Show us your Sous Vide Cooker!

[dawgmatic]

This is a continuation from the previous page

 

[Huaco]

Yum!
How did you Brown the skins?

 

[summerofgeorge]

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]

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]

Yum!
How did you Brown the skins?

Everything was explained in the first post

 

[Revvy]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Very interesting project!

 

[passedpawn]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

It's here!

 

[dinnerstick]

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)

 

[Zinc_Saucier]

My PolyScience immersion circulator

Trying out The Food Lab's porchetta recipe http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/12/...ed-sous-vide-36-hour-all-belly-porchetta.html

Prep


All rolled up


Chilled down post cooking. Look at all that delicious pork jus!


All the jus removed to make the sauce


Post deep-fry to get everything nice and crisp!


So tasty!!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Zinc_Saucier]

And the finished product!




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[dinnerstick]

that looks amazing. there is absolutely nothing in the world now that can stop me from making that within the next two months. thanks for posting it!

 

[jsguitar]

Do any of you have any experience with sous vide lobster tails? (I haven't made it through the whole thread so sorry if I missed it) I'm seeing recommendations for temp. and time all over the place. Some say 118, 120, 130 ect. Seems that most are at about 15 minutes. I don't have any experience with sous vide yet but I'm going to use my electric brewery to do some rib eyes and lobster tails for a special dinner tonight. Thanks!


Edit: Ok, just saw Revy's post on them at 133 for 40 minutes (yum). Still curious about other's experiences.

 

[FredTheNuke]

150 overdoes beef I can tell you that (wife required well done out of fear). next round we will do 132 or so.

 

[jsguitar]

Well, I ended up doing my ribeyes (just 1"ish thick) at 123F for about 2hrs and 45 minutes and did the lobster tails at the same temp. for about 45 minutes in the shells. I seared the steaks for about a minute per side and the lobster tails for maybe a minute and a half per side and it all came out very tender and tasty.

I accidentally started a small fire and smoked out the house from having the pan too hot with a bit of oil in it but at least it tasted good!

 

[Evan_L]

Thank you for this thread! Holy hell this is awesome. I boil with propane so I have no fancy electric equipment to use but the Igloo mash tun worked wonders last night! I preheated with hot tap. Filled with 5G tap and measured 126* so I used beersmith to calculate as a step mash. Input the weight of the steaks (prime ny strips) as the grain weight and added 10 cups of boiling water to get 135*, 45 minutes later they were unbelievable. Used an upside down colander to keep them centered in the tun.

Couple TBS olive oil in a hot ass pan with a few sprigs of rosemary thyme and sage, minute per side to sear. Best steaks ever. Sous-vide loses something compared to the grill but wins it back with perfect temp and evenly throughout!

The best part was leaving them in for a few more minutes (without changing doneness) to let the sweet potatoes finish baking. So easy to time a whole meal. I cant wait for the next time we cook for others, can even start the meal before anyone shows up.

 

[dinnerstick]

Do any of you have any experience with sous vide lobster tails? (I haven't made it through the whole thread so sorry if I missed it) I'm seeing recommendations for temp. and time all over the place. Some say 118, 120, 130 ect.

i haven't done this myself but a friend swears by it. it's for whole lobster, not tails. preheat the water bath to 55c, with low water level and a rack ABOVE the water. plunge the lobster in boiling water for one minute, then place on the rack, cover, leave to 'steam' for one hour.

 

[Temptd2]

Oooo, how fun to find this thread! I am a sous vide fanatic. I cook all kinds of stuff, including goat cheese, in mine!

I use a DorkFoods DSV sous vide controller. I use it in one of three appliances - a 2 quart non-digital crockpot, and 8 quart non-digital roaster oven, and a 22 quart non-digital roaster oven, depending on what size the food item is.

I bought my original DorkFoods controller and had lots of success with it, then DH absconded with it to use as a temp controller on the brew belt for his fermenting chamber.

I bought my second DorkFoods controller and used it for a while before DH absconded with it to use as a controller with a heat mat for his conditioning chamber for bottled beer. Sigh.

So last night I ordered my THIRD DorkFoods controller. Now I'm thinking I'd like to use it to control a seedling heat mat in a picnic cooler to keep my rice wine at a steady temp! LOL!

Man. I think I need one more controller. DorkFoods loves me.

AND I love THEM!

I have done leg of lamb, beef ribs, chicken breasts, steaks, fish, lemon curd, and all kinds of goodness with it. Hard to beat the thing as a great way to cook - throw in your vacuum-sealed (or otherwise appropriately sealed) food, leave it in there til it's been at least the minimum time/temp for the food, then just let it languish in that nice warm water bath til you're ready to eat. Brown it off however you like, in the case of meats, and eat.

I'm going to subscribe to this thread for sure! I'm not clever enough to build my own unit, but I sure like using the ones I've had, til they were put to other usage revolving around BEER. Harumph.

 

[FredTheNuke]

Oooo, how fun to find this thread! I am a sous vide fanatic. I cook all kinds of stuff, including goat cheese, in mine!

