Sous Vide anyone?

[MRG]

Just listening to DW clean up the dinner mess her only task. Sous vide filets at 130°F the bottom of the medium rare range. Interesting experiment as that is a bit rare looking for her, a little done done for my taste. However she ate the whole thing and won't commit to adding a degree for her liking, saying it's a great taste and texture. I'm subtracting a degree from mine next time unless it's a rib eye. A rib eye might be okay at 130 as the fat ends up as an incredible, almost sinful, experience.

Hardware: Anova Precision Cooker, a reusable 20 dollar silicon cooking bag. I use the instant pot's pot for cooking. Largest thing I've cooked was a pork shoulder about 5 pounds. Took 22 hours and slid apart, I took the fat and....

 

[audreyh1]

Pasteurizing eggs: OK, you guys may have helped me find my killer app. I make a lot of mayo.

And you don’t have to put the eggs in a bag .... even better!

It will take quite a bit longer than my current method, but if I do several at once, maybe that’s OK.

 

[DrBrisket]

Pssst....
I am gonna let y'all in on a little secret. Sous vide bacon....

Toss an unopened vacuum-sealed package of bacon in your sous vide water bath at 145F for at least 12 hours, but don't exceed a couple of days. Strongly recommend using the largest package of bacon (like warehouse club size) you can buy.

After the sous vide cooking is done, take the bacon out of the sous vide bath and let the bacon cool to room temp. If you open the package and try to separate the bacon slices while still warm, it will just fall apart.

Lay individual slices out on a cookie sheet (I like to use aluminum foil to reduce clean up time) and cook in oven at 350F for 20minutes.

Crispy to bite, yet delightfully tender and melts in your mouth. Absolutely sinful, yet keto friendly.

 

[BasketCase24]

Authoritative source

Sous vide is, IMHO, another tool that you can use for certain food preparation tasks, but, just like a smoker or even a charcoal grill, you need to understand the tool, and it’s strengths and weaknesses. Douglas Baldwin has a really informative website and book (A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking) where you can study the tool and why and how it is used, if you wish. Otherwise, use some of his recipes, or some of the other web sites that are reputable.

I’ve never had flavorless food prepared sous vide. You can season it in the bag, and I do, sometimes with spectacular effect... sometimes not.

Sous vide does low and slow like a smoker, but lower and slower. So you use it for tasks that thrive on it... meat cooked at lower temperatures than FDA recommended temps, but for a long enough time to do the same “pasteurization”, and then finished for the Maillard reaction without overcooking.

I highly recommend adding Sous Vide to your toolbox. You’re retired, you have the time to learn something new!

 

[Old Microbiologist]

I have had a sous vide setup for over a year now. It is not difficult and accessories can add up. I have a large 12 liter bath, a Stick heater (actually 2), and a nice stainless rack that holds the food bags underwater. I also have a vacuum sealer.

Generally, I limit its use to steaks where I see the best performance. Living in Hungary our meat is all from free range cattle so is lean and very tough. I man really tough to the point of being inedible. We also get a lot of wild game available as hunters here cannot keep their kills which become state property and are sold to restaurants and stores. Hunting is legal as is gun ownership but very tightly controlled. That is another completely separate post.

Anyway, to the point. Sous vide renders the meat making it much more tender. Steaks are now edible again and very tasty. For good cuts I generally cook 3 hours at 57 degrees. Forcuts I suspect will be tough, I buy a pineapple and cut out the good parts. The side inedible sides and top I put in a blender and make a pineapple soup. I marinade the meat in this for 2 hours at room temperature and this really teenderizes. More than 2 hours and it falls apart.

The other things here is you generally get your meat direct from the butcher and as an example the rib eyes are going to be a big slab which when cut can yield 10 or more steaks. What I do is buy the slab and cut it myself at home. I then bag them in vacuum sealed bags with salt and pepper and cook all of them together at once. I then freeze the cooked steaks. To eat them you put them in a 57 degree sous vide again for 1 hour (or until they are warmed back to 57 degrees and then fry them quickly. I use a non-stick pan and cook them in butter for about 3 minutes using a spoon to constantly ladle the hot butter over the top so I get a consistent char.You can put a sprig of rosemary in the hot butter for flavor. The key is to have it really hot and turn frequently. They come out wonderful.

