I just made the modernist Mac and cheese. I followed the recipe as exactly as I could, weighing everything in grams. Out of the four of us we all agreed that the amount of noodles should be increased. I felt 50% more, my wife thought I should double them. My wife really didn’t like it as she felt the texture was similar to velveta. There is definitely a “plasticy cheese” consistency to it. I’m not sure if it’s the process or that I used mostly Monterey Jack with a small amount of cheddar. I thought it was good but I think I prefer a bechamel sauce. My son didn’t finish his and my daughter seemed to like it the most out of all of us.
I just undercook the pasta a little bit with extra sauce as it soaks up and makes the pasta itself more flavourful. It’s also why you put them in small ovenproof containers and throw them under the broiler/salamander, it bubbles up and gets a nice crust.
It IS the difference between adult mac & cheese and kid’s mac & cheese though. My kids like relatively dry and bland mac & cheese and I like a wetter and very sharp one with lots of brown bits on top…
I don’t think I’m ever going to be a convert. I still remember my sister putting Kraft singles on bread and then into the toaster over. The result would look like plastic on the bread. I just can’t get past the plastic/processed texture of the cheese. It’s like you’re taking great cheese and destroying it.
Anyone ever had Imo’s Pizza in St. Louis? It is as if the Devil himself made anti-pizza. Processed cheese on pizza…
Personally, I think that sous vide makes sense for every meat except for beef tenderlion and large bone in cuts. Fillet is already tender and bone in cuts are a pain to fit in a bag. Sous vide works perfectly for any other cut because constant cooking temp makes the meat tender.
We did boneless chicken breasts the other night, and they were fantastic. 142 degrees (recipe called for 140, for some reason I went a little hotter) for about 2 plus hours (meant 90 minutes per the recipe, but got distracted with two year old. Added olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and fresh thyme (plus salt and pepper) in the bag. Then heated in hot pan on the stove – then wine in the pan to get up the brown bits, and added the sous vide bag juice to make a lovely gravy. Really tender result. Much better than either grilling or roasting.
I’m still playing with the optimal temperature for breasts. I now think 140 may be high for me because I like to give them a couple minutes in a ripping-hot skillet afterwards to give them a nice sear. I’ve found that even just 2 minutes on one side and then 30 seconds on the other moves the final temp too high. Texture is still way better than if I’d tried to do entirely in skillet or in oven, but I think I can do better.
Next couple times I cook breasts I’m going to try lower temps - 138 and 136. Though I know chicken that is cooked at too low a temp will have a super-funky texture and I definitely find that offputting.
Interesting that you say that. I found the chicken temp good. But I have that issue with steak. I now go pretty far into the rare category for sous vide, as I like to sear for a while to get the fat cooked, and find that cooks the meat a bit more. As with all cooking, there is a lot of experimenting and adjusting!
Ron, you will find for steak that reverse sear technique will solve that problem. With an oven time of 45min to 1 hour for a nice thick cut steak at 210F you will get significant fat break down. After that a very short sear on ripping cast will brown the fat nicely. I will even put the steaks on edge after the sides to get the fat cap and it works brilliantly. Connective tissue breaks down too, it is the way to go.
Correct. I use sous vide a lot but based on your issue and the fact reverse sear is the best steak method, you should try it. Cook to 130 internal then sear ripping hot 30sec per side.
I disagree with the above post that sears first. That is forward sear. It is technically much better to render fat and connective tissue at low temp before you do the maillard step. You get a far better fat result and flavor by creating the maillard after low temp treatment.
. Thanks for the suggestion.