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Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment (Part 3)

adey73

By adey73
in Cooking

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pounce

pounce

Posted
Posted
What's the temp? You can test it by putting it in cold water. If it collapses it's probably ok as long as you have been at safe temps etc. Liquids can turn to gas at temp and expand the bag. Generally if you chill the bag the bag will collapse and tell you that the expansion is due to heat.

Still think vacuum is not necessary, huh? ;-)

This is yet another good illustration why air needs to be removed.

Yes, I believe you do not *need* vacuum. A vacuum sealer is not needed for sous vide cooking. You don't have to remove all the air. If you want to remove all the air this can be done without a vacuum and even without plastic bags or wrap.

Mike, I think we have proven many or all of your arguements false. I'm not going to continue to indulge you.

My soup looked like an above ground pool in a bad neighborhood.

MikeTMD

MikeTMD

Posted
Posted

Does anybody have any experience Sv-ing white asparagus? (temps, time, green vs. white)

"It's not from my kitchen, it's from my heart"

Michael T.

***************************************

My flickr collection

derekslager

derekslager

Posted
Posted
But the most interesting thing he told me was that a new French Laundry cookbook was coming out some time next year and that it would be all sous-vide recipes. He also said Ad Hoc's cookbook was coming out in 2009, which will likely feature a good dose of sous vide recipes. So in addition to this amazing thread, it looks like we're finally going to get another source of sous vide information from one of its biggest proponents.

The Alinea book is coming out this year as well. If you frequently pause the preview video on the book's home page, you'll find three recipes using sous vide in there (seems like a pretty good hint that the book itself will contain more).

Interestingly, two of the recipes (Cured bison leg, Baby beets) have no temperature guidance, simply recommending a bare simmer. The Bison tenderloin recipe, however, gives 57c/135f.

alwang

alwang

Posted
Posted

Hey Daniel, do you have a time/temp for the collard greens/kale you did earlier? Sounds like an interesting idea. How would you describe the texture?

---

al wang

syoung68

syoung68

Posted
Posted

A friend of mine brought a potential new device to my attention. It is sold as a Electric Digital Turkey Fryer but the temp range on it goes from 100F to 400F. Since I do not have one, I can not say how accurate it is, but Target has them for $119 and at that price it is worth a shot. Not too mention it can boil crabs, crawfish, and shrimp without breaking out my propane rig, so even if I can't use it for SV it may be worth buying.

DesLauriers

DesLauriers

Posted
Posted

check out the Auber website. They tested a lot of the different options for home water baths and concluded the rice cooker to be the best for stable cooking temperatures. By the way, a few days ago I order a vacmaster pro 150 from a site called kitchen gadgetry. The next day I got an email saying that it was on backorder and would I like to cancel or wait. I sent an email back canceling my order but have not received any response. I have called their contact number a couple of times but just get voicemail. In the meantime they have the money that I would like to spend on a vacuum sealer. Have any of you bought anything from these people?

MikeHartnett

MikeHartnett

Posted
Posted (edited)

Re: the Auber temp controller, that is absolutely fantastic. Thanks!

Sorry to hear about your difficulties in contacting the company, though.

Edited to Add: Auber is sold out of temp controllers until late March. Anybody heard of anything similar to this product? I can't wait that long!

Edited by MikeHartnett (log)
jduncan81

jduncan81

Posted
Posted
Re: the Auber temp controller, that is absolutely fantastic.  Thanks!

Sorry to hear about your difficulties in contacting the company, though.

Edited to Add: Auber is sold out of temp controllers until late March.  Anybody heard of anything similar to this product?  I can't wait that long!

Auber have their 800 watt version in stock. I bought the 1600 watt one (that's out of stock until March) but if you are willing to heat your water on the stove ahead of time or just use a smaller rice cooker the 800 watt version works fine. On the other hand you *could* just wait until March :)

MikeHartnett

MikeHartnett

Posted
Posted

Could someone point me out this 800 watt version on their website? All I see is the 1600 watt and the one below it, which is entirely in an Asian text and description, but also says it's sold out.

e_monster

e_monster

Posted
Posted

I would guess that the controller whose text displays as some Asian font is probably the lower-powered one. I suggest emailing them. They have always gotten back to me within 24 hours and have been very helpful.

