Cooking with the Anova Precision Oven: What did you make?

[CanadianHomeChef]

Made a whole chicken tonight. I’ve got to say I’ve never seen a chicken hold onto so many of its juices. You can squish around the liquids underneath the bubbles in the skin. Lots came pouring out as I carved the bird. 
 

The chicken was cooked perfectly. I’m just not sure if I like my chicken this juicy. The jury is still out. 
 

Cooked some brussel sprouts from the garden for 10 minutes at 212 with 100% humidity. Threw two knobs of butter, salt, and pepper inside the pan before placing it in the oven. Easy side dish as the chicken was resting. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by CanadianHomeChef (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

Here is the baking steel in the APO.

 

 

 

And here is the just baked 881.3 g boule before removal.  Note how lost it looks.

 

[KAD]

Do you all see steam rising from the vent at the bottom right in the front of the oven. 
 

it’s literally like a kettle at 100%steam. 
 

 

[KAD]

Also Jo that’s an awesome looking steel. Where is that from?

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, KAD said:

Also Jo that’s an awesome looking steel. Where is that from?

 

 

 

https://www.mcmaster.com/9745K79-9745K19/

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, KAD said:

Do you all see steam rising from the vent at the bottom right in the front of the oven. 
 

it’s literally like a kettle at 100%steam. 
 

 

 

That's why there's a little caution label there.

 

[KAD]

Yeah I did see that label but even so I was pretty surprised at how much steam comes out from there. 
 

first sourdough bread in the steam oven today. Tastes delicious but just a bit more char than I like. 
 

 

 

 

[Robin G]

11 hours ago, KAD said:

It’s literally like a kettle at 100%steam. 

In my experience so far, this is highly dependent on the oven temp. While incubating yogurt at ~43-44C, I ran the oven all night and most of the next day, and observed no steam escaping through that vent. The level of the reservoir did not appear to change. However, when "sauteeing" mushrooms SV at 87C for an hour, I saw a fair amount of steam escaping, and the water level dropped noticeably. I also ended up with water in the drip tray, and on the bottom of the oven (I was using the rear element).

I imagine baking bread will really pump out the steam.

[KAD]

Host's note: the first sentence refers to a misfortune here, before a topic split.

 

bah. That sucks. But hang in there. I’m very impressed with this oven so far. 
 

my partner tells me yesterday: yknow i kinda like this oven. 
 

and that’s not a normal response. The normal response is an exaggerated sigh...another appliance? Really?

 

And the second loaf of bread had a much better rise. It’s still cooling else I would have posted a crumb picture too. 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Smithy
Added host's note (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

A few days ago I anovaed excellent 8 hour short ribs:

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/160121-dinner-2020/?do=findComment&comment=2268897

 

Last night I had the same but cooked for 24.  Anova's recipe calls for 8 to 12.  I can't blame anova, 24 hours was a disappointment.  The meat was stringy.  But now I am sadder and wiser.  Or at least sadder.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

After 17 hours at 58C...

 

 

 

The apples were drier than fruit leather but not yet crisp.  I returned them to the oven.  Both sides of the slices seemed equally dry and there was no sticking, so I'd say the Silpats did their job.

 

Oh, and the slice I sampled tasted great.  If I didn't mention, these were Pink Lady.

 

[tikidoc]

First recipe, everything bagels. The only thing I would change in the recipe is that the bagels don’t have the flavor and browning that boiling in an alkaline produces. When I made them, I made a solution of baking soda and water and brushed it on half of the bagels after the steam but before baking. It made a big difference, and they tasted more like bagels.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

At 22 hours my apples were crisp.  The slices were delicious, everything I wanted.  The tiny yield was soul crushing.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, tikidoc said:

First recipe, everything bagels. The only thing I would change in the recipe is that the bagels don’t have the flavor and browning that boiling in an alkaline produces. When I made them, I made a solution of baking soda and water and brushed it on half of the bagels after the steam but before baking. It made a big difference, and they tasted more like bagels.

 

Is this really the same as boiled?

 

I like the idea of bagels but my dentation does not allow for chewing them.

 

[tikidoc]

8 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Is this really the same as boiled?

 

I like the idea of bagels but my dentation does not allow for chewing them.

 

No, it’s a bit softer than a proper boiled bagel. I only at one the day I made them, will update on a day 2 bagel today. I think the addition of the bicarbonate solution made the flavor pretty close. I also added a couple tsp of diastolic malt to the dough. So if regular bagels are too much for your teeth, these may be just right for you.

[tikidoc]

18 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Is this really the same as boiled?

 

I like the idea of bagels but my dentation does not allow for chewing them.

 

Day 2 bagel also softer than a regular bagel. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Leftovers.  I heated a chicken breast, mashed potatoes, gravy and beans at 74C, 80% relative humidity.  Don't ask how long, I didn't measure.  Excellent.  Cranberry sauce and wild rice on the side didn't hurt.

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On 10/23/2020 at 12:46 PM, chromedome said:

I enjoyed reading it in the interval between me pushing down my toaster's handle and it popping back up. Had enough spare time to muse on the animus against unitaskers in the kitchen...

 

 

I put the toast recipe to the test.  APO toast is one button press.  No more difficult than pushing down the handle on my Krups.

