What else to sous vide? and other and tips and tricks. Also, lemme see your SV creations

Cafe Society
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My son got a sous vide set up about a year ago and I am now a convert and regularly make meals my husband brands “restaurant quality”. Wow, that sounds conceited. It’s not me though, it’s this cooking method. Even after a year, I still remain a novice. The only thing besides meat I’ve water bathed was flan (really changed the flan from smooth jiggly to fine-grained custardy) and I’ve learned that you do not put in garlic with the meat. It gets bitter. I’ve also read that you should remove the acid in your marinade if you want to cook your meat in it as you will stand a good chance of ending up with an unwanted texture.

What else can I try? Perfectly timed eggs? Super crisp asparagus? Brisket? Show me! Here’s my picture of a cheap sirloin cap sous’d and pan fried. My son made the compound butter.

Imgur

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I wonder what the result would be if one was to drop one of those tubes of hamburger in as is.

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Pretty sure you’d get a grey, gross and flavorless mass of probably juicy meat mush. Although now I’m thinking of doing meatballs kinda like this. Make the balls like usual, put them in a vac bag and then either oven them or fry them. Interesting.

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I haven’t used mine in a while and, actually, haven’t done much cooking of any significance in a while, either. But don’t discount vegetables. Carrots and beets both turned out really well. Veggies take a higher temperature to cook than meats so be careful mixing the two like, say, jalapeno burgers or garlic studding a roast. The meat is fully cooked but the veggies are, if at all, barely softened.

Some years ago, a friend and I invested in some beef plate ribs for a 24 hour cook. I can’t find the recipe* at the moment but it had a sauce with veal demi glace (store bought), red wine, mirepoix and was amazing. However, it was then that I learned that those styrofoam coolers leak like crazy over time and there was a bit of a mess. They’re also flimsy for moving in a hurry like if, say, trying to drag outside from all the leaking. Don’t use a foam cooler for more than a couple hours and count on it leaking at least a little bit.

*Fake edit due to some txts between said friend and myself:
It was similar to one:
Make The Most Of Your Weekend And Braise These Short Ribs

Another friend makes the single-serving egg bites for a quick breakfast. Whisk some eggs and anything else you’d like in an omelet: gruyere, bacon, ham, sauted vegetables, you name it. He gave me a couple once and they were quite good. I found the jars really difficult to fully clean, where the top of the egg surface meets the wall of the jar left a line that was hard to see when wet (like during cleaning) but I really only cared since they were borrowed jars I was returning and wouldn’t have bothered if they were mine.

Things I tried that were mostly not worth the extra time and/or effort: salmon, baby potatoes, sausages (just simmer in beer instead), I think I tried chicken wings once and only once, poached eggs (though I think I’m simply not particularly a fan), I can take or leave hamburgers and chicken breast.

There’s a very friendly and medium-active subreddit which I can recommend:
Reddits SousVide Community

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Love the subreddit and is where I got the idea for a picture thread. Single serving jars of egg? Gotta find me wee little jars and send my hubby to work with a cool snack.

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Steak has been my most successful as one can dial it in the exact rareness, and it’s the same time after time. Ribs, rack of lamb, ox tail, etc are all pretty good depending on how skilled you are at finishing. If you’re into soft boiled eggs, then can also dial in the doneness and they have a long window where they stay good. Alt-Kenji Lopez has a lot of good research and on the sous vide process and recipes

Most of the veggies have been mediocre at best.

Trouble with most sous vide sites is they claim every recipe is the best evah. Menudo, burrito’s, creme bruele, ice cream, ad nauseum. :rofl:

Will watch this thread for some new ideas.

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This is the main use I get out of mine. Work out the perfect time/temperature combo to get eggs exactly how you like them - The Guide to Sous Vide Eggs | The Food Lab. You can then have perfect cooked eggs sitting in the fridge. They keep for days. Just crack them over dishes cold or reheated in hot water. Perfect in summer for salads and noodle dishes.

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Love it! It’s how I finally got a properly cooked chicken breast for the first time in my entire life. Also, salmon and pork chops. Overcooked salmon or pork chops are awful. I had a chunk of salmon in my freezer for months that I was afraid to cook until I got the sous vide stick.

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I’ve dabbled with eggs and carrots and stuff but really only use it for meat. I’ve heard over and over again from friends “That’s the best chicken breast I ever ate.” Pulled pork also gets a lot of comments.

