Unpopular Poet

72 hour short ribs with a veal stock sauce, mashed potatoes and peas. I really enjoyed the short ribs this time around -- I think the total lack of seasoning before they went in the bag made a huge difference. The pictures, as usual, look like they were taken by a 3 year old hopped up on espresso.

AnneN -- I would say absolutely -- I believe that it toasts as well, if not better than my original British Dualit -- which was supposed to be the tops. I think you could justify the steamboy as a replacement for both the toaster over, toaster and microwave (gasp!) -- it reheats so much better than a microwave...it is shocking. As far as cooking for 4...totally doable. It is a magical little machine...

Between my old Mvs31X and my new Mvs35XP, I have never had a fail on a 3mil bag...probably over 500 seals. Everything from hot liquid to sharp bones. I tend to over seal stuff too..always at 99.9....

I can report that I have done those steaks on a few occasions now, and they have been great every time. I have also done some pork in a similar fashion, and that turned out delicious. All of my "sous vide style" steam tests have pretty much all come back as successes -- I am trying to decide if I should do some lamb chops sous vide or just throw them in here at 140 as well...I will report on them if I decide to put them in here. Or maybe I will split it up and do a side by side.

48 hour lamb shank with polenta and greens. I really loved this.

This reminds me of a very conversation myself, paulraphael and some others were having a few months ago. I had not had good luck with sous vide steak -- until I took his and others advise -- bought a prime NY Strip and (as pointed out above by btbyrd) absolutely not salting it. The results were amazing. I have a 24 hour chuck roast in right now (at 160) so I can make some beef tacos tonight...should just come right apart I am thinking. Prime meat + no salting = absolutely amazing steak.

I read this and couldn't help but think that it sounded like a pretty basic, over the top argument...I have had a few thousand of those in my life...the need for everything to be so civil and proper flies in the face of the entire system that exist in here in the US...plus everyone is way too thinskinned...(heh...see how I did that...). Poor choice to actually post the stuff though...but oh well..

It makes me sad that all of the potentially crispy bits were cut away.

I have a Summit...I couldn't be happier with it...except for the part where Weber doesn't sell a LP to NG conversion kit. Boo. I need to take a picture the next time I do my breakfast "bowl" with the steamboy -- basically, I take frozen hashbrowns, cheese, some nice bacon or sausage and some uncooked eggs and steambake in a ramekin....awesome.

I did Steam Bake at 425 for about 35 minutes and then broiled to try and crisp the skin a bit more...the problem was that I needed to flip it over, because there was skin on both sides...one side gets crispy, then it is flipped, then it isn't crispy...etc etc...

Funny, I bought my SB at Sur La Table...on super sale...must have stopped selling them. Ok, here is a pic of the finished product on the "fused cornish hens" - I think next time I will do them on the grill or a pan -- the skin was not nearly as crispy as I would have liked, but the flavor was definitely great. The moistness was fantastic.

I would like the same advice.

Ok, horrible pics, but great result. Had reuben sandwiches for dinner -- the corned beef was cooked at 145 for 36 hours and then sliced. This was my first attempt at sous vide corned beef (straight from the packet mind you) -- I soaked it and gave it a good rinse, added the spice packet plus some juniper berries and mustard seeds and let it rip. So easy, but really delicious. The thousand island dressing came out a bit too quickly...

Ok, so I spatchcocked two cornish hens and then removed all of the breast bones and ribs. I then proceeded to meat glue the two hens together -- basically, doubled sided skin was the idea. My plan tonight is to cook the monster in the steam boy -- and hopefully get the same results as Rotuts above with the thighs...could be a total loss, but you will see pictures...either way.

Soba - that spaghetti looks great...some time ago, I had bought as a slight experiment/joke a can of a sauce very similar to this. It was, for lack of a better term, foul. I had imagined at the time, that it would be wonderful homemade. I see you have confirmed that!

Oh, I should have made it clear -- I love the kitchen, but have certain things that are waiting for installation -- I have to put in a new hood, as the one I have is pretty much for show and doesn't do anything but sound like a jet taking off -- I also did something absurd and went out and bought a bluestar salamander (actually drove from Chicago to DC to get it) from a guy who never installed it. The bump out needs fixing as well. There is also the back of the house to deal with...some of it is under foundation, some of it not -- so the kitchen is sometimes 35 degrees in the winter...I love the house, but so much to be done. We have to tear off a portion, so while we are at it, we are going to make the kitchen a little bigger -- something we can eat in, well sort of. If and when it happens, maybe I will do a blog on here detailing my personal nightmare of a renovation!

The star of my kitchen is the grossly oversized for the space, 48" Bluestar. We had bought it with hopes of redoing the kitchen soon after we moved in, but 5 years have gone by and we are still pondering. Maybe soon though. the bump out that holds the massive butcher block, and also the pot rack from my grandfather's restaurant I love this machine -- it has been going strong for 12 years with no inkling of giving up.

