I am aware, but I'm not building an appliance from scratch for my first experiment.

I hear you. Good luck with your idea. Please let me know how it turns out. I keep debating all the options, because I don't want to add another full size item to the counter, but I really want to try working with sous vide at home.

Make one from a log in the woods. Piece of cake.

http://www.whataboutclients.com/arch...otoblog900.jpg

perfect, now will you hold it over the flame?

Hmmm. I've read there is no actual temperature difference between low and high, just how LONG it takes to get to temp.

:shrug:

I do have a torch, but the duck skin will insulate the meat a lot. I'd put it in a skillet on medium low.

From what I've read, low is 180-195 and high is 210-220.

A torch is cooler

I'm not interested in cool.

Seriously, the torch will crisp it, but it's not going to render any more fat.

Sure, but'll hafta' be a smaller log...more like a stick. The logs are too heavy for me. :D

Your plating suggests otherwise.

I do like nice plating, but I kinda suck at it.

But that's not the point I was making. I'd prefer to use something that would make the final product better. Sometimes that is a torch. Often on steaks, while the top and bottom are searing, I'll use the torch to crisp up the fat cap on the side. But for duck, I'm not sure if you're going to render all of the fat, so using a low heat to render and crisp would be better than using a torch. That fat really provides remarkable insulation.

OR... you could render a lot of the fat before you seal it and sous vide, so when you're ready to sear, all you need to do is crisp up the fat. Yeah, I think that's what I'd do. Then pour the rendered fat into the bag. It'd be like sous vide/confit!

Definitely! DO THIS!

http://www.bluehellproductions.com/f...1364006206.jpg

That sounds amazing.

These threads make me really wanna start cooking

I've got a couple top sirloins that spent the night in a little soy and oyster sauce. Topped with some duck fat, in at 127 now for lunch.

Also got some center-cut pork chops that I'll do tonight.

Pork chops, garlic, and rosemary ready for the sous vide.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/04...a05f9dad45.jpg

Tried it with a pork chop.

2 hours between 135-140 degrees. Pat dry, sprinkle Chachere's on, sear in cast iron.

Very satisfied. Very tender and juicy.

The top sirloin soy sauce/oyster sauce marinade was pretty worthless.

How much did you have to turn off/on the slow cooker?

Have you ever put eggs in a water bath?

That sounded good. I am not a fan of marinades, but I've felt like this could change things. Especially with pork and chicken (brines are different, I love brines).

I actually switched to my rice cooker. The 'high' heating element is much stronger and gets hotter, but the 'warm' setting is below the end level. So I didn't have to plug and unplug it, just toggle the switch. And even the warming setting would slow the cooling of the water, particularly with the lid on.

I checked it every 15 min or so, and had to toggle about half of the time, probably 5 toggles between cook and warm. Might have gotten away with less.

Also, the cooking element is strong enough that you didn't need to use it for long. Say you want your meat at 135, and the water drops to 129. It would take like 3 min of the cook setting to be at 135 and rising, so set it back to warm.

Got this for my birthday, excited to try it this next week.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088OTON4/...I1BVQXS5NH0ROA

Not sure what I'm going to try it on, probably some cut of steak.

So far pork is by far my favorite. The only beef I've tried is a flank steak. The chicken comes out great, I just prefer thighs on the grill over chicken breast sous vide. Of course the breast is much healthier.

Well, with the scouts, we've been putting eggs, cheese, ham, bacon bits, and more cheese in a Ziploc bad and boiling it for a LONG time.

Yummy, Yummy, YUMMY!!!!

A tight lid makes all the difference. Warmed it up to 130 at 8am, and it's sitting at 129 at the moment on the warm setting.

Previous time, I had to leave the lid loose, as I needed a jar of water to hold the package down as it was sealed with a bit of air in it. This time is fully vacuum-sealed.

Well I learned my lesson trusting my wife to do anything right. Seasoned and used the submersion method to ziplock two strip steaks last night. Set the temp controller for 130 and told he wife if she made it home first to throw the steaks in the crock pot. Came home to find she had removed the steaks from the bags and tossed them in. They had been in about 20 mins. I pulled them out, put salt and pepper on them again and rebagged them. I'm hoping they turn out alright at this point...

I'm not a happy man, probably good she went to walk the dog before I saw it.

I've made around 10 main courses in my machine over the past month or so that I've owned it. I finally found/made something phenomenal with it. I bought a couple of prime top sirloin steaks and they were perfect. I've made chicken breast several times and it was good, pork was very good along with flank and strip steaks, but this was awesome.

I bought better than normal salt and put twice as much on along with setting my pepper mill to the coarsest possible setting. I think over seasoning helped more than anything, but I also put it at 134 instead of 132 and cooked it for 2 1/2 hours. I've noticed that some of the dry rub comes off in the liquid/fat that materializes during the cook. Putting a lot more on was a good move. I'd also been trying to finish with butter in a cast iron skillet at the smoke point, tonight i used olive oil and a higher temp to finish.

