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**mrmcdowe** · 11-26-2012, 11:54 AM

How many of you use an air pump with a crock pot sized sous vide?

**jeepinjeepin** · 11-26-2012, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmcdowe

How many of you use an air pump with a crock pot sized sous vide?

Well, you see that I do. I'm not sure it is completely necessary, but everything helps when trying to hit a consistent temperature. My probe is located dead center in the lid where the handle was. The furthest distance from the element in the bottom and the crock side walls. Some water turnover can only help.

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**Revvy** · 11-26-2012, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmcdowe

How many of you use an air pump with a crock pot sized sous vide?

I do, even a crock pot is going to have hot and cold spots, since the heating element is usually in the bottom of the outer shell. Moving the water around will help balance out the temp through the whole vessel. They're so cheap to buy and you can pick one up at any big box store these days.

dallasdb · 11-26-2012, 02:59 PM

This is the setup when I'm not just using my crockpot.
The heatstick works well but I have the GFCI outlet between the heatstick and the temp controller, not the temp controller and the wall. Only problem is every time the temp controller powers off the heatstick it flips the GFCI and when it powers back on you have to reset the GFCI.

I am afraid if the GFCI is at the wall, if the heatstick gets a surge it will fry my temp controller. Does anyone know if this is true?

**dinnerstick** · 12-17-2012, 06:39 AM

i'm in charge of a 5 course christmas dinner for 14. the star of the evening is going to be a duck breast with a tawny port and cherry sauce. i can get either farmed or wild duck, so i started some trials with the sous vide. i did 2 hours at 57 degrees, then pan fried the skin side. the wild duck is really gamey, with not much fat under the skin, but it did crisp up well. the farmed duck is soft as silk, makes the wild stuff seem almost chewy. you could just about cut it with a spoon. didn't quite render the fat as much as i'd like to. will get it right on my next practice run. the wild one was cooked perfect; red in the middle. the farmed one was a tiny bit overdone, going to reduce the sous vide time and fry a bit harder. but i'm going with the farmed duck for the soft texture and fat layer. on the night i'm going to sous vide all of them together in my speidel braumeister, with the mash recirculation on! wish me luck. first pic is the wild, second is farmed (i didn't really rest them, so they released a bit of liquid, i will rest them on the night).

**Revvy** · 12-24-2012, 04:04 PM

The adventure continues. Thought I'd try another idea. I'm doing three slabs of 24 hour Pork Belly Confit for tomorrow, and didn't want to use the cooler and have it take up most of my counter space in my tiny kitchen while trying to cook other things, same with my crock pot. So I pulled out my 4 dollar salvation army coffee urn that I use for heating sparge water for stovetop small batch brewing. Even with the temp controller next to it, it takes up less space that either of the other options, fits all three slabs in there, and has held temp beautifully for the last 22 hours.....

I'm thinking this my be my permanent sous vide setup.

**dinnerstick** · 12-27-2012, 02:36 PM

post-christmas report! dinner for 14, but the duck breasts i got were twice the expected size, so only cooked 7 (it's a 5 course meal, there was a crapload of other food!). cooked the duck in its original shrink-wrap packaging. 55 degrees (for non-celcius users, that's 328.15 kelvin!) for 2 hours, scored the skin, and then seared the skin side in very hot, completely dry frying pans. flipped and cooked the other side for 10 seconds or so. the sauce was tawny port, peppercorns, malic acid, homemade turkey and veal stocks, cherry jam. cooked in the braumeister, in the malt tube with full recirculation on! for those unfamiliar it pumps water/wort up from the bottom of the tube, over the top, over the heating element and thermistor, computer controlled.

**dinnerstick** · 12-27-2012, 02:44 PM

also served braised kale, fondant potato, and a tempura nugget thingy filled with cider gel (agar, apples and cider, cooked, solidified, and cut into cubes), a cube of sous vide wild duck, a cube of sous vide farmed duck and a cube of roasted shallot. the duck was served atop a bit of homemade red cabbage zuurkool (saurkraut for you germen readers!) to balance out the sweet sauce, and it was all very tasty. the final picture doesn't do it justice, that was the last plate of the 14 and was the one i threw together for myself very quickly, and then just remembered the camera. oh well

**dinnerstick** · 12-27-2012, 02:46 PM

forgot to add, rested the duck at least 5 minutes after frying. during frying i was sure to set off every smoke alarm within earshot. luckily the epic amount of wine already guzzled largely kept me from hearing it

**Revvy** · 12-27-2012, 02:48 PM

Looks great dinnerstick.

I didn't post this the other day, but this was my Sosu-Vide Christmas Eve dinner for myself.

Cooked the duck breasts for 2 hours @ 135 in my coffee urn sous-vide with some garlic, thyme, and a couple of orange slices in the pouches. The crisped them up in pan, then glazed them with a cherry wine and spices reductions. Served it over rice with grilled asparagus.