Sous Vide Turduckin Breast...... fail

[Owly055]

I attempted a sous vide turduckin using turkey, duck, and chicken breast in a roulade. I sprinkled Activa RM liberally at each interface, and wrapped it with thin sliced ham. The whole thing went into the sous vide at 132 for 24 hours with intention of increasing it to 139 for the last hour.

First problem: After about 16 hours the package decided to float, and I discovered visible "air" inside it that had not been there. I condemned the product immediately, as any "inflation" suggests spoilage of some sort.

Second Problem: The Activa RM from an Amazon seller, fully sealed double seal factory package, etc, failed to do it's job. I've used it twice, and both times it failed to make a bond. It's going into the garbage.

I tested the product on a local feral cat.......no ill effects. He was back for more this morning as expected. I wouldn't have fed it to him if I'd really been afraid of serious spoilage / toxicity.

Thoughts anybody??

H.W.

 

[Revvy]

What's your process with the activa? When I made my turducken rolls a couple years back after liberally sprinkling everything with the meat glue I built the rolls on plastic wrap, rolled them tight, tied the ends tightly and chilled them overnight. I know over the years some "celebrity chefs" and other folks, appear to meat glue then cook the protein right away. But when I first read about the stuff years ago, the articles all talked about letting things "cure" overnight in the fridge to set.
I hardly use my meat glue and keep it in the freezer vacuum, sealing the packet in another vac bag and stuffing that back in the zip pouch, and I've had no issues with stuff sticking, even iirc 3 year after buying mine. But like I said I use tight pressure and 24 hours in the cold to let it set up.
If I recall I also just chucked the plastic wrapped turduckens (some wrapped in bacon) straight in my sous-vide (I need to look at my pics to be sure.)

I looked at the pics, and can't recall if I vac bagged the rolls after I wrapped them, but I want to say no, that they didn't fit any of my bags, so I did multiple layers of the plastic wrap.

 

[Owly055]

I chilled the roll about 24 hours or so as I recall. I've used this several times with uniformly poor results. That said, it is not Activa brand, it's a generic equivalent sold by Modernist Kitchen, I suspect they buy bulk and repackage. It's use by date is 2018. My theory is that it got hot or was mishandled at some point. It was packaged in a vacuum sealed mylar package, enclosed in another vacuum sealed outer mylar package that was resealable, and has the product information, etc on it.

H.W.

What's your process with the activa? When I made my turducken rolls a couple years back after liberally sprinkling everything with the meat glue I built the rolls on plastic wrap, rolled them tight, tied the ends tightly and chilled them overnight. I know over the years some "celebrity chefs" and other folks, appear to meat glue then cook the protein right away. But when I first read about the stuff years ago, the articles all talked about letting things "cure" overnight in the fridge to set.
I hardly use my meat glue and keep it in the freezer vacuum, sealing the packet in another vac bag and stuffing that back in the zip pouch, and I've had no issues with stuff sticking, even iirc 3 year after buying mine. But like I said I use tight pressure and 24 hours in the cold to let it set up.
If I recall I also just chucked the plastic wrapped turduckens (some wrapped in bacon) straight in my sous-vide (I need to look at my pics to be sure.)

I looked at the pics, and can't recall if I vac bagged the rolls after I wrapped them, but I want to say no, that they didn't fit any of my bags, so I did multiple layers of the plastic wrap.

 

[Revvy]

Interesting. Mine was from Modernist Pantry too. It's this brand.
http://modernistcuisine.modernistpantry.com/products/moo-gloo-rm-transglutaminase

 

[Owly055]

Same product............ I can only assume that it was mishandled somewhere along the line.

H.W.

Interesting. Mine was from Modernist Pantry too. It's this brand.
http://modernistcuisine.modernistpantry.com/products/moo-gloo-rm-transglutaminase

 

[wishingiwasfishing]

I've used the same stuff with good results, letting set overnight. I've tried my sous vide turkey below 140f and find I prefer it at 140f...just personal preference on taste and texture. Being pink or red (though cooked for proper duration) doesn't bother me if it's got the right flavor and texture.

Not sure what to tell ya???

 

[Owly055]

I've used the same stuff with good results, letting set overnight. I've tried my sous vide turkey below 140f and find I prefer it at 140f...just personal preference on taste and texture. Being pink or red (though cooked for proper duration) doesn't bother me if it's got the right flavor and texture.

Not sure what to tell ya???

I'm going to order another package from as different (non-Amazon) source. This was from an Amazon seller, and I suspect that it was warehoused by Amazon as many such items are. I am returning the remainder.

I just did a similar roll, using dark and light chicken, without the trans, and it hangs together just as well as the roll with the trans. After the sous vide process at 135, I chilled it, opened it up, dried it off well, and deep fried it briefly at max temp on my deep fryer, which is only 375. It gave me a very nice crisp surface. The skin, which I had saved also went into the deep fryer, and the result was a delicious crispy snack that made me wonder what they do with all the skins from the boneless skinless breasts, etc. I never buy boneless skinless fowl. I like the skin, and the bones, etc, are needed for making stock for gravy........ at least in my kitchen.

H.W.

 

[Revvy]

I'm going to order another package from as different (non-Amazon) source. This was from an Amazon seller, and I suspect that it was warehoused by Amazon as many such items are. I am returning the remainder.

I just did a similar roll, using dark and light chicken, without the trans, and it hangs together just as well as the roll with the trans. After the sous vide process at 135, I chilled it, opened it up, dried it off well, and deep fried it briefly at max temp on my deep fryer, which is only 375. It gave me a very nice crisp surface. The skin, which I had saved also went into the deep fryer, and the result was a delicious crispy snack that made me wonder what they do with all the skins from the boneless skinless breasts, etc. I never buy boneless skinless fowl. I like the skin, and the bones, etc, are needed for making stock for gravy........ at least in my kitchen.

H.W.

There's a trick I learned from watching one of Heston Blumenthal's bbc cooking videos about salt binding ground beef.... you grind the meat and leave the threads going in the same direction, lay it out on cling wrap and liberally salt it, then roll it up in the plastic wrap like I talked about in my earlier post. Supposedly the salt pulls a protein (I think Mycosine) out of the meat and that protean then binds the meat together, the same way meatglue does... only maybe not as efficiently.

I think we can pull off turducken rolls the same way, as long as we salt the surfaces liberally, roll tight enough and let it cure long enough. Although I'm not sure if it would work to bind like beef and chicken (or bacon and turkey in my case above, together (which meatglue CAN do) salt binding of similar proteins like all fowl probably can be done.

 

[Owly055]

Thanks for the tip.......... I'm trying it right now just with boned chicken breast and thighs. I'll leave it in the fridge for 3 or 4 days.


H.W.

There's a trick I learned from watching one of Heston Blumenthal's bbc cooking videos about salt binding ground beef.... you grind the meat and leave the threads going in the same direction, lay it out on cling wrap and liberally salt it, then roll it up in the plastic wrap like I talked about in my earlier post. Supposedly the salt pulls a protein (I think Mycosine) out of the meat and that protean then binds the meat together, the same way meatglue does... only maybe not as efficiently.

I think we can pull off turducken rolls the same way, as long as we salt the surfaces liberally, roll tight enough and let it cure long enough. Although I'm not sure if it would work to bind like beef and chicken (or bacon and turkey in my case above, together (which meatglue CAN do) salt binding of similar proteins like all fowl probably can be done.