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I built one of these a couple days ago using an STC-1000 and my crock pot.

All finished up. I didn't see the need to pay 8 bucks for a box from HD. I just used a gladware tub I had on hand.



Maiden Voyage was a NY Strip at 140 for 90 minutes.



After 90, I took it out of the bag and patted it dry and seared it in a really hot skillet for 15 seconds on each side for some Maillard love.



Your plate. Mashed potatoes with parmesan, sour cream, butter and garlic to round it out. Steak was perfect from edge to edge.



The perfect morsel



So this was by far the best steak I've ever had. I have to admit I'm not even really a big steak guy but this was incredible. I've had some 40 and 50 dollar plates at steak houses and I have to say this one blew them all away. This $6 on-sale Strip could be 50 or up in a steak house with some trimmings. It was unreal. I didn't touch those potatoes until the meat was gone. Anyone who is reading this and loves perfectly cooked food and DOESN'T have a ghetto sous vide machine, do yourself a favor and put one together.

STC-1000 controller..... 18 on Amazon
6 foot three prong extension cord.....8 bucks
3 wire nuts... maybe 25 cents
crock pot..... most people already have one but a new one is less than 20 bucks

If you already have a crock pot, you can be in the perfectly cooked protein business for about 30 bucks.

What are you waiting for?!?!?!?!? Call now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
My only concern is submerging the temp probe directly in the water. No one is really sure who waterproof the coating is around it and I noticed after the one time I did it years ago some "pitting" on the plastic coating. If you look at this pic of my old cooler setup you can see there's a metal tube hanging down with some tinfoil on it, that is the housing for the temp probe, it's a piece of rigid pluming line the kind with the flared top, sealed on the bottom with tinfoil and silicone caulking (sugru hacking putty would work great for that now, since it's heat resistant.) This keeps the probe protected and submerged straight into the bath. I have a pink insulating foam lid that fits both the coffee urn and the crock pot, and I can slide the tube up or down to depending on the depth of the bath container.

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My RIMS system which doubles as a 52 qt sous vide cooker - made one of the best steaks ever last weekend!

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From what I have read elsewhere, the biggest issue with homemade sous vide setup is the lack of circulation, which some will tell you is essential. Otherwise you could do it in a big crock pot. The RIMS idea sounds good, but might the circulation be a bit too rambunctious?
 
From what I have read elsewhere, the biggest issue with homemade sous vide setup is the lack of circulation, which some will tell you is essential.

although undoubtedly true for some setups, apparently this is not necessarily the case. it depends on the dynamics of the vessel; size and shape, where the element is, how the element is controlled. the guys who designed my bath did tests with and without circulation, and for the configuration they chose (small, relatively deep, with a super finely controlled PID, and large elements on the sides and bottom) circulation made no difference. i don't know what this would mean for a crockpot-type rig, but it would be easy enough to test!
 
From what I have read elsewhere, the biggest issue with homemade sous vide setup is the lack of circulation, which some will tell you is essential. Otherwise you could do it in a big crock pot. The RIMS idea sounds good, but might the circulation be a bit too rambunctious?

Sure my RIMS system was overkill, but it was already built. I did limit the flow through the recirc pump with a partially closed output valve.
 
I use a crock pot and I don't circulate and I've found if you set the target about 2 or 3 degrees below what you are actually shooting for it comes out great. The idea is that without circulation the temp will overshoot your mark by a degree or so when it cycles on and off. I set mine for 137 for steaks and they are perfect every time. (or at least my opinion of perfect)

ETA: I set the probe just above the bags of meat.
 
but the overshoot also depends on the element strength relative to the volume of water, the location of the element, and the algorithm of the controller. some well programmed controllers anticipate the over/undershoot better than others, and can quickly achieve a relatively flat line around the target temp rather than swinging above and below. i'm over my head here on the details but can have a chat with someone who actually designs them, and try to remember the salient points...?
 
here's my new toy. designed and assembled by friends of mine in utrecht. this is from their first production run, it's the ribmeister. and lives very close to my speidel braumeister. named for the fact that they make 3-day fall apart ribs a lot. nice design, accurate to around 0.1-0.2 deg C, from ambient to 85. very handsome, nice inset lid that has a rubber gasket and condensation drips easily back in. removable rack, steamer tray, and also a 'toast rack' thingy that turned sideways will hold several flat bags submerged. here i'm doing lamb chops at 54 (actually 53.9?) for 1.5 hours, forgot the 'after' pics as i was hungry, and not sure why the raw pic is last, finished fried in very hot oil to render the fat a little and burn the hell out of my forearms, and topped with a rosemary garlic crumb.

