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Steve Yun
Aug 7, 2003
I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.
Soiled Meat
On my own pans, I don't think I can sear any longer than 45 seconds without introducing some gray into the steak.

So like Ricola says dry your steak's surface, get your pan extra hot, use a little bit of oil (it helps transfer heat) and another thing might be to sear one side of the steak on one side of the pan, and then when you flip your steak put it on another part of the pan. The part of the pan that seared the first side of your steak will have lost a lot of heat, so just flipping your steak and continuing to use that part of the pan will result in less of a sear on the second side of the steak.

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OBAMNA PHONE
Aug 7, 2002

Reiterpallasch posted:

My Dorkfood came in earlier this week, and I ended up attempting steak--a NY strip, at 130 degrees for a hour. It came out good, but I had trouble putting a good sear on it with only a minute on each side in my cast iron skillet. I ended up giving it a little more time to develop a crust, and that ended up bringing more gray into the steaks than I really care for. Does anyone have any tips for developing a crust, fast?

Chill that poo poo in the bag with some ice water till it's cooled quite a bit. Dry it, salt it and sear the piss out of it and you'll have extra sear time before the interior is ruined.

I did it last night on a dry-aged steak from whole foods and it had the best crust I've ever had on a steak.

Heran Bago
Aug 18, 2006



Reiterpallasch posted:

My Dorkfood came in earlier this week, and I ended up attempting steak--a NY strip, at 130 degrees for a hour. It came out good, but I had trouble putting a good sear on it with only a minute on each side in my cast iron skillet. I ended up giving it a little more time to develop a crust, and that ended up bringing more gray into the steaks than I really care for. Does anyone have any tips for developing a crust, fast?

I hear you're supposed to use a high temperature non-butane blowtorch. Too much effort and money for me though.

Steve Yun
Aug 7, 2003
I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.
Soiled Meat
I dunno, I used a propane torch and it doesn't seem to sear very well, it gets edges and bumps burnt black before getting large surfaces caramelized.

For now I just use it to dry off stuff or brulees

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

Now that I've had a little practice, I've been able to get a decent sear with a torch. It takes a bit longer than a stainless steel pan, would, though.

Chemmy
Feb 4, 2001

I own a MAPP Pro torch, use it to dry off the surface of the steak and then throw it in a ripping hot cast iron pan for best results.

SirRobin
Mar 2, 2002

Heran Bago posted:

There are special tapes or gums you can use so you that can stab a thermometer right through the bag. This could be nice if you're some kind of scientist with a probe thermometer.


http://www.sousvidecooking.org/tag/external-probe/

I'm no kind of scientist but I have one of these. It's cheap, accurate and I can wander anywhere in the house and monitor the temperature of my food.

BrosephofArimathea
Jan 31, 2005

I've finally come to grips with the fact that the sky fucking fell.

Heran Bago posted:

I hear you're supposed to use a high temperature non-butane blowtorch. Too much effort and money for me though.

Since they discontinued MAPP/Pro, I just went back to propane and it's dirt cheap.

Still takes longer than cast iron heated up to FuckoffHot°

Chemmy
Feb 4, 2001

They discontinued MAPP, not MAPP/Pro as far as I know.

BrosephofArimathea
Jan 31, 2005

I've finally come to grips with the fact that the sky fucking fell.

Chemmy posted:

They discontinued MAPP, not MAPP/Pro as far as I know.

Mapp/Pro is now just propylene, rather than actual MAPP which was a methylacetylene mix that wouldn't murder your children like acetylene.

It only burns like 120°f hotter than propane, but costs (at least here) three times as much.

Chemmy
Feb 4, 2001

Right but MAPP/Pro has always been propylene.

BrosephofArimathea
Jan 31, 2005

I've finally come to grips with the fact that the sky fucking fell.

Chemmy posted:

Right but MAPP/Pro has always been propylene.

