If It’s Chili, It’s Personal

New York Times ^ | FEB. 10, 2014 | JENNIFER STEINHAUER

[Mears]

“Blasphemy.”

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:-)

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[Deek]

Well my wife and I tried with some chili grind venison. Sous vide the meet 24 hours with chili powder and cumin. After cooling the broth below 130 we added the meat. It was good, but different. Medium rare chili is not the norm: the meat was very tender and took the chili powder well, but resulted in an unusual texture for the finished product.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Interesting. I hadn’t considered that overcooked meat texture would be better in chili.

But this makes me wonder how Chinese velvet beef would perform. Typically used for old and/or tough cuts, the meat is thin sliced, then soaked for just 1 hour in 1 tsp baking soda in water to cover (no more or less of time or soda), before being thoroughly rinsed (I start with vinegar water rinses before rinsing with clean water).

But when cooked, after some initial foaming, the meat is extra tender with a velvety texture and cooks normally, and works well with more flavorful sauces.

A good question whether it would be better in chili.

[Deek]

I wouldn’t say it was bad. The wife and I both thought it was good. But it was different in both flavor and texture. The meat was very tender, and we could taste the medium rare flavor of the meat. It is challenging to describe, but I would say it tasted like medium rare steak covered in chili.