Lamb Rack - Sous Vide

@Tim, thanks! I'll check it out.

@Jack. Check out www.eiltd.com, 972-408-1800, the facility is in Grand Prairie. I heard about the place from a guy I have seen in a supermarket a few times. They are a food services distributor but apparently will sell to retail customers.

@Tim, sounds like you have it covered! E.I. Imports, I'm not familiar with that, where is it? I'd love to be able to buy foie gras and duck fat (and hopefully some Magret) without the insane shipping fees! FYI, if you place an order of $100 or more, D'Artagnan has free shipping through this Thursday. I've got to get my order together ...

As far as the lamb goes, C-M had cap-on domestic (Colorado I think) lamb on a very good sale and I got 3 racks; the trim loss was significant, but we all agreed it was the best we had ever had (restaurants included!).

@Jack Mayer, I find the domestic lamb too large and it doesn't taste like lamb to me. I go to Kuby's for my German fix every now and then, and I get across to Jimmy's once and a while for hard to find Italian ingredients. I go up to Super H Mart on Old Denton/George Bush to get my Asian stuff and I can also get live shellfish (abalone) and whole fish. They also have fresh pork liver (pate) and frozen other pig bits including blood (blood sausage). I can also get beef tongue and heart too. The Fiesta on Coit/Spring Valley has whole pig and calf heads so I can make headcheese. Fietsa also has rabbit at half the price of Central Market. I am yet to get to the Halal butchers off 75, where I hear I can whole sheep heads. E.I. Imports is another place I need to get to to see their foie gras and duck fat - the shipping costs from Hudson Valley get expensive (they only ship food overnight).

This is a great site and has the makings of an active and adventurous cooking members.

@Tim, I too am in Dallas. If you want some recommendations for markets and other shops let me know. I usually get my lamb racks at Costco. For a special ocaission, try Kuby's in Snider Plaza (across from SMU), they have domestic lamb (and other great stuff!). I've been shopping there for almost 30 years. For all things Italian go to Jimmy's at Ftizhugh and Bryan; great stuff, family run and the best price on Reggiano ($9.99/lb).

Welcome to an awesome resource!

@chris yes I saw that and will try it next time I poach pears. Rubbing the outside of the pear with a scouring pad is a great idea.

Chris_Young_80640

Looks great Tim. Have you seen our recipe for red wine sous vide poached pear?

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/red-wine-poached-pear

There is a nice tip for cleaning up the peeling marks on the pear.

This is a lamb rack that I did 18+ months ago.

The loin was taken off the bone, trimmed, bagged and cooked ~56C until done. Pan seared, rested and sliced.

The bones from the rack were roasted then added to brown chicken stock and reduced for a sauce.

The white puree is flageolet beans. The green puree is peas and mint. The tomato is just oven roasted with rosemary and thyme.

Dessert was a red wine poached pear with yellow beet sorbet and yuzu foam.

For those is Dallas, I get my lamb from the Kosher Tom Thumb on Peston and Forrest. They have NZ lamb of racks, boned/semi boned legs and shanks. They have sales on the legs and shanks a few times a year (after Easter is a good time). On sale you can pick up a semi boned leg for ~$12 (normally ~$35) and shanks for ~$1.60 ($12). Last time I saw the sale I bought 12 legs and 20 shank packets (2 shanks per bag so 40 individual shanks). If you can't tell lamb is my favorite red meat.

@Mason that makes a lot of sense. Also, it seems like there are situations where vac-ing, sealing, opening and re-vacing/sealing might be appropriate. In those cases the extra length would be beneficial. I appreciate the help.

Yes the seal bar is 11" so you have 1/2" on each side to seal, I bought oversized bags 10"x16" because if you are sealing something large like a rib roast, you can fit more than 13" of bag in the chamber since it is going up and over the roast, for everything else I simply trim off the extra length (If you are super conservative you could technically cut the 16" long bags in half and seal one end of the bag that has opening on each and and get 2 10"x8" bags... I haven't done that yet) Price wise the extra few inches didn't increase the overall price much.

On a side note I like the longer bags because I can roll the top down inside out (you can see Grant do this in the videos) but I actually do it twice so the sealing edge is really tucked up inside itself if that makes sense, that way there is no chance to get it contaminated or wet and hence no chance of sealing problems. If that is unclear I can take some pictures.

Chris_Young_80640

@Jack We're looking into expanding some of the offerings in our store for all things sous vide. But bringing a new product onboard takes a bit of time, so it probably won't happen until later this winter.

Wow, thanks to all for the info! As I'm going to be a home user, I should be able to go with the 210 (non-oil pump) right? Good advice to stock up on bags with the initial order too! Any recommendations for bag sizes? The seal bar is 10" right?

Sounds like everyone is happy with the vendor too. @Chris any chance that ChefSteps could get in on the action here? If possible, I'd prefer to do business with a company that will further your cause.

Ya I did mine like 3 days after I got it just to make sure it was running on clean oil

The original oil lasted 3 changes I think, I stocked up on a lot of bags and oil since they gave me free shipping

I did my first change rather quickly since I really wanted to see how it was done, I think the first change should come rather early too.

