Questions about garlic, fat and cooking liquids in loooong cooking times

1) I know this has been briefly adressed before, but what about putting raw garlic in the bag for prolonged cooking times with tough cuts of meat (e.g. lamb shanks)? I´ve read that temperatures this low doesn´t help release the good flavours from the garlic (which usually would need something like 85C, like other veggies) and can even lead to off-flavours in long cooking times? And what about sweating the lightly crushed/sliced garlic in some fat for a minute and then add both the garlic and fat to the bag? I e.g. tried pre-sweating mirepoix to help release the flavours and get a bit of that good ´ol braise-feeling before adding it to the bag, but I am curious if pre-sweating is something other people do too? Or would it all be an unnecessary step only complicating things? (I know some people disapprove to the whole mirepoix-idea: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/142648-the-myth-of-mirepoix/).

2) I read somewhere (I think it was Kenji at Seriouseats) that adding fat to the bags works against the purpose; instead of infusing the meat with flavours from the fat, you infuse the fat with flavours from the meat, and since this fat often is discarded this strategy obviously should be avoided? Then again I know very well that in MC they always add different fats to their bags. What to do??

3) And what about the cooking liquid from prolonged cooking times? Anyone has experience with using this for sauces? I also believe I read somewhere that these liquids too tend to develop off-flavours. Anyone tried this? I will try myself with lamb shanks this weekend, only wondering if I need to have some backup-sauce planned.

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Comments

Chris_82369

Re: 3. In the sous vide class, in step 6, they recommend using the steak juices for sauces.

"Use the accumulated cooking juices as part of a pan-sauce if desired."

https://www.chefsteps.com/classes/sous-vide-cooking/#/sous-vide-steak

I'm about to try that tonight with the juices from a rump steak and update here!

Slightly related question.

4) If I sous vide a large piece of meat (say the rump steak from before)...

Can I keep it in the fridge and slice of steaks over the course of a few days?

Rich_McDonough_67546

I've done a few things sous vide (including the Chefsteps apartment ribs which were AMAZING) but this weekend I did my first large scale cook where I wanted to make a gravy from the juices (from a leg of lamb, bone in). The result was truly gross and I had to toss it (the gravy, not the lamb, which was great!). The juices kind of split as it was heated (proteins coagulating at the higher temperature maybe?) but I thought perhaps I could bring it back to life later by blending, straining and of course adding butter! I added some stock and red wine and cooked it off for a while. It was also my first go at using xanthan gum to thicken the sauce and I was careful to no overdo it (I used 0.1%). The resulting sludge was so revolting that not even butter would have saved it...

Yngve_Hilmo but I would love to get input from someone who can shed some light on this. I would have thought it would have been a question that came up over and over and there would be a simple explanation...

Johan_Edstrom_5586

It is myosin.

http://forum.chefsteps.com/discussion/comment/18448/#Comment_18448

With really long cooks, you get really concentrated and slightly off flavors.

I'd suggest making stock and demi.

Mirepoix and garlic like things, do those on the side. Or do the stock