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[Host's note: this topic forms part of an extended discussion that grew too big for our servers to handle efficiently. The discussion continues from here.] I am thinking about an Anova for a slightly different purpose. Can I use this in a home brewing environment to manage the grain mash temperature? Maybe I can use this for a HERMS brewing setup? I would use the Anova to maintain the temperature of a hot water tank. I would then use my pump to circulate the wort from the mash tun through a heat exchanger (copper coil) that is immersed in the hot water tank. Thanks. Dan

The folks behind Modernist Cuisine have announced a projected publication date of March 2017 for their new five-volume set on bread (previously discussed here). Start saving up now!

Had an excellent, tender, verrrrry slow cooked beef stew recently, so I thought I'd make it better. Bought bottom round. Cut pieces quite large (1 1/2" x 2 1/2"). Seared them in hot grapeseed oil. Sous vide at 132⁰F for 28 hours. Was tough and chewy. What'd I do wrong?

I'm considering getting either a rotavap or a centrifuge to expand my culinary possibilities. So my question to people with experience with these devices. If you had to choose from one, which would you choose and why?

I have not followed the sous vide threads because this style of preparing food has not interested me. Until now. My DW had gastric bypass surgery 7 years ago and it has been very successful. It has brought about 2 changes in how she eats. The first is with regard to heat from spiciness. She is very sensitive to any kind of chili peppers or even chili powder and such. That is easily dealt with. The second, however, has become the tough one. If meat hints towards dryness, dryness that others may note but not enough to be a problem, has become more and more of a problem for her. How does the sous vide method compare to more traditional methods, such as roasting, to more reliably producing meat that is still moist? Or does this method not affect the moistness?

I often sous vide 5 pounds of chicken thighs for 8 hours at 156F. There is a lot of chicken juice and fat left over in the bag. I plan to save all the juices and fat every time I sous vide until I get about 4 cups of chicken juice. Then I can make chicken soup and use the fat for frying veggies. This may take me a month of saving juices however. Is storing the juices and fat for a month or longer safe? If I empty all the juices and fat from the bags, and boil them, will this be safe to store for long periods in fridge or freezer? I am also concerned about Botulism Spores which I understand is heat resistant. Thanks!

$400 or best offer by February 11th. Seattle area delivery only. Assorted bags included. All original equipment in perfect working order. I'm leaving the country and cannot take 90 lbs of love with me. Phone: 206 963 2016

I am experimenting with cous cous, rice and mash potato. I don't sous vide these dishes. I find that pointless. However, I am bagging the finished product and vacuum sealing so I can keep them and reheat quickly in the m**rowave (don't hate me!) My question is this... Should I be placing these bags in a water bath to pasteurise them for a longer life before storing them in the fridge or freezer? I'm wondering how long I can keep bagged rice in the fridge under vacuum unpasteurised as opposed to pasteurised. If I was to pasteurise, do I use the same guidelines as for meat? ie is it still about the thickness of the package and the temperature of the water? Or is this all a totally unnecessary faff? Any thoughts on this gratefully received.

Single household, but I can't hold out any longer.I want one. I've read the threads, but now there are so many variations and brands, and newer ones every day, I'm boggled. What's the best budget price for one that works? No point in buying something substandard. Complete unit, or just the immersion thingy? Help?? whimper ,whimper

Hi all, I bought vacuum packed roast beef and kind of pork, see in the attached photo. The size is about 15 cm x 10 cm and the height is about 6 to 7 cm, with weight 785 grams (from the package). Anyone can suggest the timing and the temperature for sous vide if I want to have "medium" for the beef and "well-done" for the pork? I have never sous vide this size of meat before My plan is to sous vide it first on their own vacuum sealed package, probably 1 day before. Then simply sear it before serving to get browned. Thanks!

Baldwin says to cook my fish for 15-20 mins (for med rare) at 122F. Problem is that I put in the cold fish and now the bath is at 89F. Do I wait for it to return to 122F before I start counting the cooking time? It's grouper, btw. Thanks.

"The unit's ETL approved 1200-watts of heating power – one of the most powerful elements used for such endeavors – quickly warms the water." http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gourmia-launches-sous-vide-pod-for-easy-healthy-homemade-gourmet-meals-300184922.html http://www.amazon.com/Gourmia-Digital-Immersion-Circulator-Precision/dp/B017HX1FTC

This is the first i have heard of this new piece of equipment, but I still can't find out what makes it better than Anova. It looks very similar. Does anyone else know? It's called Joule. http://blog.chefsteps.com/tag/joule/ ETA It doesn't look like it needs a clip. Does it attach to the base of the pot?

