The anova is on sale again..-update

[Crusty]

Beef is OK depending on the cut. Where sous vide shines with beef is cooking less-tender cuts for extended periods of times so you can eat them like a steak. I tend to go for grass fed beef when doing sous vide since they are typically a little more lean but end up just as tender as a nicely marbled prime steak. For the latter I prefer cooking on the grill though, something about the char-broiled flavor mixed in the fat throughout the meat.

For sous vide I think chicken is perhaps the best though, there's no need to brine anymore, and you can cook it at a much lower temperature then trying to get the center to say 165F. I like to cook chicken breasts with ample seasonings for at least an hour @ 139F but really no more than 2hrs. They come out cooked just past pink and very juicy and tender.

Fish also does really well sous vide, I like salmon cooked around 115F, but I'll go a bit higher for more fleshy white fishes.

Don't forget vegetables, sous vide carrots are amazing. A totally different texture, somewhat firm but extremely tender, and an overwhelming sweet carrot flavor. You have to cook them a lot higher than meats though, I usually go for 45mins-1hr @190F
I much prefer to cook chicken and fish with my sous vide over other methods.

 

[Ichinisan]

-10 points for not providing a link or even mentioning where it's on sale

I don't even know what an "anova" is.

 

[Ns1]

Wouldn't exactly say the conditions inside a smoker possess some particular magic...

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-brisket

on one hand, the bottle of liquid smoke makes me so angry. on the other hand, the pictures in the comments are pretty impressive...

 

[olds]

What is this thing, a fancy thermometer for boiling water?

 

[DrPizza]

It doesn't come out smoked, so it's not even close to perfect. It's perfectly cooked brisket, but it damn sure isn't BBQ.

Liquid smoke.

90% of people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

[zinfamous]

A fool and his money are soon parted!

lolno

What is this thing, a fancy thermometer for boiling water?

lolno

 

[Kaido]

Liquid smoke.

90% of people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

iirc Serious Eats did something with liquid smoke at one point & nobody could tell a difference in a blind taste test. You can tell from the texture of the meat, but if you do a good job doing sous vide & then searing, along with the liquid smoke, no one will really care. Same thing with vanilla:

http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2013/12/taste-test-is-better-vanilla-extract-worth-the-price.html

Ultimately it boiled down to the artificial stuff working fine:

So what's the final word? It depends on your usage patterns. If you use vanilla regularly in baked goods like cookies and cakes, there's no reason to spring for the fancy stuff, or even the real stuff—artificial extract will do just fine. If you drink a lot of nog or make uncooked ice cream bases or cold desserts like panna cotta, you might consider buying real extract. But if all you've got on hand is artificial extract? Don't worry, just add a touch of booze to the mix (a teaspoon of vodka or bourbon for every teaspoon of extract works), and you'll do just fine.

At one point, I invested a bunch of money into vanilla products to try them out myself...quality extract, cheap extract, powder, paste, beans, etc. Long story short, the only ones I've stuck with are a huge bottle of McCormick's imitation vanilla & a sleeve of vanilla powder (I like the black speckles in my homemade vanilla ice cream & peanut butter cookies). I do appreciate vanilla beans because of the strong fragrance, but even in my fancy dishes I've never personally noticed a difference, so meh.

 

[PJFrylar]

I'm tempted to get in on this. I got the Instant Pot after hearing about it in Kaido's thread and definitely did not regret that purchase. On the other hand I don't really know anything about it. Just how good are the results?

 

[cliftonite]

Ordered it and should have it by Friday. I am going to get one of these for the water:http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Co...rue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER Is 12 qart enough for 2 - 4 people?

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I'm tempted to get in on this. I got the Instant Pot after hearing about it in Kaido's thread and definitely did not regret that purchase. On the other hand I don't really know anything about it. Just how good are the results?

Amazing.

Scientific cooking. Take all the bullshit and snobbery out of cooking and isolate the core reasons food tastes good when you cook it.

