NFT: Sous Vide Owners: Talk to me

for pork tenderloin, seafood mainly.

I'll usually grill pork in the Summer and sous vide in the Winter.

If you want something excellent to sous vide - try duck breast. Will come out perfectly.

You’ll find a ton of great recipes in their app

It's only $40 on Amazon and gets great reviews. Thoughts?
Souvia Sous Vide Immersion Circulator w/Accurate Temperature - ( New Window )

I broiled it after just for a couple of minutes. Awesome.

Chicken comes out very tender but I think that needs a quick sear as well.

I don't have any particular recipes. I just tried the ones on the app.

I really want to try stuff in the mason jar like creme brulee.

Or will the cheap hand pumps suffice?

would help. When I do steaks, I'll occasionally sear them with a flavored butter, but I've never used it in the vacuum process.

Good question.

In comment 14016084 BigBlue4You09 said:

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Or will the cheap hand pumps suffice?

Neither. Ziplock bags.

In comment 14016068 FatMan in Charlotte said:

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If you want something excellent to sous vide - try duck breast. Will come out perfectly.

Now that's something I'm gonna have to try!

cooking duck breat once for a dinner party, and it was so bad!!

Might have been my worst job hosting ever.

Did a "redo" using sous vide and it was restaurant quality.

That's the cool thing about sous vide is that you can step out of your comfort zone with excellent results.

In comment 14016086 robbieballs2003 said:

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In comment 14016084 BigBlue4You09 said: Quote: Or will the cheap hand pumps suffice? Neither. Ziplock bags.

You don't need to use a vacuum sealer? And regular ziplocs hold up?

In comment 14016085 FatMan in Charlotte said:

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would help. When I do steaks, I'll occasionally sear them with a flavored butter, but I've never used it in the vacuum process. Good question.

For me, butter is best on a steak when that steak is basted with the hot melted butter at the end. Will include a video below so you can see what I mean. Check out the 4 minute mark.

I would consider putting the meat (not a steak) in a brine for at least 24 hours prior to sous vide. Then, remove the excess liquid and then cook sous vide.
Butter Basted Steak - ( New Window )

In comment 14016093 BigBlue4You09 said:

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You don't need to use a vacuum sealer? And regular ziplocs hold up?

A lot of pictures and videos I see online there's a lot of people who use ziplocks and is okay. Just make sure you get as much air out of the bag as you can. And from my understanding, use the gallon size freezer bags which are known to be stronger and more durable for longer baths.

But if you have a vacuum sealer, i'd use that over a ziplock.

In comment 14016093 BigBlue4You09 said:

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In comment 14016086 robbieballs2003 said: Quote: In comment 14016084 BigBlue4You09 said: Quote: Or will the cheap hand pumps suffice? Neither. Ziplock bags. You don't need to use a vacuum sealer? And regular ziplocs hold up?

Yep. When I did the ribs they had to be in for like 24 hours or so therefore I doubled up the bags. Supposedly the only difference with zip lock bags and expensive ones is the seal around the edge. While the zip lock one isn't made for the sous vide they hold up. Maybe you get a bag that is different than the others and might leak but it hasn't happened yet. I also just suck the air out of the bag. If the meat starts to rise I will just put something on top of it but I really haven't had that issus and I have a cover as well so that keeps the heat in there.

Have mine a while and love it. If you enjoy seafood, I liked it a lot cooked this way. Especially salmon and shrimp. Tastier and juicer IMO.

If you are only occasionally cooking, ziplocks are fine. But if you will use it more frequently I would strongly suggest a vacuum sealer. Ex. Bought a huge piece of salmon. Sliced it up, and put three slices in each vacuum bag. Then put butter, lemon, herbs etc. different setup in each bag. Now I had four meals fully prepped and ready to go. Vacuum sealed them, froze them and super simple meals ready to go whenever I want.

One thing I would get to know real well, and experience will be the best lesson, is how long you like to cook things and at what temp. Personally I don’t like cooking from frozen, but like option that I can some people like to cook them longer(not my preference) others shorter you’ll learn as you go, no right or wrong way. Enjoy the process!

In comment 14016093 BigBlue4You09 said:

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In comment 14016086 robbieballs2003 said: Quote: In comment 14016084 BigBlue4You09 said: Quote: Or will the cheap hand pumps suffice? Neither. Ziplock bags. You don't need to use a vacuum sealer? And regular ziplocs hold up?

Either Serious Eats of Chef Steps will have beginners guides to sous vide with recipes. A couple of things that you want to look at are the time (at specific temps) and thickness of meat it takes for pasteurization. They use Douglas Baldwin tables which are really accurate I suppose but just intuitively seem way too long for me. I think Chef Steps in general requires too long a cool but I am sure they test these things well.

