DW,

Yeah like 5 mins under broiler.

That pork belly looks great. I'll need to give that a try.

Looking to do my first 'long' sous vide cook this week. My Foodsaver arrived today, and I picked up some short ribs. Seems it's just a case of salting, bagging, 72h/130, then sear afterwards? Anything else I need to know before going ahead with this? Have seen a few different temperatures mentioned on different sites so if anyone here has experience with a temperature that worked for them please let me know. Will probably wait until tomorrow to get started so they'll be ready for dinner on Friday.

Made pork belly yesterday. Not as good looking as el diablo's, but very delicious.



I also bought short rib which I'll leave cooking tonight before I go out of town for a couple of days. 72-hour short ribs are on the menu for Thursday night.

ET,

How did you season/marinate/brine yours? Kenji had a recipe where he just put the stuff in the bag and started. Most other recipes marinate or brine the pork belly for a lengthy period before cooking. I'm gonna try that next time. The flavor this time was great, but it definitely could have absorbed more flavor/seasoning.

I just put the marinate in the bag, pretty much what you had in yours: hot pepper olive oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, pepper, garlic. The sealing of the bag was a pain because all the liquid kept raising and I ended up losing a ton of the marinade. Next time I'll probably brine it too, but I don't know when that will be because my girlfriend wasn't a big fan of all the pork belly fat.

How do you guys get your poached eggs to look so damn dapper?

Mine always look like raggedy gutter trash.

I sous vide in shell and use a slotted spoon to remove loose whites before finishing in boiling water for a minute to firm up and they come out pretty well.

I followed Kenji's recipe found towards the bottom of this article: http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/10/s...bout-eggs.html

for liquids/marinades instead of the freezing technique can you not put it in a zip-lock and then vacuum that? basically a double bag

+1, looks damn good, nice job El D!

give this a whirl

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/...-time-and-temp

Put my short ribs in the water bath last night, decided to do 72h@140F after reading several articles. Will report back after Thursday.

Save the juices and make a sauce. Is necessary.

anova arrived

questions:
-is it a problem if the meat is laying on the bottom of the pot?
if yes what do you guys use to keep it up/floating?
-what do you guys use to keep vegetables down?

Shouldn't be an issue with an anova because the pot will be the same temp as the water.

Just make sure all the air is out of the bag and it shouldn't float. If something does float I just put something on top of it.

Thanks - interesting to see all the different textures that can be achieved from the same cut of meat.

After reading through the comments section on the above, I think I'm going to go slightly higher than their recommended temperature for 72 hours. The 140F that El_Timon is trying sounds like a good starting point so think I'll do the same.

hmmmmmm
sous vide chicken breast at 60(140) an extreme disappointment. unlike "normal" juicy chicken the texture wasn't really tender but almost rubber like

not sure if I should try higher (63/145) or lower(58/136)

stumbled upon this
vacuum % apparently a big influence on texture
http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/06...-of-your-meat/

guess I have to try a less strong vacuum next time

Am going to try my hand at roasting a Beer Can Chicken in the oven today. Think I got everything in order, but am open to any suggestions if you pros have any.

Will do my best to document this for anyone interested.

i was pretty meh on beer can chicken. i think the beer can is just a poor method of controlling the moisture. if you are doing it in an oven, it really shouldn't matter if the beer can is up the chick's butt, or just beside it. the best result was when i butterflied the bird, laid it in the pan with plenty of beer-and-oil-based marinade.

Yeah, from what I've researched, there's no discernable difference between a chicken cooked with a beer can up it's ass or any other chicken cooked in a similar manner. It's just the novelty of it I guess. Still going to do it for shiz and giggles.

What if you cook it horizontally instead? Where the beer actually pours out of the can and into the chicken's ass?

140 chicken breast has a way different texture than "normal" chicken breast its more sponge like. you dont see individual fibers as much as you would in a conventional cooking method.

I do 142 for 1.5 hours and I love it, some people find the texture challenging though.

Well, I did my Beer Can Chicken last night and overall was pleased. The chicken was very juicy inside and the skin nice and crispy. But I don't think it was anything overly spectacular versus roasting the chicken any other fashion. I used a nice dry rub for the chicken including paprika, cumin, ground coriander, chili powder, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, brown sugar and some Oaxacan pasilla powder.

The vegetables were likely the best part, as I chopped up some carrots, onions, celery and poblano peppers to roast in the bottom of the pan with the chicken. Seasoned the veggies with salt, pepper, pasilla lime blend powder, rosemary and a bit of olive oil.

Overall it was a nice dinner though especially with Colombiana's addition of boiled yucca, patacones and some well seasoned black beans. Tossed some goat cheese on the plate as well and it added to the dish quite nicely.

Sorry, I failed on the pics, but my platings are nothing like you guys put together anyway so you're not missing out.

Looking forward to leftovers tonight.

PD,

Sounds delicious!

It truly was. And I felt a bit guilty as it was a ton of food for just the two of us. I tried to get some other folks over there to enjoy with us, but no one could make it. Hence I have lots of leftovers.