Sous Vide Thread

[DCM]

Accuracy/reproducibility of results?

Yup.

Traditional roasting methods produce uneven doneness (is that a word?) throughout a cut of meat. Might be 127 in the middle; 140 in the outer inch.

Sous vide yields a creepy-even temp throughout the cut.

Really tough cuts (chuck, brisket) are mindlessly simple and turn out great (though I’d take properly smoked brisket over sous vide brisket any day).

Thanks for the reply! Might have to weigh up what I want more - a smoker or a sous vide gizmo. The former would cater to my inner caveman, the latter to my innate laziness. Both would make sweet love to my taste buds. Life is full of these tough decisions!

[Allentown]

SIL is buying her husband a sous vide thinger for his birthday. I plan to use it. Excited.

[hector]

SIL is buying her husband a sous vide thinger for his birthday. I plan to use it. Excited.

Sous vide changed my life. Steaks are so much better and easier now.
The prep time is an hour, but it's well worth it.

[Hanley]

SIL is buying her husband a sous vide thinger for his birthday. I plan to use it. Excited.

Sous vide changed my life. Steaks are so much better and easier now.
The prep time is an hour, but it's well worth it.

Isn't it great?

And these new units are so f'ing easy. I was a sous vide hipster back in ~2009-2010 trying to hold super low temps in various jerry-rigged solutions. Shit so much easier now.

[damufunman]

SIL is buying her husband a sous vide thinger for his birthday. I plan to use it. Excited.

Sous vide changed my life. Steaks are so much better and easier now.
The prep time is an hour, but it's well worth it.

Is this prep time that is just waiting for it to [hot water bath verb]? Or you taking an hour to prep, season, bag and finish? If the former, not too bad considering you can do other things while the majority of the cooking happens. It's a wonderful process, just takes a bit of planning. Excellent for weekend nice meals.

[ch]

I’m sure I’ve said this in the thread, but the best thing about Sousa vide (I’m leaving that autocorrect) is that you have a lot of wiggle room. Drop the steaks. Prepare your sides. Socialize with your guests. Wait for your wife to get home. Zone out and forget about them. Whatever.

Reverse sear steaks might turn out better, but when they’re ready, you better be, too.

[Root]

Sousa vide

Is that the guy who wrote Sears And Strips Forever?

[Allentown]

Sousa vide

Is that the guy who wrote Sears And Strips Forever?

No, it's the basebally player, Sammy.

[hector]

SIL is buying her husband a sous vide thinger for his birthday. I plan to use it. Excited.

Sous vide changed my life. Steaks are so much better and easier now.
The prep time is an hour, but it's well worth it.

Is this prep time that is just waiting for it to [hot water bath verb]? Or you taking an hour to prep, season, bag and finish? If the former, not too bad considering you can do other things while the majority of the cooking happens. It's a wonderful process, just takes a bit of planning. Excellent for weekend nice meals.

I didn't phrase that well.
60 minutes is how long the 1 inch ribeye or strip will cook in the water.
Then I sear for a minute or two on each side.
So 64 minutes to make the steak, not 64 minutes prep time.

[Cinic]

I'm turning a corned beef that's been in the freezer since St Patrick's day into a pastrami this weekend. Will be using sous vide for the cook and then smoking on my kettle. Did this once before and it was fantastic. I detailed it in @Root's thread in the old place and I couldn't find it for reference because it was fucking deleted.

Right now it's soaking in the fridge (in water) to draw out some salt.

[Root]

I'm turning a corned beef that's been in the freezer since St Patrick's day into a pastrami this weekend. Will be using sous vide for the cook and then smoking on my kettle. Did this once before and it was fantastic. I detailed it in @Root's thread in the old place and I couldn't find it for reference because it was fucking deleted.

Right now it's soaking in the fridge (in water) to draw out some salt.

Oh man, what a good idea. I've got corned beef in the freezer from Patties day also.

[Allentown]

Oh man, what a good idea. I've got corned beef in the freezer from Patties day also.

Coincidentally, I dug through my freezer a few days ago looking for a corned beef I thought I had in the freezer from Patties. Turns out I either forgot to buy it, or already ate it. But I could have sworn there was one in there...
I wonder if my BIL ever got his sous vide?

[Cinic]

My pastrami turned out OK. SV for 36 hours at 155. It shrunk a lot and there was quite a bit of liquid in the bag. I started smoking it on Sunday, but then the neighbors invited us over. I pulled it at 130 internal and put it back in the fridge. Re-smoked it on Monday to 145 internal.

It was an odd cut. It was a nice piece of flat with something else attached to the bottom. That bottom part was lean and dry. The flat had a nice fat cap and was juicy. I sliced it up thin and made pastrami/kraut/swiss sandwiches on rye.

I'm less and less thrilled lately with my results with the SV. They're still good for the effort involved most times, but things like my pork shoulder don't turn out nearly as good as one that's been properly smoked. Although, I do still rely on it for chicken breasts for lunch (cold) and that's way better than what I can do on the grill consistently. I also love it for beef that I want medium rare like tri tip or steaks.

Picked up another package of the prime sirloin cap steaks last night at costco. Seems like they only have them 20% of the time I'm there. $7.19/lb this time.

[Hanley]

I'm less and less thrilled lately with my results with the SV.

I hate to admit this .... because @Root will delight in being right...but I feel the same way.

Now that my grill game is quite dialed-in, I'm getting much better results on the Weber kettle. I still suck at smoking.

[Cinic]

I'm less and less thrilled lately with my results with the SV.

I hate to admit this .... because @Root will delight in being right...but I feel the same way.

Yeah - it pained me to write that...

[Root]

@Cinic, it seems to me that SV just runs contrary to the whole idea of smoking/barbecue. Can't imagine how that would ever turn out as well as a proper smoke. For medium rare beef - as much as I hate to admit this - I can see the value in SV. And of course for chicken breasts, which are really good at totally sucking without being absolutely perfectly cooked (though I've gotten pretty good at direct grilling them.)

@Hanley, what's the problem with smoking on the kettle? I can't remember, do you have a smoke n sear?

[Manveer]

My brother and I made some ribeye sous vide plus reverse sear over charcoal last Sunday. Turned out pretty damn good.

(Wrong thread, I know) Maybe I can grill some burgers this weekend on the Weber.

[Hanley]

Hanley, what's the problem with smoking on the kettle? I can't remember, do you have a smoke n sear?

Quality of the smoke. Incomplete/shitty combustion maybe.

Not an issue on hotter smokes...but tricky at ~225

[Cinic]

@Cinic, it seems to me that SV just runs contrary to the whole idea of smoking/barbecue. Can't imagine how that would ever turn out as well as a proper smoke. For medium rare beef - as much as I hate to admit this - I can see the value in SV. And of course for chicken breasts, which are really good at totally sucking without being absolutely perfectly cooked (though I've gotten pretty good at direct grilling them.)

Well the ideas might be similar if the goal is a long cook at consistent temps to break down tough tissue. Unfortunately the SV doesn't add the deliciousness of real smoke and trying to get there afterwards doesn't cut it. I think my problem might have been allowing everything all food to look like a nail and the SV a hammer.

That being said, I've got a Weber kettle and have had some luck with the snake method on fairly short cooks. You guys using the slow N sear these days?

[Allentown]

Quality of the smoke. Incomplete/shitty combustion maybe.

Not an issue on hotter smokes...but tricky at ~225

I second this. Can easily turn into a... can't remember the term, but white smoke with lots of residue and a big, almost fake smoke flavor, very little of that deep rich wood smoke flavor...
Really small bits of wood seem to do better.