Lastly, I bag up leftovers and seal them. I can then freeze them down okay for later consumption. We have a bad tendency to cook too much and get tired of leftovers. My wife makes things like Russian stuffed cabbage rolls (or stuffed grape leaves, or stuffed peppers) and makes about 20 of them at a time. Two are more than enough per person (they are big) so we get a lot of leftovers. So, I simply vacuum bag them up 4 to a bag and freeze them down. To reheat you put them in the Sous Vide cooker at 70 degrees for 1 hour (or less) and it is even better than fresh. This works for anything and has rescued our leftover meals. It does require a lot of freezer space and a marker pen for labeling. This is so far the main benefit of Sous vide and rarely mentioned.

 

[EastWest Gal]

You are a sous vide master!

 

[Old Microbiologist]

As an aside, I have noticed the finer restaurants are using Sous Vide a lot. This way they can prepare a bunch way ahead of time and just rewarm them to temp the flame to get the Maillard reaction. I asked a couple of chefs here about it and they all said that is what they are doing. So, with that in mind I tend to try and replicate their recipes. Duck breast works well but I pan fry the fat side before the Sous Vide. I also have a smoker I use and now I have smoked a few things before putting them into Sous Vide. So far this works well. I suppose you could do it in reverse as well. I was going to Spatchcock a turkey and separate it into parts for Sous Vide but my wife drew the line on that so we use "foil bag" cooking for Turkey. She is less receptive to Sous Vide than I am and a few of my recipes have been rejected forcefully. I don't do vegetables on it any more for that reason.

So, for me it is a tool to tenderize meat and/or to get that perfect Medium Rare doneness. It has been less useful for other things but I am still experimenting. However, my wife dreads it when she sees me take it out for use. That is another thing. It takes a lot longer to do anything but often (but not always) it is worth it. I pretty much have to start cooking dinner at two in the afternoon if doing Sous Vide for a 6:00 PM dinner. Like said earlier, we are retired and have time so why not experiment?

 

[Old Microbiologist]

If you are interested in it these guys (Sous Vide Everything) do a lot of the experimentation and are entertaining to boot:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpFuaxD-0PKLolFR3gWhrMw

 

[AnneG]

I love my Joule sous vide. I initially bought it thinking I would use it for tougher cuts of meat, but I've found that I prefer a melt in your mouth pot roast from the Instant Pot in less than 2 hours than a medium rare roast that looks pretty at 36 hours in the sous vide.

What I have found that I love though is cooking fish and chicken breast. I had an exquisite piece of king salmon last night, cooked at 121 - the thinner part and thick part were equally done. You can safely cook chicken breast at a much lower temperature resulting in a juicier and more tender breast than other methods.

I've found that between the Joule app, the Anova website and a Facebook sous vide group, I'm able to get good results every time.

I still prefer a steak on the grill, but when the weather isn't conducive to grilling, I'll use the sous vide and it creates an evenly cooked and very tender steak. Searing seems to be the hardest part to get down. Several people on the FB group use a blow torch! I'm not really ready to do all that. A cast iron skillet or the broiler work OK, I'm still working on perfecting that part of it.

 

[MRG]

If you are interested in it these guys (Sous Vide Everything) do a lot of the experimentation and are entertaining to boot:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpFuaxD-0PKLolFR3gWhrMw

Thanks, I knew of these guys but had never watched them. Entertaining and useful!

