Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
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.