Sous Vide cooking

[Coppercook62]

Sous vide cooking is cooing under pressure. There are tons of books that explain how to do it, but I thought I would give a quick explanation. You need a water circulator, this is important because it keeps the water at .1 degree Celsius. You also need a vacuum pack machine.
So the principle is cook the product to its done stage in the water bath. For instance you have a tenderloin and you want it to be medium rare you would set the water bath to 51.66C or 125F. You would place the tenderloin in a bag and suck all the air out so its tight. you would then place the tenderloin in the water bath and cook for 2-3 hours. Remove the tenderloin and sear and serve it. The meat will be a perfect medium rare.

It works well with potatoes as well. We put salt and potatoes in a bag and vacuum pack them and cook them at 89.9C and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours. The beauty of them is that they take on no mositure so you can add more cream and butter and they will still be super stiff.

So that's a quick explanation. I have sous vide lots of stuff form cream angalise to artichokes. Lamb, chicken baby back ribs. The baby back ribs we did for 24 hours and they came out awesome. The meat was still pink but fell off the bone.
I'll try to answer any questions.

[Coppercook62]

the home version is 399
any vacuum pack machine will work but try and use food grade bags

[spopepro]

You can also go renegade hacker style...

I breadboarded a temp probe, arduino, power mosfet and plugged a crockpot into it. Arduino would announce when the correct temp was reached and then switch on and off the crockpot power to keep it steady. Used a submersible pump to keep the water moving.

But seriously, it's probably better to get a proper circulator. They are so cheap now, and you haven't tasted lobster until you've had it sous vide. Any shellfish for that matter. It just comes out so perfect.

PS. Coppercook: I've gotta make it out to stockton, man. Where are you slinging pans? (although from the looks of some pictures, you might be catering...)

[Shinomaster]

Sounds awesome but I just have to ask. BPA free plastic bags?

[Coppercook62]

yes on bags

[Coppercook62]

You can also go renegade hacker style...

I breadboarded a temp probe, arduino, power mosfet and plugged a crockpot into it. Arduino would announce when the correct temp was reached and then switch on and off the crockpot power to keep it steady. Used a submersible pump to keep the water moving.

But seriously, it's probably better to get a proper circulator. They are so cheap now, and you haven't tasted lobster until you've had it sous vide. Any shellfish for that matter. It just comes out so perfect.

PS. Coppercook: I've gotta make it out to stockton, man. Where are you slinging pans? (although from the looks of some pictures, you might be catering...)

I work in Lodi

[ericpmoss]

I'm full of... questions.

How reusable are the bags? I like to minimize garbage.

How tolerant of timing is it? As in, if I start potatoes too late and the steak is ready to add the grill marks, can one be sped up or slowed down or held w/o disaster?

How many baths does one need to make a meat+potato+green beans, e.g.? Does the home cook generally pick the one centerpiece dish to sous vide and do the rest conventionally?

I hear that the vacuum packing lets flavors infuse much better from herbs and sauces. What about flavor that comes from the grill -- does that need all the time char-grilling takes, or is it something that occurs in a very short time, or is it actually a very small part of what counts as good taste?

Do you ever give away barely used equipment? ;)

[Nathanrtaylor]

The good thing about any cooking method that happens at a low delta-T (the difference between the cook temp and the finishing temp) is that a few minutes on either side of "done" is insignificant. So in this case you could just hold the steak in the vacuum bag until the potatoes are ready.

One of my favorite methods of finishing a steak is to sear a cold steak at absurdly high heat and finish for a long time in a 250 degree oven. Up to an hour for a thick bone-in ribeye. It ends up medium all the way through with a thin crust of char on the outside. Perfect.

The sous vide method is the real version of the halfway method I use. The science of what happens to food at these temperatures is pretty fascinating. Especially with stuff everyone has expectations of based on years of traditional cooking methods, like eggs.

[Coppercook62]

question 1 the bags are not reusable. but you can order a vary of sizes.
question 2 it is very forgiving in timing. because the item is at a set temperature it doesn't really hurt it to go to long. I wouldn't go to long maybe a hour at the most. There is a great iphone app that gives you times and temperatures. I use it as a resource.
question 3 you 1 bath per item but that's not to say you could make your completed potatoes in a warm water bath then cook your meat. I would make the protein if I had to choose one item.
question 4 This is the beauty of sous vide you actually cook your protein in marinade. We made tacos al pastor. We cooked the pork tenderloin in its maranide came out tasty. Artichokes we cooked in a cusion, which is a flavorful broth.

no I have 4 units and its not that rare we have them all going at once.

a side note we put our potatoes in one of these
isi_2416_full_3387.jpg
it adds a really crazy texture by injecting co2
we hold the canister in a water bath at 60c

Hope that helps

[teleguy57]

Copper cook, thanks for this thread. Got me thinking about trying this method -- and then I remembered reading this Sous Vide Awesomeness | DC Rainmaker. Think I'll get my engineer/foodie son to help me play with building something....