 

[Tweak155]

Can you set up a chicken breast in the morning let's say and have it start cooking at a certain time? 45 minutes cook time seems like a long time. We usually eat right after work and the whole preparation to eat time is about 45mins...

 

[zinfamous]

Ordered it and should have it by Friday. I am going to get one of these for the water:http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Co...rue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER Is 12 qart enough for 2 - 4 people?

well, that's somewhat subjective. I guess it depends on what you are planning to feed those 2-4 people, but that is a rather large vessel.

I most often use my 2 gallon steel/aluminum stock pot (3/4 that size) and cook up 2 or 3 steaks, or 4 pork chops, after cooking up a large bag or two medium bags of carrots (probably my current favorite sous vide recipe) and leaving them all in the pot while steaks are cooking. I also have a very large Cambro, similar to what you linked, but I haven't used it that often because I don't often cook in that volume, and it takes a very long time to get that volume of water up to temperature, in plastic, with evaporation. (when I do multiple items, I do veggies first, which are typically a minimum of 183F--this takes quite a while to achieve in the large Cambro. To adjust for meat, tune down the temp to target temperature and leave the veggies in the bath, or not).

For that vessel you linked, I recommend getting a lid or fashioning one yourself. Simply covering with aluminum foil is easy and effective, but the absolute best method is to adopt what you see in every molecular bio lab anywhere (from where chefs originally adopted this technology), and cover the water with floating plastic balls.


kinda like what these guys are doing, but on a much smaller scale, obv.

 

[zinfamous]

Can you set up a chicken breast in the morning let's say and have it start cooking at a certain time? 45 minutes cook time seems like a long time. We usually eat right after work and the whole preparation to eat time is about 45mins...

There is a model from Anova coming out that is supposed to allow remote control via an app, or at least have a time set up for this. The concern would be whether or not you want to leave the chicken sitting in the water bath throughout the day, then come up to temperature when it turns on, or if you'd rather add it right when it hits temperature.

The latter part isn't an issue--it just needs to sit at target temperature for the minimum time, and at what time range you prefer for texture (look at Kaido's link to sous vide steak, and then look at Kenji's sous vide chicken thread, also on Serious Eats. he has all the info you need).

To solve the first problem, you can probably just add ice to the water to make an ice bath for the chicken for ~3 or 4 hours before it turns on.

ALternatively, and this is what also makes it great: just sous vide up a week's-worth of chicken over the weekend and when it hits your target temp, quick chill it in ice water and keep in fridge for the week. Bring each out for dinner as you need them. You will still want to let them sit out or back into the sous vide to reach temp--and you also need to finish them in a pan, or broiler, however you prefer to finish up the skin.

If you stock them ahead of time and plan to finish chicken days later, you don't want to season them in advance. The salt can cure the chicken if it sits there for a few days.

 

[thesmokingman]

Thanks for this. I missed the amazon deal earlier. I was on the fence but what the hell, dooeeet. Right?

 

[Kaido]

I'm tempted to get in on this. I got the Instant Pot after hearing about it in Kaido's thread and definitely did not regret that purchase. On the other hand I don't really know anything about it. Just how good are the results?

Hmm, how to best answer that. So the Instant Pot is like a completely universal appliance. I do pasta, meat, chili, cheesecake, dulce de leche, fresh & frozen veggies, everything in it. The Anova OTOH I use primarily for meats. And like I mentioned, it make make the juiciest bland meat you've ever eaten But that's the point - like for proteins, to cook it perfectly, and then you sear, season, and sauce it as you like (or pre-sear & pre-season). And expect most foods to take an hour or two to cook (or more, depending on what you're doing), so it's not fast like the Instant Pot - but it gives you super-precious results once you dial in the specs for a certain recipe.

If your budget allows for a $129 purchase & you like to cook, it's a great investment. Mine has paid for itself just with steak...I can get a steak for $9 at the grocery store that would cost $29 at a restaurant, and mine comes out better. Do that a few times & voila, cost has been covered. So it's not like a universal do-everything gadget, but what it does, it does VERY well. Oh, and I always recommend pairing it with a cast-iron skillet (10" or 12") so you can get your sear on.

