Foodie - The Food Thread - For Our Food Lovers!

jacksonbrown

Good idea. It's all the crap and none of the good stuff, trust me.

richard

I did a gammon the other day. Fortunate to have cider so I cooked the gammon 100% immersed in cider. Also WOW with the apple flavours coming through.

Unsensibel

Sous vide experiments:

Mash tun + RIMS to get water bath up to temp.

Chicken at 64C. Did two tries, one marinated breast from butcher and one with rosemary and olive oil. Kept both in water bath for two hours. Rosemary was juicy and texture was chickeny. Marinated turned out crap. Texture was totally rubbery, like cheap cheap lunch meat. Made my wife nearly hurl.

Then I tried soft boiled eggs @ 67C for an hour. Yoke gets custard like smooth - great! But whites remain soft to liquid. Nothing for my taste. Maybe next time I'll go for hard boiled and get the whites firm without overlooking the yolk.

Overall, it's somewhat of a disappointment as I'm getting my chicken right in the pan as well without having to heat up a water bath and waiting for two hours as my food cooks...

richard

My son in law tells me he is having Sushi tonight from last weekend's catch.

grim

Played around a bit with the sous vide with chicken, what didn't make sense to me was to get chicken right, you still need to pan sear, roast, or grill. In the time it takes to sear in the skillet, it takes 2 more minutes to just cook the damn thing. I just grill or pan sear, and probably go one second longer than pink. Most people would probably shudder in horror at my cooking temps, but let it rest for 5 minutes or so, and it's tender and juicy. Without the crust/caramelization, it's just a homogeneous white blob. If you like crispy skin, no idea how you would get that to work right with sous vide, I think it would be like a sheet of rubber, even after searing - or you overcook.

I've also noticed that out in these parts, there is no way to cook the huge dinosaur hormone chickens that don't result in just an awful stringy rubbery texture. Anyone else notice the size of them lately? They make turkeys blush. I'll almost always look for the smallest breasts now, they are much better than the large (cue jokes). If not, I try to pound down a little bit to get the thickness as even as possible, so you don't have to deal with half the breast being overcooked. Otherwise, I might trim off the thin tail ends an use the trimmings for something else.

Works nice for fish, no skin.

punkin

I got all the stuff together for a sous vide in a bop i've got from a keg, good pump, element etc and then never bothered putting it together because of the couple chickens i slow cooked in my offset.

I'm sensitive to texture and i can't take that mushy slow cooked meat, it makes me gag.

I've compensated by switching my interest to the little charcoal brazier (also made from a keg) and i'm using that 3-4 times a week. Got some buffallo marinaded wings to cook on there for dinner tonight.

Forgot to take pics of the vol au vents i made last night, home smoked ham, home cured pancetta fried to crispy, mushrooms, farm eggs with some cream, a little cheese, pepper, chives and parsley from the garden. They were pretty good.

Kapea

@punkin said:

For a second there I thought you stuck your fingers in the fire again... :-O

jacksonbrown

I haven't bothered with chix and fish goes a bit mushy too.
I found the same with eggs, waxy yolk in runny whites. Interesting but not a good googy.
Beef short rib is the best IMO. Give it two or even three days at 55 then finish with a hot char and some fresh Chimichurri.
Just try to get one that isn't too fatty and make sure the controller doesn't overshoot.

grim

@punkin said: then never bothered putting it together because of the couple chickens i slow cooked in my offset.

Which probably blows away sous vide.

Unsensibel

Yeah. Was worth a shot and didn't cost anything except for the chicken.

Might try again some time later. Maybe some beef or pork next time

jacksonbrown

It could be an expensive fucup but I'd love to do a full standing rib roast.
I recon 50 to 60 hours at 55-60 degrees would do it then a stinking hot roast to color up the outside in 20 mins.
Could even finish it over a bed of hot charcoal instead.
Cut into thick slabs with a bone in each and slather over some horseradish cream.
That would be one of the finest roast beefs you'll ever eat.

I normally just do them in a hot oven but painted in a thick paste made up of Hot English mustard thinned down a bit with some dark soy and a bit of oil emulsified into it. It makes for a really nice crust.

punkin

Why would you need 50 hours to hit core temp in a rib rack?

jacksonbrown

Hitting the core temp is only the first step.
Maintaining the core temp for hours to slowly break down the connective tissue without over cooking the meat is where it gets good.
I was a bit skeptical too but I tried it and it's good :-bd
That's why 72 hours for a short rib works wonders but as I said, a dodgy controller that overshoots by a few degrees on heat up or when you drop in your meat can stuff it right up.
You could even do tender, medium rare lamb shanks if you really wanted too (not sure I would). Under 55 degrees is pushing it a bit though. The time/temp profile for adequate pasteurisation falls down under those temps (depending what source your reading).
Botulism spores are the main concern.

punkin

Ok.

punkin

Wings marinaded in buffalo wing sauce, spuds, kumera and celery done with some pancetta, garlic, olive oil and Larry's wifes coffee rub then cooked in a covered pyrex dish.
You really have to branch out with that rub Larry. It has loads of potential besides beef. The veg was sensational.

Money shot of the charcoal for @FloridaCracker

Money shot of the meal for everyone else.

SDeurope

@punkin said: Money shot of the ...

Hah, and @Kid was making fun of me when I said that! :))

punkin

He's a Ranga, they aren't normal.

Smaug

Cept when SDEU said it,,,,,,it sounds like porn.

punkin

Yeah, it was pretty gross.

Smaug

His relationship with food is,,,,,,,,special.

Smaug

Wutza Ranga?

punkin

Ranga | Fully (sic) @ Crikey Blog

Smaug

That's a ginger.

punkin

You passed comprehension today. Now off to essays with you. :-@

Smaug

The reference to an ape is strange? .....Poor red heads,, just like in 3rd grade

punkin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiEUkYCuvuM

punkin

Was gunna do Chinese takeaway style Ham and Chicken rolls to use up some of the ham i smoked, but the local abbatior shop had turkey breast fillet on runout for a dollar each so i couldn't resist.

They still came up very nice, just a little different texture than chicken.

Kapea

@Smaug said: The reference to an ape is strange? .....Poor red heads,, just like in 3rd grade

Yep, they get pummeled like a red-headed step-child...

punkin

That makes em sadder than a bastard red headed step child on Fathers Day.

punkin

Just bought a bag of live aussie mussels. Can't decide whether to cold smoke them warm or cook them over charcoal.