Hacking the Sous-vide method with a beer cooler

[bocarider]

Having had sous-vide prepared foods in a number of different restaurants, I wanted to do it home, but the price of an immersion circulator was cost prohibitive (plus I needed (wanted) new wheels and had to get the wife a comparable set). I found a great hack on seriouseats.com which was replicated in the LA Times today. I ended up with a set of Zipp 101s and an effective method of sous-vide cooking all in one weekend.

I've done this with chicken, a couple of different cuts of steak and shrimp.


Sous-vide - latimes.com

Here is the original food lab post:

Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World's Best (and Cheapest) Sous-Vide Hack | Serious Eats


The best result was an aged NY Strip that I got from Whole Foods, cooked in the water bath and then seared off in a hot pan with a little butter for about 45 secs per side. The chicken was pretty good too, the shrimp, not so much.

I set it up on a Sunday morning, went out for our usual Sunday morning bike ride. We got home, showered up and and then I seared off the steak and served it with some scrambled eggs as a post ride brunch to my wife. It was a big hit.

Give it a try, you'll be surprised at the results.

[WadePatton]

Hmmm, wasn't aware of this technique. Appears to be very difficult to over/under cook-which removes one hurdle to great food. Still reading.

[HSTFixed]

You can do it on the stove with a regular pot. Keep the flame low and keep ice cubes on hand if the temp gets too high. The only difficulty I can see with Home Sous-Vide is that you have to be there watching it and some things need to be sous-vide for a while. You don't have to have a vacuum sealer, you can use saran wrap, or a regular zip-lock bag. You just need to get as much air out as possible.

[WadePatton]

coupla thoughts i've had 'bout giving it a few tries: cooler inside a cooler. i have vacuum zip locks. free hot water when i'm making Q.

i'll certainly be "hacking" if i'm playing this one.