Has anyone tried sous vide cooking at home? What setup did you use? How were the results? I was thinking of using my regular vacum sealer and just try my slow cooker, without a temperature controller added.
sous vide cooking?
- Thread starter molsonG
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Its possible. Did it once for lamb cutlets. The slow cooker really gets to hot as even on low it will boil, atleast mine does. I did mine in a large pot, got up to temp and let it rest, every hour or so I would go and turn the heat back on for a few minutes. Next time I am just going to grab the thermostat controller off my kegerator an plug my stove into that.
Make sure you season light as all the seasoning has nowhere to go and gets very potent. If you have never done this before you totally wont expect the taste, its....different.
Make sure you season light as all the seasoning has nowhere to go and gets very potent. If you have never done this before you totally wont expect the taste, its....different.
dataz722
Well-Known Member
I am planning on building one with a small cooler, PID, and a small heating element.
Sean
Well-Known Member
I have done it a few times, stovetop. I think duck breast was my favorite. Perfect medium rare from edge to edge. Very tender and flavorful.
Sous Vide offers a perfect environment for botulism, be sure to read up.
Sous Vide offers a perfect environment for botulism, be sure to read up.
So do you really not get any plastic flavor after hours at low temps?
dataz722
Well-Known Member
So what's needed in doing DIY sous vide? I've been fascinated by it, but never really thought it could easily be done in the home.
Been putting it off forever. I need the food saver. Anyone doing electric brewing with a PID has everything they need. Thanks for the prompt, gonna pull the trigger right now...
dataz722
Well-Known Member
Could be something as simple as just a cooler and hot water or a dedicated vessel, heater, temp controller, and some sort of small pump to circulate the water.
Edit- and a foodsaver or something similar.
remilard
Well-Known Member
Yeah, a lot of us have 15 gallon or so sous vide setups.
Haven't done it yet but brisket is supposed to be fantastic sous vide. The Thomas Keller book has a recipe, I think.
So what temps is the bath supposed to be at? There's a lot of room in those big cooler mash tun...If 158 is a could temp for cooking and mashing, couldn't we kill two birds with one stone and mash and cook at the same time. 
nutty_gnome
Well-Known Member
I like the way you think!
dataz722
Well-Known Member
So what temps is the bath supposed to be at? There's a lot of room in those big cooler mash tun...If 158 is a could temp for cooking and mashing, couldn't we kill two birds with one stone and mash and cook at the same time.
Depends on what you want. If you are going to be eating it straight out of the bag then whatever you want the internal temp to be. If you are going to sear after then about 5-10 degrees below what you want the internal to be.
Remember when cooking on the engine was all the rage, I think in the 70s?
I think we've found the next big thing (at least for all grain brewers) since the pet rock.
(I dare someone to do this....)
I think we've found the next big thing (at least for all grain brewers) since the pet rock.
(I dare someone to do this....)
dataz722
Well-Known Member
I really doubt it would work well at all. It wouldn't get enough circulation around it in a mash. Would be awesome if you could pull it off though.
remilard
Well-Known Member
So what temps is the bath supposed to be at? There's a lot of room in those big cooler mash tun...If 158 is a could temp for cooking and mashing, couldn't we kill two birds with one stone and mash and cook at the same time.
Even 150 is far too high for most things.
You can (and many people do) do smaller pieces of meat that will finish in a shorter amount of time in a cooler with water. Smaller meaning a steak cut from tenderloin, but not the whole tenderloin which would take many hours.
Thomas Keller's Sous Vide has a table with temps and times for a lot of stuff. You can probably nab the book for $30 or so these days and it has beautiful pictures and is a great coffee table type book. Alternately your local library system probably has one and you could just find the table and copy it.
thataintchicken
Well-Known Member
I've been playing with adapting my family recipes to integrate sous-vide.
So far I'm having good luck just using an $30 dollar enameled dutch oven, instant read thermometer and a thermal kettle. I've used a $400 machine that I borrowed from a friend, it was cool but I cannot justify the price tag when I have the stuff to do it already.
