[euge]

We got the vacuum sealers. Anyone with experience doing sous-vide?

I did duck confit last year. I lightly simmered it for hours all sealed up. Haven't tried it yet but it's been in the fridge the whole time.





Maybe on melba toast this weekend with a fancy beer...

How about doing some fatty brisket and spices sous-vide?

[phillamb168]

We got the vacuum sealers. Anyone with experience doing sous-vide?

Welcome to the obsession.

My favorite use, by far, for sous vide is cooking meat. You can set a temp (say, medium or just a few degrees above medium rare), 145 f/62.7 c), put your meat under vacuum, and drop them in the water oven for hours, and they won't overcook. When you're ready to serve, get a super hot charcoal fire (or just a nice cast iron skillet) going and sear on both sides for about a minute. There are no words to explain how supremely cooked the meat is.

Also, HAMBURGERS, zomg. grind the meat fresh, shape it into patties, and use the vacuum sealer. Make sure you use the custom-seal option to make sure the meat isn't crushed by the vacuum, and in an hour or so you have the juciest burgers you have ever, ever, ever had.

Try doing salmon sous vide - cook it to medium or medium well, and because of the extremely low-and-slow cooking plus the way that the water oven allows it to come to an ambient temp exactly equal to the final cooked internal temp, and you end up with a fish that has the texture of sashimi, but the taste of cooked salmon. Put some liquid smoke in there, and om nom nom.

Poaching eggs is foolproof and will leave you with an almost-ready-to-eat poached egg in a handy shell (eggs are the perfect sous vide food, dontcha know): http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2010/10/how-to-poach-an-egg-perfectly-nick-anderer-maialino-new-york-technique.html

Carrots are another perfect sous vide veggie. They don't need anything except maybe some aromatics. Perfection.

Whatever you do, though, don't put oil or butter in the bag before you seal - it will give you amazingly tasty butter juice in the bottom of the bag and a piece of meat without much flavor.

Here's a pic of my recent burger escapade:

[euge]

That is what I'm talking about! That looks like a massive half of a burger! Hungry now...

Thanks for the advice on no adding oil or butter. That's something I'd try being all clever...

[beerocd]

No concerns about boiling your food in a plastic bag?
I'm just the paranoid type like that. Can't help it.

[nicneufeld]

No concerns about boiling your food in a plastic bag?
I'm just the paranoid type like that. Can't help it.

You're not boiling though!

[tumarkin]

this looks very interesting, I want to find out more.

a word of caution though, here's the last section from Wikipedia entry on sous-vide ......

Safety
Clostridium botulinum bacteria can grow in food in the absence of oxygen and produce the deadly botulinum toxin, so sous-vide cooking must be performed under carefully controlled conditions to avoid botulism poisoning.[16] Generally speaking, food that is heated and served within four hours is considered safe, but meat that is cooked for longer to tenderize must reach a temperature of at least 131 °F (55 °C) within four hours and then be kept there, in order to pasteurize the meat. Pasteurization kills the botulism bacteria, but the possibility of hardy botulism spores surviving and reactivating once cool remains a concern as with many preserved foods, however processed. For that reason, Baldwin's treatise specifies precise chilling requirements for "cook-chill", so that the botulism spores do not have the opportunity to grow or propagate.

Extra precautions need to be taken for food to be eaten by people with compromised immunity. Pregnant women may choose to be more careful than usual.

Safety is a function of both time and temperature; a temperature usually considered insufficient to render food safe may be perfectly safe if maintained for long enough[4].

[phillamb168]

You run the risk of botulinum, etc every time you cook meat to medium rare no matter HOW you cook it. These are standard USDA guidelines, they put them out there because if they didn't some idiot would try sous vide with a ziplock and some grocery store chuck and let it set for three days. It's just like beer: respect the process, keep everything super clean, and you will have no problems.

With sous vide in general the key thing is to not let it go on forever, because then you've basically got a petri dish in a bag. A couple hours (the time it usually takes to cook something) is not going to hurt you. However, it should be noted that I never, ever, ever do this with grocery store meat or anything that seems iffy, because You Never Know. If you've got a reliable butcher, you should be fine.