It is a horrible job -- but someone has to do it.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the finished NY Strip. I will say however, that it was delicious. I think maybe that my problem in the past has maybe been salting prior to bagging? This went straight in, with no butter, no salt, no pepper -- and then into a 56 degree bath for just shy of 2 hours (it shut off after 1:45, but I was still putting my little guy to bed). I dried it off, and seared it in a scorching pan of clarified butter, seasoned and consumed. It was a total success -- I loved it, as I do all things steak. I have to say though, that I did not see a drastic difference between this, and the normal preparation -- this time it was significantly juicier than previous attempts -- I credit both the prime cut and the lack of salt in the bag -- The steaks I normally buy are very nice, but not Prime -- there is decent marbling, but not as seen below. This was the first NY strip I have done sous vide, since all previous have been REs - which I will happily do next week. We are going to the beach on Saturday, and I am thinking of sous viding the burgers and then finishing them on a small grill, right on the beach. Thanks for all of the tips and comments. EDIT: One note I forgot to mention -- there was significantly less liquid in the bag this time around, when done. Maybe 1/4 of what would normally be in there.

gfweb -- love the stove -- it is the same one I grew up using. My parents had installed it in the early 80s -- a few weeks ago, I went through the house again during an open house -- and there it was, still in working order. Thing of beauty...with way too many pilot lights...

Paul -- got it, thanks. I will cook accordingly...although the more I think about it, the more likely I am going to be doing Ribeye. I will report back my findings. as far as the burgers go...Saturday...

I can attest to that -- the same dinner thread where the sweetbreads were pictured, I also had some sous vide venison shank -- which I thought was totally mediocre. If I would have just done them the way I normally do them, they would have been much better off. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but I think it is worth using in tons of applications. Take for instance the pork shoulder I did at 155 for 24 hours for tacos last night (I'd call them carnitas, but that would be like calling pizza sauce spaghetti gravy) -- I then reduced the liquid in the bag to a glaze and broiled them until crispy -- they were 100X easier than the standard braise I use, plus the clean-up was much easier, plus it took me 20 minutes to get dinner on after a long day. Great use of sous vide. Venison shanks...not so much...wrong temp, etc. Paul -- I am going to go with a prime, 1.5 inch boneless NY Strip for dinner (I am chosing NY strip over RE only due to overall size in the end). This is a test, so I am going to ask for a few more details, just to make sure it is prepared in your fashion -- Questions -- Salt? Pepper? Butter? If it is 1 degree more Celsius, then I am going to go with 56 degrees for 1 hour, 45 minutes. Thanks!

Basque - I should have been clearer on those sweetbreads. They were sous vided after a nice long milk and thyme soak and then reheated. Some were fried, some not, due to how delicious the straight from the bag sweetbreads were. They were then cut up a bit and then mixed with the chopped up fried ones. It was an attempt to offer less fried sweetbread and more simply sous vide. The sous vided sweetbreads were really great and required less attention than my normal poaching, pressing, frying method. Once again, it was the method of choice but not necessarily the right one for everyone. As for that picture..oh boy. Now people know why I don't take pictures. As far as unsuccessful, perhaps they would be an unsuccessful presentation if you wanted that crispy sweetbread, but they were delicious nonetheless. As far as steak, I would say that I buy nice cuts from my local butcher, who had always has nice marbled, but definitely not prime cuts. Tonight I am going to try a prime cut. NY or Ribeye for this test? I leave it to Paul.....

I would say that a good example would be a 1.5 inch ribeye, salted (I have tried no salting as well - same results) and bagged with a bit of butter and sealed at 95-99% and then dropped in a 125-130 degree bath (depending on what I wanted) for 2 hours tops -- sometimes 90 minutes. Out of the bath, rested for a couple minutes, then dried off and placed in a super, super hot mineral pan with either no fat or smoking clarified butter (just depended on the fat content of that particular steak). Then let to rest for another few minutes and then eaten. That's about it. Maybe the ribeye is the wrong cut? Dunno.

Strangely enough, in all of my attempts at sous vide steak, it just never worked out as I had hoped it would -- all other cuts (short ribs, roasts, etc) came out amazingly well -- but for some reason, I could never get the sous vide steak to taste as good as the plain old mineral pan and clarified butter steak -- The steamed steak -- in an at home cuisinart steamboy -- worked well -- for some reason -- which I know -- makes no sense -- it should be the same as sous vide, right? I almost feel like the sous vide steak dried out too much -- which also didn't make much sense to me. I know I am not doing anything wrong -- it just doesn't suit my taste for steak -- nor my wife's. I feel like the flavor on a sous vide steak is good (obviously) but what one makes up for in additional beefy flavor, I seem to lose the overall steak juiciness. I feel like this is an anomaly though -- but it kept happening --the steaks seems to lose so much liquid when I cooked them -- and I even went so far as to change the sealing % -- from 99.9% all the way down to about 90% -- but there was still a significant amount of liquid in the bag. Less so, than when I steamed them in fact. The look was there of course, just not the taste I was hoping for. I suppose it is time to try it again!