Redneck Sous Vide part deux

njl

1 hour, 40min, I'm down from 135F to 123F.  I just scouped out 3.5 cups to put in the microwave and reintroduce to bring it up a few degrees so I can keep it going another 20min or so before searing.

njl

Ended up going just over 2 hours...then seared in a cast iron pan (one steak at a time...as that's all that would fit in the pan).  I didn't do any pictures...but they looked just as you'd expect from sous vide...consistent color all the way through, with just a tiny band of brown from the searing.  Taste and texture was nothing special.  i.e. steaks from the egg are just as good, and pick up more (smoke) flavor.  The only real advantage I see is the ability to cook the steaks unattended and then hold them at "done and ready for searing" as long as needed.

So...I'm torn.  Not sure if this is something worth spending $200 on for an appliance that'll need to be stored somewhere when not in use.

Cymbaline65

njl said:

I decided to use the Coleman 40qt, roughly half filled with water.  It was a lot more work than I'd expected to get the temp up from the hot tap to 135F.  Two bone-in rib-eyes just went in.  I'm planning to let them soak for 2 hours.  I didn't bother calibrating the cooler's heat loss...so I'll check on them in an hour and see what the temp's dropped to.  I thought about using the ET-732, but was worried the humidity might ruin the probe.

So how did it work out, NJL?