Geekfood Mk2.

[HereComesPete]

but apparently you can use it to slow cook meat too.

Half cover the joint with water and set it off, return many hours later. Best joints are the cheaper ones that have loads of flavour but are a bit tougher, neck, shoulder and shin. Browning everything helps, it doesn't keep the colour but it does help make a nice starter gravy around the joint.

Lamb being fattier can take a bit longer, Pork belly is the same, but most pork joints take slightly less.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Half cover the joint with water and set it off, return many hours later.

No idea, having never touched a slow cooker, but would a mirepoix do well in there, add a bit more flavour, and make the water/stock a bit more useful later?

[HereComesPete]

Throwing any aromatics in is good. Does of course need a bit of sweating in a pan first though, or the flavours tend to sit a little harshly on the meat.

[FatherJack]

Add something like this (or work out its running temps) and you've got an easy-ish way to do sous vide.

On its lowest setting it pulls 50W and heats to somewhere between 40-50°C, middle setting is 80W and 70°C, highest 150W and 90°C.

As a device it's quite clever in that any evaporation condenses on its lid and goes back in - so you don't need as much liquid as you would in a stock pot and can happily leave it for hours without worry of it boiling dry. Conversely this means you have to run it for an hour with the lid off if stuff needs thickening - or stir in gravy powder which I've been doing for the couple of stews I've made.

At the moment I've put some aromatics in with a couple of bouquet garni and the broth from some oxtails and heart I boiled up last week which actually turned to a jelly in the fridge. More to see what happens, as I'm not sure I'll eat the results - the super long cooking (and cooldown) times make me a little nervous about bacteria and such.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Ahh, those temperatures all seem a bit off for sous vide, pork should work nicely at 70c. (edit: also, very impressed by the detail there, handy info is handy)


The ripening of nasties is a bit of a concern with slow cooking.

However, I once found a thingy that said salmonella would be killed off by cooking for a long time at low temperatures. Kinda the opposite of pasteurizing milk.

Possibly actually posted earlier in this thread, in my sous vide experiments.

Still, if you're wary, run stuff up to 75c odd before eating, should kill everything off. Only thing you might hurt is the gelatin in the stock, I'm not sure what temperature it stays stable to.



It's also worth noting that last week I defrosted a lump of raw pork belly I'd stripped from a larger cut, poured boiling water over it, dried it and left it in the fridge for 30-odd hours. Then I cooked it.

Mostly sounds like a really bad idea to me. Turned out to be very, very nice, and didn't cause any unpleasantness.

I suspect as long as your food gets to a safe temperature, and hasn't been infested by masses of bacteria, it'll be fine. Mostly comes down to good practice though.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

http://www.cookingsousvide.com/info/coo ... ide-safety

http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html

seem to be the sources for long time, low temp salmonella killing.

[HereComesPete]

Another thing to be aware of - the ability to freeze the cheaper cuts of meat prior to use without really diminishing their quality also emans that anything dodgy lurking around will likely be dead. Freezing is rather good at killing salmonella, listeria, clostridium etc.

I honestly don't worry too much about nasties, if I know the source of the meat isn't a festering shit pit and I know it hasn't sat in the warm for a few days I'll follow the basic wash hands and don't cross contaminate stuff but that's it. I don't think I've ever killed anyone with the food I've made.

Speaking of food I've made, bits of pork and beef in a onion/mustard sauce for my 'breakfast', it's nom.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I honestly don't worry too much about nasties, if I know the source of the meat isn't a festering shit pit and I know it hasn't sat in the warm for a few days I'll follow the basic wash hands and don't cross contaminate stuff but that's it. I don't think I've ever killed anyone with the food I've made.

I avoid cross contamination and make sure chicken, pork* and minced meats are cooked, but otherwise I'm pretty lazy and have never made myself ill. Also, if it comes off a cow and isn't minced, I'll eat it raw.

*probably not necessary any more, ISTR trichinosis is as good as wiped out in the UK at least

[FatherJack]

Ahh, those temperatures all seem a bit off for sous vide, pork should work nicely at 70c. (edit: also, very impressed by the detail there, handy info is handy)

After more testing, if I use a higher setting to heat it up more first, the lowest setting (50W) will maintain it at about 55°C almost indefinitely, the medium setting can manage around 77°C if heated past that first.

55°C is getting nearer a good temperature for sous vide, but is also a good temp for finishing off vacuum-packed stuff you want to put in the fridge, like they do with supermarket ready meals.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Oxtail: GET
Pile of Habaneros: GET


Ideas?

[deject]

OXTAIL FAJITAS!

[FatherJack]

Oxtail: GET
Pile of Habaneros: GET
Ideas?

Slow cook with aromatics for a spicy oxtail soup

[HereComesPete]

Hmm, a creole mirepoix uses green peppers chilli instead of carrots. I'm not suer I'd do them with the oxtail though, got quite a rich flavour but it's quite easy to smother it.

bloominfool has an oxtail recipe that needs a few days of prep work (well you know what he's like)

You could try the classic red wine braised oxtail and onions.

A quick google turned this up which sounds bloody lovely.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 619095.ece

is what I'm trying, decent test recipe I think (without star anise and orange)

Gonna try a habanero chilli sauce I think, will report back from gasmask land.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Gonna try a habanero chilli sauce I think, will report back from gasmask land.

Okay, that was fun

chopped and seeded probably 30 habaneros, simmered them down in some water with a good bit of salt and a few tbs of sugar, added some cider vinegar, attempted to attack with stick blender. nearly died.

donned gas mask, blended the crap out of the stuff until it turned saucy, lobbed in jar, retired to safe distance.

End result was something like brutally spicy and quite thick tabasco, fucking delicious.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 619095.ece

is what I'm trying, decent test recipe I think

Not a bad result, needs more work, needs a slightly lower temperature I think.

Quite nice, a bit too oily and the red wine pretty much reduced away, I'd've liked a bit more left for sauce.

Would go nicely with some mustard mash.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Umami Paste.

I got some today, not had chance to play with it in food, but did taste inexplicably delicious out of the tube.

[Dog Pants]

MSG in a tube?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I think it's more the inbred bastard cousin of MSG.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Spec me a knife, Bitches.

I've been wanting a decent paring knife for a while, as the lovely big knives are a bit, well big for finer stuff.

Thoughts so far are:

Shun 0700
Global GSF-22
Global GS-7

I have no real concerns about the Shun, it looks ideal, but not cheap.

The Global GSF-22 looks like it'd be mostly ideal, apart from the lack of a heel, which I generally use a fair bit for peeling type tasks.

Global GS-7 looks fairly nice, but I'm not massively keen on that handle, and the knife/handle spacing doesn't look particularly suited to my hands.


Anyone got any other ideas? I'd like to stick with shun and global ideally, because I'm a massive tart. But I'm open to suggestions.