 

 

 

Devotes of dark toast may look elsewhere.  That or write their own toast recipe.  The result was much to my taste.  I had never been a fan of CSO toast (as much as I love the CSO).  CSO toast would often cut my mouth.  And after an eternity looking for the wretched CSO toast plate.

 

Besides, this slice was nine and a half inches wide and would not fit in the Krups.

 

[TdeV]

Is it customary to preheat the Anova? I'm going to make meatloaf, so I shall be using the probe. Which might be more difficult if it's hot.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

Is it customary to preheat the Anova? I'm going to make meatloaf, so I shall be using the probe. Which might be more difficult if it's hot.

 

For meatloaf I don't think it matters much, though I have used the probe only once.

 

[TdeV]

My DH was making remarks about not remembering the last time we had meatloaf (so he had nothing to compare). I pointed out that prior experience was "dry". This was a "meatloaf mix" which required only water and beef. I added some ground mushrooms.

Cooked with probe to 165°F, 80% steam; took about 40 minutes (?). Then turned on broiler, but only for 5 minutes. Then rested. Very moist and tasty. A bit salty (from the mix).

 

Also had steamed red potatoes alongside. With previously made pickled red cabbage.

 

If dinner had looked better I would have included a photo. Pretty good though.

[Anna N]

26 minutes ago, TdeV said:

If dinner had looked better I would have included a photo. Pretty good though.

Please don’t be shy. There is always a place for photographs.

[TdeV]

This belongs in the I WILL NEVER AGAIN . . . thread

but concerns the Anova Precision Oven and so . . .

 

For several years in the 1980s a few friends had barbecue picnics in Golden Gate Park. My friend Jim always barbecued the chicken. He had been a cook with the Navy (Vietnam) and so he was familiar with preparing vast quantities of food. He had no issue with using public grills because got the fires so damn hot. Fast forward to 2001 when Jim and his wife came to my house which had been recently vacated by my ex— and Jim decided to take over my Weber barbecue.

 

In the interceding years I had often barbecued chicken and turkey on the Weber, always by the Indirect Method, started with coals in a coffee can with newspaper packed underneath. The Weber lived on a newly renewed (epoxy) roof deck.

 

You can see where this is going, can't you?  Jim sloshed in some accelerant and Woosh! 10+ years of cooking grease went up into a wall of fire, licking at the wooden I-beam holding up the roof deck and throwing sparks all over the epoxy coating. Fortunately that scary fire was soon extinguished.

 

12+ years ago DH (new) and I were investigating a way of getting barbecue-style searing on vegetables in the oven with GrillGrates (https://www.grillgrate.com/). We decided they didn't work well enough because we couldn't get the oven hot enough.

 

A few days ago, I was searching for pans which might fit inside the Anova Precision Oven which resulted in the discovery that GrillGrates is now marketing themselves directly to APO owners. 

 

So, I dug the grill grates out of the garage because I had just completed a 48 hour sous vide (Joule) of beef brisket at 133°F. I planned to pre-heat the grill grate so that I could get sear on both sides of the meat quickly.

 

LESSON 2:

Pre-heating a not-entirely-clean pan in a hotter oven (than prior experience) produces lots of smoke. (See story above about circumstances that you didn't know you had gotten yourself into). The APO gets very hot. Mine is sitting on a counter under kitchen cabinets—this looked and smelled very dangerous.

 

LESSON 3:

Learn how to turn meat so that less space is required. I.e. the GrillGrates were too low (from the top grill of the oven) because I wasn't sure how much room I needed to turn the meat; therefore, it took too long for the surface to develop a char. Maybe I should have cut the meat into more manageable sizes. The GrillGrates produced good sear marks on the underside of the meat. The oven was hot enough to melt the fat though. 

 

LESSON 4:

Develop a method for containing the melted fat. It sounds nice that the convection works best when air can get all around the meat being cooked, but there are definite drawbacks to having the grill grates on one rack and the baking pan on a different rack; there's no way to pull those two racks in/out of the oven at the same time. So there was a lot of melted smoking fat in the oven. Worrisome.

 

and, most of all, LESSON 1:

 

Learn how to trim excess fat from meat right after getting home from the butcher, before putting meat into bags for vacuum sealing. Once I thought that the fat produced better flavoured meat, but that's not true, right?

 

I don't know for sure but this experience felt very dangerous.

 

 

 

P.S. The Anova Precision Oven needs a self-clean cycle. What a mess!

[gfweb]

@TdeV"Once I thought that the fat produced better flavoured meat, but that's not true, right?"

 

Wow. Lots of lessons LOL

 

I have my doubts about fat and flavor.  The slogan "fat is flavor" is repeated by prominent chef types, but they also talk about searing in the juices. ( I recall a somewhat sloshed Tom Colicchio rebuke a contestant for taking off the silverskin (!) on a tenderloin because  F is F...and later talk about searing in flavor)

 

There's the flavor of fat and the flavor of meat. A little seared fat from a grill is nice but too much is too much.  To me, Wagyu is too fatty to taste good.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

There's the flavor of fat and the flavor of meat. A little seared fat from a grill is nice but too much is too much.  To me, Wagyu is too fatty to taste good.

Fat-free meat is an abomination but I am on your side as far as Wagyu is concerned. Just looking at it can destroy my desire for a beef steak! Moderation in all things even cows!