Re: Sous vide
 

It was a cheapo brisket on sale for St. Patrick's. I just rinsed it off. I think some of the salt bleed out into the Guinness and broth. The meat wasn't salty.
Steaming it kept it moist. Many recipes I've seen call for chunking the beef and searing in a pan. Not sure why that's necessary.:confused: I've never done that after cooking it traditionally.

The best thing was it was cooked and ready for a reheat so I didn't have to worry about it while tearing it up at the Irish pub.:chr

Re: Sous vide
 

Picked up a cheap top round roast last weekend and after my initial plans fell through for it I was in a tailspin trying to figure out what to do. Figured why not try some homemade deli meat!

Ended up going in at 133 for 12 hours with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Came out and chilled it. Sliced it up and it was delicious! Was like some of the best roast beef from the deli counter, but at $4.99/lb instead of $20/lb. Plus it tasted better!

Next up I think I'll give some poultry a try. But my mind is also racing for some new flavors on the beef. Thinking of recreating Boarshead portwine beef?

Re: Sous vide
 

Cooked up some carnitas for enchiladas again last night, partly because I wanted them for dinner and partly because I wanted to test the recipe I was using, which states that you can shred and broil right away or let cool and toss the whole bag in the fridge for a week or freezer for months. This time I made twice the recipe, ate one for dinner (just as good as last time) and put the other bag in the freezer. Gonna give it a month or two then take it out, thaw in the bag and proceed as if I just took it out of the bath, I'll post back up with results whenever that happens.

For the one I ate last night, I strained out the aromatics and brought the juices (a lot of orange and lime in there) to a boil, put some minced onion and frozen corn in that to soak up some flavor then sauteed for inside the enchiladas as well as some peppers/onions and some cheese. I mixed the rest of the reduced SV juice with store bought enchilada sauce to top with. Worth all the extra effort :dr

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Thank you for sharing that link Ben.That looks like yummy piggy goodness!:dr

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Who here has experience with the larger vessels?

I'm thinking about getting the 26 qt. container and lid. What I'd like to know is that with the lid, are the "ping pong balls" necessary? Or will the lid be sufficient for a long cook?

Re: Sous vide
 

I have the LIPAVI 6.5 gallon (26qt) container and lid; there are pictures of it here. The lid is made to fit the Annova.

I don't think the ping pong balls are necessary when you have the lid.

BTW, I really like the container and lid combo. Easy to use easy to take care of and not to heavy to lift to/from the sink when full.

I also purchased one of the LIPAVI racks -- I got the round one because I purchased the rack before I purchased the container, and it fit my stock pot. If I had to do it again, I would probably pick up the rectangular or square one.

Re: Sous vide
 

Thanks, Michael.
I'm gonna pass on the ping pong balls (and a rack for that matter) for now. Just having a large vessel to do roasts and such will be useful.

Re: Sous vide
 

I have a smaller size like that. I cut a piece of bubble wrap to lie on top for insulation. Moisture does gather inside the lid but a quick wiggle gets it right off. Virtually no evaporation on 48 cooks. Love it.

Re: Sous vide
 

Just an FYI, Amazon has the Anova on sale right now for $109. It's been on sale a couple of days already, not sure how much longer it will be there. I picked mine up 3 days ago, got here yesterday.

I was planning on using an old cooler I had already for the vessel but after putting 4 gallons of water in it I realized it was going to be too big. I ordered the 25-qt Coleman stack-able. Was hoping to get by with not paying anything for a vessel, but oh well.

It will take me awhile but I plan on going thru the whole thread and just picking up some ideas. Thanks for all the info!

Anova

Cooler

Re: Sous vide
 

Still loving mine but have only been using it maybe oncer per week, most recently to make some pulled chickens to go inside some burritos, cooked the chicken for 1 hour at 150*, just put some limes, cilantro, garlic and a few basic spices. it turned out amazing, I liked it better than the pork I have made a few times for a similar purpose. Next up will probably be another attempt at juicy lucy's now that I have a vacuum sealer, I think will help keep their form and keep the cheese sealed on the inside. Last time I tried them the cheese stayed in for the SV process, but once I put them on the grill pan a seam opened and most of the cheese poured out. That was using the water immersion technique to seal a freezer bag, this will work better

Re: Sous vide
 

Have you thought about trying the stuffed burgers with high temperature cheese, like what is used for some sausages, or using cheeses that don't melt as readily?

