Sous vide

[T.G]

Originally Posted by GoatLocker

Water level was good, the vents were clear and pointed about 45 degrees away from the clamp, and the pot was not covered. 145 was the temp I used the previous day for chicken, and it seemed "stuck" there. I didn't notice the set temp at the cooker when I first plugged it in, just plugged it in and started the app. The app was reading the temp correctly from the cooker, but changing the temp on the app had no effect. Resetting the app didn't work, but unplugging the cooker did. For a while, I just won't walk away until I see the cooker reaches and stays at the set temp.

The two times I've had issues with the unit not adhering to the temperature set point were both due to the things I mentioned. Once was the water level being right around the bottom of the liquid level sensor probe and the other was the unit drawing steam in through the vents because the head was rotated a bit too far. There is a minor design flaw in that if the vents are over the pot and not facing the clamp, this has the potential to happen. That steam will blow right across the circuit board(s) which do not seem to be moisture sealed.

Your situation might have been the software / remote control, which I don't use. Maybe the soft reset fixed it.

[CigarNut]

I've had this same issue and both times it was due to issues with the phone app -- which, in theory they have fixed...

Now I always triple check everything about five minutes after I have started the cook.

BTW, I use the phone app because the buttons on my cooker don't work as well as they could and it's out of warranty...

[stearns]

Been spending most of the summer cooking steaks on the grill, trying to get more comfortable with grilling in general since it seems like a good thing to know, but I was at the butcher last weekend and they had reasonably priced wagyu sirloin so I picked up a big piece and cooked it SV to make sure it was cooked evenly and perfectly.

131* for 4 hours, only things in the bag were a couple cloves of garlic and a sprig each of rosemary and thyme. Removed from the bag and seared on a cast iron with just a big chunk of kerrygold butter, at the same time made a little butter pan sauce with more kerrygold and the bag juices, reduced it down so there was just enough to top the steak. Came out perfect

Looking forward to using the circulator more as the temps start to drop around here

[Chainsaw13]

Sounds good Ben!

[stearns]

Not Sous Vide, but I made this as a potato side and it was one of the best potato dishes I've ever had

Did some steaks the other night that are always great sous vide. Seared on the grill to finish them. We do a lot of our chicken sous vide too. Perfect results

Sous vide prime ribeyes tonight. Seared in cast iron

[Flynnster]

Originally Posted by ChicagoWhiteSox

Sous vide prime ribeyes tonight. Seared in cast iron

Love this sous vide. I tend to let mine go a long time to all that fat is delicious!

[stearns]

At the butcher last weekend and saw some great looking Bison NY Strips so I picked one up. Salt and Pepper along with a clove of garlic and a few smoked onions from Adam in the bag, cooked at 131 for 5 hours (aimed for 4 but other things took longer) followed by a sear in bacon fat and Kerrigold butter, topped with a homemade herb garlic compound butter. This thing was amazing, the outer pieces that touched the smoked onions had a delightful smokey flavor in no way overpowering. Next time I'll probably surround the strip with the onions instead of putting them all on one side but other than that no changes necessary

[Porch Dweller]

[BigAsh]

Originally Posted by stearns

At the butcher last weekend and saw some great looking Bison NY Strips so I picked one up. Salt and Pepper along with a clove of garlic and a few smoked onions from Adam in the bag, cooked at 131 for 5 hours (aimed for 4 but other things took longer) followed by a sear in bacon fat and Kerrigold butter, topped with a homemade herb garlic compound butter. This thing was amazing, the outer pieces that touched the smoked onions had a delightful smokey flavor in no way overpowering. Next time I'll probably surround the strip with the onions instead of putting them all on one side but other than that no changes necessary

Looks great!...I remember reading about the onions, but out of sheer laziness, do tell??

[stearns]

Adam (TG) can provide a little more about the process, but basically they are onions he smoked for a while that soak up the smokey flavor, then when you cook with them they add that smoke back into the food. I throw them in SV bags or the bottom of the instant pot rather than liquid smoke now and the flavor they provide is fantastic

[BigAsh]

Originally Posted by stearns

Adam (TG) can provide a little more about the process, but basically they are onions he smoked for a while that soak up the smokey flavor, then when you cook with them they add that smoke back into the food. I throw them in SV bags or the bottom of the instant pot rather than liquid smoke now and the flavor they provide is fantastic

SOUNDS GREAT!

