I’m using a cooking bag to make a ham.
I know about cutting holes in the bag too release pressure, but the instructions also call for you to put flour in the bag " to prevent bursting".
Is this really necessary and why ?
Soak up the steam?
It’s to keep the bag from sticking to the meat and burning it (the meat, not the bag.)
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Let’s move this over to Cafe Society (from GQ), since that’s where all of the foodies hang out.
I’ve heard that it keeps it from bursting, or so the directions say. I’m afraid not to do it. I do believe it makes for a moister turkey.
Ham in a bag? That’s different.
I wonder if it has the same pitfalls as doing turkey in a bag. Namely, if you are not careful, you can end up with turkey soup in a bag. Now I’m imagining throwing a bunch of peas in the bag and purposely cooking it slow in a bag. Ready made pea soup!
Or put some beans in the bag and have ham and bean soup.
Thank you for your inquiry regarding Reynolds® Oven Bags.
Flour should be added to the Oven Bag to protect against splitting. As meats cook, layers of fat and water accumulate. Without the flour, a layer of water may form under the layer of melted fat. The water under the fat will boil. The trapped steam can create enough pressure to cause a boil-up through the fat layer. When this happens, a “popping” sound is heard. If the popping becomes excessive, the bag can split. The addition of flour helps eliminate the possibility of this problem.
I never do it. If you cut holes in the bag, that should be enough.
well, many years ago when worked in a family butchers and bakers in the north-east of England We did almost exactly that.
We sealed large cured hams in those bags and put in a large cooking copper and boiled them gently for a few hours.
When cooled we would open the bags, strip the skin off the hams and breadcrumb the remaining rind of soft fat. The jellied brine from the bag would be saved and re-sealed in a bag with split peas and boiled again to make pease-pudding (which is basically a thick pea-soup and a traditional accompaniment to cold meats)
So my advice would be to do it, but do it in two stages.
The instructions that come with the bags say you can cook Turkey, Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Pork or ham in them.
They, also, have some recipes suggestions and there is an address and website you can go to.