Anyone doing sous vide cooking?

[snedger]

Just got my delivery delayed Anova sous vide wand and was wondering if anyone would like to share their sous vide experience?

Wasn't sure what to cook first.
Realised that I'd misunderstood which sealable bags I could use in place of buying a bag vacuum sealer, so double zipped bags are on order.
So, went for poached eggs - not really sous vide, but the Anova does precisely control the temperature of the water.
Cooked 5 eggs in shell at 145F for 45 minutes - peeled away a hole, and poured out each egg, so that the outer watery white is discarded leaving perfect poachies.
Eggs sitting in cold water awaiting a quick reheat when guests return - I'm on call, so couldn't join them for a walk to the Leicester big wheel - thank you on call excuse Credit for poached eggs method - http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/10/s...bout-eggs.html
Will update here when I've eaten them - well I've spent way too much time over the years googling how to make poached eggs, I thought that I could already make excellent poached eggs, I was wrong - but at least now I have made something close to perfect poached eggs - they were so good - yummily satisifed!

Used my slow cooker as the water vessel, worked well, probably too big, so am looking at stuff like cake boxes and other see through plastic storage containers - will get containers with lids and cut out a hole to drop Anova wand through.
My temperature controllable kettle meant I could get an accurate speedy head start on pre-heating the water.
Will also be getting some lagging material - found jacket lagging that comes in 4 panels - a panel is about the same height as the containers that I will be using


So, what does anyone know about having used sous vide?

[cptwhite_uk]

This youtube channel has a few videos on sous vide cooking, but I'm sure there's tons if you browse YouTube:

Perfect Steak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAJq1FoXMFY

[Moby-Dick]

I have an anova - so far I've done a few steaks , duck breasts and all the veg for christmas with it. I use a 10l polycarb bucket which does the trick nicel so far.

[mobit]

Steaks are fantastic when cooked sous-vide, they melt in the mouth. Best to brown them in a hot pan before serving. Otherwise they can look an unappetising grey colour.

[peterb]

Interesting thread.

'Sous vide' means under vacuum, not just cooking at low temperatures for a long time, which is what the Anova wand (and other water bath cooking methods) do. Basically cook in the bag.

That's not to detract from low temperature cook in the bag method, but I'd be interested to learn what the difference would be if the bag was evacuated so it really was 'sous vide'.

[mobit]

Interesting thread.

'... I'd be interested to learn what the difference would be if the bag was evacuated so it really was 'sous vide'.

I've used both methods (low temp in a bain-marie before I bought a vacuum-sealer). The only difference I found was the vacuum method kept water out of the food, but using zip-lock food bags I always got a little water getting into the bag. The taste and texture were the same with both methods.

[ik9000]

Steaks are fantastic when cooked sous-vide, they melt in the mouth. Best to brown them in a hot pan before serving. Otherwise they can look an unappetising grey colour.

This ^ you need to use a hot pan on the steak to seal the edges and get the charred outer.

[Moby-Dick]

Interesting thread.

'Sous vide' means under vacuum, not just cooking at low temperatures for a long time, which is what the Anova wand (and other water bath cooking methods) do. Basically cook in the bag.

That's not to detract from low temperature cook in the bag method, but I'd be interested to learn what the difference would be if the bag was evacuated so it really was 'sous vide'.

I've got a vacumn sealer as well

[snedger]

After the poached eggs I've cooked:
9 hour rashers of back bacon - tender on the inside and crispy on the outside - just about worth the effort of setting up before bedtime;
rump steaks for 2 hours - steak was superb - probably illustrates that I need a bag sealer, as using the immersion method with ziploc bags meant that the meat not being so tightly confined let go of a fair volume of juices that made the steak less moist than it should have been - though the juices did make a good sauce.
topside of beef - for about 8 hours - really delicious, but again too much juice let loose.

A couple of issues I've noticed - most web resources are US cultural and so names are changed - e.g. rump steak is sirloin steak in the US - and now that I know that I need a vacuum food sealer, I've done my research and I want a Foodsaver model that is not on sale in the UK! I want the Foodsaver 5860.
Appreciate the comments - cheers!

[TheAnimus]

Ok so I'm late to this thread.

I got an Anova back in Sep last year. First thing I don't get the whole using steaks in it. I mean seriously, it's not hard to make a good quality cut of steak perfect the old fashioned way. The difference in quality of result vs effort is low.

What makes sous vide shine is actually using the cheaper, lesser cuts.

You can have pork tenderloin taste how you couldn't imagine. Belly pork can have a buttery texture, pork hock can be an amazing centre piece for a roast.

