Sous Vide

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Replies

  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    just_Tomek wrote: »
    acpgee wrote: »
    just_Tomek wrote: »
    Combine the Sous Vide with your BBQ and you'll have THE BEST steak you've ever made in your life!
    https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/beef-and-bison-recipes/sous-vide-que-ribeye-steak-recipe

    Nope not BBQ. A very very hot skillet. Either cast iron or carbon. Something that will allow you to do a VERY hot quick sear.

    What temperature do you like to take the pan to on a infrared laser thermometer to get a good sear? I get my non stick stone lined pans to 205C regularly, though the manufacturer says you can take them to 260C. Might need to get a cast iron one if I want to go higher. My carbon steel wok is too big and cumbersome for searing sous vide meats.

    I have not checked the temp to be honest, but its kitchen exhaust fan full on and there is smoke :) Quick I mean 10 second per side to get you crust. Otherwise you will overcook whatever you just made.

    Try 1.5" beef tenderloin steak in the sous vide at 132F for 1-3 hours and then pat dry, salt and pepper, and the quick sear. You will not need a knife. Like butter and perfect done top to bottom.

    My carbon steel wok starts smoking badly at 240C measured with the infrared thermometer, which is the smoking point of the oils I used to season it.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    Okay.

    Just got a Lodge cast iron frying pan because I was worried I couldn't get any of my pans to a high enough temperature to sear off sous vide steak. The Lodge is pre-seasoned so you can use it straight out of the box. They season with refined soy oil and I could get the surface temperature to 250C according to the infra red thermometer without smoking. Clearly I need to start seasoning cast iron and carbon pans in avocado oil which smokes at 270C.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    just_Tomek wrote: »
    acpgee wrote: »
    Okay.

    Just got a Lodge cast iron frying pan because I was worried I couldn't get any of my pans to a high enough temperature to sear off sous vide steak. The Lodge is pre-seasoned so you can use it straight out of the box. They season with refined soy oil and I could get the surface temperature to 250C according to the infra red thermometer without smoking. Clearly I need to start seasoning cast iron and carbon pans in avocado oil which smokes at 270C.

    With my Lodge, I strip whatever the factory applied and re-seasoned it with avocado oil. No issues.

    Do you strip off old seasoning on cast iron the way you season a new carbon wok by burning off the factory coating of machine oil? I ask because I have clearly done my wok a disservice as I am limited at what temperature I can heat it to by seasoning with an oil that smokes at 240C.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    So I tried skin on boneless chicken breasts tonight as we need to hunt a bit to find thick steaks where I am. I followed the recommendations of Serious Eats. Definitely the best way to cook whole chicken breasts. Though following the Serious Eats guidelines I cooked at 63C, and next time will definitely take the @DX2JX2 recommendation to cook at 60C for a less traditional texture.

    Nonetheless whole chicken breasts are not my favourite way to deal with chicken breast. I still prefer a Chinese stir fry following a gong bao chicken recipe, where the sliced chicken has been dry brined and coated in cornstarch a few hours prior to cooking. If you velvet the chicken (coat in cornstarch) you need to use a really good non stick pan as otherwise scraping the baked on starch will drive you mad.

    Next sous vide experiments will be steak if I can find some thick ones and beef rendang braised in a bag as we struggle to keep it at the right temperature when we cook this in other people's ovens.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    Second attempt with sous vide cooking.
    ph4tfzqez44c.jpeg
  • Soon2BSuper
    Soon2BSuper Posts: 1,767 Member
    just_Tomek wrote: »
    Combine the Sous Vide with your BBQ and you'll have THE BEST steak you've ever made in your life!
    https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/beef-and-bison-recipes/sous-vide-que-ribeye-steak-recipe

    Nope not BBQ. A very very hot skillet. Either cast iron or carbon. Something that will allow you to do a VERY hot quick sear.

    My BBQ does the perfect reverse sear everytime....just saying. ;)
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    Thanks for all the advice @just_Tomek.

    Found a 1 inch rump steak which I dry brined, then sous vide at 55.5C for 1.5 hours and reversed seared on a 240C pan. I probably won't go back to conventional steak cooking unless really pressed for time. Hubby actually doesn't care for steak, but he liked it from the sous vide.

