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We did venison steaks today. No time for pics, we ate em in a hurry. Turned out perfectly, as usual.
Je fais la cuisine sous vide
- Thread starter Jamie
- Start date
I'm trying to come down from a mild case of something on the order of Stendhal Sydrome, so bear with me. you know how really good Prime Rib just melts in your mouth? yes, medium rare brisket is like that. I must admit that I would not want this any less done. I think medium would suit my taste more than medium rare for brisket, but still, it's gonna be hard to make this appreciably better. seasoning perfect, done to medium rare as planned, bark adequate (barely), a little bit too much smoke, though. lump charcoal must produce "better" smoke than plain old Kingsford briquettes because I did not use any more actual wood for smoke than before. the difficulty is getting this hot enough for long enough to produce a good bark without getting the internal temp up too high. for my first try, this went exceedingly well. sous vide kicks ass, period. this was fabulous. note the absence of a pool of liquid on the cutting board in the second pic. it's still in the brisket.
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and a plethora of grilled pepper poppers to make it a meal. feels like summer now.
finally got around to doing everything different that I planned on this time. no smoking prior to water bathing. ran immersion circulator at 135° for 54 hours, then on to the Weber kettle with lump charcoal and white oak and pignut hickory for a little under three hours at about 225°. took this flat to an internal temp of 140° on the grill. tender, moist, and done a little more than medium rare, but less than fully medium. just like I planned.
very happy with the results.
I’m not sure what sort of fellow refers to a wiener in a ribbed condom as “a meal”. Clarification is in order. 
I would hope so... lol. I had mentioned a while back that I ordered one of these & the damn thing still hasn't arrived ! Actually , the seller messed up with the shipping label & had to resend. It will arrive tomorrow. I bought a few nice ribeyes today & I'll give it a try Thurs or Fri when I'm off again .
finally got around to attempting another sous vide cooking experiment today. I ground up 45lbs of pork shoulder for breakfast sausage today. decided to parcel out 10lbs of the seasoned ground pork to add cure to and stuff into summer chub casings (2.4"x18" fibrous casings). I use a packaged seasoning called Rebel Smoked Sausage seasoning for my breakfast sausage. it makes excellent smoked sausage, too, as this is what is sold for. my plan is to apply smoke to these sausages for three hours at about 150*, then into sous vide bath at 152* for about three hours to bring them up to temp for pasteurization. normally, it would take about 10-12 hours in my smoker to bring these up to 152* cooking at about 165-170*. it's awfully hard to keep from developing a chewy rind under the casing when running that long. running hotter to shorten time and you risk rendering the fat, effectively ruining the sausage. hoping finishing in water bath will eliminate the rind. find out tomorrow, I guess.
after three hours of smoke. they smell really good.
ready for the sous vide bath
sure glad I have this vessel for sous vide cooking that is long enough, large enough for stuff like these sausages.
and as an added bonus, I have one boneless pork shoulder left over. I think I'll try cooking it sous vide and then finish over charcoal and wood this weekend.
after three hours of smoke. they smell really good.
ready for the sous vide bath
sure glad I have this vessel for sous vide cooking that is long enough, large enough for stuff like these sausages.
and as an added bonus, I have one boneless pork shoulder left over. I think I'll try cooking it sous vide and then finish over charcoal and wood this weekend.
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I may never look at my smoker the same way again after finishing these sausages in sous vide bath. no chewy rind, improved texture and moisture. cooked to perfection with no loss of smoke flavor whatsoever. this is as good as or better than the very best sausages I've ever made. in one half the time, too. very nice.
ok now you really have my attention
I am going to have to get one
as you know I struggle with consistency when making smoked sausage. and it sounds like sous vide would be very consistent.
I am going to have to get one
as you know I struggle with consistency when making smoked sausage. and it sounds like sous vide would be very consistent.
I think this is the future of my sausage making, Greg. still need to put smoke on these large sausages, so a trip through the smoker is always gonna be necessary, but since I didn't need to worry about temps at all, it sure was a lot less hassle than babysitting the smoker for an entire day. Didn't even get my Maverick out. no need for monitoring the temps this way. The sausages were 107* when I took them out of smoker, according to my thermapen. I still put them in the smoker for about an hour to dry them off real good before starting the smoke, but next time I'll not run the temp over 120-130*. no need for it.
the precision with which you can cook meat this way really is amazing. practically foolproof when you are cooking to a very specific temperature like we do with large sausages.
the precision with which you can cook meat this way really is amazing. practically foolproof when you are cooking to a very specific temperature like we do with large sausages.
although I didn't take an pics or anything, I cooked a trimmed 5 lb. pork shoulder sous vide and then finished on the PK grill with lump charcoal and cherry chunks from my firewood. it was practically falling apart after 21 hours in the 165* water. I put a nice bark on it in only two hours on the grill with 275-300* indirect heat and smoke. this was as moist as my best efforts with a pork butt the traditional way, perhaps more so. I found no difference in the texture for pulling or chewing. superb results, supremely easy. what can't sous vide do?
Buckmaster
Senior Member
No dentures in Jamie’s future. He’s now empowered to eat his meat without teeth.
I jumped in tonight. Ordered a nice container with lid also. I've seen and heard so many good things, I couldn't hold off any longer. With the prospect of staying home more, which means cooking much more, I wanted to diversify my abilities. I'm excited about joining the craze.
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With my limited experience I can confidently say you will thoroughly enjoy it!