My setup: a big Creuset pot with lid, an immersion thermometer, a gas stovetop. A couple of pork loin chops sealed in a vacuum bag. Soak at 58 celsius (about 140-145 F) for an hour or so. Check every ten minutes(ish) to make sure that the temp is stable. Pat dry, coat with salt, pepper, cayenne and a bunch of brown sugar and sear the outside. Cook some shrooms in the drippings.
Yum.
Linkmeister
Following the trend, huh? Use a pressure cooker for pork chops and sliced potatoes; it saves time.
jeffreyw
No pictures? I don’t believe it actually happened.
Now this is a true story.
Roger Moore
@Linkmeister:
No. The whole point is to cook the chops at a very controlled temperature that’s well below boiling. That way you can get them to just the degree of doneness you want without any risk of overcooking.
jeffreyw
What the hell is that?
Oh! I know what that thing is.
RedKitten
Sounds good, but rather complicated.
I made slow-cooker Kalua pork tonight, and it was very yummy and very simple.
1 (6 pound) pork shoulder
1 tablespoon sea salt (Hawaiian, if you can get it)
2 -3 tablespoon Hickory liquid smoke flavoring
1. Pierce pork all over with a carving fork. Rub salt then liquid smoke over meat. Place roast in a slow cooker.
2. Cover, and cook on Low for 12 hours, turning once during cooking time.
3. Remove meat from slow cooker, and shred, adding drippings as needed to moisten.
Srsly. It was freaking awesome, especially with some pineapple rice.
Just Some Fuckhead
Pork?? Aw, tellin…
MattR
Pepper steak and rice for me. Homemade peanut butter dog biscuits as a birthday treat for Ellie. She likes the cookies, but she keep looking at the steak. I’ll probably give in and give her some leftovers. But just this one time :)
Cat Lady
Elitist.
Ailuridae
I have been meaning to ask this for a while. A friend who I am helping with his diet recently bought the thinly sliced boneless center cut pork chops that Aldi sells. They’re less than 1/2″ deep/wide and impossibly lean (130 Cals/4 oz). I don’t eat red meat so I can’t be as much help as I would like. Is there any way to cook them without turning them to rubber? They usually come in about one and a half pound packs (of 6).
holeinthe
58 degrees Celsius is 136 Fahrenheit, a little less than the 140-145 in the recipe here. Should be about 61.
John Cole
I had a POS lean cuisine frozen dinner, and the damned dogs still begged.
MikeJ
Do you use a diffuser (Flame Tamer or the like)?
JGabriel
RedKitten:
Hawaii? Those islands just south of the Pacific Trash Vortex?
That might not be the best place for harvesting sea salt. Just sayin’.
.
Cheryl from Maryland
We are in stage three of preparing English plum pudding for Christmas. Stage one, bought suet (not easy). Stage two, candied at home orange and citron peel. The candied orange peel is an explosion of intense orange essence and sugar in your mouth. It is so much better than what is available in stores. Stage three, tonight, add peels and suet and fruits and douse with cognac to sit for four days in the fridge.
lamh32
I’m driving home to NOLA for Thanksgiving, and while I’m looking forward to all the Thanksgiving food fare, I’m really looking forward to getting a REAL FRESH SHRIMP POBOY, dressed; with a Big Shot Pineapple soda, and some Sour Cream & Onion Chee Wees!!!
Any real New Orleanian will know what I’m talking about!
bk
@Ailuridae:
Fry in olive oil and garlic
quaint irene
Saw a new Martha Stewart episode today, on of course, the Thanksgiving turkey. Her guest cook mentioned brining and how it doesn’t do anything for the bird except replace flavor with salt. “Where did the whole idea of brining come from?” quipped Martha. ‘I’d really like to know.” Uh, lady, I think you were one of the first ones to advocate it, either in your magazine or another tv show.
Katie was at the vet’s today for a few shots, and one of the assistants was admonishing another owner, ‘ No, no. Turkey’s not good for dogs. They have trouble digesting it.” “Even a little bit of white meat?” I asked. “Nope. Give them chicken instead.”