Re: Sous vide
 

I had made my own cheese slices, following a recipe similar to this one but with a few different types of cheese as ingredients, I made it about 2-3x the thickness of normal cheese slices and I think the consistency was good. I wouldn't want it too hard so that it isn't oozy, but I haven't looked further into what types. I think the cheese was good, I just didnt seal all the seams perfectly. I made them using 2x 4oz patties each, I think if I just added an ounce to each there would be enough surface area on the edges to seal better. If I get around to trying again soon I'll post back with any changes in the outcome

Re: Sous vide
 

Well today decided to try doing a pork belly in the sousvide. Will see how it turns out.

Cross cut both sides of the belly and seasoned it well, put it in for 7 hrs at 160. Once complete it says reseason and cut into strips and crisp up the edges. Will know how it turns out later today.

Look froward to it.

Anyone else done pork belly in the sous vide yet

Re: Sous vide
 

If you have a large stock pot, you can cook for your family in one.
Now if you're cooking for a herf or other large get together, that's a different story.

Re: Sous vide
 

I've been using my stock pot more than my SV tub, especially like that I can put the pot on the stove to get the initial temp up if in a hurry thanks to Peter's advice. glad I have both in case I'm doing a bigger cook

Re: Sous vide
 

Exactly. I just bought the 26 qt. tub and lid. Haven't used it yet.

Re: Sous vide
 

That makes sense.

Tell me about the cheese slices. What's the consistency? Guessing kind of like an american cheese or even velveeta slice, just minus the chemicals?

Re: Sous vide
 

Depends on how long you want to cook for. I've done some 5 day long cooks and I used an insulated chest just so that the SV unit didn't have to work that hard to hold temp.

Re: Sous vide
 

5days!?!?!??

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http://www.pandespani.com/wp-content...tstone-rib.png

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:r

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You have my attention.

Re: Sous vide
 

Yeah, beef shank. Unreal richness. But too tender, should have lowered the temp or gone shorter.

Just bought a whole lamb with 2 friends, when we divvy it up, if I grab a shank cut, I'm going to try it again.

Re: Sous vide
 

160 for 10 hours is done. I cut a slice off and quick sear after reseason and wow! I added a little BBQ sauce to the next slice and even better. Now i reseason the pork belly and letting it rest in the fridge till Sunday (if I don't keep cutting pieces). Then will seat the whole piece.

If I keep cutting I have another piece just started and will be going thru till Sunday morning on it at 135.00 till Saturday night then bring it to 145 till Sunday and then finish it in oven for crunch following the other recipe I found!

Re: Sous vide
 

So I did my first one last night, I call it Kitty Litter Chicken :D

Didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. The boneless chicken breasts were great for me, but I know I like my chicken a little drier than most, which tells me others probably thought it was dry......even though they were kind and told me it wasn't.

I will say it had great flavor! Just not as juicy as the instructions made it out to seem.

I did it at 160 for 2.5 hours. I was only going to do it for 90-120 minutes but the guests arrived late.

I put it in before about 30 minutes before the water hit 160 because it was taking so long to get to temp. I was scared I wouldn't have enough time....Not sure if that was the culprit? There was a lot of juice in the bags in the end and they seemed very moist when I took them out. I only had them on the charcoal for about 4-5 minutes to brown up. I hope that wasn't too long.

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=9094

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=9093

Re: Sous vide
 

I looks really good!

Did you have any salt on them? Salt can dry meats out on longer ( > 1 hour) cooks.

If you cut back on (not eliminate) the salt during the bath and add it before the sear, they should come out ok.

Re: Sous vide
 

Here's a well written article on how time and temp relate to texture, juiciness, bag juices, gelling and so forth for chicken.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/t...en-breast.html

I ice bath the bags to bring the temp down, then open them and thoroughly dry off the meat before searing. Two things happen here: 1) you bring the temperature of the meat down so that when it heats up due to the sear, you don't go past your original target temp and over cook the meat. 2) if you don't dry them, you aren't searing, you're steaming them (which continues the cooking) until the moisture evaporates, then once that happens you get a sear.

Past that, make sure your grill is blazing hot, sear as quickly as possible as to not heat up the meat too much.

Oh, and save those bag juices, they are great for making sauces once they are strained. It's basically concentrated stock.

