Sous Vide Thread

[Manveer]

Post your beautiful, juicy, perfectly-cooked-at-uniform-temp-from-edge-to-edge meats here. And veggies too, if you want (Kregna).

[Manveer]

This was some j00cy ribeye:

[Manveer]

Stealing omaniphil's photo:

[Root]

Needs a sear.

[omaniphil]

That was the best chuck roast I've ever had. I need to do one again. Tomorrow. Pics to follow. I'll even sear it for Root.

[Manveer]

Needs a sear.

My ribeye was seared in cast iron.

Here's some delicious, easy to prepare, j00cy chicken breast with a side of everyone's favorite vegetable, the potato:

[omaniphil]

Did a chuck roast in the sous vide for 24 hours.
Turned out quite nice, although not as good as others I've done. I think I can blame this, at least in part, one on the poor cut. There was a lot of fat that probably could have been trimmed, but I was lazy. Also, next time I will experiment with not putting any aromatics (this time - rosemary) in with the bag. I think that may have added some bitter flavors over the long cook. Maybe just salt and pepper? Maybe nothing? We'll see.

[Manveer]

Sous vide at 131F for about 1.5 hours. Seasoned with salt, pepper and I put some rosemary sprigs in the bag. Seared in a screaming hot cast iron pan. It was excellent.

[acelticmonk]

Recommendations for a sous vide cooker on the thrifty ($150ish max) side? I imagine the immersion cookers and plastic bucket are the way to start?

[Hanley]

Recommendations for a sous vide cooker on the thrifty ($150ish max) side? I imagine the immersion cookers and plastic bucket are the way to start?

The new immersion ones are fantastic.

I have this



and this



and this

[acelticmonk]

Recommendations for a sous vide cooker on the thrifty ($150ish max) side? I imagine the immersion cookers and plastic bucket are the way to start?

The new immersion ones are fantastic.

I have this

Thanks Hanley!

Do you use plain ol' Ziplocs, or one of the vacuum pump bags?

I am fortunate to have in-laws who raise cattle, so every Thanksgiving I get a new massive mess of beef for a good price. 3/4 of a beef steer lasts almost the whole year. BUT, it gets a bit tiresome either making our own ground beef or charcoal grilling steaks (waaaaaahhh..).

[Hanley]

Recommendations for a sous vide cooker on the thrifty ($150ish max) side? I imagine the immersion cookers and plastic bucket are the way to start?

The new immersion ones are fantastic.

I have this

Thanks Hanley!

Do you use plain ol' Ziplocs, or one of the vacuum pump bags?

I am fortunate to have in-laws who raise cattle, so every Thanksgiving I get a new massive mess of beef for a good price. 3/4 of a beef steer lasts almost the whole year. BUT, it gets a bit tiresome either making our own ground beef or charcoal grilling steaks (waaaaaahhh..).

I use plain old ziplock freezer bags. I double bag and add some weight (like a butter knife) to the outer bag if I'm cooking for 24+ hours.

I'm not as lucky as you regarding a beef-source, but we've got a great butcher in town who gets all his meat from two local mom and pop ranches.

[DoctorWho]

Stealing omaniphil's photo:

So many questions. Why do you put meat on a seashell? Or if it's the world's tiniest steak plate -- then why? Why a fork like neptune's trident? Why do you have a throw pillow on your table upper right? (in case the roast makes you sleepy?)

And in the sou vide photo, what did you do with the car cleaning rags that you took out of the old rubbermaid bin before you turned it into the sous vide cooker?

[Manveer]

Made ribeye again on Monday. Best steak I’ve made. Probably the only difference was adding some butter in at the end during the sear.

Made salmon tonight. 115F for about 40 mins. Seasoned with salt, a little pepper, dill (dry) and chives (fresh) with olive oil in the bag. Left it in the fridge for about an hour before putting it in the water. Turned out pretty tender, but probably too tender. Would prefer a firmer texture. If/when I do this again I’ll try 120F.

[ch]

Santa brought me an Anova and an Instant Pot. Life-changing stuff. I did SV strip steaks yesterday. Foolproof. I've never been able to dial in reverse sear. The big difference to me: If you're reverse searing and your wife gets stuck in traffic, or you mistime a side dish, you're screwed. With SV, just let it sit until you're ready to sear.

My new toys are opening up a whole new world of low-fat protein variety. (I can only take so much chicken stir fry and lean ground beef.) I've already done pulled chicken breast in the Instant Pot for a boring-but-lean meal and chicken-and-lentil stew for something fattier and more interesting. I picked up a pork tenderloin to SV this weekend. After that, I'll try a rack or leg of lamb.

[omaniphil]

Eye of Round roast today. 24 hours at 135F. Normally I like it rarer, like at 130F, but we were having inlaws over for dinner, and they like their meat medium+. Still turned out ok. Got the roast from GFS, 3lbs for $14, and it was already cryovac-ed so just cooked it in the original wrapping, added some herbs and salt/pepper afterwards and broiled it to get a sear. Pretty good - would do again.

[ch]

Made a pork tenderloin last night. I didn’t want to smoke up the house, so I tried the “afterburner” method of searing directly over a charcoal chimney. Wound up too charred for my tastes. (I started with cold grates. Probably should have moved the grate around to try to avoid burnt grill marks.) I’ll stick to pan searing. Someday I will have a externally venting range hood instead of the useless microwave/hood combo.

[Root]

I didn’t want to smoke up the house, so I tried the “afterburner” method of searing directly over a charcoal chimney.

That didn't smoke up the house?

Oh, you mean you did it outside. Smart.

[DCM]

I consider myself a dab hand in the kitchen but have never used sous vide. What would you say are the advantages over e.g. braising/slow-cooking or traditional pan-roasting? Accuracy/reproducibility of results?

[Hanley]

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).