HAHA I know I have done it once already I was just curios to how often you do it! I think it's nice they sent enough oil for atleast 3? or so changes.

You need to peek, it is recommended when the oil turns brown or goes below half,

it seems to translate to every 2-3 months for domestic usage.

It is a 5 minute operation, loosen 4 screws on the back, drain the pump, fill up new, replace the plate.

@Seijoed As a hunter and the ability to vac seal in major bulk (like butchering a cow with my neighbor and freezing everything) the 215 was just too good to pass up at that price.

How often do you change the oil?

@Mason Perry, I had the exact same reasoning as well as feelings about the machine

It says my VP215C is 84 pounds, it sure felt much heavier than that....

I love my chamber vac as much as my Polyscience Professional Chef, the ability to do liquids is really amazing and you will wonder how you ever had anything less. I have done watermelon in it's own juice, soups, even water just to see what it will do. The 215 is the same as the 210 in terms of size, it just has an upgraded pump as it's meant for a professional kitchen. If you keep up on oil maintenance I am sure either one will last for many many years as the quality is very high. I know on my model the 215 the lid opens by itself on 2 very beefy hinge assemblies that also trigger the vaccum when it is shut, I am not sure about the lower model.

Lastly Qualitymatters.com was where I scored mine for essentially half of the MSRP and they threw in free shipping (over 100 dollar value) as well as free shipping on any 3 mil bags (another 30 dollar ish value) I ordered at time of chamber vac purchase. It was a splurge but in the long run it was well worth it as I forsee this lasting decades it's that well built. I am not affiliated with that website but they had the lowest price and their service was great, and the shipping which is overweight and oversized was extremely fast like 3 days from order to delivery. Even if you go with a lesser model I would check them out as the free shipping on vac and bags could be upwards of 100 dollars in savings.

The compression and pickling is very, very attractive. I fed my family melon for probably a month straight when I got mine.

Yes, they are - FDA approved materials. They can be boiled - as long as you have enough liquid.

I use them to boil vacuum sealed taters, for microwave you need a small puncture hole.

@Seijoed I appreciate the info, thanks! At this point I think i'm leaning toward the 210. The ability to handle liquids is of primary importance for me. Fruit compression, quick pickling too. Question for you, the 3 mil bags are okay to boil, a la Stouffer's, etc. ?

Quality Matters are a stellar seller too, they are quick, friendly on the phone and knowledgeable.

(In no way affiliated - just liked the service.)

I have a 215c, I passionately love it. I'm quite regular on pump maintenance.

It is sturdy, high capacity, has the deep chamber that really helps when you deal with liquids.

We use ours pretty much daily for flash pickling, I only buy and butcher large cuts, if you hunt it is just amazingly convenient.

I can post pictures if you want something to just look at or reference. They are big, no doubt about that.

But I can handle 10"x13" bags, 3 mil bags that you can boil are no problem at all.

Thanks for the feedback. I wish I could see the two units in person, does anyone know of a dealer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area? The issue with the hinges sounds like it may be significant. I'd love to hear from others who have either of these units. This will be my biggest purchase for SV/Modernist cooking to date and I want to get it right. The price difference is almost 3/4 of the cost of a Polyscience circulator from ChefSteps. That's next when the budget will allow for it. I'm currently using a Sous Vide Supreme.

Brendan_Lee_56950

The chamber is bigger, albeit not by much, in the 210 and it's deeper which makes a difference in my opinion. As far as I know though the pumps are identical in the two machines so your basically going by dimensions and size. If your going to be doing big things frequently like roasts or jars you may want the larger chamber. The one thing that does kinda piss me off is that the lid needs two hands to open. Not because it's heavy but because the hinges are not attached and it feels kind of flimsy. As far as portability, your not going to be freely moving this around I don't think, it weighs at least 45-50lbs and is fairly big.

http://www.qualitymatters.com/ARY-VacMaster-Chamber-Vacuum-Sealer-VP210-p/qmvp-210c.htm

Brendan, thank you for the response. The extra $300 is right on the breaking point so I'm interested to hear why you would rather have the VP 210? space is an issue for me as well and some degree of portability would be nice. Interested to hear your thoughts, thanks!

Jack

Brendan_Lee_56950

@Jack_Mayer yes I am very happy with the machine overall. It take a bit of learning to figure out the different vacuum strengths but for almost all purposes I've found it to work extremely well. I was short on space and the wife wasn't budging on the budget so I went with the 112 but if you can spare an extra $300 I would recommend going with the VP210

I bought through quality matters and they have the best prices i've found and really great customer service. Here's the VP210

and the VP112

http://www.qualitymatters.com/VacMaster-Chamber-Vacuum-Sealer-VP112-by-ARY-p/qmar-vp112.htm

jim_53915

I cooked a rack of lamb sous vide for the first time. I cleaned the rack, seasoned with 2 sprigs of rosemary, garlic, and unsalted butter. It was cooked at 55C for 90 min, then pan seared with olive oil. I loved the full bright color and the meat was quite tender.