Now, beyond the fact that every couple months we hear one more thing we can’t give our dogs, but it just seems plain, flat out wrong not to treat them with a bit of turkey on Turkey Day. We;re not talking about doused with gravy or with a side of stuffing.
morzer
@Ailuridae:
Simmer in wine or vinegar with some finely chopped onions, add spices/garlic/ginger to taste while simmering.
Southern Beale
I, also, made pork chops for dinner. I make this nice marinade of apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, toasted seseame oil, honey, garlic, fresh ginger, hot chili pepper flakes, and black pepper. I marinade in that for a few hours, then grill the chops.
We had that with a spinach salad and baked potatoes. Husband was very pleased.
G-man
I saw a pretty awesome sous-vide hack that I want to try. It involved cooking your food in a beer cooler. The cooler keeps the water temp very stable and requires no tools other than the cooler and a thermometer. Here’s the story. The results looks pretty tasty. http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/cook-your-meat-in-a-beer-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html
morzer
@Southern Beale:
I hope you made him do the washing up! Cook’s privilege and all that.
General Stuck
@Ailuridae:
Put them in alum foil with some sliced tators on top, use liberal amount of Olive Oil, and whatever other seasoning. Then enclose the foil, and bake at low temp, maybe 350 degrees, for at about 45 minutes. The chops will melt in the mouth. and so will tators.
morzer
@General Stuck:
Tators? Are you becoming our resident Sam Gamgee?
John - A Motley Moose
@Ailuridae: Slice thin and use for stir fry.
Ash Can
@jeffreyw: I love those little bok choys. Tasty, nice texture, and so versatile. BTW, I loved your crab-apple-buffet photos earlier today. Cedar waxwings are such beautiful birds, and there’s nothing cuter than a chipmunk happily stuffing his face (literally). :)
@RedKitten: I went the crockpot route today as well, with London broil, chopped onion, barbecue sauce, a spoonful of sweet mustard, and a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Next time around, though, I’ll have to remember to try piercing the meat beforehand, like you say. The meat’s good broken up with a fork with gravy spooned over it, but piercing can only help.
John - A Motley Moose
The result from this is probably a lot like pan-broiling some thick chops. I season them, sear them on one side in a cast-iron skillet then flip them and stick the pan into a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. The come out moist and tender with a nice crust.
Ailuridae
@John – A Motley Moose:
Yep. That was my immediate first thought. Or grind it up and use it for meatballs or a loaf.
@General Stuck:
Thanks!
General Stuck
@morzer:
I’m the resident hillbilly. Though a fairly educated one. Beans and tators were the first words out little Stuck’s rugrat mouth.
Followed by “them sheep sure is purdy”
jeffreyw
@Ash Can:
Yes, the waxwings are good looking birds. I’ve been hoping the flock would come back for another go at the crab apples but so far they haven’t.
Here’s one from earlier this summer-talking the waters.
Southern Beale
@morzer:
Yes we have a rule in our house: “He (or she) who cooks, does not clean!”
Since I do most of the cooking it works for me. Of course, I tend to clean up as I go along … dealing with the prep utensils, etc. So it’s not such a horrible task for the hubs.
Southern Beale
Let me add, the reason I do most of the cooking is because when it’s the husband’s turn his only question is “what do you want on your pizza?”
Mnemosyne
I’ll ask a crazy question of the foodies: is there any such thing as a substitute for garlic? I’m making a dish for an office potluck pretty soon and one person is allergic to garlic. I could just leave it out, but I think it was something like four cloves.
And, yes, she has discovered that she’s allergic to garlic in all its forms, including garlic salt, so that idea is out.
morzer
@Mnemosyne:
You might try ginger, or black pepper. They both tend to warm the dish, much as garlic does.
morzer
@Southern Beale:
Bacon, obviously! What else does anyone need on pizza?
