Sous Vide

[Rob Lister]

As you might not know, I'm quite the home chef. Having an amazingly demanding wife that can't boil water without burning it^* AND having raised three very picky-eater kids AND having watched at least 10,000 hours of the Food Network AND having been raised by a southern mom that required my four siblings and me to take turns helping her cook full meals at least four nights a week, I learned to cook. And while I hated it way back when, I love it now, when I'm in the mood, which is usually, or at least a good degree of sometimes.

But I've never used a sous-vide system. That's going to change this month at the latest?

I'm about to buy something like this...



as a starter. $90 cheap on the Amazon.

Do any of you have any experience with sous-vide? I'd love your input.

My first dish will be baby-back ribs.



* Okay, she's a little better than that but she uses ever fucking pot, pan, bowl, etc, to cook even the simplest of dishes and she doesn't clean as she goes because our agreement is that whoever cooks doesn't have to do the dishes. It is easier for me to both cook and clean than it is for me just to clean after she just cooks. There, I said it, and I'm not taking it back.

[ed]

What is it?

[ed]

Ah! A 0-th World cooking product.

Interesting concept. We love the slow cooker. Seems similar in concept, no?

[Rob Lister]

Kinda. It cooks food to a precise temperature, fast or slow. A steak would be done to perfection whether you cooked it for 20 minutes or 2 hours. If you've eaten at a high-end steak house in the last decade, your meat was cooked sous-vide. They load up a few tanks with pre-seasoned steaks in vacuum packaging set to different doneness and keep them all in waiting--hours if necessary. When you order, they take one out and sear it on the grill or under a very hot broiler for a couple of minutes. Perfection every time.

For ribs, you want them cooked low and slow. You can set the sous-vide to cook at exactly 155° Freedomheit for as long as it takes to completely break down the collagen. Most recipes call for 12 to 24 hours.

[ed]

Ok rob, I think you are leading me on a bit.

How does a steak fit into that thing?

Are you going to mock me when I buy one and then cant use it?

I am nervous.

[ed]

If its calibrated in freedomheit I feel a bit better

[Rob Lister]

You clip it to the side of most any suitable container and fill it with water. Or even something dedicated.

[Rob Lister]

[Abdul Alhazred]

It's great.

Now if someone fucks up the recipe they can blame the computer.

[Fid]

Since the food is in a plastic bag it is essentially "boiled" without coming into contact with water. Interesting, as I do love me some ribs but have never quite got the 12 to 24 hours thing down. We expect a full report with pictures.

(no I don't eat ribs with a knife and fork)

[ed]

I didn't have good home made ribstill I got a smoker. But how to you get ribs without smoke and charring? Toss them in the oven or on the grill for a few?

Sounds like more work.

Incidentally, my personal injun totem has been identified

litsl-6.jpg

[Fid]

I didn't have good home made ribstill I got a smoker. But how to you get ribs without smoke and charring? Toss them in the oven or on the gril...

Coal tar chemistry has advanced far beyond saccharin and synthetic vanilla...but seriously, good question.

Oh and your spirit sloth needs algae.

[gnome]

It should manage to give it a good sear.

Saber.jpg

[Witness]

Do any of you have any experience with sous-vide? I'd love your input.

No experience. But be careful:

Safety

Food safety is a function of both time and temperature; a temperature usually considered insufficient to render food safe may be perfectly safe if maintained for long enough. Some sous-vide fish recipes, for example, are cooked below 55 °C (131 °F). However, people with compromised immunity should never eat food that has not been properly pasteurized. Women eating food cooked sous-vide while pregnant expose themselves and/or their fetus to risk and thus may choose to avoid unpasteurized recipes.[8]

Clostridium botulinum bacteria can grow in food in the absence of oxygen and produce the deadly botulinum toxin, so sous-vide cooking must be performed under carefully controlled conditions to avoid botulism poisoning.[12] Generally speaking, food that is heated and served within four hours is considered safe, but meat that is cooked for longer to tenderize must reach a temperature of at least 55 °C (131 °F) within four hours and then be kept there for sufficient time, in order to pasteurize the meat.

Pasteurization kills the botulism bacteria, but the possibility of hardy botulism spores surviving and reactivating once cool remains a concern as with many preserved foods, however processed. For that reason, Baldwin's treatise specifies precise chilling requirements for "cook-chill", so that the botulism spores do not have the opportunity to grow or propagate. Pasteurized food can then be stored for up to two weeks at around 3 °C (37 °F) sealed within the vacuum pack.[8]

Endocrine disruptors

Most plastics release estrogenic chemicals that act as endocrine disruptors when heated.[13] The degree of danger posed is controversial, with some sources advocating the avoidance of cooking in plastic,[14][15] while others state that plastic bags are "perfectly safe".[16]

Keep us posted.

[Abdul Alhazred]

I didn't have good home made ribstill I got a smoker. But how to you get ribs without smoke and charring? Toss them in the oven or on the grill for a few?

Sounds like more work.

Incidentally, my personal injun totem has been identified

litsl-6.jpg

Are they good eatin'?

[sparks]

Got a file name there AA, but no real file. Any ideas?

[Abdul Alhazred]

Got a file name there AA, but no real file. Any ideas?

From ed's post.

[sparks]

Sorry.

Should have known it was ... ed again.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Now it's in his sig.

[sparks]

Yes, he's like that.