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Wasnt it Revvy who mentioned using an aquarium air pump submerged in the bath to perform some simple displacement recirculation?
 
Now the true sous vide geeks would tell you that you should have cooked it for 90 HOURS at 140, bit 90 minutes. :ban:
I built one of these a couple days ago using an STC-1000 and my crock pot.

All finished up. I didn't see the need to pay 8 bucks for a box from HD. I just used a gladware tub I had on hand.



Maiden Voyage was a NY Strip at 140 for 90 minutes.



After 90, I took it out of the bag and patted it dry and seared it in a really hot skillet for 15 seconds on each side for some Maillard love.



Your plate. Mashed potatoes with parmesan, sour cream, butter and garlic to round it out. Steak was perfect from edge to edge.



The perfect morsel



So this was by far the best steak I've ever had. I have to admit I'm not even really a big steak guy but this was incredible. I've had some 40 and 50 dollar plates at steak houses and I have to say this one blew them all away. This $6 on-sale Strip could be 50 or up in a steak house with some trimmings. It was unreal. I didn't touch those potatoes until the meat was gone. Anyone who is reading this and loves perfectly cooked food and DOESN'T have a ghetto sous vide machine, do yourself a favor and put one together.

STC-1000 controller..... 18 on Amazon
6 foot three prong extension cord.....8 bucks
3 wire nuts... maybe 25 cents
crock pot..... most people already have one but a new one is less than 20 bucks

If you already have a crock pot, you can be in the perfectly cooked protein business for about 30 bucks.

What are you waiting for?!?!?!?!? Call now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I'm working on sous vide carnitas. First attempt was a bit rushed, i only had 1 day. Small batch, about 500g pork shoulder, chopped into a few chunks, rubbed with a little bit of orange zest, tiny bit of clove, coriander powder, and mexican oregano. To simulate the confit style cooking i made a smack pack of some corn oil, maybe 30 ml. About 30 hours @ 65c, then patted dry. One at a time, dropped into a pot of very hot oil, then held with a slotted spoon above the oil while i ladled the hot oil over the chunks for maybe 20 seconds to crisp up the outside. The result was very tasty (served simply with fresh onion and coriander/cilantro and fresh tortillas) but could have been more tender and fall-aparty.
Second attempt is in the water now. One large 1kg chunk of shoulder with a bit of the bone, same spice rub, oil smack pack. 55c for 3 days. This picture is 24 hours in. When it's done i'm thinking to break it up into a few pieces for more surface area and then fry quickly. Dunno yet. I need to remember to take pics when they're done! If anyone else has tried SV carnitas please post comments!

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Carnitas update. 1kg pork shoulder, with the rub described in the previous post. 3 days at 55c.
first of all, they didn't really come out like any carnitas i've ever had. they were so soft, moist, tender in the middle, rather than the slightly chewy (in a good way) texture that carnitas often have where the meat is pulled apart and the large amount of surface area cooks in the oil. so these were something else altogether. the whole shoulder chunk came out cooked perfectly pink through, with the connective tissue turned to smooth gelatinous glyeriney goodness. i cut it into quarters, next time i think i'll pull it into rough chunks for more surface area. also the rub smelled pretty weird after 3 days, the orange zest and the oregano maybe reacted with something to produce some odd aromatics. so i deem those unnecessary for the next trial, not sure they really add anything. in the 1-day sous vide maybe, but not 3 days. i patted the chunks dry, and put them in the very hot oil on a slotted spoon, turning them and spooning oil over them for a minute or so. could have fried for longer, the insides were not affected much by this quick cooking, and the outsides really got flavorful. so next time: pulling into smaller pieces, and more frying. could go a couple degrees higher in the water bath, but i don't think i will.
these were served with a big stack of freshly made tortillas, home grown fermented chili hot sauce, home pickled jalapeños and carrots, pico de gallo, black beans with epazote, a mole made from pasilla and mulatto chiles. couldn't get tomatillos so a pickled green tomato relish, guacamole. paired with lots of schlenkerla märzen rauchbier.