Dee Loralei
@Mnemosyne: Was it specifically for just garlic, or all alliums? If not you could try a shallot, or minced red onion. Leeks, perhaps?
Mnemosyne
@Dee Loralei:
I’m not really sure, but given her freaky allergies (she’s also very allergic to oatmeal, of all things), I suspect other alliums could be a problem.
Ailuridae
@Mnemosyne:
If it is an asian dish I would go with ginger as a substitute. Italian (or anything else) I would go with a shallot. Although you should probably make sure she’s not allergic to either of them before heeding my advice.
Snade
If you’ve ever tasted dog food, you’d know why.
Ash Can
@jeffreyw: I’ve noticed inconsistencies in birds’ migration patterns myself. About seven years ago, about a half a dozen waxwings showed up in our crabapple tree in late October/early November. They stuck around for a week, until they’d wiped out every last crabapple. Then they were back on the road. I haven’t seen waxwings in our yard since (although I’ve seen them in the Chicago area). Likewise, there have been certain migrating visitors at the backyard feeder in some years but not others. I figure they just happen upon good food gigs and take advantage. E.g., maybe the waxwings who were happy enough to chow on our crabapples that one year got blown slightly off course the following year and found whole groves of crabapples somewhere out in the suburbs, and now that’s their route.
John - A Motley Moose
@Ash Can: I was working in Memphis in 2007 when I saw a huge flock of waxwings at my workplace strip a hedge that was filled with holly berries. There must have been a couple of hundred birds. They were around for a couple of days and then vanished. They were really fun to watch as they passed the berries to each other.
That same year, we had flocks filled with thousands of Brewer’s blackbirds sweep through our neighborhood. They would cover a lawn for a few minutes and then move on to the next one. That lasted for about a week and then they were gone.
Ash Can
@John – A Motley Moose: That’s the fun of having bird feeders and bird-friendly trees in the spring and fall. You never know who’s going to show up.
Snade
So my previous post was in response to John Cole’s:
“I had a POS lean cuisine frozen dinner, and the damned dogs still begged.”
No idea why the ‘reply’ didn’t work, and I don’t want to try it again, with possibly the same result. Apologies
cleek
would love to try sous vide cooking. no equipment to do so, tho.
i do well with ye olde sear-then-roast trick, thankfully.
Roger Moore
@morzer:
Ham and pineapple? Jalapeno? Goat cheese and roasted red pepper? Smoked duck breast and mandarin orange segments? Italian sausage and portabello mushroom? Four cheese?
Peter
@cleek: I have a food saver and a used scientific water bath I bought on ebay for a hundred bucks. Works beautifully. But you can easily do it Tim’s way and get great results; they even make freezer bags with a little straw so you can suck all the air out without the food saver.
Freeze marinades in ice cube trays and drop them in the bag before sealing. Win.
Tim F.
@cleek: You don’t need much equipment. The basic vacuum sealer cost me $50, I hold a $10 plastic immersion thermometer in the pot with a twist-tie and the Creuset is just a big pot with a lid. The most expensive part is paying for a computer and internet connection to find good marinade recipes.
chopper
went through a stovetop sous vide phase a while ago. it worked well enough, but i ended up doing a pot-in-pot-in-pot system to keep the water temperature down. it helps to use an alligator clip tied to a magnet or some such to hold the bag in place in the middle of the pot of water, and you have to stir frequently to keep the temperature consistent throughout the pot.
apparently, proper sous vide cooking is very dependent on a consistent water temperature. immersion circulators can keep the water to within a degree or so of the target temp which is really hard to do in a pot.
MagicPanda
@chopper: I’ve heard the same thing about immersion circulators, but part of me wonders if it’s all BS.
Commercial immersion circulators can regulate temperature to less than .1 degree. But if you had a system where the temperature fluctuated by, say, +/- 3 degrees, could you tell the difference in the end result?
Comrade PhysioProf
Seriously, pictures or the fucken shitte didn’t happen, asshole.