Sous Vide Technique - Purge

[Jerod Broussard]

Just collected some purge. Lotta albumin coming out a 6 pound roast. Both the purge and the roast are in the fridge chillin' until smoke-30. 100% sure I have a salty purge so I will keep that in mind as I progress.

[EdF]

Hadn't thought of that one. Will now.

[Potkettleblack]

Yeah, dogs don't mind a cloudy sauce.

[chudzikb]

I utilized the purge in a very nice way today. From a nice old hunk of angus beef that had been bathing for about 20 hours. Poured in the dogs dish, added her food, and she was in nirvana. There you have it...

[Potkettleblack]

Honored. You've upped my game a ton.

[Potkettleblack]

Honored.

[David Parrish]

Excellent info. Stickied and Featured!

[Meathead]

GREAT work brother! Building the knowledgebase!

[David C]

Potkettleblack -- Thanks for the great tip about straining. Like Jerod Broussard, I mostly just dump the purge, but have always thought that it should be good for something.

[John Henry]

Potkettleblack, Would be grateful to offer some thoughts on your AWESOMELY-HELPFUL SV post here:

imho--Can't say enough about your main point--capturing, filtering and utilizing the purge is one of the TREMENDOUS benefits of SV. It is absolute nectar as flavor for sauce or simply as an au jus addition at serving time.

Also, your wise note of caution regarding salt levels when meat is in the bag for SV is spot-on advice. I still believe that a little salt is necessary and dry brining prior to SV has been much more effective for me than not, but one must be very, very careful with salt levels going into the SV bag.

In my experience, that means to be sure to have at least 24 hours of dry brine time to allow a lighter amount of salt to work into the meat.

You list some great ideas for boosting umami for SV--Another good umami source in the bag is Bragg's Aminos; I have had great luck with it providing a great background as a flavor base, but it is another salty ingredient so one has to know that when planning salt levels for the dry brine.

Meat properly SV'ed then onto the grill for smoke and sear has been excellent, in my experience, thanks to great comments and direction also to some of the All-Stars on the AR Crew, Mr. Broussard, Mr. Potkettleblack and Mr. Breadhead chief among them. My thanks goes to them all and apologies am not listing all the ladies and gents whom have helped me; so many great sources are what sets AR miles apart from all the other sites; I will try to list the other All-Star contributors at a later time in an effort to note my appreciation to them all.

Finally, a note on politics, sex and religion: (OK, OK, I am only kidding, dear Moderators)--It would be GREAT if I always had the time to be able to deal with a multi-hour smoke, and I find NO FAULT with those who advocate traditional smoking ONLY as their most pure and natural first choice. You all set a standard of excellence, and I celebrate your accomplishments and examples.

Yet when my schedule will absolutely not permit me time for a full-on smoking session, 12 to 24+ largely unsupervised hours in the SV followed by some limited time for smoke and searing has allowed me to leverage my time (always due to unalterable demands from job or family). And at least around our house, the SV route has resulted in many dozens of happy diners who have greatly enjoyed the results. So the way I see it, having the two options to turn out quality "vittles" for my family and friends is what I call a win-win, and would NEVER have happened here without the great people at The Pit at Amazing Ribs and my very valuable membership.

[l'inferno]

I second that. TY

[Mitrakas]

Great post and thank you.

[Potkettleblack]

Nutritionally, it's a great protein. I'd rather eat it in egg whites. I've tasted the congealed grey goo, and... not really.

Wife hates the name purge.

[Jerod Broussard]

Neat. Not sure what they say now, but back in college nutrition they said that egg albumin was one of the most nearly perfect proteins because of its high digestibility and it's nearly perfect amino acid sequence.

I typically hurry up and ditch the purge before the wife sees it and completely grosses out.

[Potkettleblack]

Here's the process.

Remove item from bag. Move liquid to a microwave safe container that will not allow it to boil over. Should look like:


Nuke for a minute. If it hasn't fully separated, nuke for another 30 seconds. You want to see this look like:



From that picture you can see where this is going next. Generally, a mesh strainer is sufficient for most needs. But if you intend to build a sauce out of it, the coffee filter or a fine mesh strainer, like a chinois is worth the effort.


Mmmmmm... albumin. Pitch it. doesn't have much flavor, mucks up anything you put it in... trash it is. If someone ever comes up with a good use for it... I will open a business selling it.

Your final result, depending on how well you filtered it:


Since I put my chuckie in the bag after a 12 hour dry brine, with a dash of liquid smoke, this purge was like the purest beef broth ever. I added it back to the meat that I shredded from the chuck, just like you might shred your chuckie in foil with onions and peppers and the juice. If I were more motivated, I might kick up the umami of this with some fish sauce or some tamari. I might add it to a BBQ sauce and reduce it to the desired consistency (I'm not sure why this is recommended, but I might give it a go). I might use it where I would use beef stock in a red wine reduction. Lots of places to take it.

----
A couple of things about purge. If you have surface salt on your SV item, you will have salty purge (that sounds lewd). If you have herbs on the surface of your meat, you will have herby purge. Whatever is on the surface will infuse the purge. SV is an extractive cooking method. It will cook flavor in at the surface, a lot like Doc Blonder's marinade and brine experiments. So, consider, if you intend to use the purge (generally a good idea), how you want it flavored, before seasoning. I cook a lot of my sous vide completely naked, or just with some light salt or butter. I'm not saying that's the 100% right thing to do in all cases, but it's what works for me.