After some internetting, it appears you are right - the stuff we used to use came in regular mapp and pro (with the latter being a mapp/oxy torch kit) but the Bernzo trademarked 'Mapp//Pro' version was always 99%+ propylene. My mistake :)

It also appears that you can get an off the shelf mapp-pro/oxy kit, which is kind of awesome.

BrosephofArimathea fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Oct 29, 2013

Rust Martialis
May 8, 2007

At night, Bavovnyatko quietly comes to the occupiers’ bases, depots, airfields, oil refineries and other places full of flammable items and starts playing with fire there
Anova now takes orders from Canada on their web page - that's new, and I just ordered a red Anova :)

Last night was 2 New York steaks done in the sink at 135 degrees... then seared in my Lodge cast iron skillet.

Yum.

.Z.
Jan 12, 2008

Food safety question.

I cooked some steaks at 140 for 8 hours, and then promptly ice bathed them.

Unfortunately I forgot to put them away in the fridge after patting them dry. So they've been sitting out the entire night, but still sealed in their vac bags.

Are they safe? Or should I just pitch them?

OBAMNA PHONE
Aug 7, 2002
not safe

deimos
Nov 30, 2006

Forget it man this bat is whack, it's got poobrain!

.Z. posted:

Food safety question.

I cooked some steaks at 140 for 8 hours, and then promptly ice bathed them.

Unfortunately I forgot to put them away in the fridge after patting them dry. So they've been sitting out the entire night, but still sealed in their vac bags.

Are they safe? Or should I just pitch them?

Not safe but possibly re-pasteurizable, I'd wait for SubG or someone more familiar with the science to elaborate, but may be able to simply drop them into a bath until 7D bacterial death again (2-3 hours at 135F, to overcook it less than 140F did, depending on the cut thickness).

Rust Martialis
May 8, 2007

At night, Bavovnyatko quietly comes to the occupiers’ bases, depots, airfields, oil refineries and other places full of flammable items and starts playing with fire there
Happy!





DeeMurf
Oct 15, 2013

Grenouilles Sans Frontiers


:firstpost:
I've struck internet gold! So stoked right now.

I'm going to order one of those Polyscience thingies. Which one should I get for cooking for up to 10 people at a time or, say, 5 pound steaks? Not every day of the week and not professionally. You know, casual use.

Another question: Does it matter if the meat/fish is frozen when I vacuum-seal it up with butter, spice and goodies? I'm thinking it shouldn't as long as the cook time is long enough, right?

Chemmy
Feb 4, 2001

Why did you cook a steak for 8h at 140F? What cut was it?

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA
May 29, 2008

DeeMurf posted:

Another question: Does it matter if the meat/fish is frozen when I vacuum-seal it up with butter, spice and goodies? I'm thinking it shouldn't as long as the cook time is long enough, right?

Your food has to get up to temp within 4 hours. You can't cook large things from frozen as safely.

.Z. posted:

Food safety question.

I cooked some steaks at 140 for 8 hours, and then promptly ice bathed them.

Unfortunately I forgot to put them away in the fridge after patting them dry. So they've been sitting out the entire night, but still sealed in their vac bags.

Are they safe? Or should I just pitch them?

140's kind of a weird temp. I'd just pitch those.

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

Has anyone done top round (specifically londoin broil style cut) SV? My local grocery has it on sale and its cheap as hell. That said, googling seems to have mixed results on this one.

Any first hand experience? Probably do anyways just to try.

DeeMurf
Oct 15, 2013

Grenouilles Sans Frontiers


EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:

Your food has to get up to temp within 4 hours. You can't cook large things from frozen as safely.

Ok, and why is that? Seems to me that if it's a big enough piece of meat it would (potentially) take even longer than that to thaw out on my kitchen bench. Am I missing something here?

