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 what did you cook today thread 
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Homemade pastrami. Tastes amazing.


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Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:11 pm
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MadPick wrote:
Next time: Both pieces will be pre-smoked (since I already did them all). One will be cooked sous vide and the other one reverse-seared on the pellet smoker. Based on previous tests, I'm pretty sure I know how it'll go . . . .


And tonight was "next time." I cooked two pieces of the regular sirloin, not the picanha. One was cooked sous vide at 135 degrees for 6.5 hours; the other was cooked on the Recteq pellet smoker at 250 to an internal temperature of 135 . . . just kidding, I got impatient and pulled it at 131. :bigsmile: Then I seared them both with the ProSear flamethrower.

This "sous vide vs. Recteq" battle ended just the way the previous two battles (with filet mignon and NY strip steaks) did: The sous vide steak was slightly more tender, and the Recteq steak was a LOT more flavorful. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed both of these cheap steaks, but the Recteq one was definitely better.

Here's a really shitty and unappetizing pic; the sous vide steak is on the left:

Image

I'm gonna call this settled science, and for cooking steaks I'll stick to the Recteq from now on.

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Fri Mar 26, 2021 6:56 pm
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Yesterday I decided to try something new: "Farmers cheese." Here's the basic process:

- Heat a gallon of milk to 190-ish degrees.
- Add 3/4 cup white vinegar, stir and let it sit for a bit so the curds will separate from the liquid whey.
- Strain through a towel or cheesecloth.
- Add stuff to the cheese if you want to, then squeeze it down to form a shape.

Pretty simple, right?

Here's the milk after the vinegar was added . . . ewwww. :bigsmile:

Image

I strained it through an old kitchen towel, and plopped it into a bowl:

Image

Then I mixed in some dried Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper . . . pressed it into a cheese mold wrapped in the towel and left it overnight. After unwrapping the towel:

Image

And turning it onto a plate and cutting out a piece, hehe:

Image

And . . . the verdict? It's okay. It was fun to do, and I think there's potential for it to be good. This particular batch is a bit dry, and a little uninteresting . . . but I admittedly just kind of winged it, so I'm not terribly surprised. If I do it again, I'll:

- Leave a little more whey in it to keep it more moist.
- Use more salt.
- Use fresh herbs instead of dried, probably.
- Maybe add something juicy . . . pieces of cut-up fruit, perhaps?

Has anyone done this? Any tips to share?

EDIT TO ADD: I got 1.25 pounds of cheese from one gallon of milk.

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Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:05 pm
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MadPick wrote:
MadPick wrote:
Next time: Both pieces will be pre-smoked (since I already did them all). One will be cooked sous vide and the other one reverse-seared on the pellet smoker. Based on previous tests, I'm pretty sure I know how it'll go . . . .


And tonight was "next time." I cooked two pieces of the regular sirloin, not the picanha. One was cooked sous vide at 135 degrees for 6.5 hours; the other was cooked on the Recteq pellet smoker at 250 to an internal temperature of 135 . . . just kidding, I got impatient and pulled it at 131. :bigsmile: Then I seared them both with the ProSear flamethrower.

This "sous vide vs. Recteq" battle ended just the way the previous two battles (with filet mignon and NY strip steaks) did: The sous vide steak was slightly more tender, and the Recteq steak was a LOT more flavorful. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed both of these cheap steaks, but the Recteq one was definitely better.

Here's a really shitty and unappetizing pic; the sous vide steak is on the left:

Image

I'm gonna call this settled science, and for cooking steaks I'll stick to the Recteq from now on.



I knew it! Fire is better, boiled meat is cardinal sin. :bigsmile:

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Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:35 pm
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The local GrocOut has had 1lb packs of frozen ahi tuna for awhile. I've been buying them and stove-grilling (cast iron grill pan) them with various marinades. It's got to be the easiest meat to cook, like chicken but you don't need to worry about serving it rare (or raw).

Tried something new this time. Ginger Soy Braised Tuna: https://www.thespruceeats.com/ginger-so ... ke-2031599

It looks like cat food, and, well, being tuna, kinda smells like it too. And it remained a lot firmer than I thought it would. But with rice and veggies it's pretty good. Sorry, no pics...it looks just like in the recipe though.

Honestly with the extra ingredients needed (like ginger beer I'd rather use for Mules and sake I'd rather use for...sake), I'm not sure it'll make it into the rotation vs. grilling which takes minutes and just needs teriyaki sauce/lemon pepper/etc. My eldest did really like it, and she's not much of a fish person, so we'll see.

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Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:38 pm
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MadPick wrote:
Here's a really shitty and unappetizing pic; the sous vide steak is on the left:

Image



How long did you wait after slicing the sous-vide one, before the photo? SV steaks gain colour after slicing. It does nothing for the flavour - I'm just curious about the photo.


Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:54 am
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WanderingWalrus wrote:
How long did you wait after slicing the sous-vide one, before the photo? SV steaks gain colour after slicing. It does nothing for the flavour - I'm just curious about the photo.


That particular slice was made right before the photo, maybe a minute.

I had sliced off other parts of it earlier . . . maybe 10 minutes?

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Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:14 am
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Because of Steve we have been making yogurt in the InstantPot. How easy is that? Wow. Really top shelf yogurt. We used organic whole milk and Trader Joe's yogurt to start our first batch, and now just made our 4th batch using the culture from the 3rd. A) Yogurt is hardly sour at all. Very delicious. B) Nicely thick too. We now eat a lot of yogurt for real cheap.

