Brewing Clamper
Well-Known Member
I'm working on mine now and I have (I think) all the parts but I'd love to see what you all have come up with. I know some of you are using HLTs for double duty. So I want to see some pics!!
Show us your Sous Vide Cooker!
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I've been meaning to put together a thread on my ugly junk/ghetto sous-vide cooker, but I've been too busy. So I'll debut it here.
It may look like crap, but it works great, like any true ugly junk should.
Mine's really simple, the cooler I haul beer around in, a pink foam lid, two oldschool immersion water heater coils, an aquarium pump with an airstone, a DIY thermowell (made with a rigid plumbing tube, some tinfoil and aquarium silicone) to hold the temp probe from my ebay temp controller, an extra thermometer, and a piece of broken racking cane to hold the airstone in place.
here's what it looks like under the hood. I made a lid with 2 pieces of 1/2" pink foam glued together with my favorite adhesive Elephant glue.
I was worried that the aeration stone would just float at the top of the water, and I had a broken mini autosphon lying around. I cut a piece off the bottom and used that to hold it rigidly in place.
The part inside the outer tube.
The heater coils, although I always start with hot tap water in the cooler, I have done tests and the two coils are more than enough to take the waterbath from cold water to cooking temps pretty fast, iirc it was about 1/2 hour to go from cold tap to 130F.
The Ebay temp controller I use to run it, which if you've looked at some of my other threads, I've used this version for a lot of things,. This none is perfect for my sous-vide because it has an always on socket, which I plug the aquarium bubbler into.
A close up of how I've finally figured out how to seal my ghetto thermowell. Basically I fill the bottom with 100% silicone for aquariums which is food safe, then seal it with some tinfoil and paint on some more silicone over the tinfoil to seal it.
My thermowells start out as a 2 dollar rigid supply line from Home Depot. I just use a pipe cutter to cut them down, and seal them as mentioned before.
I've been cooking just about everything in it lately, and then browning in my cast iron grill pan.
Had I not wanted to keep using the cooler for beer (which I might get another one for that) I would have just punctured the lid for all my holes. But I also have a ton of 1/2" pink foam lying around from my keezer build, so I just made a lid with that.
The thing is, it appears to hold heat better with the pink stuff, than the original lid. I cooked some pork chops 48 hours ago. And just now when I lifted the lid to photograph it, the water was still warm.
I've just been doing the slowly lower the 1 gallon opened ziplock bag into the water and seal after it forces the air out of the bags method. I don't have a food saver yet but this has worked for me.
Chicken Breasts with lemon and thyme.
Brined 1" pork chops with garlic and rosemary
It may look like crap, but it works great, like any true ugly junk should.
Mine's really simple, the cooler I haul beer around in, a pink foam lid, two oldschool immersion water heater coils, an aquarium pump with an airstone, a DIY thermowell (made with a rigid plumbing tube, some tinfoil and aquarium silicone) to hold the temp probe from my ebay temp controller, an extra thermometer, and a piece of broken racking cane to hold the airstone in place.
here's what it looks like under the hood. I made a lid with 2 pieces of 1/2" pink foam glued together with my favorite adhesive Elephant glue.
I was worried that the aeration stone would just float at the top of the water, and I had a broken mini autosphon lying around. I cut a piece off the bottom and used that to hold it rigidly in place.
The part inside the outer tube.
The heater coils, although I always start with hot tap water in the cooler, I have done tests and the two coils are more than enough to take the waterbath from cold water to cooking temps pretty fast, iirc it was about 1/2 hour to go from cold tap to 130F.
The Ebay temp controller I use to run it, which if you've looked at some of my other threads, I've used this version for a lot of things,. This none is perfect for my sous-vide because it has an always on socket, which I plug the aquarium bubbler into.
A close up of how I've finally figured out how to seal my ghetto thermowell. Basically I fill the bottom with 100% silicone for aquariums which is food safe, then seal it with some tinfoil and paint on some more silicone over the tinfoil to seal it.
My thermowells start out as a 2 dollar rigid supply line from Home Depot. I just use a pipe cutter to cut them down, and seal them as mentioned before.