 

[Kaido]

Can you set up a chicken breast in the morning let's say and have it start cooking at a certain time? 45 minutes cook time seems like a long time. We usually eat right after work and the whole preparation to eat time is about 45mins...

No (well, maybe if you put it in an ice bath in the morning), because then you'd just have chicken sitting out in water all day. There is a new sous vide appliance coming out to address that, however. It's called Mellow:

https://www.cookmellow.com/

It has built-in refrigeration, so you can put your food in & set the time that you want it to be done. Downside is retail cost is $600 (pre-order price is $400) & it's not out until the fall. I suppose if you eat out at expensive restaurants a lot, it would pay for itself, but it's a pretty expensive gadget either way! But pretty cool that you can tell your food when you want it ready :awe:

 

[PJFrylar]

I'm already good on the cast iron front, I have a few pans of various sizes. Cost isn't really an issue, not that I can throw money like nothing, but I'm hourly so I can just sneak a few overtime hours in to pay for it.

I was more worried about the time. I'm also going to back to school part time and that eats up a lot of my time during the week. I could always do what zinfamous suggested and do a few days worth at a time. I was just worried about diminishing the superior results of cooking the meat this way. That's currently the way I usually do things during the week anyway. I cooked up a batch of drunken noodle on Tuesday, and I'll be eating that until the weekend.

I did end up ordering it, if all else fails it can be good for the weekends.

 

[Jaepheth]

I've been wanting to try out sous vide. I'm in for one.

Ziplock bags and a styrofoam cooler are fine for this, yes?

 

[Kaido]

I've been wanting to try out sous vide. I'm in for one.

Ziplock bags and a styrofoam cooler are fine for this, yes?

Yup. Although a $16 plastic food-grade bucket will last basically forever in a sous-vide setup:

http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Commercial-FG631200CLR-Space-Saving-Container/dp/B000R8JOUC

FYI: lid not needed (evaporation is a non-issue during cooking); plus I always rinse it out after cooking anyway

 

[Kaido]

I'm already good on the cast iron front, I have a few pans of various sizes. Cost isn't really an issue, not that I can throw money like nothing, but I'm hourly so I can just sneak a few overtime hours in to pay for it.

I was more worried about the time. I'm also going to back to school part time and that eats up a lot of my time during the week. I could always do what zinfamous suggested and do a few days worth at a time. I was just worried about diminishing the superior results of cooking the meat this way. That's currently the way I usually do things during the week anyway. I cooked up a batch of drunken noodle on Tuesday, and I'll be eating that until the weekend.

I did end up ordering it, if all else fails it can be good for the weekends.

Some inspiration:

http://imgur.com/a/Ou0zD

 

[Kaido]

I'm already good on the cast iron front, I have a few pans of various sizes. Cost isn't really an issue, not that I can throw money like nothing, but I'm hourly so I can just sneak a few overtime hours in to pay for it.

I was more worried about the time. I'm also going to back to school part time and that eats up a lot of my time during the week. I could always do what zinfamous suggested and do a few days worth at a time. I was just worried about diminishing the superior results of cooking the meat this way. That's currently the way I usually do things during the week anyway. I cooked up a batch of drunken noodle on Tuesday, and I'll be eating that until the weekend.

I did end up ordering it, if all else fails it can be good for the weekends.

Yeah, that's what I do, especially with chicken - I do some BSCB & then slice them up in different ways (for panini sandwiches, with pasta, on salads, with gravy, etc.) & use them for a few days, that way you only have to do two batches per week when you have a timeslot available.

 

[slag]

Back when I posted this, I sent my wife a link to the amazon page with the title "Father's Day". She did not disappoint.

It's larger than I thought it would be. Can't wait to try it out on some steak and chicken this week. So glad I finally got one.