Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2011

[mharpo]

Yeah, I will occasionally get a whiff of something during a long SV and then I get paranoid about a bag breach. I should have added that if you can smell what you are cooking in another room and come back to find cloudy water, you've got a problem. I agree that it is probably not a safety issue, but I wouldn't continue with the tainted bath...

I had it happen with one of my first attempts at chicken SV. Did just what I suggested earlier. The other three bags were fine and I wound up freezing the diluted bag contents for soup meat.

[rotuts]

im wondering if this is three issues:

leaky bags ( I had one early on as I didnt spread out the bag so it was in a single layer on the heating element -- then looked at the seal and could see a kink and leak -- it was early on so I re-bagged it )

thin bags maybe put some food coloring in them and then leave in water for 48 hours no heat etc

sl contamination at the seal with stuff from your fingers?

Edited September 20, 2011 by rotuts (log)

[PedroG]

I never noticed any smell from SV bags; I use vacuum bags (rolls) from MagicVac which are multilayer PA/PE (polyamide as an oxygen and aroma barrier and polyethylene as a water vapor barrier and sealing layer). I routinely wrap spiced and marinated meat in cling wrap before bagging, keeping the sealing region of the bag clean; after 48h cooking, the gravy remains within the cling film.

My Ziploc bags (which I use rarely) are PE (polyethylene) only; PE is known to be permeable to oxygen, carbon dioxide and flavors. So some smell with Ziploc bags is not surprising.

[mharpo]

Well, I'll stand by my first reply--I really don't want to smell anything during SV. I get a little paranoid after my first bag breach, but now I double bag and double seal in most cases. Also, today I learned that there is a sealing problem with the VacMaster VP112 that I was happy to resolve for the company. The upper sealer strip of rubber is too long to fit in the channel properly, causing distortions in the seal pattern under pressure. Simply remove the upper seal, trim off approximately 3/16th's of the length, re-install and you will get perfect seals. Under pressure and temp the upper seal bar was bunching-up and creating a dimple effect on the seal... Now I am waiting for ARY to send me a nice, larger chamber sealer for solving their problem.

Boston Butt competing in the 48 hour swim marathon... Edits to add image and clean up verbage.

Edited September 21, 2011 by mharpo (log)

[siliconvalleysousvide]

I have a sous vide specific website with a "basics" page that might be helpful (http://www.siliconvalleysousvide.shutterfly.com). It has a basic temperature and time chart, although part of the reason there aren't a lot of "general" temperature and time charts is that you have to be careful about pathogen proliferation which occurs in the 40 to 125F range for meats, poultry and fish. So depending on the thickness of the food you are sous viding, you need to get the core temperature to a level where the pathogens are not proliferating. Since there is a time/temperature relationship in which pathogens are significantly reduced (die), it is hard to just give a temperature at which to cook something at. I hope this makes sense.

Cheers

Artie

[millions]

Seems like there's a new sous vide setup on the market - the AquaChef - it sells for about $200 plus shipping. You can see it here. Clearly it's a deep fryer reprogrammed for the sous vide temperature range. (I was wondering how long it would before someone did this to a fryer/slow cooker with temp control like the Hamilton Beach/electric pressure cooker.) I'm not about to trade my SVS for one of these, but anyone have any experience with one?

I just saw an "as seen on tv" ad for this, and it's now selling for $20, which includes a vacuum sealer. Obviously, I'm not expecting this to be on par with my SVS, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a reason not to try it out. If it works reasonably well, I'd use at as a sort of portable "road" sv setup.

[Paul Kierstead]

I just saw an "as seen on tv" ad for this, and it's now selling for $20, which includes a vacuum sealer.

Heh, you need to read closer ..

Only $19.95 RISK FREE for 30 days, then it's just 3 payments of $39.95 with an unconditional money back guarantee!

I'm not even entirely sure what that means, other then you'll pay at least $139.80 to keep the thing. Which is still pretty cheap. I guess the $19.95 is all you pay up front? Still a lack of real pics (though it does appear in the video at least), and the misleading language on price rubs me the wrong way.

[dcarch]

For all of you with square/retangular tubs:

Hanging the bag diagonally gives you more room.

dcarch

[mharpo]

For what?