One nice thing about Serious eats is that for different kinds of things (beef versus chicken versus pork versus eggs..etc, etc, etc) they actually do experiments and show you what the meat (or eggs) look like at different temperature for specific cook times so you can gauge for yourself how "done" you want it. Just remember that you can cook something low enough and long enough that it will still look uncooked (say Salmon) or even be pink (chicken or pork) and it will still be safe to eat because of the pasteurization. Try serving your friends pink pork or even chicken thighs with a tinge of redness. It will take convincing to get them to eat. But, you can get a new level of moistness or texture to try. Should say, that pink pork by any cooking method is perfectly fine and actually better tasting in this millennia.

As far as bags go, the intro pieces will talk about the Archimedes Principle where you basically can use a ziploc and add your food and then slowly submerge it into a container of water. The water pushes the air out and then you zip seal the bag. It's a make-shift vacuum sealer.

In comment 14016099 robbieballs2003 said:

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In comment 14016093 BigBlue4You09 said: Quote: In comment 14016086 robbieballs2003 said: Quote: In comment 14016084 BigBlue4You09 said: Quote: Or will the cheap hand pumps suffice? Neither. Ziplock bags. You don't need to use a vacuum sealer? And regular ziplocs hold up? Yep. When I did the ribs they had to be in for like 24 hours or so therefore I doubled up the bags. Supposedly the only difference with zip lock bags and expensive ones is the seal around the edge. While the zip lock one isn't made for the sous vide they hold up. Maybe you get a bag that is different than the others and might leak but it hasn't happened yet. I also just suck the air out of the bag. If the meat starts to rise I will just put something on top of it but I really haven't had that issus and I have a cover as well so that keeps the heat in there.

If you do stuff at high temps (e.g. 190 F) then they say the seals on the zip loc can fail. I have gone at 185 for about 90 minutes (making mashed potatoes) and a ziploc worked for me.

In comment 14016085 FatMan in Charlotte said:

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would help. When I do steaks, I'll occasionally sear them with a flavored butter, but I've never used it in the vacuum process. Good question.

I think there's a debate about that. Many people say specifically not to add butter because it draws out flavor rather than imparts it. Not sure myself. I don't generally add it for meat but I do for some seafood and, especially, lobster. Trying to mimic butter poached lobster. SOus vide does a pretty good job at that.

Have done mason jars to make yogurt..works very well for homemade yogurt I think), creme brulee, pot a creme, and lemon curd. Did a nice job on all but I still prefer the bain marie for the creme brulee (Traditionalist, i guess).

You want to try something cool for SV that is hard to do by any other method? Look up Starbucks egg cups on-line. THey are easy to make SV and taste really good.

the only way I've done eggs is to have the sous vide bites. A friend swore by them. Delicious!!

I have lurked, yet have not posted what feels like an eternity.

Days of NyKallday (i think i still have screenshots of that)
Blast her in the butt comments still run rampent
VinR? Dark Knight discussions

But I must say, I had to log in and talk Sous Vide. This is absolutely my preferred method of eating 100% of the time. I preach it work, family, wife, kids and preists. Yes, you heard me. On Sunday during mass, I'll talk to the Father John, he will talk about holy water, and wonder if it is a sin to use holy water for sous vide.

Anyways, all joking aside. It is a painless method to cook, I have the joule, my first one lasted a year and it got really buggy. They replaced mine no questions asked and let me keep it. It works from time to time, so sometimes I have 2 cooks going.

I honestly do talk to my family about it, and they can't wrap their head around it. But when I cooked some NY Strip and Tendorloin the other day and seared it real quick on the BBQ, they loved it.

I made Creme Brules and that worked reallllly well too.

Duck is next for me.

And like FMIC have had good experiences.

But one place it really shines is in making duck leg confit. You only need a few tablespoons of fat; traditionally you’re submersing the entire legs so you need a lot of duck fat (yeah, you could use olive oil, but duck fat is way better). The end result is, I think, better than in the oven. Plus, since it’s still covered in fat and also vacuum sealed, it will keep for months in the refrigerator.

The first time you find a nice, expensive piece of meat floating around at the top of the tank because the ziploc popped you're going to be pissed.

Find a foodsaver on sale, use non-branded bags off Amazon and you'll have much more reliable results without a whole lot of additional cash.

As long as it isnt above a certain temp, which I think is 150-160 you should be ok. I cooked chicken the other day at 150, the ziplock bags came out like stretched leather and had be a little scared. I double bagged it in the middle of the cook.

and chicken. I even sous vide chicken before I coat it for fried chicken, so it only has to be in the deep fryer for a few minutes and you know it's cooked all the way to the bone before you ruin the crust. I've never had a vacuum sealer that lasted for a year, so I use only ziplocks, of all sizes-sandwich, quart, gallon. I've got 12 chicken thighs marinating right now in 3 gallon bags to cook tomorrow. I'm going to remove the marinade before sous viding to reduce it into a sauce, then sear the chicken at the end.