So far I'm having good luck just using an $30 dollar enameled dutch oven, instant read thermometer and a thermal kettle. I've used a $400 machine that I borrowed from a friend, it was cool but I cannot justify the price tag when I have the stuff to do it already.
markcurling
Well-Known Member
Yeah I do this, using my slow cooker plus a PID chip and a tiny aquarium pump to circulate the water (both bought extremely cheaply from China/Japan!). I don't have a vacuum pump but I get away with sealable freezer bags, which I can squeeze most of the air out of by submersing in water up to the level of the seal in the sink before sealing.
Results are mixed, some foods don't benefit much, some dishes come out absolutely phenomenal! It's fantastic for experimenting if you're interested in food/cooking/science/DIY, which pretty much sums up the average person on this forum!
Results are mixed, some foods don't benefit much, some dishes come out absolutely phenomenal! It's fantastic for experimenting if you're interested in food/cooking/science/DIY, which pretty much sums up the average person on this forum!
markcurling
Well-Known Member
I can't find the link I normally use, but this book is a great source of information:
http://www.saberdosabor.com.br/sous-vide.pdf
http://www.saberdosabor.com.br/sous-vide.pdf
I swear that I read of someone (pretty sure it was Walker-san) who used their e-brewing system for some sous vide cooking, successfully. If you can keep your HLT within a degree or two of a specific target temp in that 145° - 155° range, isn't that *exactly* what you need in a sous vide cookier? Every time I see someone do that on Top Chef, I'm thinking that there are hundreds of guys around here would could build a kick-ass system.
Cripes, a lot of folks already have the vacuum sealers for their hops, too!
Cripes, a lot of folks already have the vacuum sealers for their hops, too!
markcurling
Well-Known Member
On TV I saw Heston wire up an entire hot tub to a heater/PID and sous vide cook an entire pig! Awesome!
how does steak come out? i heard it only needs about an hour in 135F water.
what are other dishes that really come out phemomenal?
Just did some ribs, will let you know how they turn out. They were in my eKeggle at 170F for 14 hours.
There is a sous vide forum here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/forum/3-cooking/ with a good index, and many recommendations for time/temp.
PID controlled mash tun's are basically the same thing as a sous vide cooker.
Make sure to read the issues with time/temp regarding bacterial safety. The cooking part is really easy, but there are some serious safety issues to worry about.
There is a sous vide forum here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/forum/3-cooking/ with a good index, and many recommendations for time/temp.
PID controlled mash tun's are basically the same thing as a sous vide cooker.
Make sure to read the issues with time/temp regarding bacterial safety. The cooking part is really easy, but there are some serious safety issues to worry about.
bovineblitz
Well-Known Member
I just rigged up a sous-vide setup using a slow cooker and I would like to get the water moving in there. One idea I had was to take a computer fan, put rubber feet on it and center it over the vent hole, and attach some sort of dowel that would extend into the water and stir. I would prefer it to be plastic or wood so as not to damage anything, and for getting it in and out it would also have to be removeable from the computer fan.
I've been racking my brain for a couple days and can't really think of materials that would work for that. Any ideas?
I've been racking my brain for a couple days and can't really think of materials that would work for that. Any ideas?
I'm a vegetarian, so I'm not interested in this particular recipe, but this link for cooking salmon sous-vide at home (no temp regulation required) made the rounds a month or two ago: http://www.chow.com/food-news/86045/how-to-cook-salmon-sous-vide-in-your-kitchen-sink/
The sauce is a lot harder than the cooking method for this case.
Disclaimer: you probably want to have some really fresh and clean salmon if you're doing this, since 50 degrees celcius for 15 minutes won't kill anything.
Put a weight on one fan blade and then place it and the slow cooker on a baking sheet set on a piece of foam rubber. The imbalance will vibrate everything enough to circulate the water without contact.
markcurling
Well-Known Member
I use one of these with the filter removed:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fish-Tank...eatures_UK&hash=item588fa745fb#ht_3149wt_1061
Works a treat up to 70C
Take the water up to 100C and you're into trouble though...I accidentally dropped it into my boiler where it stayed for an hour, got a bit warped so I'm on to my second one now!
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