Yes, but more and more gadgets are out there making error-proof cooking an inexpensive option. Hell, Marinade in a vacuum seal, cook it in the sous vide, sear it in a pan and you've got the perfect steak even without a steakhouse oven. I never go out for steak anymore, because I can make it better than most restaurants do, and I'm just a good, but not exceptional, cook.

And, since you can freeze the vacuum sealed steak, you can do this in bulk and have multiple meals with almost no time invested.

You lost me at Marinade, unless you were talking about a skirt steak or something. Your post appears to condone marinating a strip steak.

Sous vide does a great job on cheap steak. I've made sirloin sous vide that was every bit as tender as filet mignon.

Wow, nice find on my part. I love to grill. Not saying I'm the best at it, but willing to learn.

I have a Weber Genesis grill which I love. The wife is German and thinks my steaks are perfect...and wants me to still use marinade. I usually Jaccard then put steaks in zip locks and add marinade for 1 hour. Then I sear on a 400 deg grill ~ 1-2 min per side, depending on thickness.

I've been trying to use just salt and pepper dry rub. She still likes the marinade. To each their own I guess.

I watched the Douglas Baldwin video and he was searing using a butane torch. Who doesn't like FIRE BABY? Try doing that as the final presentation in front of friends and family. I read that you use a piping hot cast iron pan.

My question is what is the benefit or difference. My thinking is there isn't. A sear = a sear.

That torch was kick ass thou:)

I personally think you get better flavor out of the cast iron, and it generally tastes better. I actually use both these days. I'll sear the top and bottom and while those are going, I'll use the butane torch to do the sides. It's awesome to torch the fat cap.

This looks like a great option:

http://www.cnet.com/products/anova-precision-cooker/

I almost bought one when they were on Kickstarter. Decided I couldn't really justify it since I already had one.

What is sous vide in a nutshell?

Using a water bath to cook things (in sealed packages, so no water touches) to a very precise temperature...

Like say you want a steak at exactly 130 degrees...

You set the water bath to 130 and you place your sealed bag of filet on there.....it gets to 130 degrees...and STAYS there.....perfectly done, because the water is at 130...

Then you can take it out when you want to plate it, put some grill marks on it, and plate/present it and it will be perfect.

Cooking in a vacuum packed bag with a water bath at precisely controlled temperatures.

The best example I can give is steak. When you cook a steak normally, you end up with a band of overcooked meat and perfectly cooked center because you're cooking the outside at 400-500 (or higher) degrees. With sous vide, you cook the same steak at exactly what temperature you want to serve it - 130 degrees for medium rare. So when you pull the meat out, the entire cut is 130 degrees. You do a super fast sear over scorching high heat (30-60 seconds), and you end up with a perfectly cooked steak with none of that overcooked band.

Textures can get different, and because time + temp can kill pretty much anything, you can also serve things like chicken or pork at below the USDA recommended temperatures. So for chicken, I'll do sous vide at 145, which gives extraordinarily tender and juicy breasts (anything under that and the meat has a weird spongy texture).

:thumb:

Cheap cuts seem to work better than more expensive cuts, at least for me. I have the Anova. Awesome machine. Started with basic chicken breasts and steak. Looking forward to trying 48-72 hour ribs and a brisket.

:hmmm:

Yeah, I've done it with ribeye and that's fine. But where it really shines has been with fish, chicken, and pork. At least for me.

I also made dulce de leche with it, and that was incredible.

Yeah, I almost bought into them in Kickstarter. When I buy a second unit, I'll look hard at them.

http://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/ho...chine-0148452/
Going to try these ideas out. I've always done sous vide with a vacuum sealer and a stock pot. Works but pain in the butt because the temperature is so erratic. The rice cooker method seems very interesting.

I do chicken breast in sous vide semi-regularly. It's so easy to get wonderfully juicy breast meat. Leave the skin on and do a little cooking after to crisp up the skin.... very tasty. (Though, I do prefer the breast meat around 145. At 140 and below, while safe, I find it's got an offputting texture.

Pork, though... medium rare pork is delicious!

One of the first things I ever cooked was sirloin, and I agree with this, 100 percent. Sirloin is also not one of my favorite cuts, but the ones I've done sous vide come out with that great beefy flavor and the texture of filet mignon - so very tender. It's pretty awesome to get the tenderness of filet and the flavor from another cut.

You've got me wanting to buy this again. My one complaint about my Sous Vide Supreme is that it's big and bulky. Since it's completely self contained, I'm limited to what I can fit in the machine, plus I have to have the machine on my counter. So I typically sous vide in spurts - I'll go a couple months without using it, then go a couple weeks using it almost exclusively. But then I get tired of this big thing on my counter.

I think with one of these or a similar competitor, I'd use it more since I could use it in combination with a stock pot.

If anyone sees a good deal on one of those wand type sous vide, post that shit in here.