[Justin Uy]

So I'm sure you guys have seen endless pictures like this, and I've got no talent for food photography. But here's the first result of my first foray into sous vide for more than 8 hours...

Slice of beef short rib, dry rubbed with hot paprika, onion powder, kosher salt and white pepper. Sous vide at 56.6 Celcius for 72 hours.

Good lord I've had prime rib and filet less tender than this.

[PedroG]

Seems like there's a new sous vide setup on the market - the AquaChef - it sells for about $200 plus shipping. You can see it here. Clearly it's a deep fryer reprogrammed for the sous vide temperature range. (I was wondering how long it would before someone did this to a fryer/slow cooker with temp control like the Hamilton Beach/electric pressure cooker.) I'm not about to trade my SVS for one of these, but anyone have any experience with one?

I just saw an "as seen on tv" ad for this, and it's now selling for $20, which includes a vacuum sealer. Obviously, I'm not expecting this to be on par with my SVS, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a reason not to try it out. If it works reasonably well, I'd use at as a sort of portable "road" sv setup.

$19.95 is for a 30-day-trial, then it's 3 payments of $39.95 if you want to keep it. Totalling to $140 instead of $200. Looking forward to someone reporting on its temperature accuracy and stability, as well as the internal dimensions of the bath.

[mharpo]

Looks awesome! The short ribs...

Edited September 23, 2011 by mharpo (log)

[ScottyBoy]

Yeah picture of good sous vide results never get old!

Here's some kobe top sirloin I did for a dinner last night.

[HowardLi]

That must be tender - the meat is separating itself.

[nickrey]

You won't even need teeth to chew that.

[mharpo]

Not a whole lot to see here, but I interrupted the pig's swim at 25 hours and let him rest comfortably in the crock pot on high for 5 hours in all of its juices . A hybrid approach, if you will. In any event, and I'm not one to brag on my food, but this was the best pork I have ever put in my mouth. No kidding.

Edited to add better image.

Edited September 23, 2011 by mharpo (log)

[mharpo]

Yeah picture of good sous vide results never get old!

Here's some kobe top sirloin I did for a dinner last night.

I've never done a top sirloin, but it looks very much like a brisket flat cut... and, delicious, btw!

Edited September 23, 2011 by mharpo (log)

[hadees]

Has anyone tried using the STC-1000? I know it isn't PID but they say it is good enough for practical purposes. I was thinking of building one myself since it comes out to be so cheap.

My friend is really pushing me into the SousVideMagic kit with the heater. He is seemingly afraid of the DIY options and even resistent to rice cookers. Has anyone actually used the heater? What do you think about the container they give you? Seems like it not being insulated could be a problem.

Me on the other hand an fine with getting my hands dirty and it even makes it more interesting. We are building this thing initially for Thanksgiving, to cook turkey, so I was going to buy this roaster to use since it holds 22 quarts and throw a fountain pump in there to get the water moving around. I might go to a rice cooker after that just for regular day to day usage.

The real problem kind of is price where as at $300 for the kit I'm going to have to share this with someone else but for $100 that the STC-1000 combo with the roaster would probably cost me I would be able to own this myself outright. Probably even for $200.

So what do you guys think? Should I just go for the kit or do you think I should try to build this thing? Or even a combination like getting the SousVideMagic with the Roaster. I'm also open to other suggestions that i'm not considering. Like i've seen some people use large coffee pots. I've also seen some other kits out there where you solder things together for $70 to $80 but you end up with a real PID.

[Kerry Beal]

Has anyone tried using the STC-1000? I know it isn't PID but they say it is good enough for practical purposes. I was thinking of building one myself since it comes out to be so cheap.

My friend is really pushing me into the SousVideMagic kit with the heater. He is seemingly afraid of the DIY options and even resistent to rice cookers. Has anyone actually used the heater? What do you think about the container they give you? Seems like it not being insulated could be a problem.

Me on the other hand an fine with getting my hands dirty and it even makes it more interesting. We are building this thing initially for Thanksgiving, to cook turkey, so I was going to buy this roaster to use since it holds 22 quarts and throw a fountain pump in there to get the water moving around. I might go to a rice cooker after that just for regular day to day usage.

