I think FMB missed it

He doesn't joke about food

I actually did catch it, just responded seriously. FWIW.

Haha

I don't know how I missed this thread originally. I assume you've prepared many other things with this machine since? Anything stick out other than steak?

There's other stuff besides meat?

Actually, the yogurt was the first thing besides meat I've done, though I'm starting to branch out now.

Well I meant other kinds of meat (chicken, fish, etc.)

I went back and read from page 1 - excellent thread FMB! I learned a lot and am definitely interested in this style of cooking. What intrigues me the most is the possibility of turning lower-quality cuts of meat into something delicious with ease. Sounds neat.

I haven't done anything besides beef yet, but I've done several kinds of steak and roast. Planning to try chicken, pork and fish soon, though. Particularly curious about trying butter poached scallops or lobster.

It's been fun and rewarding. There are couple of cookbooks in which I'm really interested, but the good ones can be quite pricey. Everything I've attempted so far has been on my own or on blogs.

It never hurts adding to your culinary repitoire, especially if it's something you enjoy. Have fun!

I've got some short ribs in the fridge. Seeing some recipes online for cooking them medium rare for like 72 hours. I haven't decided if I'm going to do a little marinade and go your route or go all out and try the 72-hour thing.... :hmmm:

FMB, not telling you anything you aren't aware of , but you will get a better and healthier sear using your cast iron. I noticed in the steak pic, you were searing in scratched up teflon?

At the time I was chomping at the bit to taste the steak, so I did what would be faster. However, that's not scratched up Teflon - the only Teflon pan I have is used exclusively for eggs.

That's a Calphalon hard anodized pan, and it's a warrior!!! That thing is my go-to pan when cast iron won't work or I just don't wanna do the extra maintenance.

I got a set of those for our wedding from my mother in law. I dig em too. I mainly use the large saute pan/sauce pot combo with a lid. It's money for dishes like paella. I'd be interested in trying the sous vide on some fish dishes.

I've got the 12-inch fry pan and a 2-quart saucepan. Don't use the saucepan much, but the fry pan is ol' reliable.

Thought folks on here would be interested in this, an article that credits Chipotle's ability to mass market upscale fast food in part to sous vide.

http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...ast_food_.html

Interesting! I didn't realize that's how they cooked their meat.

I'm getting very serious about purchasing an immersion circulator. Is there a specific one you would recommend? I've seen them priced from $800 (Williams Sonoma) to $180 (SideKIC).

I bought the Sous Vide Supreme, so I don't have an separate IC. Sorry.

How many steaks could you immerse at one time?

I've done six at one time, I think.

I might go with one of those then. Is $400 a good price?

I'd like to be able to cook for 8 with one, but 6 is a lot better than 4.

Trying sous vide chicken breast today. All I have are skinless breasts, though, so I don't want to sear it and dry it out... any out-of-the-box suggestions for a sauce?

And I'm out of antifreeze, so no.

Went with 145 degrees for a little more than 2 hours. It was tasty. Not quite as tender as I'd hoped, but it was very moist. I did a lemon butter cream sauce with it.

I've got a round roast in there now for tomorrow night...

Holy crap, salmon with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and granulated garlic is amazing sous vide! The texture is out of this world.

Sounds like you're getting your money's worth out of the machine, and then some, so congratulations.

I honestly go through phases. I'll use it a lot for a couple of weeks and put it up for a month. Then I'll get back into using it. It's a little large and cumbersome for it to be a permanent part of the counter....

But I've been mostly impressed with it. The round roast was unimpressive. Probably would have made really good sandwiches if you sliced it up nice and thin.

The salmon is the first fish I've tried, and it's genuinely the best salmon I've had.

Well, I'm a big seafood guy, so that would sell me right there.

I filled with hot tap water, so it only took about 5 minutes to get up to temperature - I cooked it at 123 degrees for 25 minutes.

I've heard sous vide scallops are out of this world.

After this experience with salmon, I'll definitely be trying more fish. I want to do the salmon again, this time with a little lemon zest.