 

[Time2]

My daughter and son in law were home to visit, I saved one steak that he was to be cooked on the grill to try Sous Vide. It was experimental, I had an electronic temp controller that I connected to an old deep fat fryer. I filled it with water and set the temperature, put the bagged steak in and let it cook.
I used the internet to get times and temps. When it was complete, I put it on the grill just to sear it. It turned out very good.
The next visit to the kids, they had bought a pan mountable Sous Vide devise and used it while we were there. Very handy device and not at all expensive. They consider themselves pretty good cooks and use it often.
Even cooked the eggs for eggs Benedict last time we were there. Very well controlled temperature.

 

[donheff]

I have done some DIY sous vide to reheat roasts and steaks without further cooking them. I use large zip lock bags hung with clips from grill skewers over a large pot of hot water. It works pretty well but takes some work to get the bags fully submerged. I use a thermometer held by a clip to push the bag down and track water temperature.

 

[walkinwood]

The bad, a matter of timing. The salmon called for cooking at 133 degrees F for 40 minutes. The asparagus at 185 degrees F for 30 minutes. I cooked the salmon first. But the sous vide machine I'm using took (not sure if that's expected, or I just got a cheapo machine) so long to heat up from 133 degrees to 185 degrees.

By the time the asparagus was ready, I had already chowed down on the salmon and did the dishes. No kidding .

Still, that was a tasty meal, I must say .

Next time add boiling water to get the temp up faster. Nothing beats salmon cooked sous-vide. I must try asparagus in the sous-vide.

 

[MRG]

I have done some DIY sous vide to reheat roasts and steaks without further cooking them. I use large zip lock bags hung with clips from grill skewers over a large pot of hot water. It works pretty well but takes some work to get the bags fully submerged. I use a thermometer held by a clip to push the bag down and track water temperature.

+1

An underrated use of sous vide is reheating food without cooking it more.

Another unique solution was a post from a guy who was using his sous vide to have a hot bath when the water heater was broken.

 

[Time2]

+1

An underrated use of sous vide is reheating food without cooking it more.

Another unique solution was a post from a guy who was using his sous vide to have a hot bath when the water heater was broken.

Yikes, hope he removed it from the tub before getting in.
That could be a shocking experience.

 

[Slow But Steady]

I probably use my Anova sous vide circulator two or three times a week. I buy large packages of steak and chicken at Costco, then season them with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. Then I vacuum pack them in smaller packages and pop them in the freezer.

They can go straight from the freezer into the sous vide water bath. I always sear in an iron skillet.

For the money, my favorite cut is the pork tenderloin. Costco sells them for $2 to $2.50 per pound, and it's the pork equivalent of a beef tenderloin that they sell for $15.

BTW, everybody should own a vacuum sealer. A piece vacuum-packed cheese will last for months and months in the refrigerator, and a bag of chips properly sealed will stay crisp for weeks.

Edit: I just noticed that my handle, Slow But Steady, defines the sous vide process.

 

[Athena61]

Pssst....
I am gonna let y'all in on a little secret. Sous vide bacon....

Toss an unopened vacuum-sealed package of bacon in your sous vide water bath at 145F for at least 12 hours, but don't exceed a couple of days. Strongly recommend using the largest package of bacon (like warehouse club size) you can buy.

After the sous vide cooking is done, take the bacon out of the sous vide bath and let the bacon cool to room temp. If you open the package and try to separate the bacon slices while still warm, it will just fall apart.

Lay individual slices out on a cookie sheet (I like to use aluminum foil to reduce clean up time) and cook in oven at 350F for 20minutes.

Crispy to bite, yet delightfully tender and melts in your mouth. Absolutely sinful, yet keto friendly.

I’ve always wanted to try SVing bacon, so your post is inspiring. Is your method for thick or thin cut bacon? I would think the baking times would make a difference between the 2 types. Thanks.

 

[Athena61]

If you are interested in it these guys (Sous Vide Everything) do a lot of the experimentation and are entertaining to boot:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpFuaxD-0PKLolFR3gWhrMw

+1

 

[DrBrisket]

I’ve always wanted to try SVing bacon, so your post is inspiring. Is your method for thick or thin cut bacon? I would think the baking times would make a difference between the 2 types. Thanks.