Saturday I made some breakfast sausage, 1/3 lean ground turkey, 1/3 lean ground chicken (I know I know) and 1/3 lean ground beef. So lean I added a little grapeseed oil to the mix, salt, almond flour, poultry seasoning, rosemary, thyme, sage, black and white pepper, a little red pepper and fennel and a little cardamom. Fried some up today. Oh yeah. Very tasty!

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Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:55 am
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Pablo wrote:
Because of Steve we have been making yogurt in the InstantPot. How easy is that? Wow. Really top shelf yogurt. We used organic whole milk and Trader Joe's yogurt to start our first batch, and now just made our 4th batch using the culture from the 3rd.


Nice! Very cool. Are you using cold start or the boil method?

The "experts" say that you should use ultra-pasteurized milk if you use the cold start method. I've been doing it with regular milk with no issues at all, so I'm comfortable continuing with that.

A few things about the starter . . . .
- I forgot to save starter a couple of times, and had to go buy yogurt. To remedy that, I started saving multiple "doses" of starter from a single batch, and freezing them.
- Turns out, this is a good thing anyhow, since the more "generations" of yogurt you have, apparently the more the culture will degrade. So if you get multiple starters from a single batch, you minimize the number of generations you have.
- I now use (and freeze) whey as my starter. So really, from a single batch you've got enough starter for probably dozens of subsequent batches without sacrificing any actual yogurt, if you have the containers and freezer space. I save about a half-dozen doses of starter at a time.

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Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:02 pm
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MadPick wrote:
Pablo wrote:
Because of Steve we have been making yogurt in the InstantPot. How easy is that? Wow. Really top shelf yogurt. We used organic whole milk and Trader Joe's yogurt to start our first batch, and now just made our 4th batch using the culture from the 3rd.


Nice! Very cool. Are you using cold start or the boil method?

The "experts" say that you should use ultra-pasteurized milk if you use the cold start method. I've been doing it with regular milk with no issues at all, so I'm comfortable continuing with that.

A few things about the starter . . . .
- I forgot to save starter a couple of times, and had to go buy yogurt. To remedy that, I started saving multiple "doses" of starter from a single batch, and freezing them.
- Turns out, this is a good thing anyhow, since the more "generations" of yogurt you have, apparently the more the culture will degrade. So if you get multiple starters from a single batch, you minimize the number of generations you have.
- I now use (and freeze) whey as my starter. So really, from a single batch you've got enough starter for probably dozens of subsequent batches without sacrificing any actual yogurt, if you have the containers and freezer space. I save about a half-dozen doses of starter at a time.


We just start cold. No deaths yet. This is our last batch before we move, so after we are all moved in we'll just buy some yogurt. Thanks for the inspiration!

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Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:19 pm
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MadPick wrote:
WanderingWalrus wrote:
How long did you wait after slicing the sous-vide one, before the photo? SV steaks gain colour after slicing. It does nothing for the flavour - I'm just curious about the photo.


That particular slice was made right before the photo, maybe a minute.

I had sliced off other parts of it earlier . . . maybe 10 minutes?


It takes about 30 seconds to colour up, so .. there we go. That's as good as it looks. So, it doesn't look as good, and it doesn't taste as good. The only question is, on days where you don't want to go to the effort of the other method, is the SV method good enough for your enjoyment?

Next comparison for you - do an SV one next to one reverse seared in the oven, as low as your oven will go until you sear it however you want to. See if it's better than the SV one, for the same effort for a steak...


Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:02 pm
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Today I cooked char siu (Chinese BBQ) pork and bao buns, both for the first time. What the hell, right?

Technically I cooked this both yesterday and today, since I cooked the pieces of pork shoulder for about 28 hours using sous vide in the Instant Pot. I roughly followed Guga's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYau-TwE50o

So for the pork, you cook up a sauce, then put the sauce and pork in the vacuum pack and cook it sous vide at 145 degrees. When it's done, slather some more sauce on it and then cook it in the oven, putting more sauce and cooking more. I used "broil" . . . not sure, maybe a lower temp would have been better, I don't know. But it turned out pretty good, I have about seven pounds of this:

Image

Then the bao buns . . . put together some dough, knead it, let it rise for a couple of hours, roll it out, cut some circles and then fold them over and you get this:

Image

And then I used the steamer insert in my rice cooker for the very first time:

Image

End result:

Image

Image

So . . . how was it? It was good. It wasn't "oh my god" good. The pork was nice and tender, so tender that I was barely able to slice it without it falling apart; I guess that's what happens when it cooks for over a day! The bao buns were fun, but honestly the taste wasn't all that, and I think having the pork with rice would have been just as good, and a whole lot easier.

I've still got most of the meat and 12 more bao buns that just need to be steamed, so we'll see how it goes over the next couple of days!

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Fri Apr 02, 2021 7:06 pm
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THAT LOOKS GOOD!!!!!!!

Most Cha siu is (mostly) made with tough ass pork and it stays that way. What you did was better, IMHO.

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Fri Apr 02, 2021 7:20 pm
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Pablo wrote:
Most Cha siu is (mostly) made with tough ass pork and it stays that way. What you did was better, IMHO.


Yeah, tough it was not, by the time it was done with the long soak. :bigsmile:

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Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:23 pm
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Nice job on that Char siu pork Steve. :thumbsup2: I tried it once and it, didn't turn out so well.
I hosed up the sauce. :facepalm2:

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Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:56 pm
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