Okay, what the hell is sous vide, and why in the heck would I want to do it. Sous Vide means 'in a vacuum' in French, and it's been all the rage in high end restaurants for the last several years. Chances are, unless you've dropped a couple hundred bucks for one of those multi-course extravaganzas at a mecca of great food, you've never seen the term....that's okay I will explain.
The principle behind the technique is based in the idea that there is an absolute perfect point, temperature-wise, that you want to bring any protein to where it will be the most palatable. The trick to all of this is best shown by making a custard...creme caramel, creme brulee, or for that matter creme anglaise or even just french toast. With all of the aforementioned dishes there is that idea 'sweet spot' where the egg is just set and the dish is creamy without being runny. I really like the way that Alton Brown explained it in his first book. If you don't have his first book, I'm not going to go through the explanation for you in detail. As always, if you would like the long explanation, please post a comment and I will answer to the best of my ability (just expect to learn a lot more than anyone could possibly want to know).
In terms of the 'sweet spot' for meats, there is some variability depending on the final results that you're after. For the sake of simplicity, and because I don't have any pictures to back up any other meats today, I will just stick to chicken. The ideal 'sweet spot' for chicken is 152 degrees. How did I come to this number you ask? Well, the number is something that many chemists and food scientists that have hated having dry chicken (or for that matter any other poultry) so they did experiments and research into the actual chemical and physical changes that take place. Luckily for me, I didn't have to wade through millions of pages of scientific papers to find out about this 'sweet spot' for America's favorite bird I just checked out the section on meat in Harold McGee's food bible. Okay, I also used this great website written by a chemist that explains how you can scam the true technique for minimal money at home. Again, if you want that link you will have to post a comment.
The pictures that you see are of the last chicken dish that I put together. In the bag are two chicken leg quarters, along with a pile of seasonings. For those of you that wish to attempt this technique here's the other ingredients: Annatto seeds, cumin seeds, black pepper, garlic cloves and bay leaves....oh yeah, and one gallon ziplock freezer bag.
All that you do for this techique is to flash blanch the chicken for 5 seconds in rapidly boiling water to kill external bacteria, and any other nasties that you might not want to have. Stick the chicken in the bag with the seasonings. Suck as much of the air out of the bag as you can(I found that a straw works really well for this). Then all you have to do is drop the bag of chicken into water that is maintaining 152 degrees for at least 6 hours. I want to say that this batch I think I cooked for 36 hours, but who's counting really. 36 hours you say!...is he absolutely deranged? Nope, the chicken never has a chance to overcook because it never exceeds the temperature range of the 'sweet spot' which is anywhere over 160. How did I maintain temperature for that long? Well, the only thing that I did was to add ice cubes if the temperature ever went too high...which happened once or twice....and I'd turn the heat up just a touch if it was too low.
This technique is sooooooooo stinking simple that anyone should be able to make the most succulent chicken of their entire lives this way.
Okay...in the hopes of having something posted, pics or no here it is. The pics aren't up because B won't materialize the cord for our digital camera, and I suck with photoshop. I promise that I will get the cord from her and post very, very soon.
8 comments:
I know Alton uses a race car metaphor for reaching the "sweet spot" in custard, on one of his shows. The idea being that the faster you reach the ideal temperature (by cooking at a higher temperature), the more likely you are to overshoot it. Is this the explanation you're talking about?
And, I have to say that I'm slightly surprised that you were able to do this on a conventional stove, just using ice cubes to moderate the temp every so often. I'll sometimes do something like this to poach a fish fillet, but that only takes 15-20 minutes. What was the website that you found about this?
"chemists and food scientists that have hated having dry chicken"
Heh, nice turn of a phrase. :-)
Lately I've been enjoying Cook's Illustrated's "French Chicken in a Pot." Basically you brown a whole chicken in a dutch oven with a minimal amount of aromatics. You then cover the pot (no liquid!) and put it in a 250 degree oven for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. It comes out great, well done but super moist.
The technique you describe sounds like it uses the same principles, but takes the idea even further. I'd definitely like to try this sometime. You say the chicken should cook at least 6 hours, but you cooked it 36 hours. Have you any thoughts about in-between amounts of time?
Thanks for a truly interesting post.
It really isn't all that hard to to on any stove. The temperature range might be a little difficult to manage, but basically you just creep up on the temperature that you're after, and when you hit it you drop in your bag of meat.
I recently became intrigued by his cooking method. While most are spooked by sous vide, I can't wait to try it.
So far, I have acquired a lab surplus water bath, an old vacuum sealer, hypodermic thermoprobe with digital reader and the self sealing tape. The vacuum sealer was free (thanks Mom) and everything else was purchased for under $225. I may go with a high end FoodSaver machine because the one I have is so-so. I'm just waiting for Brown to show up with the equipment so I can play.
One thing I have noticed is that everything that has to do with 'sous vide' is expensive. The cookbook is $200. So I'm having a rough time finding temps and cooking times. Any tips you guys have would be most appreciated.
I'd like to learn a lot more than anyone could possibly want to know.Some years back I had made rice pudding night after night untill I perfected it.
The top would look like a loaf of bread with a crack down the center I would mix about 40 minutes into the cooking and the rice would be suspended in the custard.Now try as I may I keep getting a lot of water in the bottom and then a layer of rice and then a layer of custard.I caught part of Alton's race car show on TV it had the answers but the next time I went to cook rice pudding I couldn't remember any help would be great. Thanks Bob
bob---
adjust your style of rice pudding. I don't usually make one that is custard base, or one that is thickend by the proteins that are found in egg. If you're working on one from that angle you will get a slightly fluffier one than using this method that I'm about to describe, but you will also have issues with the extra liquid (which is overcoagulation of the proteins in the egg, and basically the liquid that was trapped in the protein structure of the egg itself).
Personally I prefer to do a custard that is starch thickened. The ideal starch, I believe, for rice pudding is rice starch. I start with a good risotto rice, or other starchy short grain rice. I use a ratio of at least 3-1 liquid to starch and cook while stirring like you would to make risotto. The beautiful thing about this method is that you really can't mess this method up. All you really have to do is throw the rice, the liquid, and all of the seasonings into a crock pot overnight and set it for low. The next morning you have perfect rice.
In my mind I can picture using the rice starch method using a sweet rice, and coconut milk or coconut water. Add a little bit of diced up, dried pineapple or maybe some crystallized ginger to the mix and maybe a touch of galangal and you've got a fantastic thai-style rice pudding.
If you'd like more ideas please put up another comment and I'll put up a post of just ideas around this.
Wonderful! This is all very fascinating. One thing I'm having trouble wrapping my head around, though. How to cook an egg-based custard in a vacuum-sealed bag? Meats work well because they have a shape bound by protein strands even when they're not cooked. But a custard is just eggs and milk, and a bit of sugar and whatnot, and is traditionally baked in a mold. Thoughts? Creative alternatives? Help??
I'm not sure if anyone would do an egg-based custard in a bag. I guess you could, but this system isn't really meant for something like that. Basically you're making your own creme anglaise or other type of dessert thing. I fyou are working on something like that, you are better off working with a 'form' since all of the ingredients that you are dealing with are liquids. The boil in bag trick is really for things with more structure...i.e. meats or veggie proteins like tofu.
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