Re: Sous vide
 

I usually do chicken breast at 142-145...moist and delicious

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Funny this rarely comes up in discussions with my friends ...:tu

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I managed to avoid opening this thread for a year and a half....but now that I have (due in part to some gimmicky appliance on Shark Tank)...I have a couple questions....and I'm too lazy to do real reading and research....I haven't even read through much of this thread, but I may yet :)

-Do I need anything other than one of those stick heater/circulator things (~$100), a $35 Sealameal, and some bags?

-Do most things require a pre-sear or post-sear or some other type of before or after cooking?

-I like food....but not enough to work very hard at it...I like grilling and pressure cooking and crock-potting....but if I decide this is like work, I probably won't get near it...is it work?

-I absolutely hate the fn name....prolly why I never opened this thread....Sous Vide????....really....wtf is that?...isn't it about time we say f*** the pretentious froggy gourmet stuff...and call it something American-y...like boilinabag or something? I'd probably have been all over it years ago, if it weren't for the name

Re: Sous vide
 

Consistency and look of one of the pre-sliced individual packaged yellow americans although I made mine 2-3x thicker because I think one normal slice is not enough cheese (same approx. LxW of pre-sliced, I believe about 50 grams each instead of the ~20 grams a normal american slice is). Consistency reminds me of velveeta, although I haven't bought that stuff in at least 5 years. Definitely no chemical taste.

I love sodium citrate, it's the key to making "velveeta-like cheese dip" but using cheese that, ya know, needs to be refrigerated. I use it for mac and cheese, making cheese slices like this and big time secret ingredient for queso dip. I made some queso to bring to a bbq a few weeks back and somebody tried it and said "this is smooth, but doesn't taste like crap, it's not velveeta is it?" so I gave a little lesson to the table. For the cheese slices, I made the recipe similar to the linked one then poured it all in a 9x13 pyrex and let it cool, then just sliced to size and peeled out, put between parchment pieces and put some in the fridge and some freezer. I originally made it specifically for the burgers, but have used the slices in anything a normal american slice would have worked, great for omelettes and grilled cheeses too

Re: Sous vide
 

See my responses in red.

I gather from your post you're not a fan of cooking. For me, I get a lot of pleasure from cooking. For some, it is just a chore. If you are happy with grilling and pressure cooking and crock-potting, you may not want another cooking method. Just my :2

Re: Sous vide
 

Thank you, Peter! You're probably right about me and cooking....I don't mind prep-type work...and I do OK with temperature control and some basic applications of heat...but, when it comes to stuff that needs baby-ing...sauces and multi-phase cooking; even dry/wet rub combo barbecue....I don't generally have the patience. Some sort of mental block...once it hits the oven/stove/grill...my mind calls it done - cooking to me is prep to heat to table.
I'd like to get a little better with herbs, spices, sherrys, etc.... but I may not be ready to drop a couple bills on some gear I may not end up using very much.
BTW, anybody want a cheap fry daddy, or bread machine or electric griddle, or grinder, or Osterizer or waffle maker or.... :)

Re: Sous vide
 

I did salt and pepper them though I don't feel like I oversalted. I feel they were seasoned perfect....but maybe thats too much when using the sosu vide technique?

Definitely going to not go as high as 160 next time. I was using Anova's guide and I know that was the highest they suggested.

I did do some sirloins as my 2nd cook. They turned out good, though I don't feel they were seasoned enough. The cook was perfect!

Also, I got the cooler in I will be using from now on. I really think it will do a great job being its as shallow as it is. I know why so many of the comments for it recommend it for sous vide now! I'll post an update once I get it ready.

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LOVE The cooking vessel Jack!
You guys are too much.... I've been back just short of 24 hours and I'm already teetering on the edge of a new slope!

Re: Sous vide
 

Pancakes.














;s

Re: Sous vide
 

Dave,

Peter covered a lot of the bases. Just some things I'd like to add.

SV cooking isn't really any more work than pressure cooking. SV you have an extra step in bagging the food and an extra step in searing it when you are done (some things don't need it), but you don't generally have to worry about things like: getting the heat just right for the pressure widget, or leaving the food in too long - which for a pressure cooker could be 5 minutes, worrying about running out of liquid, then you have the whole cool down period.

