Sous vide

[CigarNut]

Made Sous Vide shrimp this evening -- 1 pound of Trader Joe's frozen, peeled and deveined shrimp with tails. Followed Dom's recipe (EVOO, smoked salt and pepper) and cooked them at 149* for 15 minutes. After the Sous Vide was done, I put the shrimp in a cast iron pan with a little avocado oil for about 90 seconds.

These were by far the best shrimp I have ever cooked!

[Chainsaw13]

Starting my first long cook. Venison shanks for 44 hours @ 145F. Seasoned with just salt, smoked salt (just two large grains per bag), black pepper and a bit of dried thyme. Recipe calls for 48 hours, but I just now thought about cooking them. They'll be Sunday's dinner.

[jonumberone]

I really enjoyed those shrimp too, Michael.

I just pulled out, and seared off a top round roast beef.
35hrs @ 130°
I have it cooling down, as the plan is to do cold roast beef sandwiches for lunch.
I also have a couple of racks of pork in a brine that will be for dinner tonight.
planning to cook them for 4 hours @138° just like the one I made for Christmas.

[Chainsaw13]

Damn Dom, do you have your IC running 24/7?

One thing I noticed this morning was condensation build up on and around the unit. This is the first cook I put plastic wrap over the top. You can see the water vapor wafting up around the IC. Adam, I wonder if that was the cause of yours going flaky? Mine hasn't acted up, but I did open the plastic wrap.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by Chainsaw13

Damn Dom, do you have your IC running 24/7?

One thing I noticed this morning was condensation build up on and around the unit. This is the first cook I put plastic wrap over the top. You can see the water vapor wafting up around the IC. Adam, I wonder if that was the cause of yours going flaky? Mine hasn't acted up, but I did open the plastic wrap.

Certainly anything is possible, and I did notice the steam / condensate issue when I had the cooker attached to the ice chest and used the metal coated bubble wrap to seal the top of the cooler, but that was days before it went bonkers. I would honestly hope that they would have thought to take into account steam and condensation when they were designing something that was going to sit over a large vessel of hot water for hours or even days on end.

I kind of suspect that mine might have been doomed with bad circuit board components from the word go. When I first received the unit, the display was partially out, then it came back on and worked normally for a while. Then it went out, then dim, then back to normal, then out. Every time I plugged it back in, the display segment behaved differently.

The night the machine went totally nuts, I didn't even have plastic wrap or a lid on the pot.

I looked on Anova's forum and there are other reports of people having their cookers go nuts in a similar manner to how mine did, some of whom also ordered right around the same time I did. Maybe Anova had some problems/defects in the production run.

[Chainsaw13]

That's right, I remember you mentioning it acting weird well before it crapped out.

[T.G]

No worries, I think your concern about the condensation has merit, as we don't actually know how they designed the inside of this thing.

When I get the replacement unit sometime next week, I'll start shopping around for an ice chest that I can cut up a bit and seal around the cooker for doing larger batches / roasts or just longer cooks in.

[T.G]

This was a little while back, a 3.5# tri-tip that I cooked for 7-1/2 hours at 132F, then finished/seared on my Santa Maria grill over a bunch of wine barrel staves. I had to use an ice chest with no lid for the water vessel.

The flavor was great and the texture was phenomenal.

[CigarNut]

That Tri Tip looks fantastic, Adam. I usually marinade my Tri Tip in pureed onion, oil, garlic, salt and red pepper flakes.

I wonder how it would come out if I put the marinade in with the meat in the cooker...

[T.G]

I think a small quantity of marinade would be fine, Michael. I had coated the tri tip with a heavy rub of garlic powder plus other spices and salt when in the vacuum bag. I wiped some of the rub sludge off with my hand before searing it.

[markem]

Do not put plastic wrap over the top of the sous vide device. Wrap it around the step where it comes out of the water.

There is a company that makes "sous vide balls" that will control the condensation. I've also heard of people using ping pong balls. Here is a link to one on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sous-Vide-Wate.../dp/B013NYKAU4

My Inova says to not submerge the control unit when cleaning but I do get condensation on the unit when cooking. If it were to fail for that reason, I'd demand a replacement and report them if they didn't come through (selling a defective product will get you kicked off of Amazon in a hurry).

[Chainsaw13]

Right, the plastic wrap only went around the Anova. It was the gaps around it that allowed the vapor to condensate on part of it. I figured, like Adam mentioned, that the unit would be designed to deal with some water. It was just an observation after my first overnight cook.

