Sous vide

I've done duck breast, steak and asparagus in a ghetto DIY setup. Juicy and delicious results everytime, though I wouldn't bother with vegetables. When I save up enough one of the first things im buying is a sous vide machine.

>the whole raw egg (no bag) for 45 mins at 150
So just dump an uncracked egg in?

I do beer cooler sous vide and it's sort of hit and miss. Steak, chicken, porkchops are all great. Fish was ok. For things you'd crock pot anyway (pulled pork with pork shoulder) it's not worth it.

Just got an immersion cooker and the best thing I have made so far is sausage.
I work in a butcher shop that makes a bunch of hand-made sausages so I've been trying them out sous-vide style.
They come out perfectly juicy

yeah uncracked.

This was the quickest recipe that had good results - start with this, then play around with temp and time

>pre-heat water bath to 167F/75C
>lower 4 uncracked raw eggs in with a slotted spoon
>timer for 15 mins
>prepare an ice bath
>DING
>remove eggs from sous vide bath and put them in the ice bath for 2 mins
>peel carefully
>slice in egg half deviled egg style. Should have nicely set white with a fudgey yolk.

75C for 15 mins, got it. Thanks!

Warning: Sous vide is currently being shilled by sous vide cooker salesmen. There are a handful of single-post blogs writing about how they're absolutely needed to cook sous vide.
Please ignore these greedy fuckers. Buy one of those vaccuum preservers for like $50 and a rice cooker for another $50.

Nothng, because sous vide is a worthless meme method that takes a very long time for the same result. I can cook a rare steak in a pan in like 10 minutes, there's no point unless you don't know what you're fucking doing.

>tfw you fell for the chefsteps meme

have you tried it yet?
report back
i kinda want one of those

not him but i have had the joule for like 5 months now?
i use it a couple times a month to a couple times a week depending on my mood.
Its really simple and easy to use, works well. I have zero complaints about it, except for some of the cheesy writing that Chefsteps does

For the past few years I've been interested in sous vide; reading all the 'science-y' articles, blogposts, etc. about them even considering getting/asking for an immersion circulator to get really serious about it.

But I've been marathoning Top Chef and it seems like every time I've seen someone do sous vide, people say that the product turns out mealy. Now I'm scared to spend that much money on something that would produce poor results. How do I avoid getting that 'mealy' texture that people seem to have problems with when they sous vide?

>How do I avoid getting that 'mealy' texture that people seem to have problems with when they sous vide?

The "mealy" crap happens when people cook too hot/too fast. It's a concern on cooking TV shows because they have a time limit and therefore they have to cook hotter/faster than would be ideal. You don't have that problem at home because you don't have a time limit, so don't worry about it.

Also, if you want to experiment with sous vide there are plenty of DIY options which are very cheap compared to buying a special "tool" for it. Check those out.

>"sous vide in a half hour"
most things are 40 min to 8 hours.
Ive never had something come out bad from my sous vide

not that user, but
Holy shit chicken is good for sous vide

seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/04/sous-vide-chicken-with-sun-dried-tomato-vinaigrette-recipe.html

that link is a lot of info, just scroll through and the pic's alone will show you enough

Well, it wasn't just Top Chef that I saw the mealy complaint, I even read about it in some reviews for the machines. So I should just chalk it up to user error and poor method for TV in general? Part of the reason I wanted to get into it is that it seemed foolproof, and I'm already pretty good at braising dishes, but I wanted to try something less labor intensive and less reliant on the whims of my old gas oven. Could it also be that sous vide is better for smaller portions instead of the huge amounts that the Top Chefs would be doing?

yeah.
Ive made all of that multiple times and never had a single bad thing.

Sous vide is indeed foolproof to do, but that's once you've figured out the correct time and temp for the dish you want to cook.

Look at sous vide as a tool. It doesn't work automatically, rather it's something that delivers different results depending on how you use it. A lot of people talk about sous-viding steaks, but honestly that's just looking at the tip of the iceberg. The key with sous vide is that it gives you a large amount of control. By varying the time and temperature you use you can control the texture of the food you're cooking. When you first start out you should expect to do some experimentation to get the results you want. Once you know what those time/temps are then you can repeat the process in an idiot-proof manner. Just don't expect to copy what a book says and get perfect results the first time.

Thanks, guys.

I understand that like any method or tool, it takes some judgement on how to execute cooking a particular food. I was just a bit paranoid that sous vide produces mealy meat in general and that some people didn't like the method at all. I haven't tried sous vide food at all, mainly because it seems to be very home-cook-friendly and I never noticed it mentioned at restaurants that I've been to. I don't do a ton of fine dining though, it might be more common there.

>I was just a bit paranoid that sous vide produces mealy meat in general

They don't. Sous vide gives you complete control over the texture of the meat. It only comes out mealy if you did it wrong (usually too hot/fast).

Also, sous vide is extremely common in restaurants. It not only makes the cooking foolproof, but it also saves time during service. All the foods can be seasoned and portioned up in advance, then sealed into the sous vide bags. All the cooks have to do is grab the appropriate bags and drop 'em in the appropriate water bath. The ingredients are already measured out to the correct portion size, seasonings are already added, there's less chance of cross-contamination by touching different raw foods, etc.

Wouldn't the sous vide method take much longer in an average restaurant environment because it takes much longer than 30-45 minutes? Unless they have them going on beforehand and finish them to order?

frankfurt and steak

Is there such a thing as mild botulism? First time I sous vide a steak I messes it up and experienced some extreme drowsiness for about an hour and recovered shortly after.

sous vide is retarded shit for sex offenders and chumps

put the shit in the oven or on the grill

it's a fucking steak dinner, not a goddamn science project

if you sous vide a steak would you usually undercook it a bit so when you sear it it comes out how you like?

Can I cook a steak this way with just a pot on the stove? Should I get a thermometer and just get the water stable? How long would I put the steak in?

Would take a bit of care with how you put the egg in use a ladle or slotted spoon or something so the trip in doesn't crack the shell.

I prefer my steak kind of inbetween rare and medium rare
I set mine for 129 for an hour and a half, then sear it for maybe 45 seconds to a minute a side in a cast iron. hits exactly where i want it to

While possible, good luck getting your stove to keep the water at the temperature range it needs to stay at for an hour or two.
length depends on thickness of steak, but an hour and a half should be enough for most steaks

Are the not multiple wand things that heat the water? Including the one that is bought and sold by the valve gabe guy?

Also ya the cheapest vacuum sealer is best.

How is it for setting is up on the timer so its ready when you get home?

pretty easy. connects to your wifi. I can put something in there and start it and leave and turn it off when needed or leave something sitting in the water and turn it on when needed.
Don't often do things like that though because i dont like the idea of meat sitting on my counter at room temp for most of the day until i start cooking it

I generally sous vide a couple of steaks or chicken or pork on sunday and leave them in the fridge, pull them out and sear them for dinner during the week and it works pretty well

>While possible, good luck getting your stove to keep the water at the temperature range it needs to stay at for an hour or two.
>length depends on thickness of steak, but an hour and a half should be enough for most steaks

Ya looking at it now I have a slow cooker and a rice cooker I only use occasionally might try some of these rig jobs I see on google.

>Don't often do things like that though because i dont like the idea of meat sitting on my counter at room temp for most of the day until i start cooking it

If its vacuum sealed I think you are mostly ok. The bad bacteria need oxygen I think which is why fermentation works at all.

eh, my method works pretty well for me. no real reason to change it.
Sometimes I come home from work, throw something in, go to the store/gym and come back and its ready.

>rice cooker

kys

Use a blowtorch