Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment, 2012

[Greg Honeycutt]

This is my current set up, and it works rather well.

[KennethT]

That's pretty cool. How do you drain it?

[Greg Honeycutt]

That's pretty cool. How do you drain it?

The pan had a built in drain, so I added a ball valve. I plan to pipe it outside, but have yet to do so. I have it set up with a digital thermometer as well.

Edited October 27, 2012 by Greg Honeycutt (log)

[philie]

one small safety question i have:

i found a piece of sous video and pre-cookedpiece of meat in my freezer, about a year old.

its a piece called kasseler which means its already smoked and cured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kassler

i would not eat a piece of meat that old normally, but wanted to ask if there is any problem with a cured and sous vided piece of meat like this?

throw away or try?

thanks in advance!

[Greg Honeycutt]

Kassler is cured and smoked, but I'm not sure it's sous vide, however, since it's basically cured twice, and was frozen, it should be safe to eat, though I can't say it would be appetizing.

[philie]

Kassler is cured and smoked, but I'm not sure it's sous vide, however, since it's basically cured twice, and was frozen, it should be safe to eat, though I can't say it would be appetizing.

i did sous vide it myself! so actually it is precooced by me. just want to make sure its no safety issue.

[Greg Honeycutt]

assuming it was cooked safely, and cured in a safe manner, and cooled quickly then frozen, I'd say it's safe to eat. One caveat, after a year, depending on how it was stored, freezer burn may be an issue, and I can't assume what it might taste of at this point. I'm sure others with more experience can provide more precise information than myself.

[haresfur]

Sous vide sausage? I was thinking of sous vide cooking some lamb sausage before frying to even out the cooking. I've been having all sorts of trouble with getting snags cooked through without turning the outside to carbon. So is this a good idea? My concerns are getting the meat cooked/pasteurised quickly enough and getting the fat to cook properly. Any thoughts on time/temperature?

[KennethT]

SV sausage is a great idea - I think it was discussed in the first SV thread..

[rotuts]

Ive been doing this for some time. I put a few days of sausage in a bag, and cook it at 140 - 145 for 3 hours.

Chill/freeze. those temps are just the ones i have for other SV at the same time.

then I thaw and keep cold in the refig, and microwave for about 30 sec or so and then torch.

breakfast sausage in 45 sec.

granted the sausage does not develop the crust from a slow saute, but that takes 20 min at least!

[pep.]

Next week, we are having a large game-themed dinner for 20 people. The main course is supposed to be venison loin. Due to the limited equipment at the designated location, I normally use cook-and-chill to prepare meats sous-vide beforehand and finish them off on-site in the pan or oven. However, I've got some concerns doing this with venison. Due to the holidays over here, I've to get the meat from the butcher on Wednesday while the dinner is on Saturday.

Regarding storage, should I

• Freeze the venison on Wednesday
  
• Keep it in the fridge until Saturday
  
• Pasteurize the meat sous-vide and then freeze it (with a higher than core-temp to keep the cooking time reasonably low)
  

Furthermore, should I do the sous-vide step at all or am I better of trying to get it right with the *ahem* somewhat antiquated resources at the dinner location? I guess I could bring my circulator and a container, but it would get kinda crowded in the kitchen then.

[Bjs229]

I would not freeze If possible. Meaning, if the meat will still be edible on Saturday after preparing it by a quick search and roast. How does it look and smell. Is it dry not sitting in its own fluids etc. As long as it hasn't been grossly mismanaged I'm thinking it should be ok prepare under your best possible technique without freezing.

I am not a scientist and still learning sous vide techniques. I just don't like what freezing does to meat and it is not always a problem solver when it comes to keeping things from spoiling. Thawing properly becomes just as crucial.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[paulpegg]

I have cooked venison loin sous vide a number of times. Treat it like any other tender, lean meat. I would hold it in the refrigerator until Saturday, sous vide it in the morning as you usually would, then sear off in a pan and then hold in a warm oven until service (no more than an hour).

