[beer gone to cooking] Mash Tun gone Souse Vide ....

[maztec]

I should be shot for asking this, but ...

Has anyone here used their Mash Tun or hot liquor tank as a souse vide?

I was looking at a souse vide recipe and my equipment, and realized using what I already have would be a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a souse vide supreme.

Any thoughts on this crazy nonsense of mine? I have not tried it yet, but cannot see what harm it would do or why it wouldn't work.

That noted, a different question, has anyone tried negative pressure mashing? Any reason that wouldn't work?

Thanks for the input.

 

[avaserfi]

Serious eats did it very successfully.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/...er-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html

 

[keithd]

I was thinking of using my converted Sankey HLT for this very purpose.
Sounds like brisket made easy.

 

[ScottyBones]

wow. awesome suggestion! i hadnt thought of this before, but why not??

thanks for the link Andrew

 

[bendavanza]

Hmm I am going to have to give this a shot. I already have a foodsaver and an electric RIMS.

 

[lustreking]

I've thought about trying it with my eHERMS

 

[mhermetz]

I never heard of this before...

But now I can't get the picture of perfectly cooked steaks, that were slow cooked and sealed in marinade for 2 hours, out of my head.:rockin:

 

[diatonic]

Nice, I wonder how many steaks I can do in my keggle temperature controlled HLT?

 

[IrregularPulse]

New to me, definitely doable. I've got coolers our the wazzoo.

 

[olllllo]

It's always nice to get dual uses out of your equipment.

I use my keggle to boil up dozens of ears of corn at a time.

If you have a kick ass burner, why not get a wok. It's the only way to get the heat you need for outstanding Asian cooking.

Easy way to cook your fish outside.


BTW: How do you think I dupe SWMBO into buying my OXY-Clean for me?

 

[bendavanza]

I have one of those hillbilly woks made from a dished farm implement. I't very useful.

 

[flananuts]

My single tier HERMS would be a perfect sous vide sytem, especially considering the circulation aspect of a true immersion circulator. I say go for it.

 

[bendavanza]

I did filets tonight this way. They were amazing, tender, and perfectly cooked all the way through. I seared them on a cast iron skillet after cooking. I forgot to take after pics.
Thank you maztec for the idea, I had not heard of this before.

 

[Rick500]

Ooh, this is a great idea. Gonna have to try it.

Now to find a salmon recipe...

 

[maztec]

Ooh, this is a great idea. Gonna have to try it.

Now to find a salmon recipe...

Salmon times change based upon thickness.

These websites seem to be the best that I have found on the topic of Salmon:


http://chadzilla.typepad.com/chadzilla/2007/10/brining-salmon-.html

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-cook-using-sous-vide

http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html

http://www.sousvidecooking.org/cook...-sousvidemagic-1500b-of-fresh-meal-solutions/



Note, Salmon MUST be brined, otherwise you get a nasty white layer on the outside.

 

[ajwillys]

Yeah, I've done this before as well. I thought I posted it somewhere on here, it was probably around a year ago. I don't have a HERMS (yet), I use my Ranco Temperature Controller connected to a small heatstick. I use an aquarium air pump to keep the water circulating. The steaks are delicious. I cook them at 130 for a few hours in the bath, then barely touch them to a rocket hot cast iron skillet to brown the outside which raises the temp another few degrees.

EDIT: Just wanted to throw it out there that you want to be really careful on the seasonings that go into the bag. They are way more powerful than they would be normally. Go light the first couple times.

 

[bendavanza]

Finished Steak: NY strip, done to 134˚ as they were not as fresh as the filets but even at that temp they were red, tender and flavorful. I dried them off and seasoned them before searing this time and used a hotter pan. Fantastic.

 

[Sawdustguy]

I was thinking of using my converted Sankey HLT for this very purpose.
Sounds like brisket made easy.

Don't tell me you boil your ribs too. Thats bbq sacriledge.

 

[remilard]

A recirculating mash system does, indeed, make a fine sous vide solution (with much greater capacity than domestic appliances in the $500 range).

You can also sear the steaks with a propane torch. I also use the torch on the outside of a standing rib roast before roasting in the oven (as per Thomas Keller's recipe in Ad Hoc at Home) and that is a fantastic technique as well.

Keller apparently does sous vide brisket at a fairly low temperature (lower than the 190 or so you would BBQ it to) and cooks it for like 30 or more hours and it breaks down all of the connective tissue but the meat is still pink, kinda freaky. Those are the applications of sous vide that intrigue me, things you just can not do any other way.

I can post the temp and time Keller uses for brisket if anyone is interested, just need to look it up.

 

[JacobS]

Just a thought here ummm, mash temp is ~149ish.... You could just throw the vac-sealed meat in and mash away. When the beer is done so is dinner...... (ok you might need longer than a 30min rest but my current sched uses a 113, 129, and 149 rests for a total of 2.5hrs plus sparge time so....)

TWO for One!!!

 

[Dr_Gordon_Freeman]

Thanks for the link guys. I don't have a mash tun, but I do have a foodsaver and I am doing some steaks in a mini cooler as I type. Looking forward to a dinner with some homebrews!

 

[bendavanza]

Just a thought here ummm, mash temp is ~149ish.... You could just throw the vac-sealed meat in and mash away. When the beer is done so is dinner...... (ok you might need longer than a 30min rest but my current sched uses a 113, 129, and 149 rests for a total of 2.5hrs plus sparge time so....)

TWO for One!!!

I've thought about this too, but 149 is 9 degrees above well done for steaks, and 18 degrees above medium rare.
131 is "ideal" med rare but I went to 134-135 with nice red meat.
Most recipes I see for RIbs and brisket are for much longer times. I suppose it would not hurt to do this before BBQ just to accelerate heat penetration and breakdown of tissue.

 

[jfkriege]

I have done this before with my modified brutus 20e system. It works really well.

My favorite is to do perfect soft boiled eggs. You can get a hard white and a perfectly runny yolk and it is outstanding. Fish is also really nice to do sous vide.

I have a friend who will make up a few packs and then use them like quick meals. Throw it in the water when you get home, work until it is done, then eat.

Joshua

 

[DKershner]

This is beyond awesome. I am all over this, thank you for posting all of this information.

 

[Dr_Gordon_Freeman]

This was so damn good. I can't rave enough about sous vide, and I'm glad I stumbled onto it here

 

[maztec]

Well, so much for being shot. Good to hear there are many like minds when it comes to multipurposing brew equipment!

I did some salmon yesterday. Put a little thyme in the bag, half a stick of butter, a pinch of salt, and vacuum sealed it all with my food saver. Then, tossed it into my boil kettle (it is temp controlled, I also use it as my HLT) at 49C for 29 minutes (19mm thick). It came out as some of the best salmon I have ever had. That said, I forgot a step, which I had warned about here earlier (I think), and my salmon came out white due to the albumen. Next time I plan on brining my salmon for 10min, supposedly that will fix the albumen and improve the flavor.

Now, if I could figure out how to brine the salmon in beer!