What are you doing this weekend?

[RandyForRubio]

DIY home renovations... which have been dominating my weekends since March.

Oh gosh this. Well not today, but every free moment I have haha. Put up the shelves in our pantry, some more shelves in the laundry room, a shelving kit in thr nursery (my wife likes shelves). For fun I built some cornhole boards, and now I have to put in some more cabinet knobs and door stops.

After that I'm gonna try to do some book shelves, but trimming those out might be beyond my expertise. What kinda stuff you got going on NAOS?

 

[NAOS]

Oh gosh this. Well not today, but every free moment I have haha. Put up the shelves in our pantry, some more shelves in the laundry room, a shelving kit in thr nursery (my wife likes shelves). For fun I built some cornhole boards, and now I have to put in some more cabinet knobs and door stops.

After that I'm gonna try to do some book shelves, but trimming those out might be beyond my expertise. What kinda stuff you got going on NAOS?

This whole ***hole is a mess. This weekend I'm finishing the fence, painting a room, building two closets, and constructing a murphy bed.

 

[Gameface]

I'm sure that would work. I'd have to look up the recipe to be certain but IIRC the cardamom is added into the peach syrup, which the chops are added to after cooking most of the way.

I'm often lazy though and sometimes a fan of crockpot type cooking. Throw it in the bag and voilà! 96 hours later you have 5 star cuisine. I also like the flavor cooked into the meat instead of coating it.

Pretty cool you're trying this. Do you have a pot or something that keeps the temperature right?

You haven't read my brew day v2.0 thread. I'm using my electric brew system as a commercial scale sous vide system.

 

[Scat]

Oh gosh this. Well not today, but every free moment I have haha. Put up the shelves in our pantry, some more shelves in the laundry room, a shelving kit in thr nursery (my wife likes shelves). For fun I built some cornhole boards, and now I have to put in some more cabinet knobs and door stops.

Your wife sounds very shelfish.

 

[franklin]

No sous vide pork but I am trying chile verde pork for the first time. Any suggestions?

I'm planning on feeding 20-25 people on the Lindon beach, letting the kids wade out 300 yards or so in the 80 degree water, kayaking, napping in the sand under a Caddis... I love how everyone hates Utah Lake because of old Geneva Steel wive's tales. More room for me.

 

[Gameface]

No sous vide pork but I am trying chile verde pork for the first time. Any suggestions?

I'm planning on feeding 20-25 people on the Lindon beach, letting the kids wade out 300 yards or so in the 80 degree water, kayaking, napping in the sand under a Caddis... I love how everyone hates Utah Lake because of old Geneva Steel wive's tales. More room for me.

Are you going to use tomatillos?

One of the best ways to make it is to buy fresh amarillo and new mexican green chilis (there are a couple names they go by, but the fatter dark green ones and the longer lighter green ones) and roast them. I use my broiler. Coat them in oil and put them close to the flame. Keep an eye on them and turn them once the skin has started to blacken. You'll probably have to do them in several batches. When you pull them out put them in a brown paper bag and roll the end closed. They sort of steam in the bag while they're cooling. Once they are all done and cool enough to handle remove the outer skins. Then chop them up into pieces your blender can handle. Then blend them, along with jalapenos or serranos to taste (for a large family gathering probably just leave out the hotter peppers).

Meanwhile, chop a pork loin into cubes. I like smaller cubes, about 1/2 each. Oil a heavy pan and heat on high. In small enough batches so that each cube has space around it, brown (dark brown) the pork. Remove and place in large bowl. Now chop a large onion or two. Add to hot pan used to brown pork and cook until soft. Now add the green pepper puree, cup or so of water, one beef and one chicken bouillon cube. If you're using tomatillos throw them into the blender and make a puree out of them, add that to the pot. Add about 1/4c of cumin.

You can chop up golden potatoes and add them if you'd like. It can help to increase the volume if you're feeding a lot of people. But it does decrease the overall flavor so you might want to bump up the cumin and add a hot pepper where you wouldn't have otherwise.

Bring it to a boil. Add pork, get it back to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for a couple hours, adding water as needed to keep the desired consistency.

You can use garlic if you like. You can also add a can of drained diced tomatoes. It's all good.

Serve with cilantro, refried beans, spanish rice, lettuce, diced tomatoes, cheese, hot sauce, jalapenos and tortillas. Always better to fry the tortillas fresh, but not practical for a large group.

 

[Gameface]

Earlier today I entered all my beers for this years Beehive Brew Off. 9 entries, the most I've ever entered (but actually only 6 batches of beer).

Feeling nervous. Been taste testing between what I bottled and what I have on tap and I'm psyching myself out thinking the bottles aren't as good.

Next weekend, if I don't get forced to work overtime, I'll be spending 8hrs both Saturday and Sunday stewarding at the judging. Sunday eve I'll be at the awards ceremony.

 

[LogGrad98]

Are you going to use tomatillos?