    Another convenient thing about cooking steak sous vide. Normally I eat my steaks blue and the hubby likes his medium to medium well (see, he really doesn't like steak). Sous vide, we were both happy with medium rare.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    The next sous vide experiment I want to try is beef rendang, which is my hubby's speciality. Our typical gift for new parents is an afternoon of batch cooking to fill up their freezer with meals. We get a lot of requests for beef rendang, which we know how to cook in our own oven but struggle in someone else's. If our oven, if the thermostat is set to 130C the braising liquid inside the lidded casserole is 83C and holding that temperature for 3 hours results in perfect rendang.

    To do this sous vide, my instinct says sear the beef, then ziplock it with the curry paste and coconut milk and sous vide at 83C for three hours. However, when I google sous vide curry recipes the consensus seems to be lower temperature and much longer.

    https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/sous-vide-curry-lamb-shoulder-steak

    Any recommendations welcome.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    Beef rendang was still tough after 3 hours at 83C, so ended up pan frying some fish for dinner. Let the rendang go another 20 hours at 65C and it was okay but not super soft. Next time will just try lower temperature overnight.

    The good news is the stringy leftovers from my first sous vide attempt of a topside roast was rescued by another 10 hours in the water bath.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    Discovered the air fryer is good for reverse searing irregularly shaped meats such as rack of lamb that is hard to sear in a pan. Takes a good 15 minutes to heat up to 200C for searing.
  • plythacur
    plythacur Posts: 32 Member
    I frequently buy the club packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts, season them, and freeze them in sous vide bags for easy weeknight dinners. I always start with salt and pepper then add sub sauce, rosemary and lemon, garlic and sage, cumin lime and garlic, creole seasoning, or some other combo. Just add about 30 minutes to your normal cook time to account for them being frozen ahead of time.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    edited March 2020
    Efficient idea to prep bags in advance. Any disadvantage of just pulling them out of the freezer in the morning and letting them defrost in the fridge while you're at work?
  • StatChicBayes
    StatChicBayes Posts: 343 Member
    Chicken, turkey breast, and salmon are all great (although I still prefer atlantic salmon cooked on my Big Green Egg, but this is a nice alternative if it is too rainy to get the grill going)

    Scallops - cooked at 120 for 30 minutes! perfectly done! Can sear in a hot cast iron skillet, place under a broiler or use a blow torch if you want to brown.

    Shitake mushrooms are fantastic! (add a little soy sauce + rice wine to season and cook for 30 minutes at 185) so tender! (what's really nice is that you can skip adding oil to reduce fat content with mushrooms and lots of other vegetable)

    Lots of great recipes from Anova Culinary (just google). My only disaster was with squid one time - it turned to mush!
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member

    Have discovered the sous vide has made duck confit manageable for home cooking. Previously a dish I only ate in restaurants. In the sous vide bag, you only need a tablespoon of duck or goose fat as opposed a pint or more needed to submerge the meat slow cooked the traditional way. I do a large batch, portion and toss into the freezer. When you want to eat, defrost and finish under the broiler or in the air fryer for 15 minutes to crisp up the skin. Roast potatoes that have been par boiled for 3 minutes and tossed in a little of the duck fat can be done at the same time.


  • walkie_eggs
    walkie_eggs Posts: 7 Member
    edited November 2021
    Sous vide is great for meal prep, a few packs of chicken thighs at 165F for 1.5hrs with salt and pepper (maybe some garlic powder) and you have protein for a week at the cost of about 5-6 minutes of prep. Do a pork shoulder and you have great pulled pork (and some excellent pork fat/broth if you strain and keep the juices!).

    One of my favorite things to do is carrots, it takes a while to get up to temp but the carrots come out better than anything you can get in a restaurant: https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-glazed-carrots-recipe . A tip for getting up to high heat quickly, don't rely on the immersion circulator to get up there, it'll take an hour or more for low-power circulators and poorly-insulated containers to get there. Put water into a stock pot, put it on the stove on high heat and let the circulator help, cut the heat about 5-10F before the target temp, and then put the food in.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,551 Member
    I tried the sous vide carrots and they were terrific. Thank you @walkie_eggs.