Sansaire sous vide circulator

[Raymond Lin]

Take your steak example.

You have 6 steaks on a BBQ. Would you be able to guarantee the doneness of those steaks across all 6? With resting etc included? No, you can't. You can become a really good judge of it, but not absolute.

Now cooking in the water bath you know that a steak cooked at 57*c will be medium rare.
Take the thickness of your steak and work out the cooking time:

For a 0.5 in / 1.25 cm steak this is about 15 minutes.
For a 1 in / 2.5 cm steak this is about 45 minutes
For a 1.5 in / 3.8 cm steak this is about 90 minutes.
For a 2 in / 5 cm thick steak this is about 2 hours.

Then you know for a fact, that the steak will not overcook from the chosen medium rare, because at that temp the proteins will only be in the state they are.

So you have a much more consistent result in your cooking. It also (in restaurants for example) allows you to cook these steaks (or any other food) take them out and ice them (reducing the temp right away) still in bag and they will keep then, at the doneness of your choice until you take them out and sear.

That sounds pretty idiot proof to me!

 

[randomshenans]

Why pork belly. That needs heat to crisp up.

Because you don't just need to cook pork belly like that. There are many asian dishes which use pork belly, not roasted.

 

[randomshenans]

That sounds pretty idiot proof to me!

Well I got those timings off serious eats, I'm sure you'd have to adjust and test them.

 

[glitch]

However anything under a 2" steak should not be done sous vide, as there's no way t get a decent bark on it, without destroying all the work.

Uninformed opinion presented as statement of fact, ahoy!

You can get a fantastic crust on any thickness of steak cooked in a water bath - it's purely down to technique and application of sufficient heat in a controlled manner.

like so many things as a day to day it's pointless

That's not to say its pointless far from it.

Jesus wept - make your mind up.

I love my steaks but it's not often I can buy one big enough to make sous vide worthwhile.

You're completely missing the point of sous vide. It's not all about cooking perfect steaks - that's just the USP that the media has latched on to.

You eat other food, right? Well guess what - you can cook that sous vide as well. How's that for a revelation?

Why pork belly. That needs heat to crisp up.

And it needs slow, low cooking to break down all that collagen into gelatine - cooking too fast at too high a heat forces moisture out at the expense of unctuousness.

You can crisp pork belly up in seconds. It doesn't need high heat for the entire cooking time, that's just a byproduct of achieving the results people typically want in a manner which is readily available to them.

I do want one, don't get me wrong. But I think people are over exaggerating their new toy and will soon tire off it. Other than a few tomes a year.

So why do you want one if your opinion of them is so low?

I use sous vide in my cooking on a regular basis and have done for a fairly lengthy period of time. Once you start seeing it as another tool in the kitchen and stop looking upon it as a single-purpose gadget, even you might get your head around it.

Until then you're going to come across as blinkered on the subject as you appear to be with many things. With you it often appears that a lack of understanding about how or why something works results in a sweeping statement about how pointless/rubbish/useless it is.

 

[randomshenans]

So, Glitch... sous vide recipe thread....

 

[Glaucus]

Just lol.

 

[randomshenans]

Have you been reading your replies to threads again?

 

[glitch]

I'd love to see a "Sous vide tried and tested recipes" thread... with cooking times and hints and tips. Anyone care to start?

I'd love to do this but compared to Glitch and a few others my sous vide knowledge is pretty limited. I'm also still experimenting with nearly all my recipes so I wouldn't want to post something that wasn't quite up to snuff

If I might make a suggestion, can we be careful about lumping everything into one place? Perhaps we can have a Sous Vide 101 thread and then branch off into individual threads about certain foods where people can share timings and results.

Eggs might be a good place to start for this - cheap enough to experiment with and plenty of options for both temperature and time.

It also (in restaurants for example) allows you to cook these steaks (or any other food) take them out and ice them (reducing the temp right away) still in bag and they will keep then, at the doneness of your choice until you take them out and sear.

From a food safety point of view that's exactly what you should do - if you've cooked something in a water bath and don't intend to serve it up, rapid chilling in an ice bath and refrigeration is a necessity.

From a practical point of view, and looking at steaks as the example in hand, it's probably not worth doing in a restaurant setting as you'll struggle to bring them up to the correct temperature again without going over.

Most places will keep food in the bath for as long as is practically possible and only chill those foods which can be brought up to temperature during the finishing off process - pork belly being a perfect example of that.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I don't know about you guys but I like the challenge when it comes to cooking, I like the failures as much as the success. This method seems to take all the fun out of it.