I have a Fagor stovetop pressure cooker, which I really like, and I use it about as often as I use my SV cooker (about 1-6 times a month), but, I have to be completely honest, the pressure cooker is more work than the SV. Can't tell you how many times I've dropped stuff in the meat jacuzzi and just left the house. I can't pull that stunt with a pressure cooker.

I'd say SV is about as easy as crock pot cooking plus the extra effort of searing the food. Can't cook a 2" steak in a crock pot though, unless you like shredded beef.

Which brings me to the point that Dom brought up that sold me. Completely even edge to edge doneness. 2-1/2" thick ribeye, medium-rare, hard to do on a grill, you get a bullseye effect: a layer of well done, then med-well, then medium, then medium-rare and maybe even a rare center. With SV, the whole thing is cooked to medium-rare and can't get any more cooked because the water is only 136F. Ice bath the bag, open it, dry it off, season it and sear it. Now you're entering into the realm of what you used to only be able to get done right at a high end steakhouse.

I'm not a SV die-hard. It doesn't do everything, nor would I want to cook everything with it. Quite a few things that you can cook with it that I simply don't care for when cooked that way. For many things I much prefer one of my smokers, or my santa maria grill, deep fryer or some other method, but, for some things, I now found the SV cooker to be absolutely indispensable because it's simply the best tool for that particular job.

Re: Sous vide
 

Great post. Thank you

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Ben, with Lucy's a higher heat is needed to "set" the protein of the beef. That's what makes the ground meat bind together. Those are usually cooked on a griddle in Minneapolis where they were "invented". Cast iron would work very well. Try using rich meat such as 15 to 20% fat content. Be sure to work it first with your hands as most ground beef is strands that look like worms. Working it will help binding the sealed edges better. Helps to "knit" the meat fibers together so they bind more easily. If you are going to grill them don't try to cook them well done. Just about medium rare is as far as you should go or the cheese will get too runny. Hope that helps. Just wanted to give you my:2 Good luck.

Re: Sous vide
 

Thanks for the tips, the meat was well worked since I put a bunch of seasonings and other delicious stuff but maybe I didn't go high enough on the sear. I did cook the burger in the SV to higher than I would prefer, so maybe it was a combo of too high internal, too low sear. I also used a grill pan instead of a cast iron, not sure if that would make a difference since it split on the side but I could try switching that as well. Probably not gonna get a chance to make them again this week, but I will for sure in the next week or two. I'll report back!

Re: Sous vide
 

Forgot to post other recent sous vide successes.

1" thick swordfish steak seasoned with salt, pepper, EVOO, lemon juice, and fresh thyme . Cooked at 128 for 40 minutes. Finished in a cCast iron skillet ~60 seconds per side.
Moist and tender. Definitely will do this again.

Johnsonville Bratwurst seasoned with salt. Cooked at 147.5 for just under 3 hours. Brats were great. Finishing with Searzall a big fail. Cast iron next time.

Sweet Italian sausage. No pre-seasoning. Cooked at 147.5 for 2.5 hours. Delicious. Very tender and juicy. Served with homemade lasagna. Might try a higher temp to give links more of a snap/bite.


.

Re: Sous vide
 

Spent most of the weekend cooking, made a ramen broth ala momofuku, similar to this but following the directions from Chang in Mind Of A Chef (same recipe, longer times). The whole broth process took about 12 hours, but it was all eclipsed by the pork belly.

Got a chunk about 2 pounds from the butcher, didn't have time to do a full 36 hour cook so I did 10 hours at 170*. I used a tare-like sauce similar to here, but the best part was following the directions at the end of this one for after coming out of the tub. I strained the cooking juice and reduced it down probably by 75%, what was left was a thick black syrup, I used that to glaze the belly and holy ****, this was one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. I could have used canned chicken soup and the whole dish would have shined almost as brightly because of the belly. Can't wait to make it again, next time with the full 36 hour cook.