ON ANOTHER TOPIC ... water circulation

If one is using an Auber setup with something that actually needs water circulation to keep the water temps even, I noticed that for less than $10 one can buy an air-pump driven "filter system" that includes the air pump. You could use that to circulate the water (I would remove the actual filter cartridge since it isn't necessary).

arbeck

arbeck

Posted
Posted

I have the 800W Auber Model and use it with a 6.5 Quart Crockpot that I already had, and it works great. The temperature is pretty rock solid except for when I drop in a particularly large item to cook. So far I've done short ribs (30 hours at 147), eye of round roast (24 hours at 135), duck breast (3 hours at 135), poached eggs (8 hours 147), duck confit (8 hours 185), pork carnitas (8 hours at 185), and chicken thigh carnitas (6 hours 185). Everything turned out really good.

e_monster, do you have a link to that pump? I'd be interested in that.

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted (edited)

ON ANOTHER TOPIC ... water circulation

If one is using an Auber setup with something that actually needs water circulation to keep the water temps even, I noticed that for less than $10 one can buy an air-pump driven "filter system" that includes the air pump. You could use that to circulate the water (I would remove the actual filter cartridge since it isn't necessary).

maybe something like this?

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl36...ydorpico300pump

or I think one of those electric coffee milk frothers like the aerolattes could work or could adapt it with an aquarium impeller assembly.

on another topic has anyone got a thermo haake or fisher immersion circulator?

Edited by origamicrane (log)

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

edsel

edsel

Posted
Posted
The hearts are still a little firm.. I am thinking a hotter temp might make it a little more juicy.. But thin slices are what I was after...

I had a beef heart dish at Alinea that I'm pretty sure was done sous vide. The meat was sliced paper-thin and was absolutely delicious. (Picture on Flickr)

Judging from the texture, I'm guessing that it would have been a bit chewy if not for the thin slicing. So if you're going for paper-thin slices maybe you don't need to cook it quite so tender? My snapshot makes the meat look kind of grey, but it was actually a uniform rosy pink.

Anyone have any heart stories?

Not that you'd want me to share here. :raz:

My Photo Sets (mostly food!) :: Heartland Gathering Photos

e_monster

e_monster

Posted
Posted

ON ANOTHER TOPIC ... water circulation

If one is using an Auber setup with something that actually needs water circulation to keep the water temps even, I noticed that for less than $10 one can buy an air-pump driven "filter system" that includes the air pump. You could use that to circulate the water (I would remove the actual filter cartridge since it isn't necessary).

maybe something like this?

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl36...ydorpico300pump

or I think one of those electric coffee milk frothers like the aerolattes could work or could adapt it with an aquarium impeller assembly.

What I saw is not a water pump. What I saw was basically an assembly that you connect to a low power aquarium air pump. So, nothing with moving parts is going in the water -- so the heat won't be a problem (someone else on the board used a pump similar to what you linked to but it died after 8 hours -- possibly because it wasn't really made to be in hot water).

What I saw was similar to this:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/StoreCatalog/c...filter+air+pump

One could easily cobble together (as I will do) something from $2 worth of pvc fittings if one already has the air pump. If you don't have an airpump, this thing might be worth it since it includes one.

(NOTE: For an awful lot of applications, a circulator is not necessary -- especially if a rice cooker is used which has decent circulation via convection. I often use a Presto Multicooker and for things like chicken breasts and steaks and don't find a need for a circulator. When I use my larger setup -- which involves a low power cup warmer type immersion heater and a stockpot -- circulation is definitely required because the heater is on the side of the pot and without it temperature on one side of the pot can be several degrees colder than near the heater. Using a low powered aquarium air pump, the temps in that setup stay even -- i.e. within a degree F)

mtigges

mtigges

Posted
Posted

This is what I was getting at up thread. If you're using a well insulating vessel, like a rice cooker or crockpot then the element is underneath and the heating is pretty homogeneous across the area of the bottom of the vessel. This means convection happens. It's very efficient. Lab systems operate as you mention above with the element dipped in the water off in the corner. Without circulation they rely on conduction which with water is VERY inefficient.

MikeTMD

MikeTMD

Posted
Posted

If anyone has an opportunity - check out Planet Marxx by Thiery Marx. There are a few SV recipes. I found it interesting that he suggests cooking at higher temps, for the sake of shorter cooking time.

"It's not from my kitchen, it's from my heart"

Michael T.

***************************************

My flickr collection

e_monster

e_monster

Posted
Posted

Could some of you with Foodsavers share your tips for minimizing the air bubbles in your bags. I get inconsistent results. Sometimes there is no residual air but sometimes I end up with a few bubbles that (of course) expand when the bag gets hot. I'm curious what people do to eliminate bubbles.

Thanks in advance.

pounce

pounce

Posted
Posted

It depends on what you put in the bag. Use more bag than needed and position the item from the bottom before sealing. Be sure the area of the bag under the sealing strip is free of food etc.

Can you tell us what you put in the bag when you had some challenges?

My soup looked like an above ground pool in a bad neighborhood.

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