Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Bagging separately is a good idea. I am also looking forward to more input.

I have some regular sized tails in the freezer that I may try first. The big ones are a bit expensive ($10-$12 each) for experimentation.

Thanks!

--Lisa

Like you, I'm relatively new at this, but I'm finding that temp is the determinant of the finished doneness, and time is dependent on the thickness. I'm also firmly entrenched in the 'lightly cooked seafood camp'. In Keller's Under Pressure, he suggests 139.1 for 15 minutes. That works well for me, although I round it to 140F. All you need is a slice of butter in the bag with each tail and it produced beautiful butter poached lobster.

The tails I get here at Publix are usually about 5-6 ounces. I can leave them in from15-40 minutes at 140F, and they are perfect at either end of the scale. You wouldn't want to leave them in for a couple hours, though, because the texture will deteriorate. You just have to leave them in long enough to cook through - it won't overcook if you leave it in a little longer.

I have some of those Publix tails in my freezer so I will start with them. I prefer most seafood medium to medium well, with exceptions for rarer temps (standards - tuna, salmon). I am not sure how I feel about rare lobster though. The texture doesn't sound terribly appearing. But I won't knock it until I try it!

Thank you,

--Lisa

It's not rare at 140F, it's cooked through - probably considered medium - but not dried out.
You might prefer 145. The nice thing about Amy's suggestion of separate bags is that you can try it both ways.

I'm still playing with salmon temps, but I'm liking the 120-125 range. That's more rare to mid rare.
Shrimp - I'm between 135 & 140.
Halibut is fabulous at 132.

FWIW, my sweet spot on a steak is 129.

There is some trial and error to find the perfect temp. Since you can be so precise, right to the degree, once you find your happy place, you can always hit it. There is no more "Oh, I should have pulled this a minute or two earlier". You can trust that your protein will always be perfect, and concentrate on the more creative stuff like saucing & finishing.

Excellent! Thank you for the suggestions. Charts are good but it is better to have a starting point from someone who's taste you trust.

I do appreciate it.

--Lisa

So far I have tried:

* Kenji's perfect egg (boil 3 mins, shock 1 min, sousvide 45 min at 143), which was so-so. I know that you never know what eggs are going to do but these were welded into their shell and had to be dug out with a spoon. Not pretty. I am also not a fan of the "loose white" that needs to be dumped out first.

* A few peeled raw shrimp with a bit of butter at SS time and temp recommendation. Good and perfectly cooked, but really not exceptional vs boiled and shocked.

* Tonight we had diver scallops (previously frozen from my local Publix). I cooked them at 51c (123.8) for 35 mins and then seared for just a quick moment in a rockin' hot pan. They were incredible. I had dusted them with ground peri-peri and Penzy's Florida Seasoned pepper and added a couple of drops of orange oil to the bag. I only got the flavors of the hot and black peppers at the end so I think the searing was too much for the more delicate orange flavors (unsurprisingly).

So far the Nomiku works perfectly as advertised. I used a stock pot of warm water, and clipped the circulator to the side of the pot. The water came up to temperature within 10 mins and was ready to go by the time I had cleaned the feet off of the scallops. I had set it 1/2C higher than I wanted it due to the chill of the meat and I put two bags of scallops in (a bit more than half a pound each) adjusted the temp back down and it was right where I needed it within 2 mins. It also sounds a bit like an aquarium pump, which isn't too noisy if I want to do a longer cook soon.

Thanks for everyone's help.

--Lisa

What temp are folks using for bone in chicken thighs? I see recommendations from 140F to 176F. Because it was chicken, I started at the high end of that. 140 seems a little scary for chicken. I adapted Tim's chicken paprikash the other night, and it worked very well, but the chicken seemed a bit overcooked.

What has worked for you?

I never cook them bone-in, but it shouldn't make a difference. I cook them at 149. If you cook them bone in, there may be some red near the bone but it won't be rare meat, it will just be red.

I go with Keller's recommendation of 152, and it seems to work well for me. But, it really depends on how I'm going to finish. If leaving whole while finishing, I might lower the temp a few degrees to account for the additional cooking. And Paul's comment about it still being red, but still cooked is worth noting. Anything poultry next to a bone SV looks a little different than you'd expect if cooking conventionally.

Amy

Thank you both. I'll turn it down next time. I appreciate the warning about the color. I probably would have assumed it was still raw.