Sous Vide Thread

Aviator

Merry Christmas Eggheads. Wishes to all and have a safe holiday season. Please do watch your arteries and livers.

So I got my Anova Sous Vide circulator yesterday. Have a pot set up and tested it for accuracy and calibration. Done!

So where to next. What are the first few cooks you did to get the feel and hang of it.

Recipes and cooks, with temps and how long? Pics.

I already have the ChefSteps SV Times and Temps printed out.

Have some pork chops lined up.

This will still be in the Egghead forum, as the initial smoke/final sear will be on an egg, as nothing will come close to temps like an egg does.

Black_Badger

Hey @Aviator, I'm in the exact same boat! I'm planning to use my for the first time today to reheat some brisket for friends that couldn't join us earlier in the week. I'm excited to do much more with it than that, but if it can really bring a brisket back to beig just as good as when it was pulled out of FTC I'll consider it well worth the price.

Good luck with your cooks and I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Cheers -
B_B

Little Steven

I found boneless skinless chicken breasts were amazing when I first got mine.

Salmonegg

I'm about a month ahead of you with the Kickstarter Anova, though we've been busy with holiday parties and such in the evenings and I haven't experimented as much as I'd have liked.

I soaked couple of Sirloin steaks and finished them in an iron skillet that came out picture perfect pink. They were a little stringy, though. I don't have my notes but I remember they were in about 3.25 hours- maybe a longer cook would've been better, maybe the meat wasn't great. (That's not a cut I use, much.)

I did a hunk of Copper River sockeye in some decent olive oil that came out great. I usually smoke it on the egg at 185-190 over alder but this was a different fish, entirely. Finished with a sprinkle of dizzy pig ragin river and some honey and soy under the broiler in my toaster over. 9/10 would do again. (Point off for excessive albumin. I brined the fish for maybe 90 minutes, but that apparently wasn't enough.)

Eager to hear what others have tried and to get going with the FoodSaver I just unwrapped.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Little Steven said:

I found boneless skinless chicken breasts were amazing when I first got mine.

unfortunately I'm with Steve on this. Does not happen often but he's right. Simple chicken breast, no seasoning in the bag and a quick sear with salt and pepper after. I prefer cast iron but go egg if you think you must. I think this is one of the best cooks to show what SV can do.

Canugghead

Congrats on the new toy and have fun! My favourite sv cooks are eggs at 146 for an hour, chuckie at 138 for 48 hours and poultry..

For our early Christmas turkey I tried this Chefsteps recipe, very pleased with it:
http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/greatest-thanksgiving-ever
Breast - low and slow in oven at 250 till IT 145, then cranked temp up to 475 for the finish.
Leg roulades - sous vide at 150 for 4-5 hours, then deep fried at 375 for crispy skin.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Canugghead said:

Congrats on the new toy and have fun! My favourite sv cooks are eggs at 146 for an hour, chuckie at 138 for 48 hours and poultry..

For our early Christmas turkey I tried this Chefsteps recipe, very pleased with it:
http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/greatest-thanksgiving-ever
Breast - low and slow in oven at 250 till IT 145, then cranked temp up to 475 for the finish.
Leg roulades - sous vide at 150 for 4-5 hours, then deep fried at 375 for crispy skin.

gorgeous. This is on the list for sure. And good call on the eggs.

Aviator

Last night was test kitchen. Did SV ribeye steak.

After reading up, decided to pre sear the beef, then vacuum pack and SV at 133 for 90 min.

Then again quickly refresh the sear and serve with a Diane sauce out of the pan with Tennessee bourbon. It was phenomenal. Only, the steaks were a tad too big and we could only eat about half, saved the rest.

Next time around, I would bump it up to 135 on the Anova. The boss was not pleased with the pink, although it was perfect for me.

The finish involved the smoke alarm going off and a call from the security company.