My old convection oven had to be replaced, now I have a combi steam oven (Electrolux EBSL70SP). Temperature stability is much better than with the old convection oven which oscillated by 13°C around 55°C; the new oven has a sous vide function (100% steam) which allows setting temperature in 1°C increments from 50°C to 95°C, and at 55°C it oscillates within 2°C with a periodicity of about 9-12 minutes; at 75°C it oscillates within 3.4°C with a periodicity of 2.5 minutes. My first experiment was "perfect poached eggs" 16 min at 75°C, they came out the same as I am accustomed to from the sous vide water bath. My second experiment was racks of lamb (vacuum sealed with marinade and mustard about a month ago and kept at 1°C). Thickness was 45mm, so scheduled time was 3 hours at 56°C. Then I unbagged, dabbed dry, painted with HOLL rapeseed oil and started searing in a dry hot pan, but then I suddenly was called away, I returned the unbagged rack on a plate into the oven at 55°C / 100% steam for another 3 hours. After that, drippings on the plate were minimal, I seared the whole rack, cut in 2-bone-chops and seared the cut surfaces, and they came out fork-tender, perfectly pink and succulent as I am accustomed to from the sous vide water bath. My guess is that temperature swings of 2-3°C in a steam oven will affect only the outer few millimeters of the meat which will be overcooked anyway by searing afterwards. Maybe one of our mathematicians can calculate how many millimeters of meat it will take to attenuate temperature swings of e.g. 5°C to e.g. 0.3°C. An earlier experiment showed that core temperature swings are attenuated to within about 0.1°C with temperature swings of 13°C in a convection oven. Another question is how much shorter cooking times will be assuming a heat transfer coefficient above 200 W/m²•K in condensing steam instead of 95 W/m²•K in a water bath as assumed by Douglas Baldwin in his tables. Maybe new tables would have to be calculated for sous vide in combi steam ovens? I may do short time sous vide cooking in the combi steam oven in the future, but for long time cooking I sure will still use my SVM/FMM water bath.

Any one have experience with this? I'm just learning. Any good recipes?

Hello, I am cooking a whole pork belly sous vide. I want to portion it up after cooking and place each portion back in a separate vacuum pack afterwards for safe storage. My question is, should I do the portioning up as soon as I take the pork belly out of the water bath while still hot? Or should I blast chill the whole belly first, still in the bag, then portion up and re-bag? I'm wondering which process will be safer. On the one hand portioning up the belly while it's still hot and then blast chilling the separate bags seems like a good idea. On the other hand blast chilling the whole thing first so it gets to a safe temp, then portioning up also seems like a good idea. I'm also wondering what the act of taking the belly out of its original bag does to the extended life of the belly. I understand that without taking it out of the bag, chilled rapidly I can keep the belly at 5 degrees for roughly a week. Does anyone know how that figure changes if I try either of the two procedures above? Any help gratefully received

Host's note: this topic was split from the All about "sous vide" eggs topic. nice PedroG Combi is the way to go I could not find any info on the Electrolux EBSL70SP on line in english would you post some info on it, size, pics etc ?: congratulations !

I just watched this Aussie Chicken recipe : https://youtu.be/yHnWgiQDKcc Basically, it's roasted chicken breast with bacon, sautéed mushrooms, honey mustard sauce and topped crispy cheese. But I am thinking of better method instead of guessing the roasting time. I have never done this before and I don't like overcooked roast chicken breast. Ok, sous vide would help. Here is my idea of better method : Sous vide chicken breast together with few pieces of bacon at 150F (65C) for 1 hour. Then sear with oil and a bit of butter to brown it. And finally, arrange it in baking tray. "Glaze" with the honey mustard sauce. Put some sautéed mushrooms, topped with cheese. Broil it under very hot oven (240C) "just" to melt the cheese. Serve with more honey mustard sauce and crispy bacon. Sounds good? My concern is with the last broiling step, if that will dry up the seared chicken breast. But I don't have any other ideas.

I was recently contacted about the Kickstarter for the Oliso SmartHub induction hob. It looks basically like an induction hob with some sous vide temperature control baked in and an interchangeable cooking area (flat top or water bath). They are currently about halfway funded. I think the big question is, does the world need this thing? One of their staff members joined this morning to answer any questions you may have about the device and/or the Kickstarter.