Zorak of Michigan
Jun 10, 2006

Food safety folks will tell you to thaw in the fridge, not on the countertop. You want to mimimize the time the food spends in the danger zone where bad stuff grows. I don't have the names memorized and I imagine that someone who does is posting about them right now, but here's the dumbed down version: nasty microorganisms that grow in food sometimes have spores and/or toxic byproducts that aren't easily destroyed. If you go from "too cold for those little bastards" to "too hot for those little bastards" quickly enough, they never produce enough spores or toxins for it to matter and you're fine. Leave the food in the danger zone for long enough and becomes hopeless.

YEAH DOG
Sep 24, 2009

you wanna join my
primitive noise band?

Walked posted:

Has anyone done top round (specifically londoin broil style cut) SV? My local grocery has it on sale and its cheap as hell. That said, googling seems to have mixed results on this one.

Any first hand experience? Probably do anyways just to try.

Puddling is great for top round cuts. I usually finish under a broiler with whatever, but any cheapo cut benefits greatly from a 12-48 hour soak.

SlayVus
Jul 10, 2009
Grimey Drawer

DeeMurf posted:

Ok, and why is that? Seems to me that if it's a big enough piece of meat it would (potentially) take even longer than that to thaw out on my kitchen bench. Am I missing something here?

Part of the cooking process is reducing the levels of harmful organisms to SAFE levels. The temperature danger zone for any food is 70-120°F. In this zone, microorganisms reproduce at a high level. The proper methods for thawing food are in a refrigerator, under cold running water or in a microwave as part of the cooking process. The counter-top is not a safe place to thaw food.

Again, cooking REDUCES the level of harmful bacteria to SAFE levels. Cooking does not kill all bacteria and some bacteria can hibernate during the cooking process.

SlayVus fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Nov 2, 2013

DeeMurf
Oct 15, 2013

Grenouilles Sans Frontiers


Thanks Zorak and SlayVus, you can take pride in knowing that you (potentially) saved me from getting sick or worse.
I guess I really knew about this at some time, or at least should have known... Again, thanks for reminding me.

I ordered a Polyscience Creative model as a x-mas present for my parents. My dad knows way more about cooking than me and will be able to appreciate this piece of equipment more than I. Hopefully he also knows more about food safety than I apparently do... - I guess we'll see :)

roflsaurus
Jun 5, 2004

GAOooooooh!! RAOR!!!
I've had a sous vide for a while (a sunbeam one), and one thing I'm not sure about is large cuts. e.g. pork sholder.

Is it better to cut into 1.5 inch "Steaks" and bag them individually?

Or is it better to bag the whole thing?

The one thing I'm worried about is circulation. I've got the rack which separates steaks nicely, but I'm worried about just putting the whole shoulder and it resting on the bottom without a rack.

NoDamage
Dec 2, 2000
Got my Anova on Friday. For $200 I'm impressed, it feels very well made.

Cooked up a ribeye at 127 F and seared in a cast iron skillet to finish. I was following the Serious Eats recipe so I seared for 30 seconds on one side, 1 minute on the other, then flipped back for 30 more seconds. Got a good crust but I think I seared for too long, one side ended up a bit greyer than I would have liked. One other adjustment I'll make the next time around is re-salt/peppering the steak after removing it from the water bath but before searing it. I think it will help produce a better crust with a stronger flavor.

Overall the taste was quite similar to my normal method of searing in the cast iron skillet and finishing in the oven.

Next up: pork belly and salmon. Anyone have a good pork belly recipe besides this one?

.Z.
Jan 12, 2008

Chemmy posted:

Why did you cook a steak for 8h at 140F? What cut was it?

A small chuck roast I'd sliced into steaks to mess around with. Anyhow, the chuck got chucked.

Heran Bago
Aug 18, 2006



I was doing short ribs in the anova and one of the bags with a small bit of air in it floated and rested on the heating element. A punctured bag in my kitchen!? Hope I can clean its heating and circulating element easily enough.

Weigh down your bags.

The dog really enjoyed it.

Heran Bago fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Nov 3, 2013

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA
May 29, 2008

NoDamage posted:

Got my Anova on Friday. For $200 I'm impressed, it feels very well made.