Sounds great. I'd definitely love to hear about the scallops, too.

damn, lose those peas and throw on some fries. i'm down with that.
looks good.
sec

Tryin' to eat healthy here, brah! :thumb:

Pork tenderloin is very tasty. Cooked right at 135 degrees and seared for 1 minute on each side in a screamin' hot cast iron pan, it came out almost fork tender and sooooo juicy.

A microbiologist told me that petro-chemicals from the plastic bag leach into the food. He advised against using this method.

FoodSaver bags are safe in boiling water (212 degrees), which makes 'em safe in 130 degree water too.

This is a very interesting way of cooking. Thanks for sharing, might be something to consider one day for myself.

There is some credence to this, according to some recent studies. Seems the culprits are BPA, phthalates, and other plasticizers, which are not used in FoodSaver bags (which I use).

If done right, it's fine. The FDA's guidance for safe temps isn't exactly accurate - they can't give you a time/temp range because they need an idiot to be able to understand it. It's not as simple as temperature; time plays a major part. As one of the books I read about it (Baldwin's Guide to Sous Vide Cooking) says, food safety is about time AND temp - some temps thought to be too low for some foods are perfectly safe if cooked for a long enough time.

At low temps given time, you pasteurize the meat, killing the bacteria. It just takes a little while. The lower the temp the longer it needs to be in the sous vide.

That's one of the benefits of sous vide; you can cook the product to the temperature where it tastes the best. Chicken at 165 is tough and dry; chicken in sous vide at 140 is tender, juicy and delicious.

It was at 135 for 3+ hours. Popped it in before the wife and I went to watch The Avengers.

The salmon has been one of my go-to meals for a while. I'm just really impressed with it in sous vide. Doing it for lunch right now, as a matter of fact. Just popped a couple frozen fillets in with some salt, butter and a lemon wedge. Will probably do some farm fresh corn with it... or some sugar snap peas.

How much did you pay for this? Not going to read all 14 pages.

The Sous Vide Supreme Demi (the smaller version) was $300 (up to $329 on Amazon now). Since I bought it, most reviews have said the bigger version isn't worth the extra $100. It only takes the bath from 8.7 to 10 liters capacity. And at least for me - just me and my wife, and we don't do a lot of entertaining - the Demi is plenty big.

Still playing around... cod is just OK sous vide. Nothing special. It's nice to be able to get something to the perfect temperature with little work and no oversight, but the cod was just OK.

I did do some sous vide chicken thighs the other day, and they were outstanding. The sous vide really rendered out a lot of the skin fat, so when I put the skin down in the pan, it came out incredibly crispy.

I had a steak cooked this way at the W in NY but they didn't sear it. It was certainly tender and perfectly done but I couldn't quite get over the grayness. Your way looks better.

What?!?! Sounds like a mistake.

My first go at prime steaks in the sous vide... I've got a nice rub on some prime sirloins, just finished up a herb gravy, going to do some roasted new potatoes and onions (both from the farmer's market) and some green beans amandine.

How long do those go in for?

Anywhere from 2-12 hours. I'll have them in for about 6 today.

Just put the herb gravy through the Vitamix, and it's really tasty. Basically just chicken stock, thyme, onions, garlic, a little soy sauce and finished with some butter. Blended the whole sumbitch up and seasoned with salt/pepper.

Does the time make any difference, or once it's at ideal temperature all the way through, is it ready to go whenever?

It's technically ready when it's cooked through, but if you let it go a longer, you'll generally end up with it more tender as the connective tissue dissolves. There's a point, however, where the proteins begin to denature and it gets mushy. That generally doesn't happen until you get in 12+ hour cooking with this kind of steak. There are other cuts, like roasts, that benefit from the 24- to 36-hour cooks.

I've had really good luck with 6-8 hours on sirloins.

Having company over tonight... added strawberry sorbet to the menu.

A cursory look, but that is not prime. This is what prime looks like.

http://www.kansascitysteaks.com/_Fil...ss-Rib-Eye.jpg

That's a prime rib eye. I didn't get prime rIb eye. It most definitely is prime sirloin. These steaks are way better marbled than any sirloin I've ever cooked.