)

Black_Badger

Nice looking cook, congrats!

i too used my Anova for the first time last night, but in this case it was as a reheating devise for leftover brisket. In terms of reheating a brisket without a sauce (or in chili or whatever) this is far and away the best method I've used. I put about a 3# chunk of point/flat in the bag, sealed it up and dropped the whole thing in at 140F for ~3 hrs. When it came out it felt nice, smelled nice, sliced perfectly and tasted just as good as when it first came out of FTC. This was a win in my boof for sure!

I found a recipe yesterday for chicken thighs courtesy of one of the Voltagios, and I think that might be the next try for today. It recommends ~90 min, but I'm thinking about going longer because the thighs I have are pretty fatty and I'd like to try to get that as rendered as possible.

Thanks for sharing this cook and I hope you enjoy the SV as much as I am.

Cheers -
B_B

NDG

trying carrots right now for my first cook - full carrots in bag w/ butter/sugar/s&p for an hour going 183

caliking

@Aviator - that steak looks phenomenal.

Sorry, just got back home yesterday, so here are some links to past SV cooks:

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1168974/sv-flat-iron-steak#latest

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1173722/sv-pork-belly-with-homemade-bao-and-other-stuff#latest

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1167138/72-hr-sv-short-ribs-with-roasted-garlic-parmesan-cauliflower-puree#latest

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1165885/sv-rack-of-lamb-with-blueberry-balsamic-sauce#latest

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1164188/sv-teriyaki-glazed-salmon-with-creamy-sriracha-sauce-and-bok-choy#latest

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1162465/sv-chicken-breasts-and-grilled-sweet-taters#latest

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1160992/sv-lobster-tail-with-oil#latest

JC5404L

Greetings Gents;

   JC from Atlanta, a new member who's been egging for just a few months now.  I'm just wading into the Sous Vide technique and was hoping we could get a couple of reviews of the make/model of the various hardware in use.  Two popular recirculators seem to be the Anova and the Sansair.  Any comments or critiques you'd care to share?  Thanks in advance.

Best regards;

JC

1 - LBGE

Salmonegg

I bought the new Anova via the Kickstarter based on Kenji Lopez-Alt's recommendation and I've been very happy with it.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/new-anova-precision-cooker-best-cheapest-sous-vide-circulator-on-the-market.html

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I have the sous vide supreme Demi and the gen 1 Annova. I prefer the sous vide supreme for 95% of my cooks. The only thing the recirculators do better than the self contained units are make use of larger/different size containers to cook in. For my family of 4, the SVS is plenty (and I have the small one). We did do a very large catering job and used the Annova to keep a 50 gallon cooler warm for hours. It performed perfectly. Very impressed. Here is why I prefer the self contained baths for most of my cooks: The self contained baths do not allow for water evaporation so you fill it once and can cook for a week with the same water. You would have to add water several times to the open containers used with the circulators on long cooks so if you are at work for 8 hours or you go away for a night on the weekend, you are at risk of running out of water. I'm not sure mine has a low water shutoff so that could be a real problem. The SVS units are 100% silent, and they have no moving parts to wear out. The circulators are loud and and have moving parts to clean and can wear out. I can have my SVS cooking for 72 hours in my kitchen and you would never know it was there. No noise, no adding water, no parts to clean when done. Also, if you get a bad seal on a bag and it leaks in the bath, it creates a real mess in the circulator. You have to break it all down and clean it. With the SVS, you just dump the water out and wipe down the inside. Unless you are planning on looking very large cuts or cooking for more than 6 people, I reccommend the sous vide supreme for the simplicity of it. I really like both of mine but have not used the Annova Once since the large catering. The SVS is just too easy.

JC5404L

So far KC and I have tried beef, pork, and chicken using S/V. These were very straightforward, basic attempts to test drive the technique. My immediate reaction - this is a great technique to have at your disposal. We'll definitely be experimenting with this. The chicken was very moist, the small sirloin had the texture of prime rib, and the pork very tender. Ive cobbled together a low cost crock pot and temp controller combination to start but could easily be talked into upgrading. Just be sure to sear the menu afterwords for color. Best regards JC