Kick this around a bit

bettysnephew

I have been following the threads on sous vide and it basically appears to be very slow/precise immersion cooking at a temperature very near where you want the finished cook temp to be.Those involved seem to rave about the flavor and tenderness of the finished product.  The opposite side of this seems to be many Eheads promoting cooking in the Egg at higher temperatures and there is supposedly little or no difference in the out come of the meat.

If sous vide produces a superior finished product, might it not hold true that if we could regulate the Egg at say 140° we should be able to somewhat duplicate the sous vide effect?  I assume that not being bagged might cause some dryness, but the BGE seems to do pretty well in that area already.  Any thoughts from the enclave on this idea?  Do I need to don my Nomex undies for this discussion?

nolaegghead

At end-point temperatures (for example, 147F for chicken), the heat transfer rate is too slow in air, so the food would stay in the danger zone too long. 

Put your hand in a 212F oven and versus a pot of boiling water - heat transfers from the boiling water into your hand and you end up with a severe burn, versus mild discomfort from the air in the oven.

You could put a pan of water in the egg, but the egg is hard to regulate below 200F or so.

gdenby

A good SV unit will cook to the exact temperature. There are many SV discussions as to what is the exact temperature to cook eggs for the precise texture desired. Likewise, fish to an exact low temp for an exact amount of time. As fine as the Egg is, and as good as the automated blower systems are, its just not as accurate or consistent. And, as nola' said above, water immersion works very differently than air. The bagging changes the way flavors develop.

I'm working on methods to combine the best points of Egg and SV. For instance, yesterday I did some spares, and removed a couple of 2 bone sections after about 2 hours in a 250F Egg. They just has S&P. They had a good oak smoked flavor at that point, but were as tough as could be. I've got them sealed and frozen. My intent is to finish them at maybe 138F for 6 hours in SV. Flavors tend to concentrate in the SV bag, and so I will add a bit of final rub before popping them in a hot oven to finish. My hope is that the flavor will be intense, with a very smooth texture but a little crunch on the outside.