The real problem kind of is price where as at $300 for the kit I'm going to have to share this with someone else but for $100 that the STC-1000 combo with the roaster would probably cost me I would be able to own this myself outright. Probably even for $200.

So what do you guys think? Should I just go for the kit or do you think I should try to build this thing? Or even a combination like getting the SousVideMagic with the Roaster. I'm also open to other suggestions that i'm not considering. Like i've seen some people use large coffee pots. I've also seen some other kits out there where you solder things together for $70 to $80 but you end up with a real PID.

I have the SVM with the heater - I love it! It heats the water amazingly quickly. I've used it with the container that Frank provided to go with it and with a big pail while up north. I was a beta tester for Frank's original SVM that I attached to my slow cooker - love the one with the heater much more. Water is ready in a fraction of the time.

[PedroG]

I can just confirm what Kerry said. I have no problem with the FMM's polycarbonate container not being insulated, although steady state energy consumption could be reduced from 100W to 40W by insulation with bubble wrap. Without bubble wrap the pot is transparent and you see what happens inside, and with more heat loss recovery from temperature overshoot is faster, making tuning even easier.

Immersion heaters (SVP, FMM or simple bucket heater) have less thermal inertia than rice cookers and other cookers with the heating element outside the vessel wall; this makes (PID-)tuning easier, see my last post in the old SV topic.

With SVM plus Marshalltown plus an aquarium bubbler or fountain pump you are within your 200$ limit. A simpler PID-controller may do for an immersion heater system, although SVM has a more sophisticated Ar function than usual PID-controllers (see PID tuning guide), making tuning of more inert systems like rice cookers easier. But I also fully agree some tinkering makes things more interesting for a geek. Be aware that fountain pumps are rated 35^oC, if you are lucky they may tolerate 60^oC, but at higher temperatures they melt, so you might opt for a bubbler (use the air stone as a weight only, but cut one or two sideward holes in the tube just above the stone, larger bubbles rise faster resulting in more vigorous circulation and less evaporation.

Edit: workaround to write 35^oC instead of 35°C.

Edited October 1, 2011 by PedroG (log)

[Brainfoodie]

Thanks for the bubble wrap tip PedroG. Just wondering if bubble wrap copes with > 85C sous vide temperatures?

Is the FMM container a standard size? I have a DIY sous vide setup on a 1/1 Gastronorm polycarbonate container and I'm considering buying an insulated box for it. There are some called Thermoboxes (think it's from a company called Thermo Future). They an't cheap (about $50) but promise a drop of only 2C per hour and handle temperatures up to 120C. Plus I can use them to actually transport food or keep stuff cold too.

May be an option for the FMM if it's close to the GN sizes.

[dcarch]

"---Immersion heaters (SVP, FMM or simple bucket heater) --"

Some high wattage heaters can wear out your mechanical relay contacts.

Wire a high wattage diode in series with the heater can cut the wattage in half.

dcarch

[Kerry Beal]

Thanks for the bubble wrap tip PedroG. Just wondering if bubble wrap copes with > 85C sous vide temperatures?

Is the FMM container a standard size? I have a DIY sous vide setup on a 1/1 Gastronorm polycarbonate container and I'm considering buying an insulated box for it. There are some called Thermoboxes (think it's from a company called Thermo Future). They an't cheap (about $50) but promise a drop of only 2C per hour and handle temperatures up to 120C. Plus I can use them to actually transport food or keep stuff cold too.

May be an option for the FMM if it's close to the GN sizes.

SVM container is a Cambro - the size he provides would still set you back a few bucks.

[PedroG]

Thanks for the bubble wrap tip PedroG. Just wondering if bubble wrap copes with > 85C sous vide temperatures?

. . . .

I used it up to 80^oC without any problems, and I guess 85^oC will not melt the bubble wrap. Alternatively, use a tall beverage cooler.

Edit: The melting point for average, commercial, low-density polyethylene is typically 105 to 115^oC (221 to 239^oF).

Edited October 1, 2011 by PedroG (log)

[mmille24]

Is there any issue with taking a frozen steak and sous viding it? Or should you always thaw it in fridge first for safety reasons?

Edited October 1, 2011 by mmille24 (log)