Sous vide

[Alpedhuez55]

Originally Posted by CigarNut

Did you use any salt on your roast? I find that salt dries out meat on the longer cooks, and for those cooks where i have either reduced or left out the salt, the roasts come out very juicy and tender.

Using salt on the shorter cooks for steaks and the like does not cause any problems.

I did use a little salt with it but not as much as I normally would have. I will keep that in mind next time I make a roast with a longer cook time. Thanks for the tip.

[Flynnster]

Just tossed in a small bottom round roast. Plan is 132 for about 12 hours.

[longknocker]

Dom: That's Some Delicious Looking Food, Brother! You Need To Change Occupations!

[Tio Gato]

Did my first cook yesterday. A whole tenderloin lightly seared, immersed than seared again. It was perfect medium rare. 125F for one hour seared in cast iron. Yummy for sure.

[8lug]

This maybe a dumb question but how do you know when a steak or roast is cooked to med rare without taking its internal temp?

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by 8lug

This maybe a dumb question but how do you know when a steak or roast is cooked to med rare without taking its internal temp?

Sitting in the water bath for 1-4 hours pretty much guarantees your internal temp will be what you've set the device at.

[Tio Gato]

Second cook today. Grape tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic, basil and s&p. 130F for 30 minutes. Chilled for later.
7 or 8 fingerling potatoes sliced lengthwise with olive oil, garlic, vidalia onions, fresh parsley, big nugget of unsalted butter and s&p. 190F for one hour. Chilled as well.
Have a chicken roasting now. Just before it's done I'll reheat veg. and serve.
Gotta say it smells wicked good in here. (As we say!)

[Tio Gato]

Originally Posted by Tio Gato

Second cook today. Grape tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic, basil and s&p. 130F for 30 minutes. Chilled for later.
7 or 8 fingerling potatoes sliced lengthwise with olive oil, garlic, vidalia onions, fresh parsley, big nugget of unsalted butter and s&p. 190F for one hour. Chilled as well.
Have a chicken roasting now. Just before it's done I'll reheat veg. and serve.
Gotta say it smells wicked good in here. (As we say!)

Tomatoes were awesome, potatoes grossly under cooked. Darn internet recipes.

[8lug]

Originally Posted by pnoon

Sitting in the water bath for 1-4 hours pretty much guarantees your internal temp will be what you've set the device at.

With such a varied time frame is safe to say you can't over cook a steak use this method?

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by 8lug

With such a varied time frame is safe to say you can't over cook a steak use this method?

Correct, as it'll reach equilibrium and stay there. However, the longer it goes, the more the texture will change, usually not for the better.

[Flynnster]

Did regular old chicken breasts today, 145 for 2.5 hours (from frozen) and they were very good, just salt and pepper on them for salads throughout the week.

Right now I'm doing Serious Eats glazed carrots and some green beans. 185 for 1 hour.

[8lug]

I just pulled the trigger on the wifi/Bluetooth model. Should be here Thursday.

[Alpedhuez55]

I did my second cook on New Years Eve . This was a top sirloin steak that I used to make Steak au Poivre. The steak was cooked for 2 hours at 131 and came out as tender as a fillet. Moist and very tender. There were not a lot of juices left in the bag, but it was enough to make the sauce. I served it with a loaded baked potato. Then some Tres Lehes Cake followed buy a CAO American Torpedo to take me up to Midnight!!!!

Now I need to decide what to make next!!!

[croatan]

I made the best pork tenderloin I've ever had last night. Cooked two of them (one peppercorn pre-seasoned and one au natural that I did with salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, and butter) at 136 for an hour and a half or so and then seared in cast iron. It was the most tender pork I've ever eaten. I served the medium-rare pork to two people who normally only eat well-done steaks and they both loved it. I don't think I'll ever do a pork tenderloin any other way again.

Also, while the pork was in the bath, I threw in some asparagus with salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes, and butter. Let it sit with the pork for half an hour or so, then when I took the pork out, I added some boiling water and bumped the temp up to 170ish for another 10-15 minutes. Came out great. I don't normally even like asparagus, but this way it had good flavor and didn't have any of that nastiness that I usually associate with the stuff.

[Alpedhuez55]

Originally Posted by croatan

I made the best pork tenderloin I've ever had last night. Cooked two of them (one peppercorn pre-seasoned and one au natural that I did with salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, and butter) at 136 for an hour and a half or so and then seared in cast iron. It was the most tender pork I've ever eaten. I served the medium-rare pork to two people who normally only eat well-done steaks and they both loved it. I don't think I'll ever do a pork tenderloin any other way again.

Actually, I have one of those pre-seasoned peppercorn tenderloins I was thinking of putting on when I get home. But I may just wait until the weekend. I have that same pork fear a lot of people have. My Mom was so afraid of getting sick from it that it was always well done and stringy or else I fear I am going to end up with trichinosis. Hopefully the Sous Vide will help me get over that fear.