[T.G]

Originally Posted by stearns

Adam (TG) can provide a little more about the process, but basically they are onions he smoked for a while that soak up the smokey flavor, then when you cook with them they add that smoke back into the food. I throw them in SV bags or the bottom of the instant pot rather than liquid smoke now and the flavor they provide is fantastic

Looks and sounds like a great recipe Ben.

Keith, it's pretty simple really. I just get a big bag of plain old yellow onions, slice them up lengthwise into wide strips, spread them out on perforated trays and stick them in my pellet smoker on "smoke" until they are dehydrated.

Stir them every hour or so to keep the ones at the edges from burning. Depending on how hot your pellet grill is when it's on smoke, this could take a while. I have a Camp Chef, and it has two smoke settings, one at 165F and one at 225F. The 165F produces more smoke, so the first time I ran them, I used that. It took about 40 hours to dehydrate 10 lbs. This batch was done at the 225F smoke setting and I want to say it took about 14 hours for around 6-7 lbs.

The ones I sent Ben are the ones I pulled out when they were still a bit pliable and wouldn't puncture an SV bag. I have some other ones that I dehydrated until they were completely dry and I use those for blending into sauces, making dressings, grind them in a coffee mill and add them to rubs and dried seasonings.

Snake river farms gold grade wagyu filet

[Chainsaw13]

I cooked a wagyu hangar steak last night. 5 hours @ 125, from frozen. Seared for maybe a min on each side on a scorching hot grill. Wow, so tender and flavorful.

[stearns]

Sarah's parents were in town for her father's birthday, figured I'd make a couple his favorites - beef tenderloin and pork belly. The beef was pretty standard, just a couple cuts in a bag with some garlic and a few herbs, cooked to a higher temp than I would have preferred but had to please the crowd, and didn't want to deal with cooking to different temps. The pork belly is where I got a little more creative.

To start I picked up a nice 2.5 lb belly from the butcher and gave it good rubbin. The rub consisted of smoked salt, a dash of curing salt, pepper and brown sugar. After that I put some cheese cloth on the fat/skin side and layered on sliced roasted garlic followed by smoked onions. The purpose of the cheesecloth was two fold - make it easier to remove the garlic and onions when it's done cooking, and prevent those from making indentations from the final product, all while still imparting the flavor.

I put all that in the bag and sealed, cooked at 154* for 24 hours earlier in the week, then straight into the fridge. Two days later I was making the rest of the meal for dinner including the steaks in the SV at a lower temp so I took the pork out and threw it in the bath for about 20 minutes to get the juices flowing, then emptied the bag through a strainer, reserving the liquids. Cut the belly in half length-wise then one of those halves into 5x squares while reducing the juices down to a syrup. The next part I forgot to take a picture of, but I covered each of those squares (fat side) with a light layer of brown sugar and hit it with a torch to make a crispy shell on top brulee style. Once the juice was reduced to a thick syrup I covered the belly with the syrup and served.

This turned out perfect in every way but one, I wish I had done something to keep the belly up to temp after coming out of the reheat bath. I covered with foil after cutting it up but I should have worked out another solution (low temp oven would be the easiest, but I had an oven full of sides already going), the final product was closer to room temp than hot. Other than that I would definitely make it the exact same way again. With the half of the belly we didn't eat I chopped it up (last picture below) and split it into two 9oz packages for the freezer, these will mixed with some hash browns and covered with runny eggs sometime in the future

[Porch Dweller]

[CigarNut]

Looks awesome, Ben!

[jonumberone]

Did you find the belly a little on the dry side?
I've done belly twice for 24 or more hours, and both times I was astonished at how dry and firm it was.
If I remember right it was around 154° for 24 hours.
I've settled on 170° for 8 hours as my go to for belly.
I find it to be much more succulent at that time and temp.

Interesting idea with the cheesecloth.