Anyway it all came together and $20 worth of meat tasted like $150.

To sear, use canola for higher heat or ghee for even more heat + flavor.

Do you like fish? Fish is perfect in sous vide.

I love fish, I'll try that soon. i also love salt. I usually intentionally under salt food to my taste for the enjoyment of my eating companions. I think you have to over salt with this method to get the right flavor. And when it's right it's the best. Sirloin is usually my 5th or 6th choice and tonight it was one of the best steaks I've eaten. My boys at 2 and 4 usually don't eat beef finished off over 8 oz.

Have you been reseasoning when you sear? That's what I do. Season when it goes in the bag, then salt/pepper again when it goes in the pan or to finish right after I sear.

Nope, but I've been re seasoning after my first taste.

That makes sense.


I had a boss years ago that raved about how the sirloin was the best cut when done right. I thought he was full of it until tonight. Ive purchased higher quality cuts from more premium areas, but I've never produced a better piece of meat than I did tonight.

Best thing I've ever done was the sirloin I did a long time ago. I don't typically like sirloin. It's got great flavor and the texture of filet mignon.

The steak was the best and when paired with a Howell Mountain Cabernet heavy blend from Paraduxx I had a Mother's Day winner.

Wrong thread

Got my Sous Vide rig built and running - worked like a champ:

Built two of them - here they are mounted to an acrylic cook tub:



They're wholly self-contained and controlled by a PID temp controller, solid state relay and immersion heater. The plans aren't hard to find but you'll want at least a little electrical know-how as there are some things you'll see done that I modified a little bit.

Running at a steady 130 - probably about 2-4 degrees lower than I'd have liked for Carne Asada in hindsight.



Finished product:



Sliced:



I used my thermopen to test the corners of the tub every hour or so and it was perfectly uniform and matched the PID unit. I even managed to injure myself in a completely unrelated event, go to urgent care, get 12 stitches in my head and return to find the unit still humming right along. After bleeding profusely for 30 minutes and spending 2 hours getting stitched up, we still had perfect carne asada for dinner at 8:00.

Definitely a worthwhile investment and/or project. The best advice I could come up with from this is that you really want to be careful about undercooking steak. You put a lot of effort into slow-cooking this to make it tender but then if you serve it on the rare side of medium rare, you still end up with that fibrous texture that you end up tearing more than slicing. I think 132-134 is almost certainly the sweet spot but I'll keep trying.

Nice job!! How much cash did you put down for the equipment to build your own, out of curiosity?

Regarding the bolded, that's your cut of meat. Slow cooking skirt steak isn't going to make it tender. Skirt is all in how you slice it with those long fibers. Nothing you do besides slicing will change that. Try a sirloin. Great Expectations said his best experience has been with sirloin, as was mine. I've also had great luck with strips and ribeyes. If you want a slow cooked medium rare something, try short ribs or roast.

I've now done sirloin, strips, tenderloin, and flank. The sirloin was the best, the tenderloin came in second. They were all good. I finished the tenderloin better than the others. I like a medium rare steak and find that 134 is my go to temp. I then finish it very fast in my cast iron with a bunch of butter. I was using olive oil and the finish was taking a little longer and a lower temp would probably work better. The butter burns better which creates a better crust. It takes a little less than a minute. I've used by induction cooktop set at 180.

I'd like to use a torch for my next go at a strip to finish off the fat cap w/out cooking the rest of it.

About $90. The solid state relay made it a little more expensive. I also had some of the stuff we needed sitting round (spare acrylic for the bracket, for instance).

Really, the reason I made this is that my buddy and I are tinkerers so we wanted to try to make them and I have a shitload of cuts of meat from that cow that I just don't like. Just buying the new wand style one is probably the way to go, but building this was just a fun project for a Saturday. I have some massive sirloins in my freezer from my annual cow purchase. Sirloin blows. Badly. But I have 10 lbs of it so I need a method to make it well. I fully expect your experience to be proven correct - everyone raves about sous vide sirloin. I was bummed to see your experience with roast was a poor one. I am hoping to find a way to make one of these round/chuck roasts into something vaguely resembling a poor man's standing rib roast. They take up a ton of freezer space and frankly I just don't like pot roast.

I also learned that minimalist is likely the way to go. I made a very complicated Carne Asada marinade that was way WAY too strong but also another packet in a simple lime/soy/garlic mix that was damn near perfect. I've always fought marinades anyway so that will be my biggest hurdle to clear.

We'll see how long that $7 aquarium pump holds up. I'm thinking about running to the fish store on Vivion next time I'm in KC and picking up a used Vortech or something; it should survive better. I suspect I can do 130 on it all day but if I want to get nearer 150/160, that might burn it up.