I've been cooking just about everything in it lately, and then browning in my cast iron grill pan.
Had I not wanted to keep using the cooler for beer (which I might get another one for that) I would have just punctured the lid for all my holes. But I also have a ton of 1/2" pink foam lying around from my keezer build, so I just made a lid with that.
The thing is, it appears to hold heat better with the pink stuff, than the original lid. I cooked some pork chops 48 hours ago. And just now when I lifted the lid to photograph it, the water was still warm.
I've just been doing the slowly lower the 1 gallon opened ziplock bag into the water and seal after it forces the air out of the bags method. I don't have a food saver yet but this has worked for me.
Chicken Breasts with lemon and thyme.
Brined 1" pork chops with garlic and rosemary
No one else?
TyTanium
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Everyone else is still drooling over yours Revvy, haha. Nice job.
Mine is just my mash tun. No modifications whatsoever. Also using the ziploc method, works like a champ.
Here's where I started:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/...er-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html
Mine is just my mash tun. No modifications whatsoever. Also using the ziploc method, works like a champ.
Here's where I started:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/...er-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html
I don't have pics at the moment, but I have 2 sous vide cookers. One is a big slow cooker with my spare Johnson temperature controller, and the other one is a bucket with hot tap water slowly drizzling into it. The latter I use primarily for steaks/roasts as my hot water comes out at 128°F, which for me is perfect.
Airplanedoc
Well-Known Member
I just use my boil kettle, I add about 3" of water over the top of meat, and set the controller.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
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Brewing Clamper
Well-Known Member
How necessary is the bubbler? I know it's to keep the water moving and thus a more consistent to throughout, but is it crucial?
Brewing Clamper said:
Without the water moving I found that there was inconsistent temps even in such a small vessel. I would move the temp probe before it was in the thermowell, or my loose thermometer and the temps would be all over the place. Testing it with the bubbler on and the temp is the same all over.
rhis looks interesting......my HLT is controlleed by a pid, so my cooker is done i guess. i am still mastering the big green egg technique and now you guys throw this at me....
I have not used one yet, but I tested my Ebay temp controller with our crock pot and it worked well. I planned to use either that crock pot or a SS kettle on a hot plate I have out in the garage. I really should give the sous vide thing a try. Soaking chips for a pork shoulder right now, so it might be a few days before I run out of Pulled Pork. Well, I could maybe sneak one test cook in while the pork is cooking. Usually takes about 24 hours or so.
That's the one thing I've yet to attempt, anything long and slow. It's hard living alone to think about cooking anything that big I guess. I end up wasting food as it is.
Hey bro, as I'm posting this I'm in St. Ignace on a hotel deck overlooking Mackinac Island. We're doing a vintage base ball tourney tomorrow on the lawn in front of the Grand Hotel.
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Brewing Clamper
Well-Known Member
As proof of concept I did a prime rib in a large crock pot of water using my fermenter controller (eBay aquarium one) and it was awesome! It was medium rare from end to end, then just browned it under the broiler. Time to finish constructing the bigger one...
TyTanium
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Whoa, please elaborate...you just stick the STC temp probe in the crock pot? How do you keep it sealed?
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Brewing Clamper
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These temp controllers are for aquarium setups. The probe is water tight and since I'm not going to drink the water I don't care about leaching.
That is so cool! I'd love to check out a game some time.
I never have a problem finding people to eat the pulled pork. And a few pounds of shoulder or butt is pretty cheap when it comes right down to it.
During my test I did not seal the probe wire tight, I just let the lid sit on top of it. It was fine.
I never thought about just using ziplocks. My sealer is on the fritz so I put off trying this method, but now I might go ahead and give it a go. Not tonight though. Wife says it's an order in night. There goes the diet...
I was just mentioning kenji on another thread. That guy is crazy smart and his sous vide recipes are flawless. I have done his pork belly process a couple of times and it gets consistently awesome comments. I cold-called serious eats about a job since I hate mine and I work in digital media. They don't have anything available now, but I hope to have created a good contact with the gm.