Wow...just read through that. Why isn't there anyone that has these for sale rigged in that way already? I know there is a bit of a variance factor in who would buy one and applying it to their own crockpot or rice cooker, but it looks like a perfect "add on" piece of hardware to turn cookers you already own into a sous vide.

I might look into making one of these too.



EDIT: Ah, I see now that there are some for sale, but they are way overpriced. It makes about $40 to make one, and they are selling them for $100 over that...will look into making my own.

My Sous Vide water oven is supposed to arrive from Amazon tomorrow. What should I try out first?

What kind? The Anova, Sous Vide Supreme, or what?

And chicken or steak. If you like medium rare steak, but something you like, season, bag, and sous vide at 128 degrees. Dry the steaks very well, get a cast iron pan screaming hot, sear the steak for 30 seconds per side. No rest needed. Sirloin, while one of my least favorite cuts of meat, is really good sous vide.

If you want chicken, season breasts and sous vide at 145 for 90 minutes, that's plenty to ensure sure it's been at 145 for 45 minutes and properly pasteurized.

I bought the Sous Vide Supreme off Amazon. Sounds great, I've read some online reviews of putting steaks in for 48 hours. That sounded a bit extreme, but I could see that tenderizing the meat in a similar fashion to slow cooking a brisket.

A KC Strip is my favorite cut of a steak. I enjoy other cuts, but I'm usually slightly disappointed any time I get something different. Do you season your steak with something other than salt and pepper when you seal it?

On the chicken are you using a dry rub or liquid marinade?

You wouldn't do a 48-hour sous vide with steak. Roast, short ribs, brisket, sure. Steak will denature the proteins if it goes more than 6 hours or so.

You should really try stuff other than strips, but if that's your favorite, that's what I'd start with. You won't go wrong there. I typically do salt, pepper, a whole clove of garlic, and a little butter. Then will typically lightly re-season with salt before I sear.

Most everything you'll do is dry or solid fat if you're doing any kind of vacuum sealing. If you're doing the Ziploc method, you can use marinades.

I have a vacuum, I was thinking flank steak.

I've also seen a few pork recipies that look great.

Check in, Great Expectations.

thiss

Bought this 2 weeks ago.

http://i5.walmartimages.com/dfw/dce0...81a0f38.v1.jpg

I love it!

http://www.powerpressurecooker.com/?...FQEGaQodfYsAWg

Basically an electric pressure cooker, right?

I never heard of it before until you. FMB, mentioned in earlier in other cooking threads. So I looked it up.

What's so great about it? Or should I ask, what are the benefits of cooking "sous vide" instead of fire.

Read the thread, I've posted all about benefits. The most notable is extremely fine temperature control. Anything over 130 will pasteurize anything given enough time, which means you can cook chicken at below 165 or pork to medium rare, if you like. It also means the entire protein gets to the exact temperature you want, minimizing the band of overcooked meat on the outside from the sear.

(And I created this thread way back when I bought a SVS.)

Son of a gun, you did. I thought it was new. I just read your first post and then posted.

Yep, and slow cooker.

I have a traditional pressure cooker. It can't be beat for some things.

Yep. My grandmothers cooked in them all the time.

I cooked 2 Sirloin roasts in it for 40 mins. Shit just fell apart.

I generally don't pull mine out unless I'm doing stock, but I've done everything from roasts to chili to risotto to pasta sauces in mine.

I wanna learn how to can.

Thinking about growing Habaneros and Tomatoes and make my own salsa.

I'd like to pickle habaneros. Sweet brine.

I've tried pressure canning, never really had luck with it. I've had no problems with water bath canning, but pressure canning seems to be problematic for me. :shrug:

Dumb question, but don't want to go through pages to find the answer....

What is recommended process for searing and resting? How long after I cook sous vide should I throw it into the pan for searing? I would think if you sear it too soon, it's easier to get above the perfect temperature. I also didn't know how that affects meat cooking while it rests.

Not a dumb question at all, just takes experience or someone telling you how to do it.

No rest needed. Take it out of the bag, dry it really well, and put it in the pan to sear.

If you get the pan really hot (I mean, really hot; get a cast iron and heat that sucker up to 700 degrees), you're only going to sear for 30 seconds or so per side; that's not enough to overcook it.

What is water bath canning?

Anything that's sufficiently acidic doesn't have to be pressure canned. You fill the sterilized jars with your product (pickles, most jams, jellies, etc.), lightly cap, and put in a boiling pot of water (let the water come up over the lids by an inch or so), and process for the set amount of time.

The acid is a preservative, so you don't need to get it over 212 degrees.

Product that isn't acidic you have to get up to like 245 to kill botulism, so you have to use a pressure canner.

Cool. Thanks for the tip. Hadn't thought about doing that on cast iron.

Interesting. Thanks.

