Modern Tuscan Take on Traditional Southern New Year's Grub

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Down here in the "South" it's considered good luck to eat black eyed peas, cornbread, and greens on New Year's Day. TFJ put a Tuscan beatdown on a southern classic. Unfortunately, only egg related part of this was the bacon we made (it was in the Black Eyed Peas and th Chicken).

So we basically did the Meat Glue/SV Chicken again but this time she stuffed with smoked fontina, Marsala mushrooms, shallots and fresh basil. Soooooo good. Wow.

For the black eyed peas she did a Tuscan take by adding bacon, shallots, garlic, Italian stewed tomatoes, sherry and spinach (the spinach was our greens tonight)

For the cornbread, she did a Polenta with Parmesan, butter, and rosemary. It was awesome. I need a nap.



Happy New Years all.

Centex

Mighty_Quinn

Looking good as usual CT...Happy New Years.

nolaegghead

Yeah, I'd hit that.  Gotta love them microplane grates - cut cheese so thin it melts when you exhale on it.

cazzy

That looks great Cen!  What temp did you SV the chicken and how long?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

cazzy said:

That looks great Cen!  What temp did you SV the chicken and how long?

147 for 4 hours when you double up the breast like that. normal breasts are done in about an hour but when you double thickness you quadruple time in a SV. I'm sure NOLA knows why. I just read chart. Charts are good. I'm going to eat nothing but rice for a month. I am fooded out

nolaegghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

cazzy said:

That looks great Cen!  What temp did you SV the chicken and how long?

147 for 4 hours when you double up the breast like that. normal breasts are done in about an hour but when you double thickness you quadruple time in a SV. I'm sure NOLA knows why. I just read chart. Charts are good. I'm going to eat nothing but rice for a month. I am fooded out

Well, since ya asked....

is the area of a round thang, like a cross section of a log.  You double the radius (or diameter) and you get more than double the area you need to cook - more like 4x.

3.14 x 2^2 = (2" radius - 4" diameter log) = 12.5 square inches.
3.14 x 4^2 = (4" radius - 8" diameter log) = 50.2 square inches.  >4x more area/mass

I'll be on a rice a bean sprout diet for a while.  Right after I eat a few pounds of this bacon I just finished smoking.

 

Mickey

Very interesting.

rustypotts

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

cazzy said:

That looks great Cen!  What temp did you SV the chicken and how long?

147 for 4 hours when you double up the breast like that. normal breasts are done in about an hour but when you double thickness you quadruple time in a SV. I'm sure NOLA knows why. I just read chart. Charts are good. I'm going to eat nothing but rice for a month. I am fooded out

Well, since ya asked....

is the area of a round thang, like a cross section of a log.  You double the radius (or diameter) and you get more than double the area you need to cook - more like 4x.

3.14 x 2^2 = (2" radius - 4" diameter log) = 12.5 square inches.
3.14 x 4^2 = (4" radius - 8" diameter log) = 50.2 square inches.  >4x more area/mass

I'll be on a rice a bean sprout diet for a while.  Right after I eat a few pounds of this bacon I just finished smoking.

 

As Justin Wilson used to say...."Pi r square.........cornbread are round!"

nolaegghead

rustypotts said:

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

cazzy said:

That looks great Cen!  What temp did you SV the chicken and how long?

147 for 4 hours when you double up the breast like that. normal breasts are done in about an hour but when you double thickness you quadruple time in a SV. I'm sure NOLA knows why. I just read chart. Charts are good. I'm going to eat nothing but rice for a month. I am fooded out

Well, since ya asked....

is the area of a round thang, like a cross section of a log.  You double the radius (or diameter) and you get more than double the area you need to cook - more like 4x.

3.14 x 2^2 = (2" radius - 4" diameter log) = 12.5 square inches.
3.14 x 4^2 = (4" radius - 8" diameter log) = 50.2 square inches.  >4x more area/mass

I'll be on a rice a bean sprout diet for a while.  Right after I eat a few pounds of this bacon I just finished smoking.

 

As Justin Wilson used to say...."Pi r square.........cornbread are round!"

I Gawr-On-Tee it true!!!

lousubcap

@C-T-taking it up another notch for 2013??  Great cook-hope all the traditions for the new year work out for you!

cazzy

So Cen, explain to me again why chicken is safe @147 SV? 

Skiddymarker

nolaegghead said:

Yeah, I'd hit that.  Gotta love them microplane grates - cut cheese so thin it melts when you exhale on it.

Great looking food, compliments to TFJ and you CenTex. 