I like venison rare so I cook it at 55C for 2 hours (depending upon thickness) and then sear and serve right away.

If you are concerned about bacteria from the butchering then plunge it in a large pot of boiling water for 30 seconds before you bag it.

Edited October 28, 2012 by paulpegg (log)

[Bjs229]

I have cooked venison loin sous vide a number of times. Treat it like any other tender, lean meat. I would hold it in the refrigerator until Saturday, sous vide it in the morning as you usually would, then sear off in a pan and then hold in a warm oven until service (no more than an hour).

I like venison rare so I cook it at 55C for 2 hours (depending upon thickness) and then sear and serve right away.

If you are concerned about bacteria from the butchering then plunge it in a large pot of boiling water for 30 seconds before you bag it.

I like the thought of the quick 30 seconds bacteria wash but what happens if the bacteria has pentrated the meat.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[paulpegg]

Highly unlikely unless the butcher is a total retard. Butchering venison is relatively easy since the meat is so lean and the muscle groups are very well defined. The only way surface contaminants can get into the meat is if it is punctured, which should not be done to meat you buy from a professional.

[md8232]

I am cooking two large corned beef briskets today in my SVS and the combined water vapor of the two overcomes the ability of the rack to hold them under the water (and they won't fully submerge if I position them vertically due to their size). But I found a new use for this BBQ weight: http://www.williams-...ill-accessories

I slid it into the top slot of the rack and it works like a charm. (Also a half-way decent tool for what it's intended, but I never would have bought it if it wasn't on 25% off sale and I had a gift certificate.)

A less expensive alternate to the BBQ weight is to vacuum seal some glass cubes. I triple bagged mine and they make a very effective weight in the SVS. You can find bags of glass cubes at craft stores.

[rotuts]

Re-SV for added tenderness?

Im fairly sure i asked about this in the past in one form or another, but my bookmark system and etc etc is pretty bad.

Im 'studying' a whole pork loin. I initially was going to do all sorts of things with it, but I lazy-ed out and did just 1.5 + 'steaks'

Ive been looking for rare 130 ( too bad 125 or less does not pasteurize ! ) but fork tender.

so far I tried 4, 6, 8 hours. I did two for each of these and I have not gotten to my mark.

Im doing the rest of the loin for 10 - 12. Id like to pop in the SV the orphans that were not fork tender but Ive never been able to learn if you can "add to SV time" after the fact that its chilled and get further tenderness.

any ideas? I do plan to plop them in, and see what happens.

they are as is delicious in a sandwich sliced thin

with Chutney!

[GaryK]

I am interested in trying some sous vide techniques in the pastry kitchen. The question I have is there are certain tropical fruits, pineapple, papaya, passion fruit, kiwi, guava, mango, and fig, that need to be cooked before using with gelatin. If used without cooking, an protease enzyme will dissolve the gelatin.The specific enzyme varies between the fruits. Does anyone know if these enzymes can be activated with sous vide-type tempertures? Thanks.

[Merkinz]

Question about the Polyscience Sous Vide CREATIVE:

- This machine is rated for a 20L Reservoir ... What happens if I use a larger reservoir ... say 30L? Will this put strain on the machine itself making it more likely to break / giving it a shorter lifespan? Or does it simply mean that the temperature in the bath may be less stable / precise ... e.g. +/- 1°C ass opposed to 0.07°C? What if I went to 40L?

Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

[pep.]

You will have a hard time heating the larger volume, plus the temperature may be less uniform throughout the water bath (because the pump is not mixing the water enough).

[rotuts]

it will make a tremendous difference if you use insulated cookers ( ie beer cookers of all sizes ) and maybe use preheated water. make sure you insulate the top, which as the coolers are designed for coolness not heat have no insulation in them.

