Show us your Sous Vide Cooker!

DamonInPHX · Aug 8, 2013

Revvy said:
...Sansaire Sous Vide Kickstarter...

Nice! I just picked up an Anova Sous Vide unit for $299 + shipping. They're still a fairly new product;mine works great. Holds rock steady at whatever temperature I set it at. Ramp up time is quick, and recovery time from when you put the bag in is fast as well.

I liked dual-purposing the brew rig, but not wanting to leave it unattended (what with the propane flame and all), I went this direction.

DSmith · Aug 11, 2013

I just learned about sous vide and tried with my brewing controller/crock pot/home made thermowell. The first result was REALLY good, pics below. I've got a lot of reading to do.

The Johnson controller is one I use to keep a small insulated closet warm year-round for bottle conditioning with a ceramic bulb heater. It's not used in the summer and cooking this way is a great use for it.

Huaco · Nov 28, 2013

dragging this thread back to life because I just know someone has to be Sous Viding something over this holiday!
Pictures!

betarhoalphadelta · Dec 15, 2013

First sous vide today... Did some tri-tip.

As you can see, my setup heavily leverages my brew equipment...

Did about 134 for 6.5 hours, then seared in a pan with canola oil.

It was amazing. Perfect medium rare edge to edge, nice and moist and perfect.

I would have been happier with the sear with a hot grill (I was at my in-laws) it a torch, but still it was pretty damn tasty!

betarhoalphadelta · Jan 17, 2014

I ordered the Anova circulator last night, thinking I'd have it in time to do a smoked sous vide brisket for Super Bowl.

Unfortunately due to demand after the holidays, they have a 3-week lead time on shipments

Guess I'm going to have to just do a smoked brisket instead.

betarhoalphadelta · Jan 25, 2014

Still waiting on my Anova circulator to ship, but I bought a MAP-Pro gas torch from Lowe's yesterday, so I'm doing another stovetop sous vide ribeye that I'll try to hold at 131 and sear with the torch instead of a superheated griddle.

Pics to come, although I may drop 'em in the weekend cook thread instead...

DSmith · Jan 27, 2014

bwarbiany said:
Still waiting on my Anova circulator to ship, but I bought a MAP-Pro gas torch from Lowe's yesterday, so I'm doing another stovetop sous vide ribeye that I'll try to hold at 131 and sear with the torch instead of a superheated griddle.

Pics to come, although I may drop 'em in the weekend cook thread instead...

A MAP gas torch followed with melted butter is a great way to finish off a sous vide steak. That is straight from the Modernist Cuisine book.

dawgmatic · Jan 28, 2014

Edit; I'd love to dazzle you with pictures but I can't seem to work it out with the version of the app I'm currently using

dawgmatic · Jan 28, 2014

dawgmatic · Jan 28, 2014

Ok, worked that out.
Here's some pics from my friends 5th annual second thanksgiving. Turkey porchetta (recipe thanks to Kenji from serious eats), turkey confit, and Brussels sprouts were done in the sous vide cooker. Sprouts were cooked with sauteed onion garlic an bacon at 180 for 45 min and browned under the broiler, then tossed with the outer leaves that were blanched and reserved for some color contrast. The Confit and the Turchetta were fried following their bath. Though it only made up a small portion of our feast I think its safe to say that the water bath was the star.

dawgmatic · Jan 28, 2014

This is a continuation from the previous page

Huaco · Jan 28, 2014

Yum!
How did you Brown the skins?

summerofgeorge · Jan 30, 2014

Any recommendations for a good Super Bowl sous vide idea? Something that would be more of an appetizer than a full meal. We'll have enough other food as the main course.

dawgmatic · Jan 30, 2014

summerofgeorge said:
Any recommendations for a good Super Bowl sous vide idea? Something that would be more of an appetizer than a full meal. We'll have enough other food as the main course.

One thing I've done several times now for parties is a Chuck roast cooked at 125F for 36-48 hours. Dry it off, season and brown both sides with a hot cast iron. Then slice it really thin. Break the slices into rectangles about 1in by 2 inches and layer in a circle around the edge of a large plate. Pour the juice(add seasoning if you want) all over the meat. Ive served it this way with toothpicks in the middle, crustinis, but my favorite has been to put a salad of mixed greens with a horseradish Aoli, leaving a stack of forks and saucers next to it. The plate doesn't last long near my friends. It dazzles people when they know theyre eating a tough cut at medium rare with texture like tenderloin

dawgmatic · Jan 30, 2014

Huaco said:
Yum!
How did you Brown the skins?

Everything was explained in the first post

Revvy · Jan 31, 2014

Been playing with Modernist Cuisine lately, and put together some sous-vide Turducken rolls using transglutaminase (meat glue.)

Dave Arnold of the French Culinary institute has a great primer on working with transglutaminase.

The first thing I made to test meatglue was medallions of pork loin. I show that in another post.

My friend gave me some tiny duck breasts, I picked up some turkey and chicken breasts to build the roll.

I butterflied the turkey breast and using a salt shaker I sprinkled each piece with the enzyme.

Unfortunately the only pic I got of the duck layer was fuzzy.

I rolled them in plastic wrap and let them sit in the fridge for 24 hours to bond.