I once made ice cream and heated the custard part of the process too much and ended up with scrambled eggs. It was basil flavour ice cream and had the basil infused with the milk for 24 hours beforehand as well so I was quite gutted when that went down the bin.

Many times I cooked steak and part of it well done and part of it is pint due to the uneveness of the meat. I like nice food but equally I will eat anything, I would eat a steak bloody and totally well done just the same. I really am not fussy.

But I like that sense of achievement when it's done right. Call me weird but that's the part of the fun of cooking. Knowing it will come out perfect before I even began seems to take the fun out of it. Not to mention you don't get any of that smell of the cooking process either with this bag thing. Smells is critical to the cooking process too. For example there something about the smell of chicken roasting in the oven and have that flow through the house. The last 30 min when you know it's almost ready but can't eat it yet is the worst but the best. It's like Christmas eve so you can't open the presents.

Surely I am not the only one.

 

[glitch]

It was basil flavour ice cream and had the basil infused with the milk for 24 hours beforehand as well so I was quite gutted when that went down the bin.

Would you be more or less gutted if you knew that infusing basil in cold milk is completely pointless?

The flavour molecules of basil will only be released by heat - you could achieve the same results as your 24-hour infusion in mere minutes by gently heating the milk with the basil leaves in it.

But I like that sense of achievement when it's done right. Call me weird but that's the part of the fun of cooking. Knowing it will come out perfect before I even began seems to take the fun out of it.

That's really not the point of sous vide cooking, but you're still weird!

 

[Raymond Lin]

I infused it in warm milk too, it had gone a little green.

 

[glitch]

I like that sense of achievement when it's done right. Call me weird but that's the part of the fun of cooking. Knowing it will come out perfect before I even began seems to take the fun out of it.

I'm fast running out of ways to try and get this across to you, but sous vide cooking is not about achieving perfect results and it in no way guarantees that.

It's just another cooking method, albeit one where it is simple to heat something to a specific temperature for a chosen length of time.

Not to mention you don't get any of that smell of the cooking process either with this bag thing. Smells is critical to the cooking process too. For example there something about the smell of chicken roasting in the oven and have that flow through the house.

We all use this when we cook sous vide. Best of both worlds.

 

[lotus7]

However anything under a 2" steak should not be done sous vide, as there's no way t get a decent bark on it, without destroying all the work.

Part of tonight's meal, me and Mr Blowtorch don't agree with you.

Perfect ? Of course not, but I`m pretty happy with my first attempt.

 

[oli collett]

If you're not sure what the point of sous-vide is, you really need to try cooking some tough cuts like pork belly for a long period. This recipe is brilliant:
http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/braised-pork-belly

Add a 3 day equilibrium brine and you've got a long prep time. The results? Well, I won't bother posting pictures because it doesn't give you an idea of the texture, but it's incredible and impossible to reproduce without sous-vide.

And if you want it crispy, just finish it off in a pan straight out of the fridge or freezer.

 

[Glaucus]

Part of tonight's meal, me and Mr Blowtorch don't agree with you.

]

That proves my point, that in no way is a proper bark. Getting a proper bark on a sous vide or other method, like super low oven, is extremely hard, unless the steak is extremely thick.

I'm well aware of the point and the science behind it. And thus want one. But its another tool. Which I certainly wouldn't use a lot and certainly nit for some off the things you guys are using it for.

 

[arknor]

sous vide would end up like my slow cooker.

used once in a blue moon

 

[randomshenans]

Did this: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...uick-pickled-cucumbers-recipe.html?ref=search

Last night. 10hrs, came out this morning, iced down. Waiting for me to get home to finish it off. Will report back.

Although I'm not doing the steamed buns, I no like steam buns.

 

[lotus7]

Random, that looks amazing, I currently have two duck breasts marinating in the fridge, if I get a chance tonight I will cook them.

Moses, sorry to hear about the delay, hopefully you should get it soon.

 

[randomshenans]

Nice! I am going to get the duck out to do that later on in the week. I'm going to simply have that pork belly with a cucumber salad and prob some sweet pot roasted. As healthy as a pork belly can be...

I have a huge slab of belly left mind, so will try Oli's suggestion and maybe some other one too *googles*

 

[lotus7]

Mine's finally been shipped . I think it may be time to order a blowtorch... the electric hob in my rented flat's kitchen is just awful... or that's what I'm saying to convince myself .

You wont need a blow torch for these salmon fillets. I did n't brine them first and they still cooked to a nice shade of pink. Definitely something to make again.

http://sousvidesupreme.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/soy-and-ginger-glazed-salmon-50-degrees.html

Good luck and enjoy your cooker.