Hi all, I am rather stupmed at what happened in my circulation bath this week and would like to share and maybe get to the bottom of what exactly might have caused this. Quick background: I am a German chef having learned at a 2* Michelin restaurant and now CEO of a burger chain in Germany. I have a passion for biochemistry and approach virtually all cooking endeavours with an analytic mindset. As I prepared a lasagna based on braised oxtail last weekend I was left with about 1300g of oxtail chunks that didn't fit into my pressure cooker. Whilst braising I browsed my copy of MC searching for an interesting idea for said left over produce and stumbled across the 100 h @60C preparation. I scaled the recipe to the required amount of stock and boiled it up quickly as to reduce any possible pathogens. I then filled the sous vide bag with the raw, unseasoned and chilled (4C) oxtail, added the cooled stock (13C) and sealed in a chamber vaccum to -1 bar. I then introduced the bag into the water bath at 60.0C, sealed the bath with cling film and checked througout the following days. For the duration of the cook the bag stayed at the bottom of the bath and temperature fluctuations were at a maxiumum of 0,1C. Yesterday morning (thursday, I started the cook on sunday at around lunchtime) I saw that a small bubble of bombage had formed over night. Weary as to the cause, I was even more suprised to find the entire bag bloated and floating at the top of the surface when I came home last night. Unsuprisingly the smell after opeing the bag was horrible and had obviously spoiled. I am asbolutely flabbergasted as to what might possibly have caused this. Shouldn't any possible pathogen have been killed of after at least 80h @ 60C with no sign of bacterial activity? A couple of chefs I work with are equally as stumped as I and I would love, if someone on this brilliant forum could possibly offer some insight. So thanks for your feedback which I would love to incorporate into the next try; after all: failure is not an option! ;-) All the Best, Johannes

Anyone tried it? It weighs 14lbs and is 4 1/2 inches thick at the highest point but is mostly 4 inches in height. I would like to cook this to 132F but i am concerned about getting it up to pastuerized temperatures quick enough. I have always followed Baldwins guide to pastuerization but i believe his charts only go up to 2 and 3/4 inch thickness. Is there a safe approach using Sous vide method with such a large piece of meat? Should i combine cooking techniques like quickly submerging in boiling water? It is still in the cryovac bag in the fridge but i need to decide on a method soon. I know i could roast it in the oven but i want it med rare thoughout. Need some good advice here. With how high beef prices has gone up lately, a 14lb hunk of beef is expensive. Cant afford to mess this up.

So I was having company for the opening Football season. One of the local food store had Hamburger patties on sale. So, I opted to use them 85/15 chuck. They were only probably 3/4 " thick. When I got them home.. that seemed like a wimpy thickness. So , Idea Lets fuse 2 patties using Activa -RM-- so I treated one side ( dusted like a chicken breast ) - put together, and place them in frig for about 2 hrs.. to meld Took them out about 45 min prior to cook. Then off to my flat top to cook.. usually these thick burgers 1 1/2 icnches, get a big blood bubble in the middle, even if you dent them prior to cooking. What I notice with the Activa-Rm barrier in the middle , this really didn't happen. thick the meat juice collected just under, that in-side half. So i flipped and cooked side two. Really was amazed how uniform they cook and how the juices real stayed inside. No pictures as the game was on. Just thought I would share. PB

Anyone has done that? I did once in the past, using time and temperature from David Chang Momofuku, which was 82C for 3 hours. And it was still though. I didn't put anything in the bag, just abalone. The abalone was not fresh, but frozen raw abalone, about 10 cm lengthwise, and it was defrosted overnight in the fridge. Going to do this again soon, so I thought if anyone has done it please share your results. I am thinking to do at 82C for 6 hours, and put a little bit of olive oil in the bag. Note: I searched this forum for abalone, but it seems it's not that popular ingredients. Few posted about sous-vide, but without end result reports.

I made creme brulee using sous vide for the first time, and I am not quite satisfied with the result. Recipe that I used: - 2 cups of single cream (I cannot find double cream) - 4 large egg yolks - 4 tbsp white sugar - 1 tsp vanilla extract I was using small "Weck jar" (160 ml) as container, which I can submerge it in the sous vide pan. I warmed up the cream a little bit. And I used blender to blend all the ingredients. Then I strained it into the jars. Anova set to 82C and I sous vide for 45 minutes. Store in the refrigerator for 12 hours. The result, the custard was properly set, but to me it's not as "firm" as creme brulee that I had in many restaurants. It's kind of too soft. Although, it taste delicious!! So, is this "texture" normal for sous vide creme brulee? Or something can be improved on my recipe or technique? Is it because of the single cream instead of double cream? Is it because the recipe needs more egg yolk? I saw some recipes with 5 or 6 yolks, with the same amount of cream. Is it because of the blender? Probably too long. Is it the temperature and timing? I saw many different temperature and timing, like ChefSteps 80C for 1 hour. Searched here, and found one with the same issue. Unfortunately, no feedback from other users: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148235-modernist-cuisine-sous-vide-custards-not-settingfirming

At a local culinary store I have a hobby/job helping local Chef's do cooking demonstrations, prepping for catered events and all kinds of other things that let me play with new toys and other peoples food. I've been asked to prepare a Sous Vide Demo meal to stimulate interest in SV and modern technique - and hopefully sell some SV units. Menu to be Mi Cuit Salmon (104F from Chef Steps), Asparagus Salad w poached egg, 72 hr Short Ribs w Cauliflower puree and a Poached Pear desert.