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I'm working on sous vide carnitas. First attempt was a bit rushed, i only had 1 day. Small batch, about 500g pork shoulder, chopped into a few chunks, rubbed with a little bit of orange zest, tiny bit of clove, coriander powder, and mexican oregano. ......

Man, that sounds nice. Next time throw a little ground coffee in there. I use it, in addition to a lot of the things you mentioned, on fajita meat like flap and skirt steak. Adds a sort of charred flavor.

You're friends machine is pretty cool looking. Lot of thought and design sense went into that. I'm jealous. :D
 
Did my fist Sous Vide this weekend! It was kind of a success and kind of a fail. I bought a cheaper steak for the kids, can't recall the kind, but ~1/2" thick. You know the meat, usually the cheapest kind. Then a porterhouse, about 2" thick, to split with the wife. Only had just under an 2 hours to cook in my crockpot/ranco controller setup. Checking the temps, I never noticed temperature stratification. So not sure if a pump is necessary.

The kids cheap thin steaks were nice and soft, and the rosemary/garlic flavors were well infused. But I kind of messed up our steak by over grilling it. I was too focused on the sear, and probably had it on for a good 5 minutes each side. That made it over done and a little dried out. Also, 2 hours isn't enought for a 2" steak, I admit.

For grilling, I need to find the balance. My wife doesn't like the medium rare meat, so I have to keep a closer eye next time.

I would also like to try putting meat in my electric smoker for a while, say an hour, then sous vide, then grilling. Granted this is a little complex and best for Sunday meals.

Cool thread. Love to see everyones setups and the recipe ideas.
 
Also, while the ranco/crockpot combo worked fine, it was a little cumbersome.

The commercial Sous Vide heat sticks have an element and pump in one unit, which in turn is attached to any size container.

Wonder if the element shown below (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VK0DRY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) could be put into a stainless "cage" with pump, then wired to a ranco or pid. That would provide a lot more container options.

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Also, while the ranco/crockpot combo worked fine, it was a little cumbersome.

The commercial Sous Vide heat sticks have an element and pump in one unit, which in turn is attached to any size container.

Wonder if the element shown below (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VK0DRY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) could be put into a stainless "cage" with pump, then wired to a ranco or pid. That would provide a lot more container options.

Yes, absolutely. I did a sous vide with ranco, two of those, my march pump, and a thermowell.

Worked great, but I bought a sous vide circulator for ease of use. Pulling the brew equipment out to do sous vide is a bit of a hassle.
 
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Which one did you get again? Is it worth it?

I chose the original Anova. Now called the "Anova One". It was definitely worth it.

I chose Anova because it was the same price as the Sansaire and cheaper than the Nomiku, but came from a respected company. Anova is much like Polyscience in that they have existing manufacturing businesses for lab equipment, so I had a higher degree of trust than the Sansaire kickstarter project.

Polyscience was just too expensive because they were targeting the professional chef market, not the home cook, and the Sous Vide Supreme was too small and didn't have any circulation, so I chose to avoid it.

Anova now has the "Precision Cooker" at the $179 price point and with smartphone controls. If all you have is short cooking pots, it would make sense. Somehow as a homebrewer I doubt that. Otherwise, it looks like it's 200W less powerful and has much lower circulation/heating capacity than the Anova One, so I'd buy the Anova One.

(For me, I'd consider *now* buying the Precision Cooker as a second sous vide in case I needed to cook other dishes, though.)
 
Also willing to provide diagram on controller if desired. Whole thing can be unplugged from element, thermo well, and pump and can be used in a ferm chamber etc.
 
Essentially yes, a rims. Also, that's a gorgeous shoulder. I love chef steps. What I think would be of most interest is the box layout. You have direct control of heating output so you can make sure pump is always running.

EDIT, because i'm excited, and had a bottle of Rombauer before dinner.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/sous-vide-beef-with-honey-spices.html

planning this little guy as soon as my steaks come out of the cooler. Followed the pork recipe and almost made me want to jump in the car. This will be a good "burn in" period for the setup.
 
chef steps is a great site. i made their turkey leg roulade for thanksgiving, and found the instructions for preparing the crown to be extremely useful.
 
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