[Coppercook62]

glad I could help

[Too Tall]

Thank you for the thread. When I get a kitchen makeover and have more space this is going to happen. In the meantime I'm dying to try some fish that will take on fresh aromatic nuances. Would you use a saschet (bag) of aromatics inside the plastic?

Also, would you mind giving a quick primer for the potatoes? I've been having fun with espuma for a few years and that sounds like a winner.

question 1 the bags are not reusable. but you can order a vary of sizes.
question 2 it is very forgiving in timing. because the item is at a set temperature it doesn't really hurt it to go to long. I wouldn't go to long maybe a hour at the most. There is a great iphone app that gives you times and temperatures. I use it as a resource.
question 3 you 1 bath per item but that's not to say you could make your completed potatoes in a warm water bath then cook your meat. I would make the protein if I had to choose one item.
question 4 This is the beauty of sous vide you actually cook your protein in marinade. We made tacos al pastor. We cooked the pork tenderloin in its maranide came out tasty. Artichokes we cooked in a cusion, which is a flavorful broth.

no I have 4 units and its not that rare we have them all going at once.

a side note we put our potatoes in one of these
isi_2416_full_3387.jpg
it adds a really crazy texture by injecting co2
we hold the canister in a water bath at 60c

Hope that helps

[Jeffrey Borisch]

a side note we put our potatoes in one of these
isi_2416_full_3387.jpg
it adds a really crazy texture by injecting co2

A sealant and an inflator all in one. I love it.

[Coppercook62]

I will post technique about potato espuma when I get home

[Coppercook62]

Sous vide espuma potatoes
4 each large Yukon gold potatoes
1 tablespoon salt

1 pounds European butter
1 pint cream
melted

place in ingredients in bag and vacuum pack
cook at 90 degrees C for 1 to 1.5 hours or until soft
run through a ricer or food mill
add some cream and butter mixture like a cup
mix
run through a flat food sieve or tamie
add more butter and cream should be pretty runny but still have consistency
taste for salt
fill pastry bag
place to fill line in canister
add 1 co2
tap the top of the whipper to get potaotes to top
release it might sputter at first if gas just comes out you need to tap a little longer
thinner will let run smoother but thicker is more dense kind of like eating butter

we found its really hard to write a consistent recipe for this and its a lot by sight and feel I think its worth the extra effort. We get about 5 servings (5 cups) per fill
we load pastry bags with potatoes so we can reload fast when we are really busy
hope that helps

[crumpton]

My interest in sous vide would be in the perfect egg. could i plop a fresh as can be egg in the immersion circulator and get the perfect most delicate extra soft boiled egg?

I do this egg on the stove top and it only succeeds about 1 in 10 tries where the white is just done enough that with extra care the entire egg can be peeled and plated say on a bed of greens or a buttered baguette but one wrong move and the whole thing just falls apart. I think +/- .1*c and knowing the T&T could do this. Anyone?

[Too Tall]

Nic,
have you tried gently cracking a egg into barely simmering water? The result may be exactly what you are looking for. When I say barely simmering it means little bubbles. You need a good fire to do that. They cook so nice, you have to try it. Use a slotted spoon to retrieve them. There is a cool trick to get the poached eggs to "form" into nice compact shapes. Just stir the water so that it circulates and pour the egg (one at a time) into the swirling water from a small saucer....takes a few tries to get it right.

If I'm making shell on hard boiled eggs I use the old school method...get water to just barely boiling lower eggs into water cover and turn off the heat and set a timer for 4 or ++ mins. to your liking.

Alton Brown has a method worth reading....but it takes too long for me. He's rarely wrong when it comes to food science and heck you are a mad scientist ;)

[spopepro]

My interest in sous vide would be in the perfect egg. could i plop a fresh as can be egg in the immersion circulator and get the perfect most delicate extra soft boiled egg? I do this egg on the stove top and it only succeeds about 1 in 10 tries where the white is just done enough that with extra care the entire egg can be peeled and plated say on a bed of greens or a buttered baguette but one wrong move and the whole thing just falls apart. I think +/- .1*c and knowing the T&T could do this. Anyone?

Yes, but the results might not be what you think. It turns out that the whites solidify at a higher temperature than yolks. Yolks stay runny because of being insulated by whites and short cook times. A 68 degree (c) egg (45min about) will resemble a loose custard with a bright, firm yolk. See onsen tamago for more details.

[Coppercook62]

Nick I did some research and this is what I came up with
Over Easy 142-146 F for 45-60 minutes (62.8C)
Poached 142F for 45-60 minutes (64.4C)
Perfect 148F for 45-60 minutes (65.6C)
Hard Boiled 149-152F for 45-60 Minutes (65.6C)

Id play around with it until you found what you like.

[Shoogs]

As a gift from left field I bought the wife a Sous Vide for Christmas, she wasn't as excited about it at first, did some reading and used it a couple of times and now she's jazzes about it. stupid easy and super tasty... we've only dipped our toe in the usage but I'm looking forward to what we can do. My sister kept talking about cucumber infused vodka over the holidays so maybe I'll try that out...