Sous Vide Cooking Anyone?

[Riofan]

I know you've heard before: Don't trust the French.
I love their women, have bought some of the perfume, probably overpaid for a meal or two in a French restaurant. Between Le Creuset and Staub I'm partial to the latter and I think Julia Child would dominate the WNBA; not that I watch it - I'm a hockey fan. Certainly not a fan of the French National soccer team... I'm Brazilian


At any rate, Sous vide is a French term that means “under vacuum”. The idea is to cook the food in a vacuum sealed bag at precise temperatures, in a water bath that becomes sort of a liquid oven. The result is food that becomes perfectly cooked throughout with a very wide window in terms of execution. In other words: Chances are you will not be overcooking your meal unless you try real hard.

Here's my first rudimentary attempt at Home Cooking Sous Vide:

Bone-in Frenched Center Cut Pork Chops

I started out with some good quality apple wood smoked bacon in a reliable cast iron skillet. While cooking the bacon to 75%, I rendered some of the fat which was used in the marinade along with some herbs and seasonings: Fresh lemon juice, fresh thyme & rosemary, a bit of garlic powder, salt & pepper and a piece of the cooked bacon. Don't go too crazy on the spices as the vacuum pack amplify flavors.

All packed up and ready to go.



I'm doing this with a crock pot instead of the more expensive commercial immersion circulators restaurants use and decided to skip the PID temperature controller and rely on the Pyrex Thermometer I got back in 08 when Maytag was down for the Turducken Herf.



Getting the water bath up to temperature.



Vegetables need to be cooked at higher temperatures than meat to break down the cell walls. Therefore they should be cooked separately or before time. Once cooked the bag can be kept warm on the same water bath you are cooking the meat without the danger of over cooking the vegetables (if the space permits).



I found that having the two pots side by side made it easier to maintain the temperature steady on the crock pot. Without a PID temperature controller that would automatically turn the crock pot on & off I had to monitor the temperature to make sure it stayed within the desired range. It really wasn't that hard once the stock pot over the stove stabilized at an 185F simmer and the crock pot at 141F. I had to manually turn the crock pot off to maintain the temperature, if it began to cool off all I had to do was scoop 1/2 cup of water from the stock pot over the stove. Very easy to do in 5 min increments.



The vegetables are done in less than one hour. One of the benefits of cooking vegetables in sealed bags are that they cook in their own juices: I added a little bit of butter and salt

---

I cooked the chops at a higher temperature than I would have had with better equipment just in case my Pyrex Thermometer was off. I errored on the side of caution + was gonna give another sear at the end anyways... and no. Pork doesn't have to be cooked to 160F.



Sweating some shallots and red onion, will reduce pork juice from the bag, some whiskey and...



the magic ingredient



It all comes together. The bacon from the bag is added to the sauce as it reduces.



One final sear on the pork chop



The carrots and radishes get their charred finish on a hot pan and are topped with chopped parsley and Fleur de Sel.



Finished product.

SousVide Supreme has a limited time offer which includes the oven, the vacuum sealer and Doug Baldwn's cook book. There is also the beer cooler method floating on the net (youtube video) and I know some of us have an extra beer cooler laying around.

http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/default.aspx?AdID=23
http://www.chefservicesgroup.com/sous-vi...gwodDDz9DQ
http://www.lowtempcooking.com/
http://www.cookingsousvide.com/
http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/12/new-s...eview.html
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/cook-...-hack.html
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_p...ucts_id=44
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cara-parks...39799.html
http://www.sousvidecooking.org/
http://www.buysousvidesupreme.com/index.html
http://blog.khymos.org/2009/01/18/a-math...sous-vide/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide

Sous Vide is not without it's detractors from having to cook it twice, to the dangers of cooking in a plastic bag to potential botulism poisoning.

Check out this NY Times article from 2006:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/nyregi...wanted=all

I'm sure at some point in time microwave cooking and coffee percolators were considered dangerous too.

[wtfdic]

interesting

[iSmoke]

Marcelo, I'm considering trading in my wife for a newer model...would you like to move to Miami??? Hehehe
Looks awesome! Will have to see if the old girl will try that recipe out!

[Jimmie the Mum]

Thanks for posting this buddy.. I have to think about trying this...

[MaytagMan]

Thanks for the fantastic post, Marcelo!

Nicole and I watch Top Chef, and a lot of other cooking shows and have seen this done numerous times... I have always been curious about it.

And of course you are a fantastic cook as well!!!

(Mrs. Maytag made "Marcelo's Sandwiches" when she went to a baby shower today... made me think back about you, Sergio, Jebus and I salivating over them at the Terducken Herf!)

[CigarJohn]

Marcelo great post, You are a man of many talents. We should open a restaurant

[Soulend]

Very nice!

I know another guy that's a low/no carb guy and swears by the sous-vide method. The way he described it though it kind of turned meat into a heavy gelatinous mass. Glad to see that isn't the case, I may have to try this, it looks wonderful. An exquisite meal indeed.

Love your cookware too, nothing beats cast iron. The old lady didn't like ours complaining that it was 'too heavy'. Sigh...c'est la vie...

[EvilAsh]

Wow, looks and sounds fantastic!

[carl609]

Looks delicious buddy. I dont know that I would have the patience to try it out, but it sure is an interesting way to cook.

[Riofan]

It really isn't as labor intensive as it may seem. I had to tinker with it and monitor the temps more because I wasn't using a device like the SousVide Supreme.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwLkR5obG...re=related

http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/product.a...28&AdID=23