sous vide

[lschiavo]

I forgot about " advanced" reply on iPhone app.

Here are 4 slabs and tips prior to going for a dip.

Hey, I have almost that same table! Without all the sexy meat all over it though

I was just showing my 6-yo son these pics and he's onboard (he's a serious steak connoisseur).

 

[blakelyc]

We are a serious foodie household and we do sous vide cooking all the time, but not in a brewing system. It makes a killer technique addition to one's BBQ repertoire.

I would very much encourage everyone who wants to try it to please, please get a book or read some articles on issues of temperature and timing. A lot of sous vide is done in the sub-140 degree "danger zone" and can expose you to food safety issues if you don't pay attention to issues of timing and pasteurization. It isn't just about temperature..... Serious eats has some good info, and this is a great reference: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

Done properly it is brilliant, and something that makes dinner parties a breeze.

 

[ChickenArise]

I've also been cooking sous vide, probably for about as long as I've been brewing (so relative novice at both). I have a Sous Vide Demi thing that I got a good deal on when they first went on sale, and I've actually been recently looking at it with an eye toward brewing. It's pretty small, so I don't think I could even steep grains in it, but I'm thinking about experimenting with some hop teas, maybe doing a bunch of bags with varying gravity, temperature, steeping time, and cooling time.

 

[shuckit]

Bob expressed concerns about cooking in plastic

That's a concern of mine as well. I did some google searches and found lots of people using a range of plastic bags for sous vide.

I have foodsaver vacuum bags so I looked at the manufacturer's website. If you click on the BPA Free Seal, it states:

Our FoodSaver® and Seal-a-Meal® branded products are intended for ‘reusable food storage’ and we have confirmed that our bags, rolls and canisters do NOT contain Polycarbonates (PC) or vinyl and therefore, do not contain BPA or Phthalates. Additionally, the FoodSaver® and Seal-a-Meal® vacuum sealing machines contain no Polycarbonates (PC) or vinyl that comes in direct contact with food or beverages.

Currently, Polycarbonates (PC) continue to be recognized as safe for food contact applications by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). JCS purchases Polycarbonates (PC) from trusted suppliers, who monitor to ensure what they sell complies with all current federal, state and local health and safety regulations.

Under the FAQ it states what the vacuum bag is made of: They are made of polyethylene (a type of plastic) with an outer layer of nylon for added strength and rigidity.

Polyethylene is what #2 HDPE and #4 LDPE plastic containers are made of. I assume the foodsaver bags are LDPE. From wikipedia (un-cited source): It [LDPE] can withstand temperatures of 80 °C continuously and 95 °C for a short time.

I also found specs from a supplier of LDPE lab equipement:

Maximum Temperature: 176°F 80°C
Minimum Temperature: -58°F -50°C
Autoclavable: No
Melting Point: 248°F 120°C


While it looks safe if you use food quality LDPE bags, it's still cooking in plastic.

 

[ChickenArise]

*Note that the egg sous vide (aka 'perfect egg' if you are into that sort of thing) doesn't require plastic

 

[shuckit]

*Note that the egg sous vide (aka 'perfect egg' if you are into that sort of thing) doesn't require plastic

Duly noted.

When I make homemade ramen I like to do '60' minute eggs and they are a pain to do on the stovetop. Now it's set the temp and walk away.

 

[kpr121]

Thats it, next weekend I am filling my HLT up the morning before brew day, and cooking something in it that will be ready for the grill during the brew session 24-36 hours later. No idea what that something is going to be (maybe steak, maybe ribs, maybe just chicken) but I am doing it! And I will be close to strike temps already too!

 

[aubiecat]

If you are going to do ribs throw them on about 12+ hours before hand. Steaks and chicken can be done easily on the same day.
Everything I have sous vide so far including steak, chicken, talapia, salmon and ribs have been succulent. I am going to do a pork tenderloin with garlic, salt and pepper, with bacon grease tomorrow night.

 

[keithd]

Here's my Coleman Xtreme 5-day 36 qt sous vide machine:

The front:

The inside showing the aquarium pump and Loc-Line hose:

And the back:

The heating element is much like a RIMS system.

I call it "The Viddilator" (sous vide, vittles, eh).

The controller was sourced from Lower East Kitchen. It was originally intended to control a coffee urn for sous vide, but I hacked it to control an Auber SSR as the stock one wasn't stout enough. If I had to do it again, I think I might just use a Auber PID - I *really* wanted the knob to adjust temps, but it costs $80 now (I bought the v1.0 for $65). The PID is more fiddly, and a child could set this controller - look at the temp, move the knob to adjust - no buttons or anything to mess with.