I use a DorkFoods DSV sous vide controller. I use it in one of three appliances - a 2 quart non-digital crockpot, and 8 quart non-digital roaster oven, and a 22 quart non-digital roaster oven, depending on what size the food item is.

I bought my original DorkFoods controller and had lots of success with it, then DH absconded with it to use as a temp controller on the brew belt for his fermenting chamber.

I bought my second DorkFoods controller and used it for a while before DH absconded with it to use as a controller with a heat mat for his conditioning chamber for bottled beer. Sigh.

So last night I ordered my THIRD DorkFoods controller. Now I'm thinking I'd like to use it to control a seedling heat mat in a picnic cooler to keep my rice wine at a steady temp! LOL!

Man. I think I need one more controller. DorkFoods loves me.

AND I love THEM!

I have done leg of lamb, beef ribs, chicken breasts, steaks, fish, lemon curd, and all kinds of goodness with it. Hard to beat the thing as a great way to cook - throw in your vacuum-sealed (or otherwise appropriately sealed) food, leave it in there til it's been at least the minimum time/temp for the food, then just let it languish in that nice warm water bath til you're ready to eat. Brown it off however you like, in the case of meats, and eat.

I'm going to subscribe to this thread for sure! I'm not clever enough to build my own unit, but I sure like using the ones I've had, til they were put to other usage revolving around BEER. Harumph.

You can get the same control (actually better) for half the price with a Ranco and a $10 extension cord from Lowe's...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015NV5BE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20




Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Drizzt]

Ok once again I am going to lean on the wonderful people at HBT. I have a 110 volt 3500 watt ebiab system with a pid. I currently do not have a pump however I have one that will be here Tuesday. And the questions are....

Do I need a vacuum sealer and do I need the pump.

What is the best way to sear I have a crappy electric stove will that get hot enough? I also have a smoker charcoal grill and gas grill. I like man toys.

What is a good recipe to start with?




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Rhumbline]

I've been watching this thread for a while, kicking around the idea of experimenting with this method of cooking.

I just did a test, took the largest cast iron pot I've got and filled it with warm water. set it on the stove covered and played around with the settings for a few hours. I found I can easily hold temps as low as 100 steadily.

I've got a NY strip loin dry aging and this will be my test.

Thanks for everyone's input on this, I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Do I need a vacuum sealer and do I need the pump.

No and maybe. Search "ziplock water displacement method" instead of the vacuum sealer. As for a pump, it's generally agreed that some sort of circulation is important for sous vide. However, I think most brewing pumps are very much overkill for the task, and I'm not sure I'd want to leave my March 809 pumps running 24+ hours for long cooks.

However, a cheap submersible pump or aquarium bubbler will do enough. Just look for ones that are rated for the heat.

What is the best way to sear I have a crappy electric stove will that get hot enough? I also have a smoker charcoal grill and gas grill. I like man toys.

If you want a man toy, check this out. Searing it with a blowtorch is always fun

If you don't want to go that route, either the charcoal or the gas grill would work, whichever you can get hotter. You want insane heat for a short time, so my guess would be the charcoal grill with the grate set nearly on top of the coals.

What is a good recipe to start with?

My first was tri-tip, which I think is pretty good as it's a large hunk of meat, not OVERLY expensive, and relatively forgiving. I went ~6.5 hours at 133 degrees. I think a pork tenderloin would also be a good option, especially as you'll want pork up in the 140 degree range, so you'll have an extra safety band if your temp controller isn't properly calibrated.

 

[Drizzt]

Thank you very much I hope to take this information and do a pork loin next week.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

My wife doesn't eat tri-tip because it's "too tough".

18 hours at 133, though, and she says "I'm sold on sous vide, babe."

Score!

 

[Temptd2]

Nice job! Pretty amazing how it tenderizes those tough cuts. Makes beef ribs something succulent and if you crispy them up on the grill or in a hot oven - Mama mia! Even KotC will eat them, when he has always turned his nose up at them before. Now I can serve dinosaur bones and he'll eat them too!

 

[TonyG]

I did the cooler bit this weekend with a steak, and I will definitely be cooking with this method in the future. Things to ponder, my hot water comes out of the bathtub faucet at 167*F, and can I place a temperature controller inline with my electric stove.

 

[Revvy]

Anyone into fiddling with Arduino, there's an instructable today for a setup using a crock pot and arduino controller.

Instructable.

 

[Huaco]

Love Me some instructables!
Thanks Revy

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Finally got the Anova configured into a Cambro with retractable lid... much easier than the 32 qt stock pot.

Two slabs of ribs cooking at 143 for ~44 hours, will be ready for tomorrow night's dinner.

 

[banesong]

So just received an Anova, and raring to try it out. I have a bunch of Top Sirloin steaks - how would you suggest cooking them?

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

So just received an Anova, and raring to try it out. I have a bunch of Top Sirloin steaks - how would you suggest cooking them?

Sirloin can be a bit on the tough side, so I'd go about 131 deg F, and anywhere between 4-8 hours. Then sear on an ultra-hot grill or in a cast iron pan. Should end up beautifully tender.

 

[banesong]

Roger, thanks. Not a weeknight meal then.