Page 40 - Sous Vide Que

can be surprising, enough to completely surround the meat. One might be tempted to say the meat is braising, but braising is usually done at a simmer, at about 190°F, a much higher temperature. There can be as much as 20% purge when cooking on a grill. It’s just not visible because it falls into the fire. When cooking in a frying pan you can see it, but the water evaporates rapidly. In a roasting pan in the oven you can see it more readily. In sous vide there is little fat lost because of the low temperatures.
When you cook in a frying pan a great technique is to make a pan sauce with the purge and the brown bits stuck to the pan. They are loaded with concentrated flavors from the Maillard reaction and caramelization. These elements are missing in sous vide.
You might be tempted to make a sauce from the purge. Most professionals don’t bother because often it doesn’t work. We have had some luck making sauces from poultry purge, but no luck at all with purge from red meats. The problem is that there can be a lot of myoglobin and albumin, both proteins, in the purge. They coagulate when you heat the liquid to try to make a sauce. The result is mud.
If you want to try, dump the liquid in the bag into a bowl and taste it. It can be salty if you dry-brined. The spices and herbs will settle to the bottom. You can decide if you want to include them in a sauce or decant the juice off the top. There can also be a bit of fat, so you might want to chill it or use a fat separator. When you heat it, keep the temperature low. Resist the temptation to reduce the liquid.
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