Another work of art, Dom. :-)
[Reply]

:-)
[Reply]

Thank you for sharing that Dom. Simply beautiful.:-)
[Reply]

Thanks, guys. :-)
[Reply]

Lamb came out great last night, only took one picture after it came off the sear but I should have taken one of when I sliced it, perfectly cooked end to end. Sarah was watching while I was carving and said "that part is perfect for me, I know it will be a little rarer in the middle so I'll take an end piece." I laughed and explained how it's all cooked the same, she was amazed.

Image

There was about 3/4C of juice left from the bag, made a bag juice bbq sauce out of it with a few other ingredients, the sauce kept the lamb flavor really well, I was amazed. I took a taste of the juice itself and it was like drinking lamb, can't wait to cook again :-)
[Reply]

It still had a lot of fat chunks from the cut of meat, but also had a fair amount of thin fat ribbons that didn't need to be carved out but were still chewy, are these the connective tissues everybody talks about saying they break down with time? I only cooked this for 10 hours, but if I went longer and got some of the fatty parts more tender this would have been even better
[Reply]

That looks great, Ben!
[Reply]

Ben, I think those may have been the natural lining of the individual muscles that make up the leg. Kind of like the silver skin that lines a tenderloin from the other adjacent muscles. Connective tissue is the stuff that holds the individual muscle fibers together. I wouldn't bet the farm on my thought, meat cutting class was many years ago with (now) a lot less brain cells left for me to recall. :-):-)
[Reply]

I think you're right, still trying to connect internet words to real life. I want to get to one of those meat classes, my BIL did one where they broke down a full hog and he got to take home half of it, seems like a great hands-on learning experience (and following meals :-))

Ordered up a cast iron grill pan, mainly because I hate my non-stick one and don't have a grill, but looking forward to using it for SV. Not as much surface area so it won't be used for everything, but there are a few things I've made that I thought would be better with that than a normal cast iron
[Reply]

Looks good, Ben. Surprised you thought it hadn't broken down enough.
I never did a leg of lamb, but would have thought 10 hours would be long enough.
[Reply]

I thought it was great, I was just curious if it was possible for it to break down further, more-so a question on fat/meat in general. I still have another ~2LB chunk that I'll eventually cook the same way, but probably with different seasoning
[Reply]

Cooked a tri-tip yesterday, this was one of the pre-rubbed/marinated steakhouse ones from costco, had it grilled at a herf a couple weeks ago and thought the seasoning was good. I picked up a chunk around 3LB, cut it in half and vac sealed then put in the SV (the other half is vac sealed in the freezer waiting to be used soon). 6 hours at 130* then finished on a grill on high about 3 minutes per side, probably could have used about 2 minutes less overall on the grill as it ended a touch over medium but damn was it tender, significantly better than when I had the same thing just cooked on the grill.

Also on Friday cooked some chicken for a chopped salad, 150* for 2 hours, no pan searing after since I was going to cube it to put in the salad, cooked perfectly. I used to use a rotisserie chicken for this, but I'm gonna switch over to using SV, I might try altering the temp a little to see if there is a noticeable difference. Really liking using the sous vide, finally starting to get Sarah on board from it being just another kitchen gadget to something that has a real benefit :-)
[Reply]

Looks like Monoprice has jumped on the bandwagon with what appears to be a $69 clone of the Anova PC minus the wi-fi and BT connectivity

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21594



Anova also has a new one coming out later this year, the Nano. It's a smaller unit, about $90 IIRC. Has a bunch of whiz-bang app software if you're into that.

https://anovaculinary.com/nano/
[Reply]

Looks almost identical to the Anova.
[Reply]

Yup. It really looks like they copied the design with just enough changes to avoid a lawsuit.
[Reply]

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

Did two more porchettas for the 4th. Due to a menu change, these went for almost 40 hours instead of the planned 36.
I wish I had stuck with 36.
The extra time made it difficult to slice. The longer cook made it even more tender and it kind of fell apart as I was cutting it.
The extra time didn't do anything to the texture, and the flavor was still spot on, I just preferred the first one I made. :-)
[Reply]

Just ordered an Echo Dot (for a great discount) today and I'm very excited to be able to turn on my sous vide from work, and maybe check the temp while away (not sure if I can do that just yet)

Question for yall, what are you using for vacuum sealing?
[Reply]

Not sure how the dot plays in, but from my experience using the app mobily is that it doesn't always connect, and once it does it regularly disconnects and reconnects. This is not a problem for starting the water (I've done it from work a few times before heading home) as once it starts it doesn't turn off when disconnected from the app, but checking the temp regularly can't really be relied upon. I've also never had an issue with the temp not being correct, so whenever I tried to check the temp from the app it was moreso to say "cool it's still the right level" but I don't think it's necessary. Maybe I've just been lucky by not having any malfunctions
[Reply]

I have a pair of foodsaver 2400 series machines. I buy bags from either "commercial bargains" or "food vac bags" on amazon. I go through a couple hundred bags a year, hardly a failure or problem with either vendor.
[Reply]

I use an old Seal-a-Meal that I picked up from Costco years ago. They sell Food Saver now, I believe.

I use bags from Food Saver (they ciome in a bundle when I buy rolls for sealing my beads), and I also get bags from Amazon. I use both the small (1qt) and large (2qt, I believe) bags.
[Reply]