36-hour Sous Vide Chashu Pork Belly

This post is a part of a larger post about making ramen using a kit from the famous ramen shop in Tokyo, Rokurinsha.

Pork belly is a tricky thing to cook.Because it has quite a bit of fat and collagen, it needs to be cooked for long periods of time before it becomes tender. Unfortunately, the higher the temperature at which you cook your meat, the more moisture it loses, and thus the tougher it becomes. Therefore, making good pork belly involves dancing in between that fine line of finding the optimal temperature and time.

The Modernist Cuisine at Home outlines various temperatures and times for cooking pork belly using sous vide. The general rule is - the lower the temperature the longer the cooking time. I decided to go with 36 hours, since The Modernist said there was not much noticeable difference in tenderness between 36 hours and longer cook times.

According to some sources, it's preferable to roll up the pork belly to prevent moisture loss. My pork belly came rolled up already, so I didn't need to add that extra step. For presentation purposes, it's nice to have it rolled up so you can slice it that way later. Make your marinade by heating up soy sauce, mirin,and sake with sugar until the sugar is completely melted.Once slightly cooled, pour this marinade into a vacuum bag with the pork belly and seal. Hanging the bag over the edge was the best way I found to vacuum seal a bag full of liquid (something the FoodSaver does not usually handle).Cook for 36 hours with liquid at 146° F. I actually ended up cooking it for closer to 40 hours since I didn't come home from work until the evening.

At this point, the pork belly is gorgeously soft and gelatinous. Wait until it cools. Once cool, you can easily slice it with a knife into thin slices for ramen.Serve with your favorite ramen dish!Enjoy!Sous Vide Chashu Pork Belly

Adapted from this recipe

2 pound slab of boneless pork belly, rolled up

Marinade
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup sake
1 cup mirin
1/2 cup sugar
6 scallions, roughly chopped
6 whole garlic cloves
one 2-inch knob ginger, roughly sliced

1. Heat up soy sauce, mirin,and sake with the sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar is melted.
2. Add scallions, garlic cloves, and ginger. Let cool.
3, Pour the marinade into a vacuum sealer bag with the pork belly and vacuum seal the entire thing.
4. Sous vide cook for 36-40 hours with liquid at 146° F.
5. Remove the bag from the sous vide machine.
6. Cool down the meat by either putting the entire bag into an ice bath (if you need it soon), or let it cool in the refrigerator overnight. Don't try to slice it when it's hot - you will fail.
7. Once cool, remove from bag, dry off the liquid, and slice.
8. Serve in your favorite ramen dish!

©2009-2012 Tiny Urban KitchenAll Rights Reserved

Sous Vide Cooking

Parts of this post have been published before in my Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide style post. However, I thought it would be useful to write a separate post dedicated to the general art of sous vide, sort of as a reference point. Enjoy!

Although cooking in a water bath has been a technique that’s been around since medieval times, it wasn’t until the 1970’s that sous vide, a method of cooking food under vacuum in precisely temperature-controlled water baths, was invented in France. It would not be adopted in the US until 2000, when Daniel Boulud learned this fascinating technique from French chef Gerard Bertholon.

With the recent popularity of food shows and celebrity chefs, this method has taken the cooking world by a storm. In fact, many fine dining establishments across America now use this technique.

Despite its popularity in restaurants, it has not really caught on at home. A quick search of Amazon.com only yielded a handful of books about sous vide cooking at home, many of which published within the last two years.

"Sous vide" literally means "under vacuum" in French. Sort of a misnomer, this method of cooking actually involves two parts. Food is first sealed under vacuum in a plastic bag and then cooked in a water bath set at a very precise temperature.

Sous vide cooking has a lot of interesting benefits. First, because you can precisely control the temperature of your water bath, you won't overcook your food. This is great for restaurant cooks who can't always predict exactly when something needs to be served. You can keep a steak at 130° F (medium rare) for hours in that water bath and take it out to sear just moments before the guests arrive.
 
Second, this technique allows you to obtain textures of food you could not obtain with traditional cooking. I'll go into this more later, but a sous vide egg has an beautiful velvety creamy texture that is difficult to obtain with traditional methods. Likewise, you can cook shortribs at a low temperature for hours, softening it until it is melt-in-your-mouth tender yet still medium rare at the same time!