Regarding the micro-plane, I've had one of these for two or three years, made in USA and Canada. Amazing how far a small block of Romano or Parma will go with this thing....

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=32458&cat=2,40733,44734,32458

The Cen-Tex Smoker

cazzy said:

So Cen, explain to me again why chicken is safe @147 SV? 

well chicken is actually safe at 140 after a period of time but the texture is mushy. 147 is the perfect temp for texture and safety in chicken breast.165 is super safe for chicken because everything dies instantly at 165. You get the same safety at 147 after an hour and much better texture than having to burn the tails to get the thick part to 165

cazzy

So 147 for a hour for chicken breast is the key huh? Followed by a quick sear of course.

Do you have to vacuum seal each piece separately or can I put a few in each bag?

Also, costco sells frozen breasts that are wrapped individually...have you done those?

Little Steven

Lookin good partner! Why don't you sell me your egg since you don't need it anymore?

nolaegghead

Little Steven said:

Lookin good partner! Why don't you sell me your egg since you don't need it anymore?

You fire up the SV yet?

Little Steven

Have been working over the holidays. So far, ribeyes, porterhouse, beef standing ribs and an excellent pork tenderloin last night. Was going to do BSCB tonight but just got home. If we clean up this job before the weekend I'll have some playtime. Want to do some fish asap and pork belly and duck confit. Loving it so far. The queen is very happy with my Christmas gift as well.

nolaegghead

That's all that counts.  You need to fix your picture issue. 

The queen in this household is going to be pissed when she comes home from work tonight....the whole house smells like burnt fish oil.  Precisely because I'm burning fish oil.  Got a wok today and I'm on the 3rd cycle of seasoning - using fish oil tablets.  Didn't have any flax seed oil, and the fish oil is more or less the same polymerizing stuff.  I'm going to switch to canola next cycle because it's getting to the point I can't take it. 

Little Steven

Are you opening the fish oil capsules? Might this be a task better performed on the egg? Just sayin'

nolaegghead

hahaha.  gulp.  yes.

nolaegghead

I need to cook up some bacon to mask the smell.  I just smoked 12 pounds of it last night.  Duroc pork belly.  Ate some this morning.  Special stuff.

rustypotts

nolaegghead said:

That's all that counts.  You need to fix your picture issue. 

The queen in this household is going to be pissed when she comes home from work tonight....the whole house smells like burnt fish oil.  Precisely because I'm burning fish oil.  Got a wok today and I'm on the 3rd cycle of seasoning - using fish oil tablets.  Didn't have any flax seed oil, and the fish oil is more or less the same polymerizing stuff.  I'm going to switch to canola next cycle because it's getting to the point I can't take it. 

Maybe you should have used WD 40.

nolaegghead

rustypotts said:

nolaegghead said:

That's all that counts.  You need to fix your picture issue. 

The queen in this household is going to be pissed when she comes home from work tonight....the whole house smells like burnt fish oil.  Precisely because I'm burning fish oil.  Got a wok today and I'm on the 3rd cycle of seasoning - using fish oil tablets.  Didn't have any flax seed oil, and the fish oil is more or less the same polymerizing stuff.  I'm going to switch to canola next cycle because it's getting to the point I can't take it. 

Maybe you should have used WD 40.

couldn't have smelled any worse, and I'm not averse to fish smells.  I opened the front and back doors and it's airing out pretty well.  Freezing effin' cold, but that's just temporary.

Little Steven

Poor baby...how cold is it?

nolaegghead

48F.  But it feels like 44.  I had to wear long sleeves today.  Yeah, we're pussies. 

Little Steven

16 F here now but we only get another inch of snow so that's a good thing

Little Steven

And the gas company came today and didn't turn it back on when they finished. Both fireplaces are gas and so is the heat.

nolaegghead

That's terrible.  Better get out your snuggies.....

Little Steven

Soooo, there's a pot of cold chili on the gas range, so I dump it into another pot and put it on the induction cooktop and turn the electric ovens on....Thank God I married a blonde. B-)

nolaegghead

...and at least the world wide interwebs don't run on gas.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

cazzy said:

So 147 for a hour for chicken breast is the key huh? Followed by a quick sear of course. Do you have to vacuum seal each piece separately or can I put a few in each bag? Also, costco sells frozen breasts that are wrapped individually...have you done those?

you can put several in one bag but if you double them up, quadruple the time as mentioned above. As long as they are not touching you the will be done in an hour or so. You can use the individual Costco breast and drop them right in frozen. They are perfect. I would add 15 minutes or so if you drop them in frozen