My sous vide setup - if anyone cares :)

jimreed777 · September 2012

Daveh1976 · September 2012

I'll be the guy that asks the dumb questions.

What is sous vide?

What does it do and how does it work?

I see a water cooler and an aquarium pump, what is the 3rd piece?

nolaegghead · September 2012

Nice. Did the sous vide controller come with the heating element?

jimreed777 · September 2012

package deal from fresh meals solutions.

I grabbed the cooler at home depot for $22 and notched it out so I could keep the lid closed and not lose any heat. also keeps the noise level to next to nothing. Should keep the amount of time the PID is running to a minimum thereby saving electricity.

this setup gives me the flexibility of grabbing a 10 gallon cooler around thanksgiving and to sous vide a couple of butchered turkeys

bertscampers · September 2012

Daveh1976 said:

I'll be the guy that asks the dumb questions.

What is sous vide?

What does it do and how does it work?

I see a water cooler and an aquarium pump, what is the 3rd piece?

I'm no expert but I believe it is when you seal meat into a vacuum package and then put it into a bath of water at a particular temp.

gdenby · September 2012

Nice basic package. Good work modding the cooler. I do wonder if the heating element will handle 10 gal.

Mind mentioning the price?

gdenby · September 2012

bertscampers said:

Daveh1976 said:

I'll be the guy that asks the dumb questions.

What is sous vide?

What does it do and how does it work?

I see a water cooler and an aquarium pump, what is the 3rd piece?

I'm no expert but I believe it is when you seal meat into a vacuum package and then put it into a bath of water at a particular temp.

Not just meats. Its also useful for vegetables and fruits.

The name comes from the French for "under pressure," a reference to the food usually being vacuum packed. If I'm recalling correctly, the method actually started in Sweden, for hospital food, and was picked up around 1980 by a couple of French chefs who wanted a way to cook foie gras w. as little waste as possible. Its been used in commercial kitchens for some years in the U.S., and elsewhere, because a practiced chef can make the food, which is then frozen, and re-heated whenever desired in a fraction of the time as making from scratch, and resulting in food that is of very high quality.

The long English name might be something like "tightly packaged food cooked in a precisely controlled water bath for specific times."

It allows for excellent results with foods that need careful temperature control, such as eggs or fish. It helps extract and retain flavors. It allows extremely tough meats to be cooked for days at very low temperature, making them as tender as possible, while pasteurizing them without burning.

The commercial packages are quite expensive, but a whole range of equipment is showing up for the home market. There seems to be a good chance that the price will continue to drop till they are as common as microwaves.

nolaegghead · September 2012

Sous vide translates to "under vacuum".

gdenby · September 2012

nolaegghead said:

Sous vide translate to "under vacuum".

I don't know any French. But the first reference to "sous vide" I came across was in a review of Thos. Keller's "Under Pressure," which the review said was the translation of the term. Luckily, I wasn't asked for a translation, because I would probably have called it "Under Evacuation," or something equally as elegant.
$-)

nolaegghead · September 2012

Technically, it's not cooked under a vacuum, but all the air is vacuumed out of the food and the container sealed so nothing (especially volatile aromatics) is lost during the cooking process. :)

jimreed777 · September 2012

gdenby said:

Nice basic package. Good work modding the cooler. I do wonder if the heating element will handle 10 gal.

Mind mentioning the price?

Round about $300 - $340 including cooler

jimreed777 · September 2012

gdenby said:

Nice basic package. Good work modding the cooler. I do wonder if the heating element will handle 10 gal.

Mind mentioning the price?

it will handle 10 gallons - yes - tap water is about 130 - only has to hit 140 to cook turkey safely. cooler will hold temp very well so PID does not have a lot of work to do to maintain.

Onegrecook · September 2012

Thought this was funny...given the discussion. I just happened to look down at a ziplock full of Canadian bacon and this is what it said:)

gdenby · September 2012

I've had problems getting any vacuum w. some of the large size Ziploc Sous Vide bags. But for an off the shelf solution, they are quite good. Better than average for freezer storage, and I've never had one come loose in the water bath.

paqman · September 2012

@jimreed777 Congrats on your new purchase! I'm sure you'll enjoy sous vide. If you have an iphone, I suggest that you get the sous vide dash app. It is a must have. You would be surprised by the time it takes to cook some bigger pieces of meat.

Bingarland · October 2012

Daveh1976 said:

I'll be the guy that asks the dumb questions.

What is sous vide?

What does it do and how does it work?

I see a water cooler and an aquarium pump, what is the 3rd piece?

Bingarland · October 2012

I like the Sous Vide Magic by Fresh Meal Solutions from Canada. You can use any pot you already have and turn it into a water oven. I use mine for making cheese which requires a constant exact tempature. If you are cooking meat, fish or vegs you can pick your final temp and never worry about overcooking. Not cheep but if you need exact temp control this is the way to go. Cold smoke bacon or pastrami and then Sous Vide.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · October 2012

Bingarland said:

Daveh1976 said:

I'll be the guy that asks the dumb questions.

What is sous vide?

What does it do and how does it work?

I see a water cooler and an aquarium pump, what is the 3rd piece?

sous vide is a method of cooking food under vacuum, usually in a precisely temp controlled water bath. It creates perfectly cooked food from tip to tail (like a steak that is med rare from edge to edge, or a chicken breast that is juicy in the thin part and the thick part). Foods are cooked at their proper temp (like 130 for a med rare steak) and the bath never goes over that temp that you choose. You can leave a steak in the bath all day and come back home from work and sear it in 30 seconds and it's perfectly done. It's a great tool and a great way to cook great food.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · October 2012

Here is a cool example of a Sous Vide cook that I did. These were short ribs that I did for 5 days at 135 degrees. Check out that they are still med rare after 5 days! They were fork tender just like a braised short rib but never had to be "overcooked" to get fall apart tender.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · October 2012

These are some CAB Ribeyes i did. As you can see in the first pic, they are perfectly med rare from top to bottom. They are essentially flavorless at this point and need a sear to create the Malliard reaction (caramelization). The second pic is after a 30 second sear and the third you can really see how it's perfectly cooked from edge to edge

jimreed777 · October 2012

BEA---UTIFUL

The Cen-Tex Smoker · October 2012

jimreed777 said:

BEA---UTIFUL

and E-A-S-Y :)

Seriously, you cannot screw it up

nolaegghead · October 2012

...and you can add aromatic herbs and spices and you don't lose ANY volatiles (flavor that normally evaporates) since it's a closed environment. Although there are a few things to avoid in sous vide, such as raw garlic....

nolaegghead · October 2012

Looks great cen-tex!

The Cen-Tex Smoker · October 2012

nolaegghead said:

Looks great cen-tex!

I wish I did something other than throw them in a bag and sear them after they came out for 30 seconds. Easiest steaks you will ever cook and 100% fool proof

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