Sous Vide Experiment #2
Nov. 30th, 2009 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Eggs, today.
First I tried scrambled eggs -- just two eggs, well-stirred with a fork but not whipped, and with a very small splash of half and half and a pinch each of salt and pepper.
I tried them at 147F first, for an hour, which is what the sous vide booklet has listed for soft-cooked eggs in the shell. (It had no temperatures or times for eggs out of the shell.) After an hour, the egg was liquid -- not even begun to set. I left it another half an hour with no effect, then upped the temperature to 150F. I had to repeat this a couple of times; by the end, the temperature was at 153 or 154, at which point the eggs set very softly.
It was worth fiddling to figure it out, though. The scrambled eggs weren't actually scrambled -- they were more like a savory custard, very soft and light, without anything like a defined curd. To be honest, they were like a hybrid between scrambled eggs and creme brulee, only without the sweet. Yum.
I also tried cooking eggs in the shell at the same time, but I'm pretty sure I had the temperature too high on those. They wound up with a barely-set white but a pretty firmly-set yolk, which was peculiar. I'll try eggs again, and drop the temp for those back down to 147 to start.
The success with the scrambled eggs has also inspired me to try to make chocolate pot de creme in the sous vide.
First I tried scrambled eggs -- just two eggs, well-stirred with a fork but not whipped, and with a very small splash of half and half and a pinch each of salt and pepper.
I tried them at 147F first, for an hour, which is what the sous vide booklet has listed for soft-cooked eggs in the shell. (It had no temperatures or times for eggs out of the shell.) After an hour, the egg was liquid -- not even begun to set. I left it another half an hour with no effect, then upped the temperature to 150F. I had to repeat this a couple of times; by the end, the temperature was at 153 or 154, at which point the eggs set very softly.
It was worth fiddling to figure it out, though. The scrambled eggs weren't actually scrambled -- they were more like a savory custard, very soft and light, without anything like a defined curd. To be honest, they were like a hybrid between scrambled eggs and creme brulee, only without the sweet. Yum.
I also tried cooking eggs in the shell at the same time, but I'm pretty sure I had the temperature too high on those. They wound up with a barely-set white but a pretty firmly-set yolk, which was peculiar. I'll try eggs again, and drop the temp for those back down to 147 to start.
The success with the scrambled eggs has also inspired me to try to make chocolate pot de creme in the sous vide.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 02:22 am (UTC)I'll have to pay attention to what kinds of cuts they use next time I watch Top Chef, though.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 02:51 am (UTC)Sounds like the egg version of Frozen Florida. A Baked Alaska is a cake with ice cream on top (both cold), and vaguely warmish meringue and hot chocolate sauce on the outside. Frozen Florida's the opposite: frozen ice cream and cake on the outside, gently warmed (via a short burst in a microwave oven) liqueur on the inside.
Someone should come up with a similar name for this inversely soft-boiled egg.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 03:34 am (UTC)Separate eggs. Beat yolks until lemon yellow and foamy. Beat whites to soft peak. Fold eggs back together. Heat in several tablespoons of melted butter in a pan just warm enough to melt the butter, over the lowest heat you have the patience to stand there staring at. Gently scramble, or else wait for it to set as an omelet, fill, etc.
The eggs will be fluffy enough to try to levitate off the plate.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 07:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 03:51 am (UTC)My in-laws introduced me to the notion of scrambling eggs in a pyrex jug in the microwave. You mix a little milk in, put them in the microwave, and cook for about a minute or so (or maybe I'm misremembering, but it wasn't very long). They come up very fluffy that way.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 07:53 am (UTC)Until recently, the only way to do sous vide cooking was to buy some really super-expensive equipment -- an immersion circulator and heater, which ran over a thousand dollars. The one I have is the first sous vide cooking device for home cooks; it was still not cheap ($400) but I splurged on it as a finished-the-first-draft-of-the-novel-yay present to myself. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 12:17 pm (UTC)Scrambled eggs
Date: 2009-12-01 04:56 pm (UTC)http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/community/2009/11/eggs-scrambled-in-the-french-manner/
This is how we did them with Heston Blumenthal during our sous vide demos. Works like a charm every time.