I don't generally like sirloin either, but I've never topped it. Good stuff in sous vide.

I don't think I gave the roast long enough, and I haven't ever tried since then. And I think I used a rump or round, which I don't really care for anyway. I love chuck roast, though, so one of these days I'll give that a try.

I also put 1.5 times the amount of salt on my steak with this method. I think the butter/liquid when finishing it off reduces the amount of dry rub.

I season normally when it goes in the bag and lightly re-season before I sear. Works for me. I also typically don't bag right before I sous vide. I'll season, bag, and sear the night before so the salt can penetrate into the flesh.

So you prefer the pre-sear method? I've read both ways.

My first thought is that I'd just take it out of the bat, salt/pepper a little as needed and then sear it. But if you've had better luck otherwise, I'd be interested to hear why you believe that to be the case.

I always mean to pre-sear, but never do. I've never even tried it.

I do think seasoning before it goes in the bath is needed.

When will you go into full production, and do you take PayPal?

Yes

Sous Vide to me is highly overrated. Give me a cast iron seared steak, cooked in the oven and not in hot water.

In my limited usage with sous vide I've found that it is a very consistent way to cook steak, but the real payoff is with pork and poultry.

This is ignorant. You're not cooking in hot water. You're using hot water as the heat source, but water never touches the food. And I sear in cast iron 95 percent of the time.

I agree.

OK, LMK, I want my fish-tank steak cooker..

As I understand it, it gets to that awesome pan right after the water does the hard work (and takes the guess-work out of the center temp).

Ha. That's exactly what I'm going to use for most applications - one of the spare 10 gallon fish tanks I have in the basement.

Did you commission a death panel that decided the fish wasn't more important that cooking steak, so they had to go?

I decided that the headache of a quarantine tank was far greater than just crossing my fingers and dropping the fish into the main tank. It's worked out for me so far.

With a 135, a 90 and a 42, I have plenty of space for any fish that are eventually displaced by this decision.

Gentrification, man. A plain ol' working class goldfish just can't find a place to hang his hat these days...

No need to use hot water when a cast iron works perfectly. Sous vide is for people who don't know how to use an oven or pan.

Troll post is trolling.

ROFL


Did you give me up GloryDayze?

It's not just the center tip. One of the things about grilling or roasting or pan frying is that to get the center where you want it, you invariably have to essentially overcook the outer layers. So if you look at the middle of a steak, the middle will be perfect, but as you move in rings to the outside of the steak, the meat gets more well done.

One of the benefits of sous vide is that the entire piece of meat will be exactly the temperature you want it. And with a quick 30- or 60-second sear, you'll get a nice browning without overcooking the outer layers.

http://sansaire.com/wp-content/uploa...onal-steak.jpg

LMAO

No, he didn't. I just know you're not that stupid. :D

Well shit, I was expecting this to last a lot longer and be more entertaining. I was about to throw the "why would you boil ribs" out there.

So, you have a pan and know how to use it?

Can you fry a troll? Grill one?

That is NOT polite, BL...pelvic inflammatory disease is nothing to laugh about...

Troll is pretty tough. I'd probably braise in a dutch oven.

Hmmmmmm, the Dutch doesn't look to tough. In this case I think the Sous Vide route (with some champagne) might be better.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yV4_tPpxwX...hment.aspx.jpg

I've got a couple strips I'm probably going to sous vide tonight. I'm thinking about making a balsamic reduction or a port sauce for it.

So, strippers in the jacuzzi.. Like...

I really enjoy a balsamic reduction, but I haven't tried a port one. If I buy port good enough to drink I usually drink it. I try not to cook with wine that I wouldn't drink.

I posted this in the food thread, maybe it will get more play here. This is like the fancy food thread.

Then this should follow too...

Keep the Sous Vide coming man, it's working for me!

http://cdn.gifbay.com/2013/03/olivia...hoot-36509.gif

Thank you for the reduction info, I visit the whats for dinner thread sporadically, but have received great tips in here.

While you are at it where is the best place for boudin balls in Baton Rouge?

Tony's - 5215 Plank Rd, Baton Rouge, LA 70805
http://www.tonyseafood.com/

Best around, guarantee it.

.

I get that a lot...

But seriously, thanks...

:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

Decided to do more of a quick demi glace instead. Reducing now.

New cooking methods ... sous vide
 

Should have used a larger plate. That demi is legit, though.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05...722a45e531.jpg

I repped you for making Demi Glace. Wow, that's a lot of time and effort!

Thanks, but it wasn't a traditional demi. I used this simple version by Le Cordon Bleu. Took about an hour, but was mostly just simmering. And it's very nice.

http://www.chefs.edu/student-life/cu...demi-glace?p=1