[T.G]

Tried a stepped temperature cook a few days ago, actually quite pleased with the results.

Took about a 1" thick sirloin steak. 1.3 hours at 103F, then 1.3 hours at 120F, then 2.5 hours at 127F.

Somewhat impressed with the flavor and tenderness developed in what was a not-so-special select grade cut from Safeway. Going to have to try this again with a better steak.

I've never really been happy with the bark on a sous vide steak. Yeah, it's not the worst out there, but it just doesn't hold a candle to what I can get on any one of my grills (other than the pellet grill). To get a good bark, I was basically wrecking all the work I had done for the SV cook. So I played around with a heavy pre-sear, then a cook, then a normal post sear. Making sure to dry the steak with a few paper towels before each sear. This actually kind of worked, the pre-cook sear could be heavier/longer since the meat is still cold and not going to be as affected by it, the post-cook sear was basically just re-crisping the work from the onset. Not to mention the flavor that was infused into the meat during the cook from all the little burnt bits. Need to try that again, but this time, with a frozen steak. That way I can sear the crap out of it yet only have that part of the cook penetrating a few mm.

I still prefer stuff grilled, but I'm starting to find a usable alternative with this process.

[T.G]

Oh, and I did a 52 hour cook, not really intended to be, but just how things worked out, at 127F and it didn't fvck the meat up like it had in the past at 131+. So I guess temps need to go down a bit for the longer cooks. Not my preference, but nice to know.

[jonumberone]

Originally Posted by T.G

Oh, and I did a 52 hour cook, not really intended to be, but just how things worked out, at 127F and it didn't fvck the meat up like it had in the past at 131+. So I guess temps need to go down a bit for the longer cooks. Not my preference, but nice to know.

I haven't had enough coffee to remember what they are, but aren't there risks to longer cooks below 130°?
I've never been a fan of how long cooks come out, and would love to try them at a lower temp.

Adam, the solution to your searing problems is to cook thicker steaks!
I don't remember the last time I had a steak in the bath that was less than 2" thick.
And before you ask, the answer is yes, even when I'm eating alone.
Seriously though, even going to 1.5" will be more forgiving and allow you to get a great sear on the grill without undoing all the good work of the sous vide.
The best part is there are plenty of great things to do with the leftovers!

I did a bottom round roast beef for 12 hrs @131° the other day.
I was upset to find out that the Anova doesn't have a delayed start.
I needed to get the roast in by 5am.
So, my choices were to either bring the water to temp the night before and hold it there, or hope I got it to temp in the morning before I had to leave for work
It just doesn't make sense.
Roast came out great. Went in the bag with fresh garlic, thyme, a touch of salt and pepper, and some chopped onion.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by jonumberone

I haven't had enough coffee to remember what they are, but aren't there risks to longer cooks below 130°?
I've never been a fan of how long cooks come out, and would love to try them at a lower temp.

Yeah, I haven't been a fan of the longer cooks either, hence why I started looking into just how low I could drop the temp. The risks are in cooking at too low a temp or for too short a time, or both. In regards to what is safe: at 131F, bugs die in less than 2 hours. At 126.1F they die in many hours to days. Below 126F, they stop reproducing. So, in short, at 127F, or even 126.5F, a few days or more and you should be safe, but a shorter cook would be where you could run into problems.

Please note, this is only for whole muscle cuts of beef. I have not looked into this for ground beef, poultry, pork or any other hoof animal (lamb, etc).

Originally Posted by jonumberone

Adam, the solution to your searing problems is to cook thicker steaks!
I don't remember the last time I had a steak in the bath that was less than 2" thick.
And before you ask, the answer is yes, even when I'm eating alone.
Seriously though, even going to 1.5" will be more forgiving and allow you to get a great sear on the grill without undoing all the good work of the sous vide.
The best part is there are plenty of great things to do with the leftovers!

I like how you think, brother.

Originally Posted by jonumberone

I did a bottom round roast beef for 12 hrs @131° the other day.
I was upset to find out that the Anova doesn't have a delayed start.
I needed to get the roast in by 5am.
So, my choices were to either bring the water to temp the night before and hold it there, or hope I got it to temp in the morning before I had to leave for work
It just doesn't make sense.
Roast came out great. Went in the bag with fresh garlic, thyme, a touch of salt and pepper, and some chopped onion.

Dom, supposedly this 3rd party app can do delayed starts.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ph.anovaremote
I've never used it though. Heck, I don't even use the app from the manufacturer. Such being the case for me, I'd go with heating the water the night before, since these things don't really use that much electricity once they get up to temp.

Nice roast too.

[Brlesq]

Dom, you could just use a plug-in outlet timer for a delayed start. I've done that.