Sous vide

@photo-sniper - You seem to be suggesting that us non-professional (& some pros here too) cooks should know our place & stick to our hobs & grills, & stay away from sous vide cooking & the like, which should remain the privilege of 'the pros'.

That's the way it comes across anyway. And as a home cook who likes to chance his arm at different cooking methods from time to time, I find that a bit disrespectful tbh.

We use this forum because we love our grub. We welcome people of all talents & tastes. And I certainly love reading about other members trying new things. That's the ethos of the forum. I hope you get the picture.

Happy cooking,

tHB

Dubl07 wrote: »

They'll mostly want a steak so I'm thinking of sealing each steak/pair of steaks in a ziploc, firing all the bags in a cooler full of water at 145°F and bringing the meat up to 130°F over two or three hours. That should equate to med-rare. Does that sound right?

Thanks for the reminder. I've a sous vide machine (Sous Vide Magic, one of those rice-cooker hack jobbies) that I really don't use enough. And I've never gotten around to doing steak with. Moves to the top of the to-do list to buy steak now! Will follow the advice on the thread here and report back

Oh, doh. My vacuum packer packed in, that's why I've not been using it. Are Ziplocs really a runner?

just put your meat (I presume) at the bottom of the bag, and tightly roll it up towards the seal, that will push out all the air and then when you get the the loc seal then zip it closed. Yes, use the clothes peg to clip the top of the bag to the container holding your water bath

you lob it in and forget about it, or maybe turn it once much less effort bbq/smoking

Rew wrote: »

Different types of cooking but you can combine, for example 48h sous vide then cold smoke.

Great excuse to get a second egg

Quick brain dump on this thread generally;

'MacGyver' style setups aren't worth the trouble, as the cost of a basic off the shelf sous vide setup has become more affordable for domestic users, is more flexible and takes up less space than the 'cooler' option. Also, the risk of contamination is higher using 'MacGyver' due to the inaccuracy of the water holding temperature(critical over long cooking times). Anyway, I don't see the point of having to stand over a cooler with a kettle and thermometer for hours on end monitoring the temperature and adjusting - surely the real benefit of the professionally made tool is that you can 'set it and forget it'?

Regarding cooking an average sized steak sous vide, that's probably not where the real benefit of sous vide lies, and you wont see it used for that purpose in many professional environments.

Regarding outcomes on smoked brisket as an example, the 'smoker only' method done by someone experienced and with the time to manage temperatures manually with the 'stall' etc.. , and done over real fire is the "dogs u know what", period! The meat with exposure to real heat has time to develop deep flavour and a proper 'bark' or crust.

In my experience of a hybrid method using smoker and then sous vide, I have had best results by doing the following:

- brining(white meats) for appropriate time then seasoning with 'rub' a of choice,
- smoking for approx. 4 hrs (there is decent evidence that after 4hrs the true impact of real smoke penetration diminishes),
- vac-pac and sous vide for the remainder of the cooking time
- resting the meat and re-applying surface seasoning or sauce, followed by quick browning of the crust using blowtorch or similar before serving

This is a pretty good method giving better moisture control with less risk of drying out or overcooking than traditional smoking, however, the depth of flavour and crust from traditional smoking is still superior IMHO. Alternatively, with this process the meat can be chilled after the original sous vide cooking, then re-heated to original serving temperature later using sous vide without ANY moisture loss.

Hope this is useful.

rspeedie wrote: »

I'm in the Marcus Wareing camp these days...try a classic technique first...it's going to be far more flavourful. If anyone wants my Supreme, I'll let it go cheap Give me a pan or a pressure cooker any day.

The same Marcus Wareing quoted here?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/my-life-in-food-marcus-wareing-6292153.html

What are your most and least used pieces of kitchen kit?

I think I would say my sous vide machine. I have had one for about four years now and use it a lot in the kitchens at the Berkeley. It's a very good way of cooking: it's slow and you can keep the temperature under control precisely. I use it for meat and fish, the whole lot. But it works best with fish, it prevents it overcooking and drying out. Poach a fish and it tightens in the boiling water, you see; this way, it doesn't. Least used piece of kitchen equipment lives at home. We never use the kettle. My wife Jane had a new kitchen put in and she had one of those boiling water taps. And I'm from the northwest, so we only ever use boiling water for tea.

Yeah, I saw the date on that interview. He was probably on a sponsorship deal for sous vide goodies if he promoted the technique back then. As the popularity of the technique has grown, I noticed a reaction to it on a lot of the competitive cookery shows. Judges favour the classic techniques over the set & forget method as, I guess, it demonstrates more skill.

I use it for long, low temperature cooking. Confit of duck and boneless shoulder of lamb being the commonest. Did Turkey crown at Christmas year before last and it was great. Must get some brisket and try the 4 hour smoke, then sous vide mentioned by Rebelgourmet.

rspeedie wrote: »

As a hobbyist, doing dishes for fun and trying things out to learn and experiment, of course, sous vide is worth a bash. That's why bought Under Pressure, got all the kit, tried loads of dishes... but having said all that, I think the best use of it is in a commercial kitchen and a beef cheek cooked in the bag for a day isn't as good as a beef cheek slow braised overnight in a very low oven with a veal stock and a bunch of aromatics.

