Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Soup for you!

On Instapundit, a reader emailed him about Sous-Vide.

One side benefit is that it “renders” fatty meat and melts the gelatin out of bones; the fluids left over when you cook 3-day short ribs will make a meaty gel when you put them in the fridge. Come to think of it, you could probably make an aspic with them. In our house, we give the dog (otherwise a picky eater) a couple of tablespoons over her dry dog food, and she’s in doggie ecstasy. Apparently this stuff is The Essence of Meat.
It was actually painful reading that. Of course it is the essence. It is how soup stock is made. A friend, grown man, told me he separated the chicken broth, discarded the disc of fat that formed along with the layer of gelatin above the liquid.

He was discarding the essence of the soup. That was the best part. It's what makes it broth. And the whole time growing up my mum scrubbed out the pans wasting all that flavor, she never once lifted it and used it, except for holiday Turkey. For some reason that was different. She never did use the bones.

10 comments:

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I read that Insta last night. I wondered why there was no link to anywhere else. Odd. Not odd.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

"The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli."

-- G. Costanza, marine biologist

Paco Wové said...

Speaking of Instapundit and comments, Instapundit has opened comments. (On Instapundit.)

Paco Wové said...

And speaking of sous vide, Megan McArdle has a post about sous vide. Whatever the hell that is.

Paco Wové said...

It sounds like you cook foods for a very long time at low low temperatures. It sounds like a microbial Mardi Gras, but I guess I'm missing something.

Simon Kenton said...

A hunting partner and I took aoudad last January. His wife, a very accomplished cook, tried preparing some steaks sous vide. She has a special apparatus for it. Very far from a success, though it was as tender as it can get. For a comparatively flavorless meat like beef it would be a treat. For aoudad, not to be repeated. Perhaps a bourguignon?

rhhardin said...

Oils from the first Breakfast Strips on a new paper plate keep subsequent breakfast strips from sticking.

Microwave tip.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Speaking of Instapundit and comments, Instapundit has opened comments. (On Instapundit.)

is true.

ndspinelli said...

Chip Ahoy, Amen on the stupidity of skimming the best part off the soup. Americanos!!

Ignorance is Bliss said...

There's always the beer cooler method.

I've never tried it, as my cooler is pretty old and I don't trust it to maintain the temperature long enough.

I have however done it with a pot on the stove over low heat, with a cooking thermometer to keep an eye on the temp. It was absolutely the best way to prepare the steak, as long as I checked the temperature often enough. If I let the temperature creep up 5 degrees then the steak started to turn to grey mush.