Finally, sous vide cooking, in many instances, allows you to reduce significantly the amount of cooking liquid you use. You can marinate with just a small amount marinade in the bag. Similarly, you can confit a piece of meat with just a small amount of fat, unlike the traditional method where you needed to submerge the entire piece of meat in a pot of melted fat.

You can rig your own sous-vide system with a magic cooker, beer cooler, or a cast iron pot. I've tried the magic cooker method, with great success. Alternatively, if you're not the tinkering type, you can use a professional unit, such as the SousVide Supreme

I've played around with sous vide quite a bit on this site, so I thought it was time to compile them all in once place. I've done everything from hacking my own sous vide system out of a Chinese magic cooker to cooking an entire luxury meal, complete with Thomas Keller and David Chang recipes, out of sous vide.

My general thoughts?
In general, sous vide is a great fool proof method for cooking meat in a way that does not overcook it. My steaks have come out perfectly each time, and I honestly don't use any other method anymore, not even my previously dearly beloved oven to pan sear method.

Scallops come out great via sous vide, and salmon is delicious as well. We thought chicken was pretty good too, although Bryan doesn't think it's any better than a really good poached chicken. Octopus cooked sous vide is velvety and smooth - a far cry from its rubbery beginnings. Lobster is good cooked sous vide, although I don't think I necessarily thought it was better than normal steamed or boiled lobsters.

Vegetables, such as potatoes, taste fine cooked sous vide but I really didn't notice that much of a difference from normal cooking. I think in these cases it's just easier and more convenient for restaurants to cook vegetables sous vide. For the home cook, I don't think it makes a big difference.

The Biggest Disadvantages?
Space and time are the biggest disadvantages of sous vide cooking. Space because all these extra gadgets really take up a lot of space! Between the Sousvide Supreme's large footprint and the wide Foodsaver, I hardly have any space left to chop meat and vegetables!

Secondly, most things take much longer using the sous vide technique. I cook my steaks for at least 45 minutes, and some things could take even longer. It takes a lot less time to just throw a steak on a grill. It's your call whether you have the time on a weeknight to cook using this method.

Furthermore, at home you have to cook everything serially. Unlike in a restaurant, where there may be various different water baths going at different precise temperatures, I only have one machine. If you're cooking a meal that contains multiple sous vide components, often they need to be cooked at a different temperatures.

Although there may not be much active work that needs to be done, you need to be VERY WELL ORGANIZED and plan ahead in order to pull off such a multi-course meal. Otherwise, you very well may run out of time!

Safety
The US food code recommends that raw or unpasteurized food be held at temperature between 41°F (5°C) and 130°F (54.4°C) for a maximum of four hours. Anything longer than that will give harmful pathogens a chance to multiply to possibly dangerous levels.

On top of that, one particular hazard that relates specifically to sous-vide cooking are bacteria that can proliferate in anaerobic (oxygen-free) environments. Salmonella, Clostridium botulinum, E. coli, and Listeria can multiply to dangerous levels in the anaerobic conditions of a vacuum pack when held at temperatures in the "danger zone" (40°F (4.4°C) and 140°F (60°C).

What's the practical application of this? Be VERY CAREFUL when handling raw foods that will be cooked sous-vide. Basically, treat the food as you would any raw meat product. Make sure you purchase very fresh meat, and keep meat refrigerated until just before cooking. Similarly, if you plan on storing sous-vide cooked food after cooking, cool the cooked meat immediately in an ice bath to bring the temperature down below the danger zone as quickly as possible. Finally, don't cook meats at temperatures in the "danger zone" for more than four hours.

Sous Vide Posts

BASIC
Sous vide Steak
Sous vide Chicken
Sous vide Scallops
Sous vide Salmon
Sous vide Octopus
Sous vide Lobster

FANCIER
Duck leg confit, Pomme Sarladaise, Fried Hen Egg, and Frisee Salad (Thomas Keller)
Confit of Liberty Pekin Duck Leg (Thomas Keller)
Duck Fat Fried Potatoes (Pommes Sarladaise) (Thomas Keller)
48 hour Short Ribs with Dashi Braised Daikon (David Chang)
Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg (Inspired by Marcella Hazan)

EQUIPMENT
Sous vide cooking uses up a lot of gadgets, counter space, and money! Here's my set up in my kitchen:



I personally use the larger SousVide Supreme (10 L), which is great for entertaining since it can hold a lot of things in one go. On the other hand, it takes up quite a bit of counter space, which isn't so tiny kitchen friendly.


