Sous Vide Lamb Chops with Cherry Rum Gastrique

A gastrique is a French-inspired sweet and sour sauce.

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar

dash sea salt

¼ cup water

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup apple cider vinegar

2 cups pureed cherries

¼ cup spiced rum

Instructions:

1. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan.  The sugar should have the consistency of wet sand.  Heat on high and continue to move with spatula.  Add butter.

2. After 20-30min the sugar will begin to brown and caramelize.  Don’t allow to burn, but darken to the desired effect.

3.  Add the vinegar.  This will cool the sugar and it will look like dog poop.  Continue to heat until the sugar has dissolved into the vinegar.

4.  Add the pureed cherries and the rum.  Stir and allow to reduce on low heat.

That's the sauce, which I set aside until it was time to remove the lamb chops from the water bath.

The lamb chops were cooked with my Anova at 130 dF, which I changed to 132 dF for the last hour. I'm not sure that had an effect, but they were perfect.

Instead of searing, I placed the wet chops in a mixture of whole wheat flour, freshly chopped parsley, and salt and pepper and then seared them in a pan of hot olive oil.

The results were amazing.  The presentation did look a little like a murder scene, and I was expecting the gastrique to be less viscous, though it did not detract from the flavor.

Four Little Pigs Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin for the 4th

When shopping recently for some MEAT, I came across the following in the meat cooler at Costco:

1. St. Louis cut pork spare ribs, for $5.99 /lb
2. Pork baby back ribs, for $2.59 /lb
3. Pork tenderloin, for $2.39 /lb

This means that the best-quality meat was actually the cheapest, so I walked out with 8.49 lbs of a whole pork tenderloin.  As they say, "we're eating high on the hog tonight!"

Approximately 5 lb. of pork tenderloin.

I saved about 3 lb. to either grill and/or smoke and cut the remaining tenderloin into 4 equal "chunks" for sous vide.  The filets were flavored with the following: (from left to right)

My four little pigs for the 4th of July.

1. Wild dried rosemary with salt and pepper.  The rosemary came from the lighthouse keeper's garden at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, CA.  Don't worry, the ranger was giving away excess trimmings to visitors since they were worried the rosemary bush was taking over too much of the garden.  It was just luck we were there at that time.  Unfortunately, I took the photo prior to seasoning this filet, so it's shown pristine.

2. Pink Himalayan sea salt and freshly-ground pepper

3. Brown sugar, honey and tarragon

4. Byrons' Butt Rub, my go-to pork dry rub

Pink Himalayan sea salt and freshly-ground pepper.

Brown sugar, honey, and tarragon.  An additional squirt of honey was injected into the bag before vacuum-sealing.  Photo taken prior to tarragon being added.

Byrons' Butt Rub.

Results:

The 135 F was a much better temperature than the 145 F I used previously for pork.  The meat was nice and tender.  The only two I prepared were the Rosemary and the Brown sugar, honey, tarragon.  The consensus was that the Rosemary yielded much stronger flavor.  The latter was far more subtle, though I would continue to experiment with that flavoring in the future.

The pork was removed at 5pm, having been in the water bath at 135 F since 10:30am.  Two were immediately frozen and two were seared and served.

Pre-seared.  The Rosemary pork is on the bottom.

Nice searing.

More nice searing.

Post-searing.

Sliced and served.

Nice color, very tender texture, good flavor.

Nice slice of the tenderloin.

Improvements to the Panel Mount Connector

I haven't been happy with the 3-prong panel mount connector on my sous vide temperature controller which connected the RTD probe to the PID controller.  The connector had a spring-slide on it to keep it in place and I just didn't like the ergonomics of connecting and disconnecting it.

I then started building a replacement connector using a 2.5mm TRRS "headphone" style jack.  My goal with that was, in a pinch, be able to use the thermocouple probes from my iGrill and/or Maverick since they used 2.5mm TS style jacks.  At the end of the day, I just could not get the solder to hold well enough and had to switch to a 3.5mm TRS connector.

Now, the RTD probe has three wires to connect.  These headphone jacks, in any size, can have 2, 3, or 4 wire connections.  They are called, "tip", "ring" and "sleeve" connections in a nod to the old telephone switchboard days.  If there are three connections, it is "TRS" for Tip, Ring, Sleeve".  If there are four connections (like on your iPhone), they are "TRRS" for Tip, Ring, Ring, Sleeve.

And, again, I used 3.5mm TRS to hookup the RTP probe.

The Auber PID controller has 3 leads for input from the temp. probe and they are shown here facing the camera on the right.  Notice that I left the original leads going to the first connector and simply added 3 new leads going to the "headphone" jack.  This allows me to use either temperature probe.

The 3.5mm TRS connector is slicker, easier to connect and more-familiar to end-users.

Sous Vide Chicken Breast with Paprika

I made some amazing chicken breasts recently.  First dusted with sea salt, pepper and paprika, the breasts were individually vacuum-bagged and cooked in the water over at 145 F for 3 hours.  There were then seared on the propane grill.

The result was perfect texture and great flavor!

This breast did not have paprika.  Notice the perfect, smooth and juicy texture.

Eight chicken breasts were cooked at once in my 12qt water bath.

Consistent color all the way through.

This was a separate chicken breast that was cooked for 145 F for  almost 5 hours.  While it was still juicy, it started to get "stringy", as you would expect if you were making pulled chicken.  I wasn't pulling this chicken, so it wasn't what I was going for, and will keep the time to 3hrs next time for breasts.

