Cookaholics Bulletin Board

How did you feel about the lobster flavour?

Lindsay - I love my Nomiku, honestly. I know that a lot of people prefer the real PolyScience PID, but the Nomiku takes up very little space, comes to temp quickly and holds the temp well.

Paul - the lobster was perfect. A tad firm for me, but not overcooked by any means. Cooking longer also meant the medallions glued themselves together very nicely, which made presentation very nice. Some of them were coming apart going into the bag but perfect coming out. I would do it again for a special occasion.

--Lisa

Lisa,

Please don't throw out the jus from the bag...it's liquid gold. Reduce and use in sauce.

Amy

Amy,

I didn't! If you look back you can see I drained over a colander and saved it to use my lobster ravioli.

--Lisa

Ah, I misread! So sorry...

Amy

Need some advice as I'm getting to know my new toy - do you start the food at room temperature or just out of the refrigerator. I'm going to do a pork tenderloin today and normally I'd take it out of the refrigerator, salt it, and let it sit at room temp for an hour. Should I do that or just seal it right out of the refrigerator. And should I salt it?

-> Temp. Most charts and tables assume fridge temperature. Because you are normally cooking to equilibrium, warming doesn't help the cook process (but could shorten it, but of course, the total time will be longer). You can also cook straight from frozen for all but the biggest cuts, where it may spend too much time in a bad temperature zone.

-> Salting. This is more complicated. Common advice is to salt when you put it in the bag if you are relatively short cook times and serving it shortly afterword, but to hold the salt if you are not serving it right away (the next day, or later, for example). Salting for a long time will give the meat a little more of a 'cured' texture. However, I actually do this on purpose with chicken breasts and pork tenderloins as I prefer the slightly firmer texture. Most people would not like it with a steak, so typically you only salt steak in the bag if you are serving it promptly. Taste tests by Cooking Issues gave a slight edge to salting in the bag, but they still recommended holding it if you are pre-cooking and re-therming. You'll probably have to experiment a little to find your own preferences.

Thanks, Paul. That's very helpful. I think texture could be an interesting challenge. We did salmon last night and the butteriness was staggering. In fact, it made the salmon so rich I could only eat about half of what I usually eat. However, my husband wasn't wild about the texture - he wanted a little more firmness.So I think I'll do my normal procedure of salting an hour in advance and work from there.

About a week and a half ago I did a sous vide pork belly for 72 hours, chilled in the bag and then weighted it for 2 days. With everything going on, we just hadn't gotten to it and it was just sitting in the fridge. This morning I decided I to make a big breakfast since we have been eating Christmas cookies with our coffee all week. I sliced into about 1" slices and them cubed the slices (four to a slice). I then pan fried it until crisp on all sides, served it with a small omelet, homemade biscuits and mango butter. I am stuffed!

There is a question buried in here... If I make a batch of belly cubes and fry them, will it reheat well in a oven? I a thinking party food but don't want to be doing that kind of messy, smelly frying when people are coming over.

--Lisa

Lisa, I reheat frozen fried foods in my Breville convection toaster oven all the time. I put them on the rack of one the broiler pans that have come with the ovens (we have 3 sizes now) and then place on paper towels. They come out crispy again and not greasy. If I was going to do it in the big oven, I'd do convection bake and put on a rack on a sheet pan.

PS, for small portions sometimes I'm lazy and use the toast setting (no preheating) at medium high for 4 slices and it works just as well.