Prepped the juicy lucy's to make for dinner tonight, used 2/3 ground beef 1/3 chorizo, made the patties 0.5 oz bigger to try to add some girth to the outside to prevent spillage and vac sealed, will report back with results :tu

Re: Sous vide
 

I'd call attempt #2 at juicy lucy's a success, cheese stayed in all three up until I flipped them, after there were a few spots where you could see it but only one of the three had enough spill over to touch the grill pan. I cooked them to 133* in the SV but I was worried about the temperature of the chorizo I put in so I kept them on the pan for a little longer than I would with just beef. The vacuum sealer definitely helped them keep their shape and seal the seams. The cheese kept in their little pockets for all and stayed there pretty much until the last bite, but was still oozy and not too hot. One did overflow out the other side on the first bite but that wasn't the one I was eating, so I'll chalk that up to user error :D

Re: Sous vide
 

Cooked up a little hunk of brisket yesterday, it was about 1.75LB, leftovers from a couple weeks ago when I bought a bigger chunk but didn't need all of it. When I first cut it up I made a roasted garlic paste/marinade similar to this one, slathered it on and vac sealed. Saturday afternoon I put that from the freezer into a 155* bath for 24 hours, took it out yesterday afternoon and put it on the cast iron with a little bacon fat and olive oil. It seared up excellently, not quite the bark you'd expect from smoked brisket but enough of a little crunch to fit in. This thing was super tender, just enough fat to keep things interesting but once sliced I didn't even need a knife to cut further, just the side of a fork. The juice from the bag made a great pan sauce while the steak was resting with just a little shallots, extra garlic, white wine and a touch of cream. It was a lot of time/effort for such a small piece, but it was a generous portion for three people, or in my case two people and leftovers for lunch :D

Re: Sous vide
 

Next mini-project is bourbon infused cherries, probably don't need to do it in the SV but not gonna let that stop me. From what I gather it's just take the pit out of the cherries, put in a mason jar and cover with bourbon, let it sit in a water bath at 135* for a couple hours. Cherries were looking good at the store last week so I got a big bag of them, and took a hand full out to de-pit. These are now sitting in a mason jar in the freezer, gonna pick up some bourbon soon and will just cover them then put in the bath. This should also yield some cherry bourbon, not the intended output but it should be fun to experiment with in small amounts mixing into drinks. I'll probably take a separate mini mason and put some maraschinos in following the same process just to see what happens

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:tu...interested to see how this comes out....recent cooks sound great, especially the belly

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I'm not the best about remembering to take/post pictures, but I'll keep updating with anything interesting I try. I'm going to do that 48 hour bacon one day (or days), even if it kills me :dr

Re: Sous vide
 

Another weekend of good food, had a few people over for a cookout on Saturday so I decided to take out a ~4lb pork shoulder I've had in the freezer for a month waiting to be used. I made pulled pork sammies, loosely following the process/recipe here. I cooked it for 22 hours in the SV at 165*, then pat dry and applied another healthy coat of the dry rub. After that two hours in the oven at 300/325*, with five minutes at the end under the broiler to get the brown sugar in the dry rub to really start glistening.

Made a sauce out of the juice from the bag, mixed with a half full bottle of some pineapple bbq sauce that I had in the fridge and a few other ingredients from my honey bbq sauce, it was amazing, poured most of it over the pork after pulling. I'm not sure if it's possible to recreate that sauce without a ton of pork juice, so it might be the type of thing I only make as one-offs to go with the bbq, but it's really good.

The article I was going off mentioned that you can "make a smoke ring" by using curing salts, anybody try those? I don't care about the asthetics too much, but it seemed interesting, might keep an eye open for some for the future.

Re: Sous vide
 

I've heard stories of guys using it for hacking a smoke ring in bbq competitions by mixing it in the mop sauce. Don't know anyone who actually claims to have done it though, competition or not.

Prague #1, aka Instacure #1, aka Heller's Modern Cure #1, etc... is the one you would want for that. You wouldn't need much, for dry mixing, like for summer sausage, the dosing is 1oz per 25 lbs (1:400). Morton's tender quick would also work (different application rate), but it's insanely salty.

Thinking it would be applied in the initial dry rub, but I'd be worried it might make everything taste like ham instead of pulled pork.


BTW - I started messing around with the melting salts for cheese, neat stuff. Just have to remember to never use cheddar with it for a cheese sauce or everyone will think it's velveeta.

Re: Sous vide
 

Got a question: I need to cook 3 steaks medium-rare and one medium. I cook my medium rare steaks at 129 degrees and the medium at 135 degrees -- all for an hour.

I was thinking that I would cook the medium rare steaks first, then take them out of the bath and heat the bath up to 135 and then cook the medium steak. This means that the MR steaks will sit out (in their bags) for a bit over an hour and I don't know if that's OK. And, I'm loath to refrigerate the MR steaks as they may not heat up enough from the quick sear...

Is there a better way to do this?