Added: I think this article sums sous vide up for me perfectly. Ignore the article title..it's just an attention grabber. A great technique in skilled hands...turns food to mush in many others

Take out the brackets http://[] insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2012/08/30/we’ve-banned-foie-gras-now-let’s-ban-sous-vide/

Blah-blah aside, anyone who bans foie gras is a numpty.

The wonder of the world is that we can diversely conduct our own little experiments and can if we wish include aromatics and the like inside a sous-vide pouch - either McGyver or techno.

rspeedie wrote: »

the whole point is that it's cooking under the pressure of having no air...

not really, the point is of sous vide is cooking to an accurate temp and holding it there (if necessary), the main downside of having air in the bag is that the bags float, a peg or weight will sort that out. The secondary downside is that aromatics may not be in contact with the food as much as in a proper vacuum pack but I would say the difference is negligible with the ziplock method and even less if using a home vacuum pack machine

Rew wrote: »

Sous Vide circulators are about €150 now. Thats cheaper then most appliances in a home kitchen. High end hobs are beginning to build them in. Its something that is going to become a lot more common.

It's a long way off becoming mainstream unfortunately, and I wonder why? There is comparatively very little sous vide recipe resources out there. The odd specialist cookbook, like Thomas Keller's Under Pressure mentioned earlier. For example, Madalene Bonvini-Hamel at the British Larder published her British Larder Cookbook in Nov 2012 and left out the sous vide recipes entirely. They are available on her website, but the decision to omit them was based on the assumption that the reader would want to be able to cook the recipes without having to buy a load of expensive kit.

But, as you say, the kit is getting cheaper and easier to get. So I wonder if the lack of recipes is due to the health risks if it goes wrong. Sous Vide enthusiasts quickly discovered ways to work around the need for expensive kit - far quicker than the prices reduced for the kit. Circulators are common and reasonably cheap. Water baths are less common and still expensive. Vacuum packers are cheap whereas chamber vacuums are still ridiculously expensive and there isn't a chamber vacuum available from a mainstream retailer yet. Or is it just seen as a technique for pro's and amateur enthusiasts only?

rspeedie wrote: »

I don't think he was really looking to ban fois gras...kind of exaggeration to make a point.

He wasn't exaggeration to make a point. The author is in california (Bay area) where fois gras has been banned since 2012.

rspeedie wrote: »

From the Institute of Culinary Education

The absence of air allows the even transfer of heat to the foods that are in the bag, which gives them the same texture through and through, from surface to center. When textural contrasts are desired, such as with meat, which doesn’t offer the best sensory effect when completely soft, the food can be quickly deep fried or sautéed, which will give it a thin crus

A large air pocket could well affect the temp transfer to the meat. But tiny little air pockets won't affect the temp. If all the surround meat is 52 degrees, then the area at the air bubble will reach 52 soon after. Whether its more contact with the water or the surround meat doesn't really matter.

Hi Guys, I bought myself the Anova Sous vide precision and while waiting for it I was given one as a gift. :-/ so I ended up with two.
I found getting one in ireland hard and I'm going to list the brand new one I bought on Adverts. but since ye're the foodies I wanted to ask if anyone here is interested.

I'm a long time boardsie - I'm putting this on here to be helpful, not schill. But please let me know or have a mod get on to me if I shouldn't, I just figured since its an often out of stock, relatively rare item there was scope to let ye know.

Separately if there is any questions you guys have about how/what I use it for let me know! As a bit of a food nerd I have to say I do love the steak from it, 63.5 custardy eggs are the GF's fav now. Still loads of plans to try more stuff. I'm going to try temper chocolate in mine.
Has anyone tried chocolate making with it? -Dan

Also, sear the steak in a crazy hot cast iron pan for 30 seconds on either side, then vacuum pack it with a pat of butter, sous vide it for 90 minutes or more at your chosen temperature (I'm liking 57C at the moment), then take it out of the bag, reserve the liquid in the bag to make a pan sauce with if you like that kind of thing, dry the steak with paper towels and sear the steak again in a cast iron pan for another 30-40 seconds on either side; add some butter and thyme to the pan and baste like a mad thing for that minute if you'd like (it's quite lovely). And have the butcher cut the steaks much much thicker than normal (1.5 to 2 inches). In fact, it's sometimes a good idea to just get the one steak for two people, but get it very thick, put all the time into cooking that just right and then slice and divide and serve. Same amount of steak each as if you just chucked something from the styrofoam into the pan, but it'll taste a damn sight better.



(I left that one in the pan too long on the second sear, hence the graduation at the top edge; but it's almost an edge-to-edge steak. I'll take that over a roast for sunday dinner thanks )