One of the best ways to make it is to buy fresh amarillo and new mexican green chilis (there are a couple names they go by, but the fatter dark green ones and the longer lighter green ones) and roast them. I use my broiler. Coat them in oil and put them close to the flame. Keep an eye on them and turn them once the skin has started to blacken. You'll probably have to do them in several batches. When you pull them out put them in a brown paper bag and roll the end closed. They sort of steam in the bag while they're cooling. Once they are all done and cool enough to handle remove the outer skins. Then chop them up into pieces your blender can handle. Then blend them, along with jalapenos or serranos to taste (for a large family gathering probably just leave out the hotter peppers).

Meanwhile, chop a pork loin into cubes. I like smaller cubes, about 1/2 each. Oil a heavy pan and heat on high. In small enough batches so that each cube has space around it, brown (dark brown) the pork. Remove and place in large bowl. Now chop a large onion or two. Add to hot pan used to brown pork and cook until soft. Now add the green pepper puree, cup or so of water, one beef and one chicken bouillon cube. If you're using tomatillos throw them into the blender and make a puree out of them, add that to the pot. Add about 1/4c of cumin.

You can chop up golden potatoes and add them if you'd like. It can help to increase the volume if you're feeding a lot of people. But it does decrease the overall flavor so you might want to bump up the cumin and add a hot pepper where you wouldn't have otherwise.

Bring it to a boil. Add pork, get it back to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for a couple hours, adding water as needed to keep the desired consistency.

You can use garlic if you like. You can also add a can of drained diced tomatoes. It's all good.

Serve with cilantro, refried beans, spanish rice, lettuce, diced tomatoes, cheese, hot sauce, jalapenos and tortillas. Always better to fry the tortillas fresh, but not practical for a large group.

Very close to my fave recipe for chile verde. One difference, I blacken the peppers on my charcoal grill, and when possible I use smoked pork butt, cubed, for the meat. I pull it from the smoker before it hits final temp (at like 180-190), cube it up, and add it right into the chile mixture, then simmer as stated here. Makes for a nice smokey flavor and adds real depth to the overall flavor profile.

 

[LogGrad98]

I have a question about sous vide. How do you know when the meat itself is done? Is there at temp probe in the meat or whatever you are cooking? Is it calculations and guessing? I always wondered about that. I thought I heard somewhere that commercial systems detect temp changes in the water and when the variation is below a certain point it says the meat is done or something like that, but I am not certain.

 

[Gameface]

I have a question about sous vide. How do you know when the meat itself is done? Is there at temp probe in the meat or whatever you are cooking? Is it calculations and guessing? I always wondered about that. I thought I heard somewhere that commercial systems detect temp changes in the water and when the variation is below a certain point it says the meat is done or something like that, but I am not certain.

Sorry for the late response.

To answer let me explain a fundamental difference between sous vide cooking and other methods. In most types of cooking you expose the food to a much higher temp than you want it to reach and then stop cooking once the center of the food reaches your desired temp. For example, if you were cooking a steak on a grill your grill might be what, like 500F (maybe less?) but you want the center of your steak to be about 140F. So you have to determine when the center of the steak is at temp (if you have experience you don't really need to check with a thermometer) but you've cooked the outer edges of the steak well above 140F. So you absolutely need to stop cooking before you overcook the steak because you certainly don't want any part of it reaching 500F.

Compare that to sous vide cooking. If I'm cooking the same steak sous vide I set the water temp to 140F. I put the steak in. I wait about 2 hours. I could stop at 90min or maybe even 60min. I could also cook for 4 hours. The end result will be the same, the steak will be 140F from edge to center. That is what is amazing about sous vide. There is no delta between the edge temp and center temp. There is no fear of overcooking because you are not exposing the food to a temp higher than your desired finished temp. 140F is a med-rare steak. It doesn't get more and more done the longer you leave it at 140F, it just stays med-rare the entire time. Now, there is more protein breakdown the longer you leave it at temp, so going past 4 hours a steak that is from a tender cut of meat might start to take on a mushy texture, but that's going past 4 hours. I have cooked a chuck roast for 48hrs at 142F and it came out as tender and flavorful as prime rib.

Long story short, with sous vide you just err on the side of letting it go longer to make sure it has reached a consistent temp all the way through because it will never exceed your desired level of doneness.

 

[Gameface]

So, I've been using my brew system as a sous vide cooker. But it isn't very efficient. First, I'm using about 25G of water in an indirect heating system and the heat source is a 5500W 240V (consumes about 23A!) heating element. The benefit is that I could cook large amounts of food, but I don't typically need that much capacity.

So... I just ordered the Anova Precision Cooker. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UKPBXM4/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 At $129 I figure I'll end up saving money on electricity enough that it will eventually pay for itself. Plus I won't have to go into the garage to use it.

I'll be using it to cook a turkey breast for Thanksgiving.

 

[LogGrad98]

So, I've been using my brew system as a sous vide cooker. But it isn't very efficient. First, I'm using about 25G of water in an indirect heating system and the heat source is a 5500W 240V (consumes about 23A!) heating element. The benefit is that I could cook large amounts of food, but I don't typically need that much capacity.