I was lucky enough to get a sous vide supreme unit for Christmas last year. I think it may have been a preemptive strike to prevent me from trying to hack something together
I was lucky enough to get a sous vide supreme unit for Christmas last year. I think it may have been a preemptive strike to prevent me from trying to hack something together
wolfstar
Well-Known Member
I just started messing around with this.
Did a simple sous vide with boneless skin on chicken thighs seasoned with SPG on the stove top with my brew kettle. I kept the water at 150* and cooked for 2 hours, then used a torch for some flavor. The meat was good enough that I will experiment further, though the skin would have been better grilled or pan seared. A couple of our Wolfdogs made the skin disapear
So I have a couple of these lying around
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040QS6BA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
They range from around $88 up to $125 on Amazon. We got ours at Costco for like $90 6 or 7 years ago for our deli. I am doing a table to see how well they hold temperature and time. I will try to update as I go along. I am willing to bet any used restaraunt supply store or craigslist will have a couple of these or something similar lying about for cheep. Restaraunt steam tables would probably work to. We had a couple of those and got rid of them
Did a simple sous vide with boneless skin on chicken thighs seasoned with SPG on the stove top with my brew kettle. I kept the water at 150* and cooked for 2 hours, then used a torch for some flavor. The meat was good enough that I will experiment further, though the skin would have been better grilled or pan seared. A couple of our Wolfdogs made the skin disapear
So I have a couple of these lying around
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040QS6BA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
They range from around $88 up to $125 on Amazon. We got ours at Costco for like $90 6 or 7 years ago for our deli. I am doing a table to see how well they hold temperature and time. I will try to update as I go along. I am willing to bet any used restaraunt supply store or craigslist will have a couple of these or something similar lying about for cheep. Restaraunt steam tables would probably work to. We had a couple of those and got rid of them
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certaut
Well-Known Member
out of the ashes,,,,
runningweird
Well-Known Member
I use my eherms system - did these ribs today:
I did the ribs sous vide, the chicken and jalepeno poppers were not sous vide - but still delicious.
I did the ribs sous vide, the chicken and jalepeno poppers were not sous vide - but still delicious.
I cooked Ostrich in mine today....
I had Ostrich in PA one time at a fancy wild game restaurant. It was very tasty.
I HAVE to remember to set up my cooker and give this a try soon. But my controller is keeping my homemade soda cold.
Eh, I think I can let the soda warm up for a few hours one time!
I HAVE to remember to set up my cooker and give this a try soon. But my controller is keeping my homemade soda cold.
Eh, I think I can let the soda warm up for a few hours one time!
That's why I bought a couple more temp controllers from ebay, they're so damn handy for stuff.
Thanks buddy, I usually use the search bar but I was feeling lazy yesterday.
You sir are a gentleman and a scholar
Ryan
dinnerstick
Well-Known Member
have been meaning to do it for a while, finally got around to it, my sous vide cooker is just my speidel braumeister herms kettle with all the middle parts taken out. this was my first attempt, and i don't have a vacuum sealer, and i don't have normal size ziplock bags, so i used a giant one and sandwiched it between the two perforated plates that normally hold the malt. they kept the bag submerged, away from the heating coil, and allowed the recirculation pump to do its thing. so i got 2 little wild boar loins, into the bag with garlic, rosemary and black pepper, and cooked them at 60c for 1.5 hours. then browned very quickly in smoking hot butter. made a sauce of reduced red wine and turkey stock from whenever the hell the last time was i cooked a turkey, found it in the freezer. served over homemade red cabbage and carrot sauerkraut, with an updated version of the ever-dull dutch classic 'stamppot', where you boil and mash up tasteless vegetables and don't season it, so it sticks in your throat. mine is celeriac, potato, kale, fried leek, mustard seed, cream, butter, salt and pepper. and a pear stewed in white wine with star anise and black peppercorns. it was flipping good!!! real good. could have cooked the boar even less but decided to err on the side of safety. came out super tender. my vegetarian girlfriend ate quite a bit more of it than i expected a vegetarian to eat. and yes, the plate is kitch. said girlfriend has the whole frigging set, mugs, bowls, you name it
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