Sous vide

You can also get certain textures, like with eggs, that are impossible otherwise. If I didn't suspect I'd electrocute myself, I'd do this too. It looks great.

argh now i'm reading sous vide recipes and thinking about evil uses of wedding present money....

ahahahah!! there you go, cad :)

Y'all don't remember when I did the slow-roasted eggs that took 2 days in a 150 deg oven or something? They were amazing, tasted like pretzels due to the very controlled maillard reaction.

also, cad thanks for putting 130 in that post - I double-checked the temp for medium rare and 130 is what I want, not 140.

Rereading Harold McGee for all the temperature points where proteins do amazing things now.

So another great thing is that once your food is cooked, it will keep in the fridge for a week (still sealed up) with no loss in flavor or texture. I did asparagus last year (veggies are held at higher temps for shorter times - easier on a stovetop) and the flavor was just so intensely good.

Not exactly on point but in response to LL's q: I finally found a rice maker in Mexico!!! This makes me happy because I was quite dependent on my rice maker at home, which I couldn't bring with me due to extreme space constraints. Well, I could have brought it, but would have to have left behind at least one of the cats.

Anyhow, my mom (who is here visiting us now) always gives me a hard time about using a rice maker, saying "how hard is it to make rice?"? And the fact is, it is FUCKING HARD to make PERFECT RICE each and EVERY TIME with LITTLE ATTENTION. And I feel like sous vide is also method that is helpful for getting things perfectly perfect each and every time, with little attention once you have worked out the basic technique.

So kudos to Jaq, and kudos to me for once again having a rice cooker :)

Yay for perfect rice!

We just cracked two of the eggs - quivering whites and yolks like custard. So then we had two more, with a drizzle of balsamic. Oh man, so nice.

these days i'm usually having soft-boiled eggs for breakfast and the thought of replacing with sous vide eggs is tempting

also rice cooker is obviously a key appliance--to me it's the difference of being able to devote more time/concentration to the non-rice portions of your meal

http://blog.khymos.org/2011/04/18/perfect-egg-yolks/

Eggs, hanger steak, broccoli w/ghee, asparagus - all successes. The hanger steak was in for 24 hours and could have easily gone for 48 - perfectly medium rare, so much more tender than the one we cooked on the grill for comparison, and also better flavor. Flavors intensified on the broccoli and asparagus too, and both well cooked but still crispy (1.5 hours at 130 F).

did you sear the hanger steak before serving?

Yep, for 2 min/side. Next time, I'm seasoning the meat before sealing it up too. I just vacuumed this one up plain.

I'm thinking I'll do a pork loin roast next.

Excellent resource: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Preface

Also, I need a blowtorch.

So, eggs cooked at below 135 F never ever look anything but raw. Which came as a surprise at lunch yesterday.

they looked raw but were cooked?
this method of cooking still seems like a complete mystery to me

I held them for 90 minutes at 135 F - they could be considered pasturized after that, but the white was totally liquid and the yolk hadn't changed texture from a raw one. I ate the yolks with a little salt. Tonight I'm putting the rest of that batch back in the water at a higher temp (there's a pork roast in there at 137 F right now).

It's pretty fascinating to me (obv) - being able to get exactly the same results over and over again, and how the smallest change in temperature modifies the outcome. I'm going to do some custard sealed up in mason jars, maybe this weekend!

Sous vide was a "thing" in certain restaurants in the Napa Valley about 5-10 years ago, Thomas Keller even wrote a book about it.

Here's a vid from 2007 when the hype was at its peak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAeDR2fE0jA‎

I dismissed it as a novelty, and maybe I am wrong but I think if you brine/marinade/season anything for 1-2 days before cooking it in a traditional manner it will tenderize or make things more flavorful or whatever you think the sous vide apparatus/method is doing.

Yes I am luddite with a crusty skillet and a meat thermometer. Plus I hate all that plastic.

On UK cooking shows, sous vide is def the method of choice for most dishes, and i think it was raymond blanc who said that most michelin-starred food (again, at least in the UK) is now made this way

Sous vide is great is you have a high volume restaurant. I don't.

So, eggs cooked at below 135 F never ever look anything but raw. Which came as a surprise at lunch yesterday.

There was a feature in Lucky Peach last year that detailed what happens to eggs when cooked sous vide at a variety of different temperatures. There was an optimal one, i think. I'll try to dig it out later.

I'm finding it more convenient and easier to clean up than a slow cooker. And none of the meat I've cooked has been dried out, which slow cooking definitely does. So far for me, it's a win.

ShariVari, both those links I posted have the 6x egg info - 63 C for 45 minutes is optimal. That's how I did my first batch and they were very nice.

Best thing so far - skin on chicken breast sous vide at 140 F for 3 hours, then finished on the grill for 15 minutes. Impossibly juicy meat and crispy skin with no worries of undercooking.

My friend set one of these up last month. Everyone out here eats tri-tip, and this is the only technique that makes it edible. I will definitively convince him to try eggs now.

Got Thomas Keller's book and a blowtorch yesterday for my birthday! Did up some carrots and parsnips in herbed ghee today.

