What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today? (Part 1)

[scubadoo97]

Came home for lunch and tossed two small pieces of flap steak in the bath at 131F

Cooked for about 8 hrs until I came home rebagged the steaks with a mixture of ground cumin and ancho and guajillo peppers before going in the bath. Left the salt out until it was time to sear them

Used the steak in a burrito for dinner

[daveb]

DDDDamn. 

[scubadoo97]

Looks better than it tasted. I miss the flavor from the extended time on the grill but this was just too easy. I torched seared before bagging while it was frozen and searzaled before slicing.

[rotuts]

scubadoo97

 

Damn  looks like you raided my SV freezer.

 

try 4, and then a 130 'smoke' on a very low weber for 2 hours.  out of the bag of course.  make sure the temp stays below or at 130

 

rebag  freeze

 

although its true, no bark.  but best 'RoastBeef'  sandwiches ever

[lindag]

Is this just a flash-in-the-pan kind of thing?

I got my Anova circulator several weeks ago and still haven't found anything I want to make with it.

Is it just me or are there others out there staring at theirs?

[cdh]

You don't have any skirt steaks or short ribs handy?  Those are the best ways of trying out what long time low temp can do for you.  Melts all of the connective tissue into gelatin and keeps the meat medium rare... If you're a well-done meat lover, then I could imagine looking at an immersion circulator and thinking "meh"... but otherwise you've got lots of fun experimentation ahead of you.

[gfweb]

Turkey breast is a whole new meat if done SV

[Anna N]

Duck legs ( relatively cheap here) are a revelation. You can make duck confit without a ton of duck fat or you can simply cook them as is in the sous vide, crisp them up in the oven and live happily ever after.

[paulraphael]

I use it once or twice a week. SV chicken thighs have become a kind of staple. It's killer for ice cream. Any kind of steak or chop. Tempering chocolate. Insanely long braises. Best kitchen thing I've spent money on in many years.

 

And ok: duck legs. Gotta try it.

[Barrytm]

Not a flash in the pan.  Sometimes I go a week or two without using it,  other times I use it twice a week.  To add to the other suggestions, it makes fish foolproof.  No worry about over cooking and having it come out dry.  

[scubadoo97]

I use it at least once a week. For precision cooking without much attention while it cooks. Just did turkey legs and thighs and the meat came out tender and juicy. The bag liquid made a sauce and the skin was weighted and crisped between parchment for a tuile

[kayb]

If I didn't use mine for anything but steaks, it'd be worthwhile. But I love a pork loin roast done in one. Going to try some short ribs this weekend.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tonight I did not use my anova for baking pizza.

 

 

Edit:  and had I used the anova to bake the pizza, the smoke alarm most probably would have not gone off.

Edited May 7, 2015 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[weedy]

Is this just a flash-in-the-pan kind of thing?

I got my Anova circulator several weeks ago and still haven't found anything I want to make with it.

Is it just me or are there others out there staring at theirs?

 

I use mine at least once a week, usually more.

 

I suppose it depends what you cook on a day to day basis.

 

I make chicken, beef, duck, lobster and shrimp, (less often) fish, pork, occasionally eggs, even potatoes.

[ChrisTaylor]

If you work long hours, it's nice to know you're coming home to something that'd ordinarily take a while--e.g. short ribs, pork belly. Duck confit is nice, too, although I think the killer app is octopus. When I'm catering for my family I tend to use both of my circulators--I'll have one dealing with meats and the other handling vegetables. Or one on reheat duty and the other cooking things that can only be prepared last minute. If you can't find value there, well, the problem isn't with the unit itself.

[KennethT]

echo the above... plus, I use mine at least once a week just for salmon. I like it rare in the middle and just flaking - so I use Sous Vide Dash to help me setting a 102F core temp with 115F bath... it's perfect every single time, completely unattended, so I can focus on side dishes while it's going.

I can't imagine how I lived without it!

[Martin Fisher]

Almost every day, sometimes 2 at a time.

 

Cheesemaking, sausagemaking, tenderizing cheap cuts, etc. etc. etc.

 

Tough Cuts: Transformed

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pork-steaks#/!

[rotuts]

""  Best kitchen thing I've spent money on in many years. ""

 

I agree completely with this.  however, I have a ton of stuff in the SV freezer and I need to whittle that down a bit before I add more.

 

I SV in-bulk because its easier long-term, and I catch various sales. so I have not used mine in a while.

 

​that being said, this is such an important item for me, and Im a bit of a 'horder'  for stuff I think essential ( i.e. I have two full sets of ChhicagoMetalic BB&B jelly-roll pans on reserve, just in case

 

 they change this model or BB&B no longer chose to carry them     )

 

 I have an anova 'still in the box'  

 

Circulators changed a lot for me, as did my Edge-Pro

 

everything else  :  Pretty good.  those two items : spectacular.

Edited May 7, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[nickrey]

To my mind one of the major barriers to wider adoption of sous vide cooking has been the lack of a decent introductory cookbook. This leaves many people who look at the device and just don't know where to start, as is the case with the OP.

 

I'd recommend starting off by looking at recipes and instructional videos on the chefsteps website. They even have a free class which is an introduction to sous vide cooking. Work through the class and you're well on the way to using your circulator.

[ElsieD]

To my mind one of the major barriers to wider adoption of sous vide cooking has been the lack of a decent introductory cookbook. This leaves many people who look at the device and just don't know where to start, as is the case with the OP.

 

I think Douglas Baldwin's book is a pretty good introduction. There were a few times when I was confused about what he was saying, especially early on and when I emailed him, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that he actually responded. I also found this forum and the people on it incredibly helpful.

[paulraphael]

To my mind one of the major barriers to wider adoption of sous vide cooking has been the lack of a decent introductory cookbook. 

 

I suspect it also looks off-puttingly fussy and technical to a lot of home cooks. A circulator doesn't look anything like any familiar appliance, it attaches to a separate container, requires a whole separate packaging step (which may include a whole other weird machine), and uses cooking principles that at best seem foreign and at worst seem like things we've been specifically told not to do. I think it's a tough sell.

 

But the inverse argument may also hold true ... anyone with more than a few geeky bones in their body will drool over sous-vide. 

Edited May 7, 2015 by paulraphael (log)

[kayb]

Think I will try mine on fish tonight for the first time.

[rotuts]

I agree about DB's book.

 

to get things moving in the SV world  these days, there have to be some color pictures.  you know, artsy food p0rn.

 

then a transparent constantly circulating tank at W-S.  right there, when you walk in.

 

and to cap it off, MS, (felon)  has to be seen to use it ( somehow ) on one of her (many) shows.

 

done

[Anna N]

Doug Baldwin's book is still my reference of choice. But I do think that his book points out the limitations of sous vide. It appears to offer a wide variety of recipes but in truth for each protein it offers perhaps one or two options for cooking it and then the rest is dressing.

There are very few complete meals you can prepare in a single sous vide session. Taking the western meal of protein, starch and vegetables as a standard will normally require other cooking implements/ appliances. Even if you have multiple water baths there is little to be gained by cooking all of these things in them. It requires a completely different mindset to become a valuable tool.

Where recipe books work well for most cooking methods one really needs a user manual for the sous vide. Actually hardly even that - just the appropriate charts that cover the various proteins. So I think it will be sometime before it becomes mainstream.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Something new for me...six hour hamburgers at 56 deg C.  Now I have to get up the energy to get up and pull them out of the barh.