cooking books... I want your opinions please.

[Du1point8]

My oldies have finally got into Sous-vide cooking.

I would like peoples opinions on the best Sous-vide cooking book to get them so they can hone their skills.

Ta

[simonrockman]

It's more like an advanced course, with detailed histories of cookery trends (plated dishes only came in in the 1950s), physics (the different rates of heat transference in materials), biology and diseases, and with the most amazing photography, it's very, very hard work to read but..

http://modernistcuisine.com/books/modernist-cuisin...


Simon

[zygalski]

Du1point8 said:

My oldies have finally got into Sous-vide cooking.

I would like peoples opinions on the best Sous-vide cooking book to get them so they can hone their skills.

Ta

Are they opening up their own restaurant?

[Du1point8]

zygalski said:

Du1point8 said:

My oldies have finally got into Sous-vide cooking.

I would like peoples opinions on the best Sous-vide cooking book to get them so they can hone their skills.

Ta

Are they opening up their own restaurant?

Na... just my mother is into her cooking so much that she has 4 ovens at home in the kitchen, now she adds a sous-vide cooker to the batch.

[zygalski]

Oh.
Here's a good article on the delights of the home sous-vider:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth...

[Pete Franklin]

zygalski said:

Oh.
Here's a good article on the delights of the home sous-vider:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth...

Interested to see what you think a bad article would be? The author doesn't know what he is doing with the equipment and is too lazy to research how to do things properly or learn what can be achieved- he is also wrong in many of the things he says (fish cooking being a main example). I accept that sous-vide cooking doesn't replace traditional methods but it is pretty blinkered to think that it doesn't have any real merit to an enthusiastic cook.

in terms of cookbooks: The fat duck cook book and Heston Blumenthal at Home have a few good recipes as does Thomas Keller: under pressure

advise to the OP is use the internet primarily for recipe ideas and advise. there are a lot of pitfalls with the technique. a few lessons i have learned through experience:

After a failure with well hung meat and thermophillic bacteria i always blanch packs of meat that are going to be cooked for a long time in boiling water for 10 seconds before putting in the bath.

when searing meat at the end of the sousvide process it is best done in a very hot pan with a browning agent like butter and it is best to allow the meat to cool slightly (20mins is normally enough) before searing or it will immediately overcook.

Thin bits of meat (pork chops, thin steaks etc) will easily overcook when seared as the temp is already perfect and a small increase sends it over. to avoid this try using meat with grain that runs the opposite way to normal cuts (eg skirt or onglet of beef or the top flank of a rib of beef or short ribs. this provides the best steaks as the meat doesnt over-cook as quickly when seared.

some meats that are prone to having high levels of enzymes such as wild game are not good for cooking at low temps for a very long time as the enzymes proliferate at these low temps and break the meat down too much i experienced this with venison cooked at 56 for 8hrs and the texture was unpleasant and mushy. the taste was good though.

After a lot of experimentation I have determined that 0.5% to 0.8% salt per kg of meat is about the correct seasoning level(for me). you can add all sorts of other herbs spices and seasonings although fresh herbs are not great for very slow cooking meals. whole spice seeds will impart a more subtle flavour than ground. garlic is best left in its casing and stabbed with a knife otherwise it can taint a patch of the food stronger than the rest. some of my fav combinations are: pork with fennel carraway and juniper, fish with fennel, slow cooking beef and gelatenous pork joints with star anise

To add liquid to the vacuum pack (impossible without a chamber vacuum normally) try lining a small cup with clingfilm, fill with the liquid you want to marinade the meat while cooking and then close the tops of the clingfilm together while pressing the air out and twist tightly to seal forming a bubble of liquid. seal the bubble within the vacuum pack and when sealed burst it between your fingers.

If you slow cook meat at very low temps (below 65ish) the juice that comes out of the meat will split when heated as the proteins that have been released will coagulate when heated. my method for making a sauce from this juice (which is very pure and tasty) is to first heat until the liquid and solids separate strain off the liquid and reserve, put the solids back into the pan and fry with a little butter until browned, add the liquid back in and then simmer strain once more and discard the solids. make a roux and then add the liquid back in and stir until thickened at this point i add a bit of gravy browning (colouring) agent as the sauce tastes delicious but the colour is anemic finish with a knob of butter. sounds like a faff but it is actually considerably quicker than making a decent gravy and tastes better in my opinion. meat that has been cooked at higher temps (70-80) will not have the same issues.


a few of my favorite temp/ time combos

-skirt steak 56dc for 24hrs
-3inch thick slice of pork shoulder 61dc for 24hrs
-beef short ribs 80dc for 12hrs
-beef short ribs 56dc for 72hrs
-chicken breast 60dc for 2hrs
-pork belly 80dc for 12hrs (inc 0.8% salt cure added to vac pack)
-pork belly 62dc for 36hrs
-confit duck legs 75dc for 8hrs (inc 0.8% salt cure added to vac pack)
-chicken legs 75dc for 8hrs
-ox cheek 80dc 12hrs
-pork cheeks 60dc 24hrs
-fennel 1/2cm slices 82dc for 1hr
-Pork chops-60dc for 6hrs
-pork tenderloin 60dc for 2hrs
-salmon 42dc for 30mins

Contrary to all the detractors- if the food comes out mushy, you are not doing it right.

[Du1point8]

Will look at the under pressure book as already got her the fat duck cookbook.

will progress onto the Modernist Cuisine at Home once I know she will actually use the thing more than once.