Cooked up a ribeye at 127 F and seared in a cast iron skillet to finish. I was following the Serious Eats recipe so I seared for 30 seconds on one side, 1 minute on the other, then flipped back for 30 more seconds. Got a good crust but I think I seared for too long, one side ended up a bit greyer than I would have liked. One other adjustment I'll make the next time around is re-salt/peppering the steak after removing it from the water bath but before searing it. I think it will help produce a better crust with a stronger flavor.

Overall the taste was quite similar to my normal method of searing in the cast iron skillet and finishing in the oven.

Next up: pork belly and salmon. Anyone have a good pork belly recipe besides this one?

If you put pepper on your steak before you sear it at crazy hot heat, it's just going to burn the pepper.

PurpleLizardWizard
Jun 11, 2012
So, I stumbled across a book that claims to give instructions for infusing alcohol through sous vide. Does that even work? I guess a steady, warm-but-not-hot temperature might speed it up, but the book is claiming that it "shortens the infusion time from weeks and months to minutes and hours." Is this snake oil, or actually plausible?

geetee
Feb 2, 2004

>;[

Heran Bago posted:

I was doing short ribs in the anova and one of the bags with a small bit of air in it floated and rested on the heating element. A punctured bag in my kitchen!? Hope I can clean its heating and circulating element easily enough.

Weigh down your bags.

The dog really enjoyed it.

Did the bag go into the slits along the side? That's lovely luck...

I use the rack from my old sous vide supreme.

Chemmy
Feb 4, 2001

PurpleLizardWizard posted:

So, I stumbled across a book that claims to give instructions for infusing alcohol through sous vide. Does that even work? I guess a steady, warm-but-not-hot temperature might speed it up, but the book is claiming that it "shortens the infusion time from weeks and months to minutes and hours." Is this snake oil, or actually plausible?

Just use a nitrous whipper.

PurpleLizardWizard
Jun 11, 2012

Chemmy posted:

Just use a nitrous whipper.

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't aware of those.

From what I can tell, though, neither of these would speed up the aging process, though, would they? The whole mellowing and melding of flavors?

Chemmy
Feb 4, 2001

Liquor doesn't age in glass bottles, generally only in wooden casks.

Doom Rooster
Sep 3, 2008

Pillbug
Cross-posting from the dinner thread.


Short ribs, cooked in the puddle machine at 145 for 24 hours, seared and glazed with a coffee balsamic reduction. Balsamic sprouts, and lemon, thyme, white whine smashed peewee potatoes.

Definitely the best batch so far. I actually like 24 hours better than 72. The meat is still plenty tender, but not at all mushy. It's like a perfectly cooked ribeye.

deimos
Nov 30, 2006

Forget it man this bat is whack, it's got poobrain!

Doom Rooster posted:

Cross-posting from the dinner thread.


Short ribs, cooked in the puddle machine at 145 for 24 hours, seared and glazed with a coffee balsamic reduction. Balsamic sprouts, and lemon, thyme, white whine smashed peewee potatoes.

Definitely the best batch so far. I actually like 24 hours better than 72. The meat is still plenty tender, but not at all mushy. It's like a perfectly cooked ribeye.



For 24/48/72 hour cooking you have to limit your temp, there's a chart on modernist cuisine of the times/temps they recommend for each. I know that for me 72h at a lower temperature (135 IIRC) gave perfect results, but I used a braising liquid.

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA
May 29, 2008

PurpleLizardWizard posted:

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't aware of those.

From what I can tell, though, neither of these would speed up the aging process, though, would they? The whole mellowing and melding of flavors?

Do this: http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/08/11/infusion-profusion-game-changing-fast-%E2%80%98n-cheap-technique/

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Heran Bago
Aug 18, 2006



This might be an awful question but can anyone suggest a vacuum sealer and bags that would work for both sous vide cooking and packing clothing super tight? I'm in the market for both and it would be nice to consolidate.

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