Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Thanks Paul, I will try the beer cooler method on steaks. Would burgers be to risky?

Laurie

Laurie -
There's a whole blog post & recipe on Serious Eats complete with a review of burgers. Paul previously posted the link in this thread. You might have to scout around the SE site.

Thanks I will.

MiGirl, I don't see why hamburger would't work. If you are uncomfortable about the source of your beef, or otherwise uncomfortable with possible contamination in burger meat, you can pasteurize it. Even burger meat cooked medium rare can be pasteurized, it just takes a bit. Use the table in chapter 5 of Baldwin's Guide. So, for example, if you want your burger medium-medium-rare (136 F), and it is an inch thick (25mm), starting at fridge temp, it would be cooked for 1h15m. That is seriously pasteurized. You could do quite a bit less, and some increased risk (again, depends on how comfortable you are with your beef and the concept). Increase the temp to 140, and your done in 53 min. A thinner burger (15mm), more typical, at 140 would be done in 32 min. All fun stuff

Note that the above link goes to the full document; the chapter 5 referred to is on that page, not the book. Just scroll down.

Thanks Paul. I have a pound of groud beef from a local farmer I was thinking of using. I feel better about that beef than from the local Miejers store. I think if I use 136 F and then brown them in a smoking hot pan, it should be fine. Will let you know, you are right All fun stuff!

Question: How about using my electric smoker which is also a roaster. It has controll setting as low as 125 degrees. I was thinking I could add hot water put it on 136 or as close as I can get to that, and cover. Then test the water temp in 30 minutes again after 60 and and see how it holds the temp. Any thoughts on this?

Laurie

I use the guide Paul pointed out by Douglas Baldwin as my guide. I don't have sous vide equipment, but Paul's recipe sounds excellent. Luckily for me, my slow cooker/crock pot's low setting is a pretty constant 145F which is a good temperature for the chicken and pork as well and close to Paul's specified 147.5. We just made bone-in thick-cut pork chops a couple of days ago. I did a brine for four hours, cooked for 1 1/2 hours (25 - 30 mm thick) and they were so moist and succulent.

Baldwin has a video showing the use of a corn syrup and water wash on skinless chicken breasts to promote fast browning without over cooking the chicken on the hot skillet. It worked on the pork chops as well, though I have doubts that browning fructose creates the same complex flavor profiles that occur when you brown the meat. But it works in terms of visuals, to be sure.

Tatoosh

Tatoosh, How did you determine your crock pot temp? Fill with water and check in a few hours?

Laurie

I have a high quality probe thermometer (thermapen) and we just take readings every so often, these days every 15 to 30 minutes. We used this to make deep fried egg yolks which we monitored (and adjusted) every 5 minutes. After a couple of batches of those, we had a pretty good feel for the temperature range of the slow cooker.

Getting to temperature can be done as you describe or we sometimes (if in a hurry) heat the water on the stove top, then pour into the slow cooker insert so we are there. Usually we set the water from the stove top a few degrees higher than our target temperature because of the temperature drop from adding whatever we are cooking, which is usually just come out of a refrigerated brine.

Tatoosh

Thanks, I will check mine, I actually have 4 or 5 crockpots in various sizes. One is hotter than the others so I will omit that one. I also have a thermapen, don't we all? lol