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Sous Vide Spaghetti alla Carbonara

ParkerCook_66639

I lived in Italy for a few years and have come to love cooking up some creamy spaghetti alla carbonara. The worst thing ever is when you overcook the egg/cheese mixture and you end up with spaghetti alla scrambled eggs. I was thinking that this could be completely avoided by cooking the egg/cheese mixture sous vide while you cook the pancetta and pasta separately and then the whole meal can be tossed together without having to worry about scrambling the eggs. I don't have an immersion circulator (yet, it's my birthday this Sunday and it's coming, finally!) so I haven't been able to play with/figure out temperatures that would allow the eggs to be creamy and saucy, but not so cooked that it's more eggs than sauce. Any ideas/tips/recommendations?

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Brendan_Lee_56950

I'd say somewhere between 63-65C for 30minutes. I imagine it would be similar to the hollandaise sauce. I think I would do the eggs alone and then blend in the cheese at the last second and mix it all together.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Parker great thread! Pasta alla Carbonara is one of my all time favorite dishes. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Maybe @Brendan will pull out some of his guanciale and give it a go ...

seijoed

Hah, it was what was requested for dinner here tonight. Might have to try that with an egg mixture.

ParkerCook_66639

This is the first forum I've ever participated in and I'm excited! This is the COOLEST website ever and I can't wait to get involved and get learning!

Brendan_Lee_56950

Guanciale is almost ready! I think I could use it now but I want to give it the rest of this week.

ParkerCook_66639

I've wanted to make my own pancetta/guanciale for weeks! It's next to impossible to find the necessary cuts where I live in Eastern Idaho, though. It's terrible trying to find certain ingredients here.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Actually, now that you have me thinking about it @jack I just checked the one I was aging in the UMAI bags in the fridge and it feels ready. I will slice some up and see how it is!

matthew.snyder77

@ParkerCook, I would suggest separating the whites and yolks. Cook the yolks sous vide and reserve ( @Tim Sutherland shared a cool 'bath-in-a-bath' technique here: forum.chefsteps.com/discussion/comment/5720/#Comment_5720), then toss the whites with the cooked and drained pasta (and cheese). The yolk looks particularly dramatic when it's nested in the spaghetti (a la Batali) . And since you cooked the yolk ahead of time, you don't have to worry about not having enough residual heat in the noodles.

Minus the sous vide bit, that's how I normally make Carbonara.

Jack_Mayer_85396

Dang, this is awesome! @Parker this is also the first forum I have ever participated on. I'm a dinosaur, no Twitter, no Facebook, etc. But I am really glad that I took the plunge and decided to get involved with this community.

I'm really excited that we're going to collectively arrive at a great recipe/method for one of my favorite dishes!

@Brendan, I'm lucky that there is a great, family-run Italian grocery here in Dallas and I can get Niman Ranch guanciale there ...

seijoed

@Matthew brilliant idea. I think you just gave me a game-plan.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Matthew that is one great idea! I think I might reserve one yolk per plate for the final presentation and mix the rest in with the pasta and cheese and cooking water ...

seijoed

Now I have 2 hours to poach eggs

matthew.snyder77

One large yolk is fine to add just the right amount of richness to a 4-oz primi portion of pasta. But if you're eating the pasta as a secondo (say 6-8 oz per portion), then 1 large yolk might be a little less than ideal. Might actually be fun to try that technique using quail eggs, and having three or four per portion.

Brendan_Lee_56950

@parkercook try heritagefoodsusa.com thats where I bought my jowls for guanciale from. Berkshire, humanely raised, great products.

seijoed

That worked great! Posted a pic in the What's for dinner thread.

Grace_95227

All, I had the same idea a while back and tried it. @Parkercook I hope this helps.

This was pretty indulgent as I used 2 eggs per person. 1 egg was for the sauce, another is to get the yolk (wash away the whites) and place on top for the volcano yolky explosion.

I used parma ham here, admittedly not very authentic. For the egg that is made into sauce, I cooked it at 61.5C for 1 hour. This is later beaten, seasoned and mix with cheese etc for the sauce.

The other egg is cooked at 63C for 1 hour. Crack it and place it in a ladle and place it under running water to get rid of the whites. carefully scoop to place on top of the nest of spaghetti.

prince_of_porcelain

@Grace - That looks fantastic!

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Grace - beautiful dish!

Grace_95227

Thanks @Brian, @Jack. I'm humbled by the praise from the pros here on my simple dish

matthew.snyder77

@Grace, looks fantastic. Well done.

Grace_95227

Thanks @Matthew. There's lots of good ideas here, that's just one take one @parker's question. Need to try @tim's idea of bath-in-a-bath technique too.

ParkerCook_66639

This is so awesome. You guys are all the best! Thanks so much for your tips!

seijoed

I second that, this turned into a community driven recipe and technique test with results coming around in less than 24h, absolutely brilliant!

ParkerCook_66639

Absolutely blew my mind how it all came together so quickly.

Brendan_Lee_56950

This is something I think I proposed earlier when we were first starting the culinary challenges. I like the idea of crowdsourcing technique variations and recipes (kind of like the sex & gamma rays idea) and I think it would be cool to test out something new each week. Like for example, @tim's idea to test out different poaching mediums. Let's say he picks red wine and marinara and I would do beer and butter, and someone else does coffee and fruit juice, etc, etc and we all report back with the test parameters and results and notes.

seijoed

@Brendan - Yep, I love that idea from being an open source developer, it is pretty much how I work daily with my colleagues.

Brendan_Lee_56950

It would really only take a simple spreadsheet to organize the testing. I think we should try it sometime. Especially with spring rolling around the corner, I'd like to test different vegetable preparations.

matthew.snyder77

@Brendan, I think that would be fabulous. That idea nicely dovetails with one of my suggestions for the site; full-on documentation of the development and evolution of a dish when you post a recipe from the ChefSteps team.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

It is also important to report what doesn't work too. This allows others not to waste time and product repeating something that will not work.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Yes, I agree with that totally as well @tim