[Merkinz]

it will make a tremendous difference if you use insulated cookers ( ie beer cookers of all sizes ) and maybe use preheated water. make sure you insulate the top, which as the coolers are designed for coolness not heat have no insulation in them.

You are pre-empting my thoughts there rotuts! I was planning of using a 25-30l insulated bin (cooler bin) covered with pingpong balls. But I still just wanna make sure that the ONLY adverse effect of using this in an oversized bath would be poor heating / poor heat distribution / poor heat stability ... And NOT stress on the unit itself.

Can anyone confirm this?

[EnriqueB]

Question about the Polyscience Sous Vide CREATIVE:

- This machine is rated for a 20L Reservoir ... What happens if I use a larger reservoir ... say 30L? Will this put strain on the machine itself making it more likely to break / giving it a shorter lifespan? Or does it simply mean that the temperature in the bath may be less stable / precise ... e.g. +/- 1°C ass opposed to 0.07°C? What if I went to 40L?

Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

Not exactly related, but I was wondering what they refered to when saying the unit is designated "for casual use" and wrote to them. The answer was "This unit is designated for home use and not to be used more than 2-3 days a week at most. "

Sorry, but this removes any interest I had on the unit. Even though it was intended to be my second sous-vide unit (after a SVS Demi), 2-3 days a week is too litle for any use I can conceive of a circulator. I do cook tough cuts 3 to 6 days in a row very often with my cheaper demi and it has given me no problem at all! Not acceptable. So I ordered an Addélice SWID instead.

[pep.]

I'm looking for a second circulator (mainly for doing vegetables at the same time as animal protein). The two units I'm really considering are the Addélice SWID and the new Vac-Star SousVide Chef II. Any thought's? The Vac-Star seems much improved over the first version and has a very powerful pump with a slightly less powerful heating element than the SWID. For the higher temps for vegetables, the 2000 W heater of the SWID seems very useful to me. Furthermore, the SWID uses more stainless steel and looks quite easy to clean. Has anyone actually used one yet?

[EnriqueB]

Pep, I had the same doubts. I wrote to both makers (as well as to Polyscience) asking many details. SWID makers were the faster to answer, providing many more details than Vac-Star and Polyscience. In addition to what you point out, something I really like about the SWID is that, if you don't set a countdown timer, it starts a countup timer automatically that will show how long has the food been cooked. A simple and useful feature no other unit has. According to their specs, SWID is the best to me, but still I had read many people that had have problems with their previous model. The pump tended to fail (I guess that's why they have changed it in the new model), fortunately their technical serviced seemed to work pretty well: a friend of mine had his unit repaired and back at his home in Spain in one week.

Another point of difference was the pump: even though Vac-Star claims it not to be noisy, 16 l/min is a lot... Also the people from Vac-Star told me they didn't know what a "beer-can-cooler" was (literally!) and that they recommended their unit to be used only in GastroNorm containers, not with deeper ones... On the other hand, I think the bracket to attach the circulator to the container is easier to use in the Vac-Star than in the SWID.

So, while I think both units seem to be pretty good, I´ve finally decided to buy SWID, which I received a couple of days ago. My first test has proven the SWID is really powerful and stable. I put it on a 12l stainless stell pot with 10l water, without any insulation nor lid at all. It heated the water from 18º to 90ºC in 25 minutes, then kept it at 90ºC plus minus 0,1ºC easily. I then added a couple of "cooler briskets" from the freezer at -30ºC and the temperature of the water did not go down at all! (went up 90,3ºC for some seconds, then back to 90ºC). The temperature was compared against 3 other external probes: It was identical to the external probes at 55,8ºC (the temperature at which it is said to be calibrated), 1ºC lower at 20ºC and 0,4ºC lower at 90ºC (which is the good side for errors, as it adds a margin of security). The pump produces no perceptible noise and it seems to stir the water pretty well, I could not find temperature differences inside the bath even when adding the briskets and putting the probes very close to them, but it's true I only tried with two briskets. The fan does produce some noise, though.