Troll-Tuesday Edition

Sous Vide, Cocktails & Cigars

Jun 29, 2021

Welcome Frens! 🏝

Wishing you all a wonderful Troll-Tuesday!

Today I’m going to break down a somewhat controversial topic in the food world, drop a tasty AF cocktail recipe and announce my pick for the Official Jungle cigar!

The Case Against Sous Vide

If you have delved into any cooking research or techniques in the last 10 years you will have undoubtedly come across the “sous vide” technique that is promised to deliver “perfectly” cooked food with no hassle.

So is this true?

It turns out… not!

Sous Vide has become one of the most bastardized techniques in the cooking world, full of hopium and fan-boys touting “easy-cooking”…

So what’s the real story with Sous Vide?

Let’s take a look at the history before Ferran Adria popularized this at El Bulli.

Sous Vide means “under pressure”. Ingredients are cooked under vacuum at a specific temperature and time to ensure uniform results.

The technique first came about as a method to produce mass quantities of food in bulk whilst maintaining consistency. This industrialized method to cook ingredients at a specific heat, then held to be reheated for uniform consistency was a significant breakthrough for large food producers.

This is far from the romantic, “fine dining”, correlations we all hear about now. The sous vide method began, as a way to feed the masses whilst ensuring a certain quality metric.

The premise is a compelling one for standardized results.

So what happened?

In the 1980’s & ’90’s, there was an influx of fine dining chefs using Sous Vide as a go-to method for more intricate, delicate and exacting preparations.

Excellent! The “new” avant garde technique was taking the world the by storm and every gourmand on the planet wanted to know more.

Fast forward another couple of decades and now we have affordable immersion circulators, and hacks upon hacks to make “great, easy, sous vide cooking”.

So where did we jump the shark?

Sous Vide cookery has become the cooking equivalent of CEX’s in the Crypto world. Most have no clue in hell why they are doing what they are doing, just clicking some buttons, and it’s breeding some sh!tty results.

Time & Temp: The number one myth of sous vide cooking is “drop your food in a bag, walk away, and you get tasty AF food”…. WRONG!

What do you mean Octopod?

Autist note: Even at a constant temperature, proteins continue to denature over time which means that Sous Vide cooking requires attention to detail; this includes variation in the thickness of the meat (or vegetable) in question.

A Visual Helps: this picture of eggs cooked at a constant temperature, and checked at progressive time intervals, shows the continuation of protein denaturing over time.

I remember one preparation where I had the prep cooks weigh individual eggs and sort for all between 48-52grams for a technique to work perfectly. Sinple.

Other Examples:

A chicken breast cooked sous vide for 60 mins vs 180 mins will have a vastly different mouthfeel. (Chicken mush is disgusting)

Fish that has a variation of a few minutes can have a vastly different eating experience (salmon paste, anyone?)

And yet I see recipe upon recipe with cooking times ranging in the hours.

I recently attended a dinner at a friends house who proudly “sous vide” the protein, and despite the pink interior, it was stringy and overcooked.

He asked my feedback and I was honest (he’s a good friend)…. “Your meat was overcooked”…. “How?!?!” He asked… “I followed the recipe!”

And therein lies the problem… Sous Vide can only work properly when you understand what is happening in the cooking process.

Some important issues to consider when using Sous Vide:

Vacuum: For sous vide to be effective you must have a sealer that can pull a full vacuum. You’ll find recipes all over saying to use a ziplock and squeeze out as much air and then weight the bag down. Huge error. Without a full vacuum the water in the bath will not have equal contact, resulting in uneven cooking. You’ll also see recommendations for using “weights” to keep the bag submerged, again resulting in uneven cooking.
Plastic: You also see many recipes using ziplock bags… these are not rated for heating and have potentially harmful results longterm. Use only bags approved for longterm heating when cooking Sous Vide.
Time: The most important variable when it comes to cooking SV. As explained above, you can overcook your food using sous vide.
Resting: If you are planning to cook then rapid chill, to then store and reheat later, consider resting your protein (beef specifically, but also lamb and pork) for 15-30 mins before the rapid chill. This will help texture and moisture.

To be clear, sous vide has some fantastic uses and can produce excellent results, when properly executed. The case against Sous Vide arises when cooks are unable to cook a chicken breast properly without putting it in a bag.

I encourage everyone to learn the basics of cooking in a pan, over fire, etc and once you have a firm skillset then branch into exploring sous vide cookery.

Much more to say about this in the future. The purpose of this was to give a Macro-Level 1 overview.

Let’s Punch Things Up:

Cocktail time begins with a confession:

“Rums never excited me, historically.”

I would wager that most people when they think “rum cocktail” a Cuba libre or daiquiri would be at the top of the list…

Bacardi…. <meh>

But then I was introduced to a cocktail that completely changed my mind about rum cocktails.

I’m talking about the Ti Punch

A Ti Punch is made with Rhum agricole

Ti’ is a slang word in the French Caribbean islands for “petite”

Hence a Ti’ punch, which is ironic because this little cocktail packs a rather large punch that will sneak up on you

So What’s Rhum Agricole?

Originating in the French Caribbean islands, St Martinique etc., this rhum is made from the distillation of sugar cane juice

*The “h” in the “rhum” spelling has stayed from the French spelling

It’s unique because Agricole is distilled directly from the freshly pressed cane juice, as opposed to most other types of rum which are usually distilled from fermented or cooked cane sugar products like molasses

Agricole Rhum has a really fresh, grassy and slightly funky aromatic quality which I think is delicious, vibrant and hella tasty

The Ti’ Punch is what all of the the locals are drinking if they aren’t crushing their rhum agricole straight up

I love the La Favorite brand of rhum Agricole and it’s one of the few family run distilleries left producing in St Martinique.

So lets make this cocktail…

-2 ounces white rhum agricole

-dash of cane syrup (2-3tsp, or to taste)

*if you can, find the actual cane syrup from Martinique; it’s awesome for this.

-1 slice of lime, cut from the side to maximize peel ratio

In a rocks glass, pour the cane syrup and muddle with the lime slice. You want to muddle firmly to extract as much aromatic from the lime peel as possible.

Add the rum and stir until evenly mixed; add a few large cubes of ice and give a quick stir to chill.

Crush away… à votre santé!

The ‘Official’ Jungle Cigar:

Since this Sub is dropping on a Troll-Tuesday, I wanted to put forth a nomination for an official Jungle cigar.

I’ve been a cigar enthusiast for many years now and have found some really great sticks along the way. This is a great cigar, from a company who puts out top notch products, and is too aptly-named to not mention here in the Jungle.

From Principle Cigars, I nominate the “Money to Burn” Cigar!

Each Money To Burn box is made using an original bond certificate, that was engraved in 1921. Every cigar bears an original 1921 interest coupon from the vintage security.

The MTB series has two vitolas; a Robusto and Churchill. Both are fantastic smokes, the robusto being generally more available. If you find some Churchill’s definitely scoop some up!

Blended at the Kelner Boutique Factory, the Robusto (5x50) specs are:

Country of Origin

Dominican Republic

Wrapper

Brazilian Cubra

Binder

Dominican Republic

Filler

Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Peru

Originally launched in 2013, the fall of 2021 is expecting an official Series II release. Just in time for trolling clowns.

Founder of Principle Cigars, Darren Cioffi, is committed to high quality tobaccos that has been stored and aged meticulously. He continually tweaks the blends to maintain a consistent and premium experience.

Check the website (linked at beginning) for retailers close to you, or ordering online. Enjoy!

That’s all for today Jungle denizens!