After 24 hours the meat rolls had bonded, so now it was time to skin them. Unfortunately the grocery store had pulled all the skin on turkey the day before (this was the week after New Year's) so I had very little skin to put on the rolls. So I decided on the next best thing....

I laid out the bacon, then sprinkled both the bacon and the roll with more meat glue and rolled everything back together.

One of the smaller ones rolled back up.

I did have enough chicken skin to cover one of them. All of those went back in the fridge for another day.

3 hours in a waterbath at IIRC 145 degrees.

Chicken one pulled out of the bath, and unwrapped.

Revvy · Jan 31, 2014

I browned up the chicken skinned one with herbs and a little black truffle butter.

Finished browning

Sliced them up into round medallions.

I took a little chicken stock, the pan drippings from browning the meat, a little knox gelatin, and Xanthan Gum and made a Jus.

You can see the duck in the forkfull.

I do need practice rolling these things to keep the duck centered, but I think by next Thanksgiving I'll have this down pat.

Revvy · Jan 31, 2014

Last weekend I cooked up the small bacon wrapped one. After sous-viding it I heated up my little seldom used "fry daddy" deep fryer with some oil and dropped it in to fry the bacon.

I actually brined this one for 24 hours by injecting it with a needle brine injector.

Served it with sauteed spinach with parmigiano cheese and garlic, and fondant potatoes.

This little guy really wasn't a turducken, it was a turchicken, I didn't have enough little duck breasts for it. It was a test to see how good the meatglue would bond to bacon, and it did with no issues.

Revvy · Jan 31, 2014

I love pork loins to cook with, but you can't really get many medallions out of them. With meatglue you can bond the entire protein together and then slice them into rounds.

I trimmed up the meat and laid them out together.

After sprinkling them with meatglue I wrapped them up. I ended up cutting them it half because a full length piece wouldn't fit in either of my sous vide setups.

Browned them up.

The finished dish. Pork tenderloin medallions with a cheese sauce made with my witbier, horseradish cheddar cheese, swiss cheese, and some sodium citrate to make perfectly melty cheese sauce. The carrots were cook sou vide as well with some orange peel and coriander.

FredTheNuke · Jan 31, 2014

Very interesting project!

passedpawn · Feb 6, 2014

Loved those ideas with the meat glue, Revvy! I'm going to amazon right NOW and finding some of that.

My only criticism... serve a white sauce on a blue plate. That would make the presentation perfect.

Revvy · Feb 7, 2014

I got all my stuff from Modernist Pantry. You can order the meatglue pack separately, it's got the 3 most commonly used types for 35 dollars. Meat Glue Kit

I need to go to a dollar store of something and pick up some different plates, especially some plain white, and maybe some blue. I never thought when I bought my plates all those many years ago, that I would be doing anything fancy and photographing it.

passedpawn · Feb 7, 2014

Revvy said:
I got all my stuff from Modernist Pantry. You can order the meatglue pack separately, it's got the 3 most commonly used types for 35 dollars. Meat Glue Kit

I need to go to a dollar store of something and pick up some different plates, especially some plain white, and maybe some blue. I never thought when I bought my plates all those many years ago, that I would be doing anything fancy and photographing it.

I think I'll just get the RM formula from Amazon. $13 and free shipping. There was only one reveiw for it.... funny

View attachment 2014-02-07_105253.bmp

GotPushrods · Feb 9, 2014

Okay, I'll play. Here is my sous vide cooker. After building this, I'm convinced there is no excuse for any homebrewer NOT to have one. The only thing I bought was a hot plate... and I could have gone simpler than that.

Here's the whole setup

GotPushrods · Feb 9, 2014

I found a couple good options for getting the meat off the bottom of the pot. A canning rack, or a rib rack. The canning rack is good for big chunks of animal, and rib rack is great for several fillets.

The pump is just a cheap 12v CPU cooling pump, fed via a weldless 3/8" mini ball valve.

I've found if you keep the water circulating well, a PID is just not necessary. I can keep the volume within 1.5*C (~ 3*F), which is more than good enough for a cheap counter-top sous vide. The hop plate does have some mass that will carry over when it cuts off, but with this 22 qt pot (with about 16-18 qts of water) it regulates itself surprisingly well.

My wife and I don't own a single chip-clip. We use a LOT of binder clips and tends to carry itself over to other areas. I need to find a better solution so I can fashion a lid. The regular glass lid sits pretty cockeyed and lets a lot of heat out.

My trial run was a few cheap THICK pork steaks. And I'll be darned if it wasn't the best pork steak I've ever head! They were a little overdone, but for trial run #1, I am VERY impressed. I set at 59, which cooks between 58.7 and 60.5. I will try 58 next time with an extra steak and see how that turns out. Oh, and of course, I'll use a blue plate too next time. Something about presentation... right?

betarhoalphadelta · Feb 12, 2014

It's here!

dinnerstick · Feb 13, 2014

A friend has gone into production making these flash new water baths. I am awaiting my prototype, pretty excited. They designed the controller themselves, testing various heat control algorithms, and the overall design is very nice. The lid drips back into the bath, it's easy to clean (they make risotto directly in the bath!), high quality stainless and silicone. Delivery expected pretty soon and i'll post details including how to order one (i suppose for now it's just local delivery...), but meanwhile.... more ribs in the speidel braumeister. only 4 racks this time (55C for 3 days)