Btw, pork is better slow roasted. Sous vide really changed the texture too much.

hey jaq, this is rad

btw, if you don't mind me asking, how much did all the kit cost, and how difficult was it to assemble? alternately, do you have some ~links~

my dad is pretty interested in trying out sous vide and my sister and i were thinking we could get him something DIY for father's day

I already had the cooler and got the rest off amazon for under $150. Oh though - I already had a vacuum sealer too. Those are less than $100 for a basic model or you can use Ziploc bags for a lot of things. You want some kind of guard for the heating element - i had that metal basket thing from another pot but you could find something similar for not much at target or ross. It was super easy to set up. The lid of my cooler is plastic so it squished around the power cords and I didn't have to cut any holes. Maybe get a tube of silicone caulk to help waterproof the top section of the heater - a lot of water condenses inside the lid and drips down.

Thanks! My dad actually has a vacuum sealer (why because gadgets) so the rest seems doable. Is the wiring difficult?

Wiring is a piece of cake - just two standard 110 outlets needed, one for the pump and one for the temperature controller. The heating element plugs into the temperature controller.

Here's the pump I got - it's overpowered for my 8 gallon cooler but works great: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018WVNXC/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Heating element is super cheap and has the disadvantage of can't be plugged in if it's not already in water or it burns up: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I8VE68/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(I bought this one to upgrade to, but it's too tall for my cooler so I have to figure something else out: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BDB4UG/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

And the thing that makes it all work - the temperature controller: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088OTON4/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

oh whoops, messed up that link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088OTON4/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The temperature controller is a simple on-off thing that has an RTD temperature element prewired. You stick the temperature element in the water and the controller cycles the power off and on to the heater (which is plugged directly into it). There are straightforward push buttons on the front where you set the target temperature and where the current temperature is displayed.

good luck to your dad with it - I'm finding it great fun :)

thanks a lot for the info! I think we may go for it, but go a little more budget and use that temperature controller with a crockpot (which works fine, i think? if you've heard Bad Stuff about that set up, I'm all ears)

My Hamilton Beach slow cooker doesn't work with it - you test by plugging the cooker in to the wall, setting it, then unplugging and plugging back in once it starts to heat up. It has to start heating again without anyone needing to push any buttons or anything.

I have this other, more basic roaster/oven thing (has a temp knob that goes from 140 F up to 450 F, but otherwise looks like an oval slow cooker) - and it works fine with the sous vide controller. It's great for smaller batches.

If you do go for the cooler idea - set it up on some 2x4s or something, so there's an air gap underneath but still with some support along the edges and across the center. When you lift the lid, the condensation drips down the back. Combine that with the warmth of the setup and no ventilation underneath and you get a mold harbor. Lesson learned.

So this is really the best thing ever for cooking chicken. I make up packages of 2 bone in skin on breasts seasoned with salt/pepper/whatever herbs, hot tub at 140 deg F for 6 - 8 hours (or overnight, though they start to get a little mushy at 12 hours). Chill, freeze for however long, then thaw and slap on the grill to crisp up the skin/warm up (15 min) or debone/skin and chop for quickest ever curry/salad/soup. No worries about undercooking because they are totally pasteurized.

Can't decide between an Anova or a Sansaire.

i got an anova, based on all the reviews i read

Is the touchscreen interface fiddly at all?

no

it's really straight-forward. not ~quite~ as easy as turning a knob, but it's easy. plus i think the clamp is a better design than the sansaire clippy thing.

this is how they cook meat bags at taco bell, only a lot faster

its also how they cook meat bags at a lot of michelin-starred restaurants, too

"meat bags"

Just ordered an Anova. Hope the duck eggs I got at the farmer's market today are still good when it arrives.

I have upped my sous vide game with an Anova and it is way awesome. Anyone from here that's interested in the temperature controller linked upthread, email me at seattle_skies @ yahoo dot com and it's yours for the shipping cost.

my anova came today! jumping in w/pork chops (which i decided prob two years ago i'd never cook again until i bought one) later this week.

I'm using my circulator mostly for vegetables these days - there's just something about carrots/asparagus/zucchini spears/etc. cooked at 185ish for an hour and then a quick saute in the bag juices that's amazing.

Chicken breast is my other go-to - 140F and then seared is juicy and delicious. I haven't ever stepped up to the 48+ hour short ribs and similar, but I need to give it a shot.

love sous vide.

today i went to the farmers market at five, bought totally frozen pork tenderloin and had it on the table around 7:30. focussed on my vegetable prep with the comfortable knowledge that sous vide tenderloin from a local farm was going to taste really good with minimal effort on my part.

So is this how they'd do stuff like say, nandos chicken? Pre-sousvide it, so they onlyhave to chargrill it for 5 mins pre-plateup? I did notice them pulling chicken parts out of what looked like a giant steamer drawer.

rack of venison tonight, 2+ hours at 131F. about as easy as it gets.

everyone with an anova still happy with it? my friend has one on his wedding registry and i was gonna get it for him

yup

I like mine. I don't use the connectivity features at all though.

yeah, still like mine, and mine is pre-connectivity features

thinking about selling it off, though, and getting a joule

what does the joule have going on these days?

as compared to my older school anova? smaller, doesn't need as large a pot, magnetic attachment, pretty

it is indeed a nice-looking gadget

i do a local monthly meat share thing, which is great except sometimes you get some items that are outside the lines like a cut of brisket that is a little less than 2 lbs, no idea if it came from the flat or the point or whatever brisket people talk about. doing 24 hours at 155 and oven finish tomorrow, don't sous vide much these days but i am always happy to have the option.

I am amazed at this odd way to cook - I am curious - the plastic bag - the love... but so long a cooktiime - for modern lovers ()