I have cooked briskets in this from 24-48 hours - usually around 36 hours. Start at 9pm Thursday, pull it out a 9am Saturday. Start at 155, ramp it up to 174 Friday morning. The brisket is so tender it cannot hold itself together - I have to be careful to not tear it apart while putting it into the smoker for 6-8 hours. Doing it this way I get quite a few quarts of au jus when I cut the bag open before smoking.

All this because I was afraid of the bags touching the element in my e-HLT.

 

[kpr121]

If you are going to do ribs throw them on about 12+ hours before hand. Steaks and chicken can be done easily on the same day.
Everything I have sous vide so far including steak, chicken, talapia, salmon and ribs have been succulent. I am going to do a pork tenderloin with garlic, salt and pepper, with bacon grease tomorrow night.

Ribs it is then!

That will go perfect with the rest of the pre-brewday tasks the night before:
-Milling Grain
-Filling up HLT
-Weighing out hops
-Drinking some homebrews, of course!

and now:
-Vac-sealing a couple lbs of short ribs, lightly dry rubbed, and
-firing up the HLT to about 135.


I've read differing opinions on whether you need to recirculate or not. I wouldnt mind doing it but I am a little leary about leaving my chugger pump on all night. Any issues with that?

 

[passedpawn]

I've read differing opinions on whether you need to recirculate or not. I wouldnt mind doing it but I am a little leary about leaving my chugger pump on all night. Any issues with that?

I let my march pump go overnight when using my HLT for sous vide. No problem.

 

[pickles]

I let my March pump run all night also. I did ribs a few weeks ago. I cooked mine at 145F for 22hrs then cooked in 350F grill for 1hr. They were a bit overdone. Next time I'll do the same sous vide temp but grill direct over hot coals for 5-10 minutes to get a nice crust from the BBQ sauce.

 

[passedpawn]

I let my March pump run all night also. I did ribs a few weeks ago. I cooked mine at 145F for 22hrs then cooked in 350F grill for 1hr. They were a bit overdone. Next time I'll do the same sous vide temp but grill direct over hot coals for 5-10 minutes to get a nice crust from the BBQ sauce.

I ruined a giant piece of meat the same way. My intent was to just sear the outside, but in my zeal I left it on the grill too long and it got tough quickly. I know it was very tender going onto the grill.

I think the issue is that the fat is rendered out of the meat during the overnight sous vide.

 

[aubiecat]

I ran my March pump for about 20 hours straight for sous vide ribs and then brewed the same day. No signs of ill effects.
BTW I put them on the grill for about 10 minutes and they were great.

Sous Vide pork loin coming up tonight.

 

[skipper1953]

Thats it, next weekend I am filling my HLT up the morning before brew day, and cooking something in it that will be ready for the grill during the brew session 24-36 hours later. No idea what that something is going to be (maybe steak, maybe ribs, maybe just chicken) but I am doing it! And I will be close to strike temps already too!

Probably not.
I did a pork loin a week ago. My garage smelled wonderful. The water would have had to have picked up plenty of the flavor. I would only have used the water for brewing if I was planning to brew a Pork Porter or maybe a Bar B Que Bock.

 

[pickles]

It's interesting how the smell gets out of the bag yet it's still under vacuum. I'm not sure how it does it but I've witnessed it.

Today I'm doing some hanger steaks for sandwiches; 125F for about 90 min. It comes out so tender, juicy and rare!!

 

[aubiecat]

There is usually a bit of residual moisture/seasoning on the outside of the second seal due to the vacuum pulling all the air out of the bag.

 

[kpr121]

Probably not.
I did a pork loin a week ago. My garage smelled wonderful. The water would have had to have picked up plenty of the flavor. I would only have used the water for brewing if I was planning to brew a Pork Porter or maybe a Bar B Que Bock.

Pork Shoulder Porter anyone?!

Hmm.. I guess I gotta rethink my idea then. I guess I can cook after brewing, and use the hot water as rinse for the rest of the vessels.

 

[chuckjaxfl]

I just ate some lamb. Two days at 135 to test a new arduino project. I bought one of those pre-marinated butterflied pieces, and never even took it out of the commercial package. Straight from the grocery bag into to water.

I'm trying to attach a picture, but I'm not too familiar with this phone app.

 

[JRems]

Looks good, but that lamb would be much better with a little bit of spices vacuumed into the bag with the meat.

 

[kgalle]

I ruined a giant piece of meat the same way. My intent was to just sear the outside, but in my zeal I left it on the grill too long and it got tough quickly. I know it was very tender going onto the grill.