Good point. I have only done thick cut. I would not adjust the sous vide cook as it is just a slab of bacon in the vac-seal pack.

However, on the oven cooking, you may need to adjust for thin cut. The point of of the final cook in the oven is to crisp the bacon. If I were trying thin cut, I would initially just do the final cook on a couple of strips and check at 10, 15, and (if needed) 20 minutes to see what worked for my taste.

 

[braumeister]

I cook bacon like this all the time. Thick (generally about 10 slices to a pound), usually hickory smoked, sometimes apple.

 

[donheff]

How much different is the SV bacon from just tossing it in the oven without the SV? It sounds like all the fat is still present and cooks down into the cookie pan just like baking.

 

[MRG]

How much different is the SV bacon from just tossing it in the oven without the SV? It sounds like all the fat is still present and cooks down into the cookie pan just like baking.

Not even close. I made some sous vide bacon and tried it. The fat gets rendered in an incredible way. Crispy outside from frying a minute but a bite of succulent fats in the middle.

 

[Time2]

I recently watch a video were a guy cooked a steak sous vide for a 1 week!
And then did a comparison of a normal steak cooked sous vide.
It looks like the steak was still very good, but very tender. One comment was that is was more like a roast.

 

[DrBrisket]

How much different is the SV bacon from just tossing it in the oven without the SV? It sounds like all the fat is still present and cooks down into the cookie pan just like baking.

It's kinda like the difference between MD 20/20 and Château Lafite Rothschild.

Okay, maybe a bit more...seriously.

On a another note, here's DrBriskets super secret pork rib recipe that combines the best of 3 cooking methodologies to create another sinful, yet keto friendly delight:

Start with St. Louis cut pork ribs as they tend to fit better in the polycarbonate sous vide tub we use. Remove the membrane on the back of the ribs. There's craziness on the interwebs that pushes the insane idea of leaving the membrane on.. Hogwash.

Rub the ribs with Morton's Season-All season salt. Make sure you coat all sides. No need to rest the ribs before smoking.

Smoke the ribs for 2 hours. We use a pellet smoker with mesquite pellets at 180F. After much experimentation, 2 hours is the magical time to have a nice smoke ring and the proper amount of smoky flavor.

Sous vide for 22 hours at 150F. Super secret hint: we tend to cook 4 racks at once, so we vacuum seal the ribs before the sous vide cook. We eat 1 rack and, after letting the other 3 racks cool to room temp, and, still in the sealed vacuum bags, they go in the freezer.

To finish the ribs and 'sear' the outside a bit, remove from the bag, coat both sides with coarse ground black pepper. (nota bene: if you are finishing sous vide ribs that have been frozen after the sous vide bath, let them warm to room temp before seasoning with the pepper). Place ribs on a baking rack on a cookie sheet and cook in oven at 400F for 10-15minutes. Some folks like to use propane searing, but we think it alters the taste of the ribs in a bad way, so the oven technique works well to give a nice exterior finish on the ribs. Another super secret hint is to use a silicone mat on the cookie sheet to make clean up a bit easier.

Slice and enjoy with a nice Texas style BBQ sauce. I suppose you could use another type of BBQ sauce, but you're on your own if you do!

I leave you, for now, with a touching haiku for Sous Vide Ribs:

Sous vide pork ribs yum.
Much more than just meat candy.
Get in my belly.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Pasteurizing eggs: OK, you guys may have helped me find my killer app. I make a lot of mayo.

And you don’t have to put the eggs in a bag .... even better!

It will take quite a bit longer than my current method, but if I do several at once, maybe that’s OK.

I pasteurize the eggs whenever-right after cooking a steak for example. Plunge them in icewater when done then store in the fridge. Let the egg (or eggs) come up to room temperature when I make my mayo. One issue, the membrane around the yolk is quite fragile, and can break. I use one yolk plus one whole egg, so it doesn't matter too much if some of the yolk escapes.