House-cured pork shoulder and sous vide beans

[Syzygies]

So we picked up a 4 lb piece of boneless pork shoulder at a farmers market, and brined it a couple of days following a Paul Bertolli house-cured ham recipe. 2.5% salt by computed weight, scoring the meat as 80% water. Sugar, allspice, peppercorns, juniper berries, onions, carrots, fennel, parsley, thyme, bay, heated to 160 F and chilled. Meanwhile, we used a stoneware loaf pan in a SousVide Supreme Demi to cook half a pound of Rancho Gordo beans for 24 hours at 200 F, with garlic, white onion, salt, pepper and epazote. The Demi can accommodate either a One Sixth Steam Table Pan or two One Ninth Steam Table pans, which is what I'll use next time. Effectively, they sell the least expensive and most compact, precise steam table on the market; I'm trying to get them to make steam table adapter plates as accessories. Sous vide culture is hopelessly entangled in molecular gastronomy and skyscraper food, Alinea and El Bulli, when many of us just want to be Italian peasants using 23rd century equipment, on computer control so we can go work in the garden. Food elitism is a crippling disease. My to-the-point criticisms are that vacuum packing in plastic creates barriers to acceptance at many levels, and people are far better cooks if they can taste and adjust as they go. Vacuum packing is well suited to restaurant use where one perfects a protocol and repeats it endlessly. Imitating this at home has its place, but shouldn't be the only tool in the home sous vide arsenal.

[Syzygies]

Re: House-cured pork shoulder and sous vide beans

So the pork was great cooked eight hours to 190 F over apple smoke. Not quite pulled pork, but a section of shoulder handles the long cook and high temps better than chops, which are quickly ruined once they get too hot or sit. However, the outer bits were leaning dry. I solved this with some Mazi Piri Piri sauce (spectacular, artisanal production) but next time, wrap in bacon or caul fat?

[Syzygies]

Re: House-cured pork shoulder and sous vide beans The interior dimensions of the SousVide Supreme Demi are 11" long by 8 3/4" wide, and 6" deep, with a domed lid giving a bit more headroom, e.g. for a 6" deep steam table pan set on a rack to insure water bath circulation. Here are the specs for steam table pans: One Sixth Size 6 15/16 x 6 3/8 176 x 162 mm 4" deep, 1.7 quarts 6" deep, 2.4 quarts One Ninth Size 6 15/16 x 4 1/4 176 x 108 mm 4" deep, 0.9 quarts

[Syzygies]

Sous vide ribeye steaks So tonight, we cooked some local grass-fed ribeye steaks, sous vide in vacuum bags at 134 F for an hour then seared on the lower KK grate. A classic sous vide technique, known in the local BBQ dialect as the reverse sear. My first try at this with real sous vide equipment. The texture was amazingly like restaurant prime rib, my usual defensive dining choice at any credible place that means well. Next time we may go a few degrees lower (134 F is medium rare and we prefer a bit more rare) and I may encourage more of a raging inferno for the fire. The sous vide technique, nevertheless, makes for an extraordinarily predictable, reproducible result. I can see why restaurants like it.

[mguerra]

Re: House-cured pork shoulder and sous vide beans

Sous vide and injection molding, there's a match made in heaven.