interesting, I've been loosely trying to keep track of the speed of the 4.75gal box, it's about 1.5* per minute.

Last night I did my first attempt at making a meal, chicken cordon bleu. I butterflied the chicken breasts, stuffed with a pepperjack cheese stick wrapped in ham and put in a freezer bag. Cooked for 1.5 hours at 150* (from looking at a few recipes online) then took them out, breaded with an egg wash and pankos seasoned with salt and pepper, then put in a cast iron pan on high with a little olive oil.

Image
Image

The chicken was cooked perfectly, very moist. The cheese inside was melted but not oozing, made for a very easy sear but when you cut it open (forgot to take pictures) it kept its shape. I think it probably could have benefited from being a little more liquidy, but that's probably party due to the type of cheese. The sear was far from perfect, probably because of using bread crumbs and olive oil, but still a very good meal overall.

I picked up some of these ice trays with the goal of saving bacon fat into small easily usable cubes for searing in the future.

Image

I gotta go pick up some bacon this weekend to render the fat out to save (and I suppose eat the bacon, if I must). The plan is to fill the ice tray, put it in the freezer to solidify then transfer to a freezer bag so I always have it on hand. Anybody else try something like this? I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I guess I'll find out.
[Reply]

How about just a mason jar of bacon grease in the refrigerator? Add and subtract as you go.

If you can find face bacon, that will yield far more renerdable fat (it's virtually all fat really).

Also, there is a recipe for SV bacon that I tried and commented on here
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showth...on#post2113305

I honestly was hesitant to try it, "Why bother?" was my thought. Results were outstanding. Doesn't render much fat though. The juice in the bag is actually more meat juice than fat and the frying time is so short that very little melts.
[Reply]

I thought about the mason jar approach, I guess I was thinking it might be easier to grab 2 bacon cubes (or whatever is needed per pan) rather than needing to think about how much to pull from the jar. that and my fiance will kill me if I put another mason jar full of whatever in the fridge :-)

probably wouldn't make a difference, I think the trays were $6 so if I end up not using them it's not the end of the world. I saw your post about the bacon when I was re-reading through this thread, definitely on my list of things to try. Also thanks for the tip about face bacon, I"ll check with my butcher to see if they have/can make for me. it's a small shop but they're awesome
[Reply]

been using this for years to keep bacon grease in the fridge...strains out the bits...spoon out some whenever needed....empty it and start from scratch about twice a year or as needed...

https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/BedBathandBeyond/90524311797423p?$478$
[Reply]

Hosted a dinner party for some of my staff over the weekend and chef'd up some tenderloin.

Had the butcher prep & truss a couple 3 lb hunks of beef to which I then added a simple rub of salt and coarse ground black pepper.

Image


I cooked them for about 90 minutes at 135* then seared them in a cast iron skillet

Image

Finished product came out moist & delicious!

Plus now that I have a real carving (thanks to a Secret Santa), my cuts don't look like they were made with a chainsaw!

Image
[Reply]

:-) :-) :-) nom, nom, nom
[Reply]

That looks amazing Vin, nice :-)

Cooked a few meals this weekend, first were ribeyes. I compromised on the temp and went with 134, but they were too thin and by the time I finished searing they were closer to medium-well. still very tender and juicy, but not ideal.

Sunday was pork carnitas, loosely followed the food lab's process, went with the more stringy 185* for 8 hours. pulled like a dream when it came out, crisped up great under the broiler then put them in some enchiladas. This was a great success, I will be doing it again in the future. The recipe says you can take it out of the water bath and put it right in the freezer if you wanted it for later, I might consider doing that some time for an easy week night dinner, sound like you can just take it out, pull apart and broil.
[Reply]

Nice Vin...I guess Secret Santa next year has to send you a ruler for even slices...but its a start :-)

BTW, your meat looks great...(and it didn't cost you $20 to hear it!!)
[Reply]

I did a corned beef brisket for today's holiday. Meat bagged with 1/4 cup each Guinness and beef stock. A bit of mixed pickling spice too. Cooked at 140F for 48 hours. Did this earlier in the week.

