On 19-Sep-2007, Nonnymus > wrote:

> Brick wrote:
>
> > For stuff that's been refrigerated or even frozen, I use the vacuum bag
> > and boiling water process a lot and the nuker the rest of the time. I
> > don't have to worry about cheating my customer. She doesn't want to
> > do the cooking.
>
> Let me second that, Brick. The only trick I learned was to let the
> pulled pork or ribs cool down before vacuum bagging. That congeals the
> juice and the vacuum doesn't pull it out the opening of the bag before
> it seals. When I've not done that, I end up with a bad seal and also a
> mess in the Foodsaver.

As "Tricky Dick" used to say, "Let me just say this about that". My
snorkel sealer has the same problem. In some cases (let your imagin-
ation be your guide) I can use a folded knapkin as a filter to get by.
Mostly I do liike you do. In some cases, I bag termporarily with a
clothes pin closure and pop the bags in the freezer until they get
good and frozen. Then I vacuum them down tight with no problem.

I prefer the boiling pan of water over the
> microwave, but don't know why. Perhaps it's that the microwave can
> overheat the fatty areas more, causing more cooking where the pan of
> boiling water won't.

I do both, but the nuker gets its only points because it's so easy. The
boiler wins the quality test hands down at my house.

Also, I produce quite a bit of hard bark in my pit. I always chop and mix
the bark into the meat, but I think I prefer the texture after it has been
reheated. In the case of ribs, particularly beef back ribs, the boiling bag
routine prduces a very palatable product while salvaging all of the original
juices.

I cook for the environment in which I live. Meal preparation is a serious
business for me. I'll never be the equivalent of the TV "Soccer Mom". I
just don't have enough hands to go around. I have to get serious mileage
out of every real cooking episode with the objective of putting gobs of
"planned overs" into the refrigerator and/or freezer. My typical meal is
kind of a "Sandra Lee" type of thing with some fresh and some left-
over.

Today was not atypical. I put out about seven courses for lunch with
only one freshly cooked item. That was a 6oz piece of "Eye of Round"
which I braised for 45 minutes with onions and garlic. The rest was a
motly bunch including, steamed cabbage, boiled potatoes, carrots,
macaroni salad, cole slaw, pork roulade and chorizo hash. There was
fresh iceberg lettuce and sliced tomato for salad.

Oh yeh, there was brown gravy made from the remains of the eye of
round. I seasoned and thickened the braising liquid and called it gravy.

I was surprised to see Nathalie take seconds and even thirds on some
of the dishes.

>
> --
> ---Nonnymus---

--
Brick(Save a tree, eat a Beaver)