This thread got me to talk to a couple of chef friends of mine. Between the thread and those chefs, I've been convinced to pick up one of the sous vide machines. It's not high on the list, so it'll be a while before I get one, but you've swayed at least one of us here, so thanks for that.

BTW, how much are you paying for prime sirloin in your neck of the woods?

$7/pound

My bad. Here's marbling from left to right on sirloin... prime... choice... select. If you were sold the sirloin in the picture you posted as prime you were screwed.

http://www.savenorsmarket.com/web/wp...ay_Sirloin.jpg

Who knew all prime steaks looked alike... learn something new every day here.

:shake:

The steaks - when you're looking at the real deal, not pics taken from a POS camera - look much more marbled. It's very thin streaking throughout the whole steak. Much more marbling than any of the choice I've ever bought.

You think those are all prime? Really?

No, I'm saying you assuming that all prime steaks - the pic you showed vs. a terrible pic of mine - would all look alike is utterly ridiculous.

Ah, OK. The camera didn't show prime marbling. It looked like choice at best, but most likely select.

You're arguing about steaks you can't see for yourself, and even though I think I've proven that I'm not completely full of shit when it comes to food, you won't take my word for it. I'm telling you, these steaks look NOTHING like the select and WAY more like your prime pics than your choice pics. But if you're going to stick to your guns on this, whatever dude.

I'm just saying that the dark and light areas of the steak pics you took didn't look like prime to me. I could definitely see dark red and white areas. No problem brother. I hope those steaks are tender and juicy.

Hmm... not sure where you got that pic, but I'm going to assume you didn't read. For some background here's the page.

http://www.savenorsmarket.com/web/butchery/beef/

The far left, the one you're saying is prime, is actually wagyu. Prime is center. The one on the right is a local Maine Angus.

I'm now even more convinced mine is prime.

I've had this method from an actual chef a few days ago, I watched him make it and learned a little and it came out freaking great!! we had steak, chicken and salmon with it. Really good!

Salmon is one of my favorites done sous vide.

Vacay pic arguments?
Fat distribution arguments?

And people knock the DC ghetto for idiocy?

;)

I didn't know what it was called at the time I first saw it but I saw one of these at a restaurant in town. The place has an open ended kitchen with a bar right by it where I had dinner. I saw the steaks in their little jacuzzi and asked the Chef about it. Had a really fantastic strip steak that had been prepared a similar way. One of the best steaks I have had in KC with some compound butter.

http://www.theriegerkc.com/

The steaks last night were outstanding, as usual, but I'd probably not do prime in the sous vide again. It was really too tender. Choice steaks cook up very tender as it is, so I think I'll reserve prime for full-on grilling.

Some big players entering the sous vide market. Still an expensive tool, but we're starting to get better tools for less money.

The Sous Vide Supreme Demi that I have is $330 on Amazon, with a max capacity of 8.7 liters (2.3 gallons). The full-size SVS has a max capacity of 11.2 liters (2.96 gallons). It does a great job, but you're not going to get a lot in there at once.

PolyScience just released the Sous Vide Discovery at a sub-$300 price point, with a max capacity of more than double the Demi at max volume 20 liters (5.3 gallons). And it's not tied to a specific tank. You can buy different tanks for different applications.

If the trends continue, we'll see more restaurant-type equipment becoming available for the home cook at reasonable prices, which would be excellent news for everyone except restaurants.

I agree it'll be good for everyone, but don't think it'll be bad for restaurants. The expertise and ingredient availability to restaurants is still superior to most home cooks, and people still like to be catered to.

Shit man, steak houses are still rolling, and any asshole can throw meat on a flame.

If you look even at our small community on CP and visit a few of the grilling threads, you'll quickly figure out there are a shitton of people that don't know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to grilling steaks, and I think we've got a lot of better-than-average home cooks here.

I've been thinking about getting one for a while. I might convert my crock pot like this:

http://www.cookingforgeeks.com/blog/...diy-sous-vide/