Sous vide


 
EricV.

EricV.

TVWBB Guru
Sous vide me! I can't believe I don't have one of these in my arsenal! I think I need one, probably minimum 4 qt container, cooking for 2-4 people. What is everybody using, pro's, con's, pricing....
 
My son in law and daughter have one. They love it. I do similar but cheapskate way. I put a pot of water on stove, heat to desired temp, drop food in and swirl occasionally. Seems to work
 
I have one and after a year of use I rarely use it anymore. I prefer low and slow bbq. I felt that sous vide while making meat very tender, it seemed to me that the meat flavor was muted or diluted. Just my humble opinion. One use that is great, chuck roast steak. Sous vide for 2 days then sear over a super hot fire with a lot of spg. When I was still working my crew wanted it as their reward meal. 😂
 
We like it for recipes like ribs, stews, stir fry, and especially kabobs. Lesser desirable cuts of meat like London Broil or round steak or chuck steak/roast benefit from a long sous vide cook. Typically, we will take a porton of London Broil and sous vide for 16 hours or so, dry with paper towels, then vacuum seal and freeze. It can be heated in the bag with boiling water for a quick dinner but mostly we cube it for stews, stir frys and kabobs, and it is melt in your mouth tender. A favorite of ours is sous vide ribs. Ribs are especially tender and meaty sous vide...a quick burn with a torch for the Maillard and a visit to the pellet, gasser, wall oven or coal burner for the saucing afterwards...well, we like it.
 
EricV. said:
Sous vide me! I can't believe I don't have one of these in my arsenal! I think I need one, probably minimum 4 qt container, cooking for 2-4 people. What is everybody using, pro's, con's, pricing....
Click to expand...
If you've got an Instant Pot, it likely has a sous vide function. I'd give it a shot before buying a dedicated sous vide.
 
I have had a sous vide for years.....I would guess 8 or more years.
I used it a bunch for a while then it really didn't stand out to be something I wanted to use.
Now I am not going to lie....I didn't get overly adventurous with it.......I never really had a big hit with it so I didn't really try too hard.

I went ahead and purchased the accompanying accessories to go with it.

I purchased a nice size container from a reputable company that deals directly in this field. LIPAVI I purchased right off of Amazon for the container. I did not purchase a rack system or a lid for it. Easily found on amazon.

Sous Vide Containers – LIPAVI

lipavi.com lipavi.com

I also picked up the bag of balls for long sous vide sessions. This prevents water loss due to evaporation. I forget which brand I grabbed but it comes in a netting for storage and comes with 250 balls and it is enough to have a solid layer on top of my container.....I did the math, buying the right size container that my sous vide was able to circulate and the right amount of the balls for the surface.
You can search sous vide balls on amazon like this if it helps.

All in all everything works very good with my setup but I would have to really dive deeper into it if I wanted to have some more successful cooks I think.
I can also send pictures tonight of everything if you were heading down the same road I took....just let me know.
Something similar to the picture below.

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A bunch of cheap ping pong balls also works........

I have one. It's..... okay. I have used it to cook a whole beef tenderloin plus another half in a picnic cooler covered with the aforementioned ping pong balls. Family dinner for something like 15 people was a hit.

My sister makes a really good creme brulee using a sous vide. Custards of all sorts are easy with the very precise temp control. I'm also told that poached & scrambled eggs are never better from a sous vide.

If you're interested in very precise temp controlled cooking, get one.
 
Also good for taking a frozen steak and 90 mins later it's perfect medium rare ready for a pan or grill.
Nephew has done butts with his and finished on the smoker. IIRC someone on the forum has also done that.
Corned beef comes out fool proof.
A bunch ofHard boiled eggs for Easter? Easy Peasy and peel like a dream.
 
I think it would work well with pork chops, chicken breasts & tomahawk steaks to name a few proteins. I am on the fence, no rush to purchase one.
 
There is a Youtube channel Sous Vide Everything, it is humorous and informative. I recommend watching it because they try things most people wouldn't.
 
EricV. said:
I can't believe I don't have one of these in my arsenal! I think I need
Click to expand...
We have the orig Joule and the ‘upgraded’ Joule Turbo, both used fairly often, although not mainly for cooking (mostly reheating). Do you need one? Prob not.
I’ve cooked some with it, steaks in the Turbo, veggies, fish, etc. but it’s mainly a pita since I still have to go live fire to finish, so why not go live fire the whole way?
Fwiw we use different size rectangular Cambros; I bought extra lids and cut out a corner for the SV unit, no balls required. IMO the SV magnets are a necessity. I also use a Meater2+ inside the chamber vac bag (tried the needle probe-tape, doesn’t work). Seems to me all the SV recipes involve times; all voodoo. Why 2 hours? Why 24 hours? All mysticism. I prefer to cook to temp. For cooking I’ve got a pasteurization chart (for min times @ temp), for reheating I just go by IT. Best way to reheat brisket, PP, ribs period. That said, @LMichaels is correct: a ziplock in boiling water works also.
As far as the circulators, the original Joule works great and is predictable. The Turbo uses some ‘magic’ algorithms to overheat the bath (for ?? time) to speed up the cook; great for steaks, not so much for delicate fish. Plus, the app feels like I’m filling out IRS forms.

Need? No. Handy to have in your arsenal? Yes.

Hope this helps!!
-fraser
 
I have a couple Anova units. We use them very regularly. I've done everything from a bag of carrots to an entire brisket. Our favorite is chuck roast (turning it into "prime rib" by cooking it medium rare at about 130 degrees for about 36 hours).
 
I agree heavily on the reheating part of owning one.
I purposely cook way too much protein, especially shoulder......bag up appropriate sizes and this thing gets them just hot enough for as long as you want......feeling carnitas...that works too.
 
I also have the Joule from 2018. The app does give you some guidance and a range of temps and time for most recipes along with their fav recommendation.
It does some mean garlic infused potato wedges.
 
I inherited an Anova unit from my brother, I’ve used it for tri tip a couple of times and it worked well. Now that I have a vacuum bagger the projects can be done a little more efficiently but, I would not miss it if I didn’t have it.
JKalchik, what does your sister do with the Sous vide to make the custard? I can’t see it being a huge advantage but, I’ll listen.😉
 
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