My absolute favourite so far is beef short rib. A 72 hour cook at 55°C just makes this very cheap cut pure magic. A nice red wine reduction and you've got something far better than a £15 steak.

It doesn't just stop there mind, you can make a creme brulee that has a texture I've managed only once or twice the old fashioned way, but get that perfect texture EVERY time. It's still a bit strange to me to see them being cooked like that mind .

You can also do some really cool things, I made deep fried Egg Yolk Bites as an appetizer, none of my friends could figure out how I made them as the yolks were completely runny.

CheffSteps.com has some amazing recipies.

[jimborae]

I really want to get a wand and start doing this, a couple of work colleagues are in to this big time and have purchased industrial grade vacuum sealers I believe. Unfortunately the wife is having none of it so I think I'll just be limited to borrowing a wand from one of the guys at work unless I can find one super cheap secondhand.

[ik9000]

I really want to get a wand and start doing this, a couple of work colleagues are in to this big time and have purchased industrial grade vacuum sealers I believe. Unfortunately the wife is having none of it so I think I'll just be limited to borrowing a wand from one of the guys at work unless I can find one super cheap secondhand.

my friend have you tried slip-streaming it under the radar? Buy her an expensive item on the credit card, a new dress, jewelry etc, and then your item a day or two later. It a) appears less dramatic and b) might not even get noticed when she scans down the bill as she her eyes will pop at the first big item and she'll realise it was something you got her

[TheAnimus]

I really want to get a wand and start doing this, a couple of work colleagues are in to this big time and have purchased industrial grade vacuum sealers I believe. Unfortunately the wife is having none of it so I think I'll just be limited to borrowing a wand from one of the guys at work unless I can find one super cheap secondhand.

I've a discount code for an Anova somewhere.

The thing is you can really "save money" using such a device if you put in some effort.

For example I made a couple of these hams, each one feeds 4 people well, the total cost of making 2 of them would be about £16, and you can keep them happily for a month or so in the sealed bag.


I used mostly the recipie from here: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities...ney-glazed-ham

Whilst it make take "48 hours" it only really took about 20 min of actual effort. Then you have something in the fridge you can pull out quickly enough on a weeknight, oven for 45 min and just glaze with it's own juices and gelatines (the cellulite in the hock will convert into jelly).

Yet short rib, my god it's amazing what it does to short rib, you don't need any fancy curing salts or liquid smoke.

I don't have any good pictures of the rib, the last time I made it "fancy" we'd been on the cooking wine, the serbian "rubin" and god knows what else.

ChefSteps again have a really good page on short rib: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities...-ribs-your-way I did it something like #8 on that page. Served it on a bed of smoked cauliflower puree and a caramelized challot, with kale purple haze carrots and some interesting roasted spuds, with a super rich red wine reduction.

I see a lot of people talk about sous vide sirloin steak or salmon. But honestly those are so damned tasty raw. The only time I'll bother to sous vide some silverside say is if I was making a wellington.

As for kitchen gadgets, it has been used at least once a week for the last 3 months. So not bad going. I also ended up fashioning a rubbermaid container, taking the dremel (hey it's hexus, we all have one here) to the lid to make a perfect sized hole. I now have no evaporation issues.

[jimborae]

I've a discount code for an Anova somewhere.

The thing is you can really "save money" using such a device if you put in some effort.

For example I made a couple of these hams, each one feeds 4 people well, the total cost of making 2 of them would be about £16, and you can keep them happily for a month or so in the sealed bag.

......

Well if you could find the discount code it would be much appreciated, they were running some really good offers at the beginning of Jan but I don't know whether they're still on.

[jimborae]

my friend have you tried slip-streaming it under the radar? Buy her an expensive item on the credit card, a new dress, jewelry etc, and then your item a day or two later. It a) appears less dramatic and b) might not even get noticed when she scans down the bill as she her eyes will pop at the first big item and she'll realise it was something you got her

You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff I "slip-stream" however once she see's me in the kitchen cooking dinner, a rarity in it's own right, using wands, sealed bags and huge tubs of water she's very quickly going to realise that this isn't my latest watercooled PC project and will very swiftly start asking awkward questions. However the engineer in me (and meat lover) desperately wants to give this a go....

[snedger]

Have not experimented as much as I thought with gear.
Still using my slow cooker crockpot as the water vessel. Found oval silver foil platters in a £ shop and with a hole punched through for the wand they make near perfect lids.
Bought a Beper vacuum sealer on Amazon for only £21.34 - price changes every day, now £29.05. Doesn't create a tight vacuum, but might be to do with supplied bags.
Need to move on from chicken and steak - but having the cooker run for 72 hours just has me thinking about electric costs