Tonight I steamed the brisket to heat it up. Simply the best corned beef I've ever had. Tender as could be.:-)
[Reply]

Jeff, a store-bought corned beef?....did you soak it before hand of did the long bath remove some of the salt?...sounds tasty
[Reply]

It was a cheapo brisket on sale for St. Patrick's. I just rinsed it off. I think some of the salt bleed out into the Guinness and broth. The meat wasn't salty.
Steaming it kept it moist. Many recipes I've seen call for chunking the beef and searing in a pan. Not sure why that's necessary.:-) I've never done that after cooking it traditionally.

The best thing was it was cooked and ready for a reheat so I didn't have to worry about it while tearing it up at the Irish pub.:-)
[Reply]

Picked up a cheap top round roast last weekend and after my initial plans fell through for it I was in a tailspin trying to figure out what to do. Figured why not try some homemade deli meat!

Ended up going in at 133 for 12 hours with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Came out and chilled it. Sliced it up and it was delicious! Was like some of the best roast beef from the deli counter, but at $4.99/lb instead of $20/lb. Plus it tasted better!

Next up I think I'll give some poultry a try. But my mind is also racing for some new flavors on the beef. Thinking of recreating Boarshead portwine beef?
[Reply]

Cooked up some carnitas for enchiladas again last night, partly because I wanted them for dinner and partly because I wanted to test the recipe I was using, which states that you can shred and broil right away or let cool and toss the whole bag in the fridge for a week or freezer for months. This time I made twice the recipe, ate one for dinner (just as good as last time) and put the other bag in the freezer. Gonna give it a month or two then take it out, thaw in the bag and proceed as if I just took it out of the bath, I'll post back up with results whenever that happens.

For the one I ate last night, I strained out the aromatics and brought the juices (a lot of orange and lime in there) to a boil, put some minced onion and frozen corn in that to soak up some flavor then sauteed for inside the enchiladas as well as some peppers/onions and some cheese. I mixed the rest of the reduced SV juice with store bought enchilada sauce to top with. Worth all the extra effort :-)
[Reply]

Thank you for sharing that link Ben.That looks like yummy piggy goodness!:-)
[Reply]

Who here has experience with the larger vessels?

I'm thinking about getting the 26 qt. container and lid. What I'd like to know is that with the lid, are the "ping pong balls" necessary? Or will the lid be sufficient for a long cook?
[Reply]

I have the LIPAVI 6.5 gallon (26qt) container and lid; there are pictures of it here. The lid is made to fit the Annova.

I don't think the ping pong balls are necessary when you have the lid.

BTW, I really like the container and lid combo. Easy to use easy to take care of and not to heavy to lift to/from the sink when full.

I also purchased one of the LIPAVI racks -- I got the round one because I purchased the rack before I purchased the container, and it fit my stock pot. If I had to do it again, I would probably pick up the rectangular or square one.
[Reply]

Thanks, Michael.
I'm gonna pass on the ping pong balls (and a rack for that matter) for now. Just having a large vessel to do roasts and such will be useful.
[Reply]

I have a smaller size like that. I cut a piece of bubble wrap to lie on top for insulation. Moisture does gather inside the lid but a quick wiggle gets it right off. Virtually no evaporation on 48 cooks. Love it.
[Reply]

Just an FYI, Amazon has the Anova on sale right now for $109. It's been on sale a couple of days already, not sure how much longer it will be there. I picked mine up 3 days ago, got here yesterday.

I was planning on using an old cooler I had already for the vessel but after putting 4 gallons of water in it I realized it was going to be too big. I ordered the 25-qt Coleman stack-able. Was hoping to get by with not paying anything for a vessel, but oh well.

It will take me awhile but I plan on going thru the whole thread and just picking up some ideas. Thanks for all the info!

Anova

Cooler
[Reply]

Still loving mine but have only been using it maybe oncer per week, most recently to make some pulled chickens to go inside some burritos, cooked the chicken for 1 hour at 150*, just put some limes, cilantro, garlic and a few basic spices. it turned out amazing, I liked it better than the pork I have made a few times for a similar purpose. Next up will probably be another attempt at juicy lucy's now that I have a vacuum sealer, I think will help keep their form and keep the cheese sealed on the inside. Last time I tried them the cheese stayed in for the SV process, but once I put them on the grill pan a seam opened and most of the cheese poured out. That was using the water immersion technique to seal a freezer bag, this will work better
[Reply]