[phillamb168]

We got the vacuum sealers. Anyone with experience doing sous-vide?

Also, here's the PID I use:
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13&products_id=110

Hook it up to a rice cooker and you're set.

[euge]

Arise ye old thread!

I recently found an inexpensive doodad: the SideKIC Kitchen Immersion Circulator for about $170.

It sells out quick so if you are interested keep checking- don't worry they are still available. Took me about 5 days to finally land one. Ordered it Thanksgiving morning and had it by 11/30.

I found out about it from this forum http://forums.egullet.org/topic/141796-anyone-heard-of-the-sidekic-cheap-sous-vide-circulator/page__hl__%20sidekic

Have to say it is an amazing little device- sure I already have all the equipment to make one on a larger scale if some of my brewing equipment were arranged differently but don't wanna fock with that. This device is perfect and extremely easy to use. Currently I am using my 2 gallon mashtun as the reservoir.

Test run was some of Ruhlman's Charcuterie's fresh garlic sausage master recipe (previously frozen) done 2 hours @150F and then crisped up with a heat gun going @1100F. Turned out quite nice though next time I'll skip the crisping... Served with David Chang's Momofuku roasted Brussels sprouts tossed with fish-sauce vinaigrette and home-ground coarse mustard on the side. Not shown is some Vietnamese garlic sausage from the local Asian-mart done in its own package.



Tonight I'm doing a lamb rib-chop @135F for 3 hours. Will quickly sear in a hot pan and serve with steamed Brussels sprouts and Feijoada-rice. Sorry it's in progress so no pics yet- might post some later.



I think this is going to be a lot of fun and plan to do some pork spareribs which will probably take about 36 hours...

Enjoy!

[euge]

Ripe tomatoes from the garden macerated with balsamic, olive oil, minced red onion and garlic from this past Spring with home fermented jalapeño sauce and dried lemon-basil. Plated with Gorgonzola and house-cured pancetta.

Nothing to do with SV but the salad nonetheless.



Last night I dusted the chop with fine salt and fresh-cracked pepper then sealed for a rest in the fridge. The chop after three hours in the bath:



The lamb rib-chop was done SV @135F for 3 hours then quick-seared 30 seconds each side in olive-oil. Served with feijoada-rice and steamed Brussels sprouts tossed in a tomato-mustard vinaigrette based on the prior salad.

[tygo]

That looks delicious Euge.  Nice presentation.

[euge]

Thank-you! Also did a select-grade 1" NY strip for 3 hours at 130F a couple days ago. Then 30 seconds each side in a hot pan.

The result was a perfect mid-rare that had a demarcated 1mm rim of well-done and a bit of color. Normally I'm unable to be that complementary of select steak except that this was quite unlike something done in a pan or on a grill. The texture was firmer, somewhat more tender than one done by a regular method. Not fibrous at all like I expected it to be. Still a select-steak though.

Still it was very lean- even for a strip. And fat behaves differently with SV cooking though I believe this applies at the shorter end of the spectrum of cooking time. Overall, it was a select grade steak that was somewhat better. Maybe that can be improved, but I'm thinking not by much.

[dannyjed]

wow, you are makin' me hungry.

[PeckerWood]

I have a food saver and just saw this food scientist on tv a few weeks ago showing how to do this, and those steaks look amazing. I'll have to give it a whirl. Anybody know the name of the cookbook? He has a large book-set for science and also a home-type cookbook that anyone can use.

[phillamb168]

I have a food saver and just saw this food scientist on tv a few weeks ago showing how to do this, and those steaks look amazing. I'll have to give it a whirl. Anybody know the name of the cookbook? He has a large book-set for science and also a home-type cookbook that anyone can use.

Nathan Myhrvold maybe? He did Modernist Cuisine and Modernest Cuisine at Home. The former is a hefty tome and costs ~$500, the latter a smaller more reasonable priced edition.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD