time will remove the bones before cooking. Both the fish and the ribs where excellent. The desert was heart shaped watermelon pieces that were vacuum baged at full vacuum till densified and which turned it brilliant ruby red, then topped with rasberry sorbet and surrounded with fresh fruit. We have become acustomed to having guests over for dinner and always presenting them with sous vide in some form.

This isn't SO innovative... but does anyone have experience with ceramic knives? That and the microplane grater are the two things I think my kitchen is missing. (Besides the 7.5-quart Calphalon pot I ordered last week.)

Ceramic knives can be dificult to sharpen yet they hold an edge better than steel. I guess I'm too conventional to give up my steel knives. As for microplanes, The Microplane brand is top shelf. I have all 3 available types, the standard fine one, one to shave chocolate and another for hard cheeses.

Kevin. help! I brought in some Foie Gras this past weelend (in Paris) and did cook it Sous Vide at 62 celcius for 2 hours. After it cooled down a bit, I shaped it into a log of sorts still in its vacuum pack. I am almost afraid to eat it though. What do you think?

Mark, when do you need the foie gras?

Next time try 65 celcius for 20 - 30 minutes, chill quickly and when ready to serve remove it from the bag and quickly sear the outside in a hot pan. Be careful not to cook long or you won't have anything left. Great job with the Sous Vide, as you can tell by my blogs, its the only way to go.

I like to use Hudson Valley Foie Gras, they also have some kickass duck confit.

Hudson Valley Foiegras is a great place to do business with, the product is top shelf. Don't forget about the Mullard Marget duck breasts that come from a "Foiegras" duck. They are around 1 lb. each breast and are great if done Sous Vide.

There was a thing in the August 2004 Consumer Reports about IKEA cabinets. Your local library should have copies that you can read. One of the points CR makes is that Ikea outperformed more expensive cabinets because they come with high quality drawer hardware and doors. CR also liked their mounting strip. The IKEA cabinets came in 4th in their ranking with #1 and #2 costing about 4 times more, and #3 costing twice as much (priced for a single basic cabinet).

I had Ikea cabinets in my last house. They were the cheapest ones Ikea makes and put in by the previous homeowner 11 years before we bought the house. When we sold our house after three years, the cabinets and drawers were still in great shape. I now have 40 year old cabinets in our current house but am looking forward to replacing them with Ikea cabinets when the time comes.

I love my Ikea cabinets and also recommend the tall pull-out pantry cabinet. The hardware used in the pantry cabinet and the drawers is top shelf stuff. If you can't assemble an Ikea cabinet then perhaps you need to purchase toilet tissue with detailed instructions (catch my drift). If I had to do another kitchen (my house has 2 kitchens already) I would use Ikea again.

Anyone have any good Sous Vide recipes? How's the shortribs coming?

Kevin,

Can I go to your house and use your vacmaster?

I just bought a waterbath off Ebay. I will get it next week probably.My first experiment will probably be with some sort of braised beef shortribs. If you don't see me post after the 2nd of February,please come looking for bodies at my house! PM me for my address!

Great job on the water bath. What kind is it? If is not digital then you will need a liquid filled thermometer to establish the corolation between the settings on the dial to the bath temp. The longer the thermometer the further the numbers are apart. I have a bunch of 12" long liquid filled with graduations in celcious and farenheight. A bi-metal instant read is not accurate enough for Sous Vide cooking. When buying the thermometers look for partial immersion which means it reads with only the end submerged in the bath. Don't forget you cannot crowd the water bath.

Hasn't anyone ever accused you of treating them like a mushroom:  "Keeping them in the dark and feeding them a bunch of shit?"

I was trying to avoid that famous line!

Not so much, because with fresh (ie uncooked) mushrooms there's a considerably higher risk of soil/manure contamination - even if you peel and wash them you're less likely to be able to remove all the dirt than you would be with something leafy and relatively smooth-surfaced - wiping and swishing isn't the same as a good soaking wash.  There are a lot of nasty soil-based microorganisms that would thrive in a vacuum-sealed environment.  I'd think shiitakes would be slightly less of a risk since they grow on inoculated wood rather than horse poop, but only very slightly.

Cooked mushrooms, on the other hand, would probably be fine.

You got to remember that mushrooms are a form of fungus, they are grown in the dark surrounded by manure. That to me would be a good reason to use caution with vacuum packing. One word of advise to those expeirimenting with Sous Vide, your prep area must be clean, prevent cross contamination and don't leave any proteins without refrigeration for extended periods. If not approached carefully you are creating a bacteria breeding ground. The trouble with foodsavers and other open atomosphere sealing machines is they are not powefull enough to remove all the oxygen from the bag and achieve the proper vacuum. I have a vacuum chamber machine which is capable of sealing liquids and any moist items, though they are a little pricey if you are serious about Sous Vide its worth the expense. Below is a picture of my vacmaster SVP-10.

So what's the optimum temperature for that box of Betty Crocker Walnut Supreme brownies? 

Only someone from the western "BURBS" of Maryland would try to figure out the Betty Crocker "Sous Vide" brownies. Let me know how you make out. I don't think that brownies in a box are going to be a hit!

What I want to know is how you have the self control to not eat whatever is braising when it smells so damn good.  I can't believe you all actually wait until the next day!

Check out Sous Vide as an alternitive to subjecting that meat to higher than needed cooking temps normally associated with braising. Sous Vide stands for "under vacuum" and allows you to maintain all the natural juices in the meat and cook for long periods at lower than normal temps. For example shortribs for 38 hours at 154 degrees in a water bath. The juices contained in the bag after 38 hours of cooking is extremely intense in flavor and ready to be an excellent base for a flavorfull sauce. The shortribs when cooked this method fall off the bone with no effort at all, and the meat still has a slight pinkness inside.