I often make a big pot of chicken breasts and keep a few in the fridge (they will keep for three weeks) and freeze the rest to reheat later; no microwave, just bring up to serving temperature in the sealed bag using the sous vide unit or hot tap water (mine is 140F so works just fine).

A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking by Baldwin has a huge amount of information. I strongly suggest just using his online guide … his book was a big disappointment.

https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

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What temp and how long did you cook the salmon? I make salmon filets in the 122-125 range that go from frozen to pulled from the water in a little over an hour (or fresh in 45 minutes) and it is far superior to any other cooking method I’ve tried. I considered it game changing, to be honest. Sometimes I sear it for a minute if I feel like getting a skillet dirty, but sometimes I simply remove it from the pouch and drizzle with olive oil and/or lemon.

I also like that chicken breasts can be cooked to just 145 degrees without safety issues. Once the entire breast spends 9 minutes (I typically cook breasts for around 2 hours, so this is easy to hit) at that temperature it is just as safe as an oven cooked breast at 165.

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I haven’t personally gotten into the world of sous vide yet, but here is a collection of Lifehacker articles from a series called “Will It Sous Vide” that may get your creative juices flowing. :

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Thanks everyone. Also it seems this bunch is above taking glamour shots of their food. Except for me, that is.

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I was gifted an instant pot, the duo crisp that comes with the air fryer lid. I’ve pressure cooked, air fried and broiled with success so far.

There’s a sous vide button that Id like to try. I’m assuming I need a sealable bag to cook in. Ziplock okay? Or is there a sous vide bag one hs to use. Are they reusable?

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I use Ziplock bags. My son likes playing with his bag sealing gadget. For Ziplock I do the water displacement method. Fill the bag, partially zip it up and submerge in water, forcing the air out. Be careful not to get water in the bag.

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Ziplock works fine as long as it’s a relatively short cook (under 6 hours or so) and you get the air out of the bag. If I’m doing a really long cook I prefer vacuum sealed bags.

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Here is a decidedly unglamorous shot of sous vide corned beef. No nitrates, so it doesn’t have that pink color. It’s mostly just grey—that overcooked meat color—even though it is not overcooked.

Corned beef is about a 2 week cook. A 10 day brine, and then 2-3 days to cook it. I used to make it whenever brisket went on sale below $2 or $3/pound (I don’t remember, but it hasn’t been that cheap in years). I think it’s Kenji Lopez-Alt that has tables about varying temperature and time to get the desired texture.

I’ve done little jars of individual cheese cakes that are layers of graham cracker crust with the custard filling. They tasted fine, but the custard texture was off. I never bothered again, because it was all of the trouble of making a cheesecake, but a more complicated cook than just sticking a pie in the oven.

Burgers worked really well, but is only worth the trouble for a lot of burgers. I got a bunch of thick preformed patties. Sealed them in ziplocks. Cooked them for a few hours at 135 or so. When it was time to eat, I pulled them out, gave them 30 seconds per side in a very hot skillet, and had a dozen burgers at perfectly medium all ready at once.

Another time I did a bunch of chicken legs for a party. I pre-cooked a whole bunch in the sous vide to whatever is the right temperature with some seasoning and stuff. Then the day of the party I put them under the broiler until the skin was crispy. No need to worry about the meat being cooked, as it was already perfect.

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Yeah, that’s the thing with sous vide meats. They do NOT look good coming out of the bath. I usually blast my cast iron pan to screaming hot, oil smoking and finish the meat in that.

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I don’t recall the temp and time because it was shortly after I got my circulator in early 2016. But I would have been using the guidelines of the time. It would probably be a good idea to try it again. I just updated a salmon thread to include how I usually cook it but maybe there’s a better way.

The SV was fine but, IMHO, not worth the extra hassle of more time and bags and pots and all of it. I’ll try it again but broiling is so easy and fast.

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I forgot about Japanese Hotspring Onsen Tamago eggs. AIO sous vide - Onsen tamago - YouTube

Sous vide is also great for taking a frozen steak or other piece of meat and straight into the sous vide. Kinda combine the defrost and the cook.

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Sous vide carrots are one of those dishes that have been universally liked. They’re very intensely carroty, and cooked just-so.

I personally like sous-vide fish, but my wife isn’t convinced. Sous vide steaks aren’t worth the trouble, if you have the time to reverse sear. Basically it accomplishes the same thing, but dries out the surface in the bargain, giving you a more crusty and flavorful sear than sous-vide does.