Huh, my mom has pressure canned in the same cooker since I was a tot.

Wouldn't recommend in that AiO of BMD's, is it operates at lower pressure. I read that recipes need to be adjusted accordingly.

I considered getting one of those, but I realized that I have an appliance for each function, and while it might be nice starting out from scratch to have such a multitasker, but I'm not gonna ditch me existing, and the problem of a unitasker is, failure for one is often failure of all.

New cooking methods ... sous vide
 

In all honesty, I've only ever done it once, but the entire batch of chicken stock was spoiled. Never really inclined to try it since.

Seriously, Great Expectations... WTF?

Indeed?

I bake quite a bit—but it's because I have a wheat allergy and have to use substitute flours if I'm ever gonna enjoy a baked food item.

I've gotten it down to no one can even tell I've switched out wheat flour and I've even found a way to doctor it to make it a "cake" flour if called for in some recipes.

Hmm, I blame FMB for getting more burns cooking meat in the cast iron pan. Fat jumps out and splattered my hands a month ago. Just the other day, it happened again and got on my face. Now I am scar face.

Thanks aloe vera it will all heal up fine but still...it hurt!


Waits for FMB to respond. Heh, heh, heh!

I"m sorry I just saw this. I made a flank steak the other day and it was outstanding. Extremely tender and flavorful. It was better than a perfectly cooked strip on charcoal. The way it was tenderized was perfect. I've been traveling other than the one cook. I'm excited to do some carrots next. I'll cook those early and then cook some chicken this weekend.

The element in my vacuum sealer went out, so I used the ziplock method. It worked, but I think I need to get a new element or get better at the ziplock method, I didn't get all teh air out so a tiny bit of moisture got through, but it was still great.

When you did it, did you submerge under water with the bag open to get the air out?

I use the Ziplocks whenever I really care about the presentation. Using the vacuum can form proteins into kinda weird shapes, so if I don't want that, I'll use a zip.

I might try some pork chops tonight.

Yes, the liquid might have been the juices from the flank steak. I held it under in the water oven. I have since viewed people doing that in a seperate bowl. I guess that only matters if you are heating the water before you put the food ito the bath.

I've always done it in the water bath. But yeah, just doing sous vide will end up with a decent amount of liquid in the bath.

Have you done many vegetables?

How about pears/other fruit?

Ricotta?

I've done some veggies, mostly carrots. Never any fruit or ricotta. I like to play with my meat.

You can refridgerate some of the fruit and ricotta. I'm going to try it next time we have people over for dinner, then I'll play with some meat.

I made yogurt once; it was not good.

I made stock once; it was good, but not as good as the pressure cooker, and it the SVS was a royal pain in the ass to clean afterward.

Where do you find your recipies?

No one place really. Mostly just Google "sous vide [insert whatever]" if it's something I'm not too familiar.

I know the final temp for meats, so I generally wing it.

I've done a lot from Chef Steps, Sous Vide Supreme's blog, and Modernist Cuisine.

I really like how tender the flank steak was so I'm interested in breaking proteins down for other types of meat without having them become mushy. I've seen some people post online that they will put a tri tip in for 24 hours. Per our earlier discussions that seems wrong.

One of my go to meals for entertaining is a variation of this http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...s-recipe0.html


I've thought about trying a long water bath on short ribs, but the version above is tough to beat.

Something large and tough will be fine with a 24-hour bath. Large cuts can handle it. Smaller cuts will denature after 8 hours (or so).

It has holes in it.

Yes.... and?

You're not cooking in it, you're using it to cover the pan so steam escapes but grease does not.

Anyone find that boneless chicken thighs are better than bone-in?

I know it covers the pan. I also had heard of them before. It still has holes and some particles that splatter are very fine. Though I was teasing you here.

I've never had a splatter get through. Ever.

I made chicken breasts last night, they were exceptionally tender. I'm hooked on this thing. I'm definitely cooking pork tonight. I'm looking for something fun for Saturday, any suggestions?

I don't have a sous vide apparatus, but I do have a probe thermometer and a crock pot.

Toying with taking a day when I'm doing stuff around the house and immersing a steak at about 100, turning the crock on and off periodically to modulate temp, then ramping it up to 115 or so at dinner time.

Worth the effort?
Doomed to failure?

Would be a vacuum sealed steak with mesquite marinade.

Maybe worth a try, but I think ultimately temperature control is going to be wildly all over the place. Crocks do eventually get up to boiling.

Chicken and pork are my favorite things to cook, honestly.

For this weekend: Duck.

Well splatter me, incredulous!:D

That's why I mentioned the thermometer and turning it off. And actually low setting ranges from 180-195 top end on most models, though I'd never go near that.

I'd set the probe for 95-100 while long cooking and turn the crock off when it beeps.

Do you have a torch for the skin? I'm thinking about getting one; that would be a great way to finish off my meat.