[markem]

Originally Posted by Chainsaw13

Right, the plastic wrap only went around the Anova. It was the gaps around it that allowed the vapor to condensate on part of it. I figured, like Adam mentioned, that the unit would be designed to deal with some water. It was just an observation after my first overnight cook.

I think that your observation is important not only to how to use the machine but also what to consider if something goes wrong. Condensation on the unit when used how you use it is not your fault and should be accounted for by the manufacturer.

[Chainsaw13]

Just finished my dinner of sous vide venison shanks. Didn't realize they weren't bone-in. Turned out good. Served with mashed sweet potatoes, with a red wine reduction over the top. Had a salad of fennel, green apple and toasted walnuts along side.

[BigAsh]

Originally Posted by jonumberone

I really enjoyed those shrimp too, Michael.

I just pulled out, and seared off a top round roast beef.
35hrs @ 130°
I have it cooling down, as the plan is to do cold roast beef sandwiches for lunch.
I also have a couple of racks of pork in a brine that will be for dinner tonight.
planning to cook them for 4 hours @138° just like the one I made for Christmas.

Wow, that sounds tasty...how did it turn out?

[jonumberone]

Originally Posted by BigAsh

Wow, that sounds tasty...how did it turn out?

It turned out good, not great, though none of the guests seemed to mind.
I thought the flavor was spot on, and it was a perfect medium rare.
For me, the issue was the texture. The 33 hour cook made the roastbeef mushy.
There were some positives to the longer cook. I sliced it with a knife, so, the slices weren't paper thin, but you were still able to bite through the meat effortlessly.
Absolutely no pull or tug. I also think the longer cook helped the garlic and onion flavors intensify in the meat.
I know I'm probably my biggest critic, but I just couldn't get past the mouthfeel of the roastbeef.

The pork was a different story; I hit that out of the park.
Perfectly cooked, moist, tender, and flavorful.

Maybe Vin, Keith, or Christos can comment more on the cooks?

[BigAsh]

Originally Posted by jonumberone

It turned out good, not great, though none of the guests seemed to mind.
I thought the flavor was spot on, and it was a perfect medium rare.
For me, the issue was the texture. The 33 hour cook made the roastbeef mushy.
There were some positives to the longer cook. I sliced it with a knife, so, the slices weren't paper thin, but you were still able to bite through the meat effortlessly.
Absolutely no pull or tug. I also think the longer cook helped the garlic and onion flavors intensify in the meat.
I know I'm probably my biggest critic, but I just couldn't get past the mouthfeel of the roastbeef.

The pork was a different story; I hit that out of the park.
Perfectly cooked, moist, tender, and flavorful.

Maybe Vin, Keith, or Christos can comment more on the cooks?

hahaha....agree with the above!...We are all our own worst critics...The beef tasted great, the "mouth-feel" was fine for a sandwich but would have been "weird" for a plated dinner...the longer cooks like these with a top round (or eye roast like I did awhile back) for me are perfect for a paper-thin deli slice....you don't get the "mushiness" but get the flavor and moistness...that being said, Dom made a fantastic roast beef sandwich (of course a homemade horseradish spread woulda gone a long way....as others had stated )...I mean who could complain with mouths stuffed with all that beefy goodness....the pork, was like a David Ortiz 12th inning walk-off in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS....deep to right and OUTTA HERE!!!!...

[T.G]

Originally Posted by BigAsh

hahaha....agree with the above!...We are all our own worst critics...The beef tasted great, the "mouth-feel" was fine for a sandwich but would have been "weird" for a plated dinner...the longer cooks like these with a top round (or eye roast like I did awhile back) for me are perfect for a paper-thin deli slice....you don't get the "mushiness" but get the flavor and moistness...that being said, Dom made a fantastic roast beef sandwich (of course a homemade horseradish spread woulda gone a long way....as others had stated )...I mean who could complain with mouths stuffed with all that beefy goodness....the pork, was like a David Ortiz 12th inning walk-off in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS....deep to right and OUTTA HERE!!!!...

Keith, when you did the eye roast for 30 hours, did you slice it hot and serve warm, or was it all done cold?

[BigAsh]

Originally Posted by T.G

Keith, when you did the eye roast for 30 hours, did you slice it hot and serve warm, or was it all done cold?

Sliced hot and served warm....made an "au jus" with the juice from the bags, supplemented with onions, garlic and beef stock

[T.G]

Originally Posted by BigAsh

Sliced hot and served warm....made an "au jus" with the juice from the bags, supplemented with onions, garlic and beef stock

Thanks.