Pork Chop Sous Vide, Strike 1

While I had been planning to smoke a pork shoulder and duck this Sunday, a trip to Los Angeles this coming week made me rethink my leftover plans and switch to sous vide pork chops.  This actually turned into a big disappointment and was the first time I was not happy with my sous vide.

I selected six, very lean-looking, boneless pork chops from the grocery store.  Four were seasoned with a mustard-tarragon sauce and two were left to just salt and pepper.

Temperature: 145 F

Time: 6 hrs

Mustard-Tarragon Sauce

4 tablespoons brown spicy mustard

1 teaspoon tarragon

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon olive oil

The sauce was mixed and placed in the vacuum bags.

I was very disappointed in the results, specifically the tenderness and texture of the pork.  They were very dry and appeared overcooked.  I'm not sure if that was a result of remaining in the water bath for so long, or the cooking temperature.  This was also the first time I attempted to sear the meat on the propane grill.  That worked better since I could do them all at once and was easier to clean up than Canola oil splashed on the range.

Next time, I think I will try 141 F and I would like to test 3 hrs vs 6 hrs in the water bath.

The mustard-tarragon sauce.  I think this would actually make a good glaze if reduced in a sauce pan.  That's something for next time.

Vacuumed up and ready for bath time.

When I opened the bags, I poured out the sauce into a pan.  I was thinking about heating it and serving it, but didn't get around to it.  I will next time.

Notice the colorization difference between the plain and those cooked with the sauce.

After searing on the propane grill for about 30 sec each side.  I achieved some nice colorization.

Kinda tough, kinda dry, kinda "overcooked".  I don't consider it a success.

Chicken Breast, Sous Vide

Simple boneless, skinless chicken breasts from the local grocery store.  I picked up three of a larger size.  Two of the breasts were only lightly seasoned with sea salt and pepper.  The third I used a dash of a lemon chicken seasoning.

Water bath: 147 F
Time: 4 hrs

The results were nice and tender, although I would cook them less time in the future and might even experiment with lowering the temperature.

In the 147 F water bath.

The chicken came out an interesting color.  I wouldn't call it ugly, but rather plain.

And a flip onto the plate.

Pan searing in hot Canola oil.

Excellent texture.  I don't believe I needed to cook them so long (most of that was waiting for everyone) and could detect the slightest hint that the chicken was about to get stringy if left in longer or hotter.

Again, only butter knives were used to cut the breast.   I wasn't able to tell which breast was lemon-seasoned after searing, so I doubt it made much difference.

Sous Vide Ribeye with Béarnaise Souse

Ahh, ribeye.  Mhmm béarnaise.  Ohh calories.

I picked three really nice-looking ribeye steaks to try for my inaugural sous vide meat dinner party.  Each was approx. 1.25 lbs @ $15.99 /lb.  I insisted they all be very close in size and shape.


Water bath set value: 134 F
Time: 4hrs
Seasoned only with salt and pepper and pan-seared with hot canola oil.

3.4 lbs of ribeye.  #meatporn

Vacuumed sealed with a little salt and pepper

And placed in the water bath at 134 F

The rig on the counter.  Unfortunately, the controller is in the shadows.  I found the it is much more efficient to have a lid over the vat and helps get to temperature much sooner.

I used a 12qt food-grade bucket as my water vat.  I used two immersion heaters as the element and an PT100 RTD as the temperature probe.  Circulation was provided by a fish tank pump.  I should design a neater immersion holder to keep things neater and away from the sides of the vat and the bags.

Pan-seared in hot canola oil for about 20 sec per side.

Béarnaise Recipe
2 tablespoon chopped shallot
1 tablespoon tarragon
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
4 egg yolks
1.5 cups of butter, clarified (AKA 2.5 little sticks)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup white wine vinegar

Clarified Butter
Clarified butter looks like what you would want to put on pop-corn at the movies.  It involves taking sticks of butter, melting them and then straining out the foam.  You're left with a transparent, dark yellow oil.  If you're not careful and the heat is too high, the butter will brown and you don't want that.

Separating Egg Yolks
Short answer: Just use your fingers.  By the time you fool around with two spoons, or fancy equipment you can have your yolks just by cracking the egg and letting the white run through your fingers into a bowl.  If you drop a yolk, you can just gently pick it out of the bowl.

Mix your ingredients, excluding the butter and eggs, in a sauce pan and allow to simmer to a reduction. I don't think I allowed mine to reduce enough and felt my sauce had a very vinegary taste.  I then combined all ingredients in the pan while whisking.  Frankly, this basically finished the béarnaise but I then placed it in a FoodSaver bag in the 134 F water bath for about 30min.

If I had a second controller, I would have tried 180 F for 45min.

When removed from the bag, I placed in the blender, just for good measure; this aided in re-whipping it up and gave it a very creamy consistency.

The sauce in the vacuum sealer.  The heavier the sauce, the easier is it to vacuum seal with a clamshell-style vacuum.

Served with a side of grilled asparagus.

Finished product.

This was actually the only steak knife we had; the others used butter knives to cut the steaks!

Edge-to-edge medium rare.  Very soft, very supple and tender.  "I didn't know steak was supposed to taste this way."

The fat didn't get hard like it would on a grill; it remained very gooey and palatable (but I still gave it to Ele).