At the time I got my Sous Vide supreme, the smaller, cuter, (cheaper!) SousVide Supreme Demi wasn't available yet. Had it been available, I would have considered it. Currently, I sometimes find it a pain to heat up so much water just to cook one piece of meat. A smaller Demi, even though it doesn't hold as much, would work much better for small kitchen folks like me who are usually cooking for just 2 people. It comes in all sorts of colors, like black, blue, and red (my favorite!).

For vacuum sealers, I have a version of the above pictured FoodSaver, which I bought at Costco (it probably has a slightly different model number at Costco). You can buy the bags either online or at Costco as well.

Once you have the machine and the vaccum sealers, all you need is a recipe and some food to cook!

RESOURCES
Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller
Sous Vide for the Home Cook by Douglas Baldwin

Enjoy! I'll continue to add posts to this list as they come. :)

Sous Vide Chicken with Pesto

We were curious. Very very curious.

We'd heard amazing, almost fantastically amazing things about sous-vide chicken. All over the internet, people raved about its unique, velvety, almost "melt-in-your-mouth" tenderness. They said it was nothing like normal chicken. "You'll never be able to eat normal chicken again."

This miraculous chicken was supposed to be juicy, succulent, flavorful, and moist.

Really? We were skeptical, yet intrigued at the same time.

Admittedly, the sous vide machine had already done wonders for scallops, not to mention the perfectly cooked steak, delicious custard-like eggs, and duck confit. Even the sous vide salmon I had made from a hacked water bath system had really incredible texture.

But chicken breast? Which is inherently bland, tasteless, and boring?


Just a tiny bit of background - cooking food sous vide is essentially cooking food in a vacuum sealed plastic bag in a precisely temperature-controlled water bath. If you want gory details (e.g., some history & science), visit this post, where I cook a multi-course meal, complete with Thomas Keller (French Laundry) and David Chang (Momofuku) recipes, completely using the sous vide technique.

Although the official instruction manual tells you to cook the sous-vide chicken at 146 ° F, I was pretty convinced (after poking around the internet a bit) that 140 ° F was the way to go if I wanted a juicier, softer result.

140 ° F is right on the edge of the danger zone (between 40 ° F and 140 ° F). Typically, if you cook at temperatures below 140 ° F, you run the risk of bacteria growth. This is why any meat cooked in that "danger zone" should not be cooked for more than 4 hours.

Making this chicken was really really simple. I basically vacuum sealed the chicken (after seasoning with a bit of salt & pepper), and dropped it in the machine for one hour. After it's done, remove from the bag, slice, and serve with your favorite sauce.

Verdict?
Sous vide chicken is definitely different from traditionally cooked chicken. It's much more plump, soft, and juicy. Because the water bath is held at a constant temperature, you can't really overcook the meat that easily.

However, I would hardly call it a transcendent experience.

Bryan's reaction?

"It's good, but not as amazing as people make it seem."

"Just tastes like really good poached chicken."

True. At the end of the day, it's still tastes like chicken. Sure, it's much juicier, and much more evenly cooked. It's definitely got better texture than traditionally grilled chicken, though some (like Bryan!) would argue that a good poached chicken tastes equally juicy and soft.

With the sous vide technique, however, there are some advantages.  I do like how you don't have to worry about it while it's cooking. If you leave the meat in the water bath for a little longer, it won't really overcook. It's best for dinner parties where you don't know exactly when the guests you will arrive, but you want the food to be perfectly cooked right after they arrive. Furthermore, unlike poached chicken, all of that chicken-y goodness stays right in the bag. The flavors won't dissolve into the water bath during the cooking process.


Sous Vide Chicken with Pesto
1 boneless chicken breast
salt and pepper
homemade basil pesto

Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Seal in a foodsaver bag and cook sous vide at 140 ° F for at least an hour. If using skinless breast, just slice and serve or brown the breast briefly (mostly for color). If there is skin, brown the skin in a hot pan with a little bit of oil for about 1-2 minutes until browned.