So... I just ordered the Anova Precision Cooker. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UKPBXM4/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 At $129 I figure I'll end up saving money on electricity enough that it will eventually pay for itself. Plus I won't have to go into the garage to use it.

I'll be using it to cook a turkey breast for Thanksgiving.

Do you ever watch the "will it sous vide" channel on YouTube?

 

[Gameface]

Do you ever watch the "will it sous vide" channel on YouTube?

I haven't

 

[Gameface]

Hey log, you got a link to that channel? I searched and it's taking me way longer than 5 seconds to find it so I gave up.

 

[LogGrad98]

I guess it was life hacker.

https://www.google.com/amp/skillet....r-col-1785515345/amp?client=ms-android-att-us

 

[Gameface]

I just briefly looked over the link. Sous vide is not a good all around cooking technique, but it absolutely shines in a few applications.

Steak -- no better method imo

Thick cut pork chops -- I will no longer eat them any other way, there is no comparison, the bar has been raised and everything else is vastly inferior.

Poached eggs -- no way to mess them up and they will come out exactly how you want them, based on time and temp, every time.

Chuck roast -- turns cheap meat into premium meat, chuck roast becomes poor man's prime rib. You make this three times and you've paid for your sous vide cooker based on the price difference between prime rib and chuck roast.

I've been under impressed with fish (tilapia and salmon), scallops and most disappointed with lobster. Some people really praise sous vide cooking for seafood, but I'd have to fine tune my technique before I could give an endorsement. My results were not superior to more traditional methods.

Chicken -- haven't tried enough to say. No reason to think that it wouldn't deliver perfectly cooked chicken that is exceptionally juicy, but I just haven't tried.

Turkey -- I'll report back after thanksgiving. I'm cooking turkey breast sous vide. From what I've read it's not worth sous vide for dark meat. Confit would be the best way to do the dark meat.

 

[Gameface]

Sous vide turkey breast is very good. It didn't turn turkey into some amazing thing that I've never imagined, but it was very tender, moist turkey breast.

I used what I think was a 40qt cooler and the ANOVA 800W precision cooker. It was nice having it in the kitchen instead of the garage. The unit was super quiet. I put 9lbs (2 x 4.5lb full breasts) of fridge temp turkey breast into the water bath and it dropped from 145F to 143.1, within 5min it was back to 144 and in less than 10 min back to 145. So it seemed to perform really well. Better than I would have expected.

I will use this technique again.

 

[LogGrad98]

How long did it take total? I'll throw 4 breasts on my smoker for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, at a low temp until the internal hits 150 then I hold it at 150 for about 20 minutes, which is long enough at temp to kill all the baddies. Of course brined it beforehand normally. Never had better turkey breast.

 

[Gameface]

3hrs in a 145F water bath and 10 min under broiler. I made 2 full breasts, each tied into a cylinder.

It was really very good but I suppose I was kind of expecting next level turkey and it was just better than most. I've done a brine and had some pretty amazing turkey. I can't say it was better, texturally and flavor, than this. But I'd eat either one for sure and depending on other factors it'd be easy for one to be better than the other on any given day.

So with turkey breast I'd say sous vide is a solid option. Not like thick pork chops where it's the absolute, no questions about it, best way to make them. Making perfect 2" or more pork chops is stupid easy using sous vide where I've found it to be very difficult any other way. Just too hard to cook the center without overcooking a huge part of the outer edge. With sous vide it's perfect edge to center. So where that's the case with oven cooking a turkey using sous vide has advantages. In the hands of someone who knows what they are doing (like you) other methods can deliver pretty phenomenal results as well. Sous vide just offers a huge margin for error while delivering very wonderful meat. No brining of the turkey but results every bit as good.

Sous vide often takes a lot of time. But it's completely hands-off time. You get the water to temp, you vacuum seal your meat, drop it in the water bath, come back a few hours later and brown the outside quickly before serving. I guess a big part of it is the ease of getting excellent results without having to perfect a technique. That could be a turn-off for some. It's not really a skill or experience based process.

 

[LogGrad98]

I've been interested in sous vide for a while now, especially when entertaining. I'm thinking about getting a volume set up where I could drop like a dozen steaks a few hours before a party, then remove them and chuck them on a stack of hot coals for a quick 700 degree sear, then serve. Right now what I do in that case is fire up the smoker, get a dozen or so steaks on it at a very low temp, like 150, and let the meat slowly come up to temp with a couple probe thermometers in a couple of the steaks. When they hit about 120 internal I dial back the heat, cutting nearly all the oxygen, then start pulling steaks and cooking to order. A quick hot sear leaves them rare, add just a bit more time to get to medium rare, etc. on up the scale. It works pretty well but prepping the smoker can be a pain, and is a messier clean up. But the results are usually phenomenal and even eating last I still get my steak perfect medium rare.