Sous Vide Carrots

I tested the sous vide earlier this week on carrots.  I have read how the sous vide works exceptionally well with vegetables like carrots and I wanted to verify the claim for myself.

I took eight carrots (not the little "baby" carrots, but real ones) and soaked them in some ice water for an hour or so.  After which, I peeled them and put half of them in a 184F water bath for another hour or so.

What I noticed at this point is there was some water loss in the carrots, but not much.  I then took the four raw carrots and two cooked carrots, patted them dry and roasted them in an oven at 350F for 30 minutes.  I took the last two cooked carrots and roasted them in a 450F oven for 15 minutes (after patting them dry as well).

The first observation when the carrots came out was how much color was lost from the raw sample.  They were a dusty pale orange, while the 350F sous vide carrots retained much of their bright orange.  They all had a dark roasted color where the carrots touched the metal.  It was between the grill marks that the color was very different.

In a blind taste test, the 350F sous vide carrots were sweeter and more carrot-like.  The 450F sous vide carrots were slightly firmer than either of the 350F carrots.  They, too, were sweeter and more carrot-like.

While all this is true, my last observation was the degree to which they differed from simply roasting raw carrots.  The difference in taste and texture were difficult to distinguish.  Sure, side-by-side, the taste and texture were noticeably different.  However, by the third carrot, Weezie remarked how they all tasted like carrots to her.  Once an entire carrot is eaten, the rest all taste like roasted carrot.  The taste and texture difference is only noticeable when compared side-by-side.  The only significant and lasting difference was in the color.

Will I do it again?  Probably not.  The amount of time and effort are greater than the payoff.  I might do it one more time to add a few other techniques to the comparison.  For example, what about putting the carrots to a butane torch or perhaps seeing how it takes on smoke.

Sous Vide and Chicken Brine

I have been wondering about the impact a brine has on chicken when cooked sous vide.  I know the common opinion is to brine chicken breasts so they don't lose too much moisture when cooking (in a conventional manner.)  For that, I completely agree.  The difference between a chicken that spend time in a brine versus a chicken that did not is quite noticeable.  The brine produces a moister, more tender chicken breast.

However, with sous vide, the temperature is controlled to dictate what events occur to the chicken breast.  This means being able to retain moisture and tenderness through temperature alone.  So, does chicken breasts need to be put in a brine before they are sous vide?

For this, I wasn't going to take the word of someone else.  Besides, I had a chicken and it had two breasts.  Off with the skin and off with the bones!  I was going to decide this by personal experimentation.  I took one breast and placed it in a simple brine  (1 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of sugar for each gallon of water).   The other simply rested undisturbed.  When an hour had passed, I removed both breasts, placed each one in their own bag and dropped them into 140F water for two hours.  Yes, I know the minimum required time to kill bacteria on chicken breasts at 140F is 90 minutes.  I was busy at that point and I had to wait another 30 minutes before I could get down to my results show.

I pulled them out to see a rim of gelatin where the two sides of the bag met the breast.  That would normally make for some good pan sauce, but this time, I wanted to know what good, organically raised chicken breast tasted like.  Onward.  I cut each breast in thirds.  One third would be eaten as is (the true taste of the meat).  One third would be pan seared quickly while the other third would be seared under the intensity of a butane torch.

Final results:

All three pieces of breast meat that was put through the brine tasted more salty than the plain chicken.  It was most noticeable in the un-seared piece and least noticeable in the pan seared one.  I, personally, consider the un-seared breast's saltiness a bit overpowering.  The salt stands out in front of the chicken flavor when the chicken does not have the benefit of a sear.

The brine also made the meat tougher.  Comparing the two items that did not get seared, the brine made the meat a bit more firm and chewy.  Searing eliminated the difference.  Between the two un-seared breasts, I preferred the chew of the chicken put in the brine.

Then there was the pan sear versus the butane sear.  The beauty of the butane sear is that every part can be coated with a thin maillard.  Despite this, I loved the darker, more even color of a pan sear.  Yes, the pan sear is deeper, both in color and in penetration.  It thickens the layer of dense, overcooked, meat, but I like the visual appearance.

But what about moistness?  I could not discern any differences between the moisture of the breast that spent an hour in a brine versus the one that went straight to the water bath.  The "skin" of the seared meat was equally dry, while the meat of all pieces were equally moist.

Conclusion?

If I intend to use the meat for something where I will not sear it, I will skip the brine entirely.  If I will sear the meat and serve it where it stands alone, I will brine.  In all other cases, I don't think it matters enough to be an impact.  I will probably not do any brine on most other occasions because I'm lazy and don't see any reason to wasted the salt/time.

Maslow's Hierachy of Cooking/Eating

I was dining out the other day with Weezie and we got into a discussion on the quality of the prepared food.  I have noticed different people have achieved different levels of culinary development.  It intrigued me to observe the relationship between culinary development and Maslow's Hierachy.  I wondered, if there was any documentation on it anywhere on the internet.

There are many "Maslow's Hierachy of . . . ", and several of them on foods and chefs.  But I could not find one along the lines of what I was thinking, so . . . to add to the bulk on the internet, I have decided to add my two cents.

At the bottom of Maslow's Hierachy is the physiological.  Working upwards through safety to love/belonging, and then on to esteem, finally ending with self-actualization.  Here is the same with respect to cooking/eating.



Self-Actualization

• Creating edible works of art that appeal to all five senses.
• Using a balance of contrasts and similarities to add intrigue to the food.

Esteem

• Creating something from scratch.
• Creating a food "without a cookbook" or recipe.

Love/belonging

• Creating something others would recognize as "home made".
• Often thought of as food made by following a recipe from a cookbook.

Safety

• Generally entails reheating leftovers or heating pre-packaged foods.
• Nearly complete lack of creativity as everything other than heat is already done.

Physiological

• What gets rid of the feelings of hunger.
• Open the refrigerator/pantry and grab something as is. 
• Snacks

A large majority of food eaten/served falls in the middle three categories.  I would argue most home cooks never grow above the middle level.  Even the security of a tried-and-true recipe that no longer needs a physically written recipe remains unmodified and escapes not the realm of the third level.

Attaining the esteemed level of creating basic ideas from scratch requires the cook to feel confident in their skills, to venture away from the safety of someone else's idea, and to yearn for that "something new and different".  This level is fraught with failures, and the cook who shrinks from failure seldom venture here.  Weezie and I have a firm understanding.  Any attempt at a meal can always be enjoyed by simply supplementing it with an order of takeout pizza. (Fortunately, we've never had to resort to takeout pizza.  Even our failures have been, um, edible. Okay, so sometimes we experimented with something different and threw away the first creation.)

Self-Actualization is a fleeting experience here.  That food which embodies all that goes before (ridding hunger and providing the pleasure of being unique, all the while tickling and tantalizing each of the five senses) beacons me ever onward.  Visually appealing food (You eat first with your eyes.) that offer a tantalizing aroma without overpowering is an art.  Hearing the fresh crunch of a vegetable all the while enjoying a mouth feel and taste that is more than a simple note is like a piece of music.  Sure, we could play chopsticks on the piano with one finger, but how much more enjoyable it is when all ten fingers are playing, both in unison and counterpunctually.  This is the mark of a great chef and restaurant.