Top with homemade pesto and/or serve over pesto pasta.

For more general background of sous-vide as a cooking technique, please refer to this post.

Enjoy!

Related Sous-vide Posts
Bacon Wrapped Scallops - sous vide
Momofuku 48-hour Braised Short Ribs
Duck Leg Confit
Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg
Duck Fat Fried Potatoes
Sous Vide Salmon
Sous Vide Steak

Sous Vide Scallops (bacon-wrapped scallops)

Scallops are tricky.

When done right, they are sweet, succulent, and melt-in-your-mouth tender. When done improperly, at worse they are rubbery, fishy, and even sandy!

The key, of course, is to purchase high quality scallops and not overcook them. The first part is relatively easy once you've found a good source for seafood. I picked up these gorgeous plump and fresh scallops from Whole Foods. They have no hint of fishiness. Instead, they smelled clean and almost sweet - the way scallops should smell.

And the second part?

I decided to try Sous Vide.  Could I achieve that perfect texture with this precise cooking method?

"Sous vide" literally means "under vacuum" in French. Sort of a misnomer, this method of cooking actually involves two parts. Food is first sealed under vacuum in a plastic bag and then cooked in a water bath set at a very precise temperature.

Sous vide cooking has a lot of interesting benefits. First, because you can precisely control the temperature of your water bath, you won't overcook your food. This is great for restaurant cooks who can't always predict exactly when something needs to be served. You can keep a steak at 130° F (medium rare) for hours in that water bath and take it out to sear just moments before the guests arrive.

You can rig your own sous-vide system with a magic cooker, beer cooler, or a cast iron pot. I've tried the magic cooker method, with great success. Alternatively, if you're not the tinkering type, you can use a professional unit, such as the Sous Vide Supreme.

Recently, the folks at Sous Vide Supreme were kind enough to send me a unit to try out. Sous Vide Supreme is probably the first precision thermal water bath marketed towards home kitchens. Priced at $449.95, it's still a bit steep compared to other kitchen appliances, though it's a lot cheaper than the commercial ones, which start at around twice as much.

Since I had already tried making sous vide steak and salmon, I thought scallops would be a natural next step. I had seen many recipes that suggested using a lower temperature (125 °F (52 °C)), but I was cooking chicken at the same time, and thus wondered whether I could throw them all in one water bath.

I filled two different bags: one with bacon-wrapped scallops, thyme, and shallots; the other with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper. I stuck them both in the Sous Vide Supreme and set it at 140° F / 60 °C for 40 minutes.

When the timer beeped at me, I took them out, dried them with paper towels, and briefly seared them on a hot cast iron pan just long enough to get a nice sear. Try to make this a brief as possible - like 30 seconds! Remember, your meat is already perfectly cooked!

Serve!

They were both fantastic. I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that I bought beautiful scallops that had a wonderful sweet taste. But the sous vide method made it easy to cook them to a perfect consistency. Not a single scallop was overcooked. They were soft, buttery, and all around delicious.



Bacon Wrapped Scallops with Thyme and Shallots
8 scallops (preferably large, diver scallops)
8 slices of bacon
1-2 T shallots, chopped
thyme leaves (from 3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme)

Wrap each scallop with one slice of bacon. Put the scallops in a single layer in the vacuum bag. Add thyme and chopped shallots. Seal under vacuum in a plastic bag according to the manufacturer's instructions (I used Foodsaver).

*For regular scallops, just season with salt and pepper and seal them in the bag*

For medium rare scallops (preferred), cook at 125 °F (52 °C) in a water bath for about 20-40 minutes.
For medium scallops (still delicious), cook at 140 °F (60 °C) in a water bath for about 20-40 minutes.
The benefit of cooking at 140 °F is that you can cook it with other items (such as chicken breast) that need to be cooked at that temperature at the same time.

Remove the scallops from the bag, dry well with paper towels, and briefly sear in a pre-heated grill pan on high heat just until nicely browned. Serve!

Related posts
Sous Vide Salmon
Sous Vide Steak

Great Resources
A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking

Disclaimer
As a food blogger, time to time I receive products from vendors to try out, to review, etc. The Sous Vide Supreme machine was sent to me by Sous Vide Supreme so that I could use the machine and take photos of the process and final products. The views expressed in the posts are completely my own.