I think the issue is that the fat is rendered out of the meat during the overnight sous vide.

Some folks use a torch to caramelize.

 

[chuckjaxfl]

Looks good, but that lamb would be much better with a little bit of spices vacuumed into the bag with the meat.

It was marinated when I bought it.

 

[kshuler]

This is a great thread. Sous vide is such a fantastic way of cooking. I started doing this after a brew day. I had just cleaned the vessel (I do single vessel BIAB) and was recirculating hot water to rinse out the PBW, and thought "why not?" Tossed some steaks in. Since then I have done this many many times. The only problem I had was that when I wanted to cook this way, I ended up having to haul out my rims tube, controller, and huge mash tun. It was a pain to set up. So I built a self contained version. Anybody that can build an electric setup can build a self contained sous vide setup. If you put a filter on the intake, you also have a portable RIMS tube.

Here is what it looks like:

The second PID that is turned off is for an internal probe that can stick in whatever you are cooking.

And hamburgers, as someone asked, are GREAT this way. You need to have to watch out not to compress the burger too much, but you can make nice, thick burgers that are extremely juicy.

Klaus

 

[HellBentBrewCo]

Do you have any more details on how this is built? What's it made out of?

 

[ChickenArise]

I did ribs 24hr @ 155F in some home-made BBQ sauce then finished in the broiler for about 10min on each side. I'd go longer in the broiler next time for better crust, or maybe just finally pick up a kitchen torch.

 

[aubiecat]

kshular, come on man, you know that isn't enough building info. How am I supposed to copy that thing if I can't see inside?

 

[mack25]

Finally got around to sous vide pastrami in the RIMS. Thread with pics here if anyone's interested in my process.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f172/i-made-pastrami-my-mash-tun-sous-vide-pic-heavy-330121/

 

[JonGrafto]

I am assuming I could do this with my homebuilt mash tun, correct?
Even though I dont have a RIMS system, if I fill my 10 gallon IGLOO cooler with 150° water and let some steaks sit in there for 2-4 hours, I should be good to go, right?

I only lose 2-3 degrees in an hour, so in theory....

 

[kshuler]

Do you have any more details on how this is built? What's it made out of?

Yes, I have more details. It is pretty basic, really. Made it so that if anything failed I could easily replace it. I am sure others would be able to improve drastically.

it is made form some pieces of 1/4" thick aluminum (available from onlinemetals.com)- a 5"x5"x5" tube and a 3"x4"x8" tube, and a few plates as covers and internal elements.

PID is an Auber-instruments PID, as well as a second auber instruments pid that could reasonably be skipped.

Pump is a Rule il200p pump, and the element is just a standard camco 1500 watt water heater (ultra low density) element. I use an Auber rtd temperature probe and the electrical cord for the pump is run through a Brewer's Hardware 1/4" bored through compression fitting with 3 silicone o-rings instead of the metal parts. Below is the diagram of construction. Honestly, the hardest part, I thought, was getting al of the drill holes to line up, but I am VERY inexperienced with any kind of manufacturing or metal work.

Here is the basic layout of what is going on inside. Since making this, I externalized the fan, as I found it was very difficult to replace without taking the whole thing apart. If it is externalized, all I have to do is take the top off and the fan off:

Here is the electrical plan. Yes, this is a VERY primitive version of an electrical plan. I am not P-J and am by no means an electricial. The nice thing about the whole thing being all metal is that it is entirely grounded all the way from the water to the outlet, and it MUST be on a GFCI plug or else I would worry a lot more. I had thought about putting in a leak sensor in the lower tube, but after running it for many many hours at a time, I have never found even the slightest leak.

Is that enough detail for you Aubiecat?

I had originally build a sous vide machine like the one in Seattlefoodgeek.com, but ultimately was not completely satisfied. This version uses many of the same components, but is just a bit more robust and sturdy. It does cost a bit more, mainly in the price of metal and the pump, which is 40 bucks instead of 12. This certainly didn't go over 200 dollars to build, but it takes a LOT of sweat equity. I had to learn from scratch how to work with metals.

If you notice, you could attach a filter screen (would have to make it a larger surface area than just 3x4" do it wouldn't get clogged) to the bottom and dip it in a large mash tun and you have a portable RIMS system for any container you might have.

Klaus

 

[passedpawn]

Full brisket. 24 hours @ 175F. And a word to the wise: don't trust the cryovac bags that meat comes in out of the store freezer. Not a guaranteed seal. Or maybe it exploded from the expanding gases, not sure. Still worked out great so not complaints. I've left the meat in there before without a problem, but never again.