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]

[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.

[sparks]

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

[sparks]

Sorry.

Should have known it was ... ed again.

[sparks]

Yes, he's like that.

[Rob Lister]

It should manage to give it a good sear.

Saber.jpg

Maybe something exactly for that purpose.

[ed]

So what did you buy?
I got this
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073R ... UTF8&psc=1
and a bunvh of crap to go with it.

Am I going to cause the deaths of my entire family due to eating rotten meat that has been exposed to the elements? Is this another joke? Is this something akin to freezing my disk drive?

[Rob Lister]

So what did you buy?
I got this
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073R ... UTF8&psc=1
and a bunvh of crap to go with it.

Am I going to cause the deaths of my entire family due to eating rotten meat that has been exposed to the elements? Is this another joke? Is this something akin to freezing my disk drive?

I got something slightly cheaper
https://www.amazon.com/Anova-Culinary-P ... den&sr=1-4
Arrived yesterday. I trying it out as we speak on some baby back ribs. They've been cooking since 6:00 am this morning.

Dry Rub:
3 tbs dark brown sugar
1 tbs dark chili powder
1 tbs kosher salt
1 tbs basil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder

Rubbed and left to refrigerate overnight.

Brazing liquid:
1/2 cup red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon if it matters)
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tbs honey
1 tbs Worcestershire Sauce (Lea & Perrins because AC)
juice from 1/2 lemon.

Poured in large zip lock with the ribs. I couldn't get enough air out of the bag to make it sink so I weighted it down with a 2lb carved rock Santa Claus. Set the cooking temp to 150 Freedomheit for 12 hours. It should be ready by six. At which point I'll recover the drippings and reduce to a semi-thick sauce, coat the ribs, and broil them with my propane torch (hat-tip Gnome).

I have average-height hopes for the ribs. Not so much for Santa.

[ed]

We expect a full report and pictures too.

[ed]

Shit, we just redid our kitchen for precisely that purpose.

[Rob Lister]

Fucking Amazon. I just noticed when I posted that amazon link that they are charging $79 but when I go there it's



Is it because they know I'm white?

[Rob Lister]

We expect a full report and pictures too.

The bones in the upper left are because the ribs fell apart while removing from the bag.

After a taste test I can tell you this was a mile-high success.

Moist, spicy, savory, ... natural umami. I shall endeavor to do this with steak.

[ed]

Excellent.

[sparks]

That looks fantastic Rob!

Did you use standard plastic bags or (I assume not because of the air) one of those seal a meal thingies? Seems like that'd be the ticket: Prep large amounts in multiple bags ahead of time, freeze and then just pop one of the bags into the Sous Vide thingie in the morning.

[Rob Lister]

2 gallon ziplock freezer bags but I still had to cut the rack in half to fit.

[Rob Lister]

I was wary of this because the internet warned me that sous vide chicken was not the best, rubber in fact. I decided I would try anyway.

1 lb of chicken fillets and a half cup of teriyaki sauce, Trader Joe's in this case, nothing else, in a bag, cooked at 160f for 4 hours. Removed. Reduced remaining sauce to semi-thick. Pored over fillets. Brulee with propane until almost black.

It could not have been better if Giada De Laurentiis cooked it braless in a thin tank-top, if Rachael Ray had taken 60 minutes, if Alton Brown had done it in three takes, or Barefoot Contessa wore shoes.

Served with sticky rice, steamed broccoli with cheese dip, and a bread that starts with a B but I can't pronounce or spell.

Delish.

[ed]

Hmm ... we haven't used it yet.

[Rob Lister]

Well this would be the recipe to start with. Prep time is less than three minutes (two of which are setting up the pot) Finish time is about 5 minutes (one of which is the brulee. Okay, that doesn't count the rice, broccoli, cheese or bread, but whatever.

Not rubbery. Cut with a light fork. Tangy. Wonderful.

edful, even.

[ed]

How is it going? Still good?

[Rob Lister]

I've made a couple of ribeyes with it a couple of days ago. All very thick -- like two inches or so--which is hard to do on a grill. It cooks perfectly evenly to the perfect temperature. It makes its own reducible sauce too. I love it. I mean, it does take a long time but you don't have to actually watch it.

Two ribeyes, 2" thick (about four pounds)
season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and put in Ziploc bags with a few tablespoons of Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce in each.

sink the air out and sous vide for four hours (two would probably be just a good) at 145f (m.r. or or to taste).

Remove, reduce expelled sauce (they'll be about 4 tablespoons each) to about 2 tablespoons. Season to taste. While that's happening, brulee those steaks to roughly Will Smith. If you get to Wesley Snipes, you went to far.

[Rob Lister]

Allow me to recycle this thread a bit.

This youtube video is by one of my favorite youtube cooking tutors, Alex. He's right up there with Chef John and Carla from Bon-appetite.

This lesson is titled, "I Hacked My Oven To Make Professional Pizza at Home"

But if I tried it, it would be titled, "I Hacked My Oven and Burned My House Down"



Alex rocks if you're adventurous.

[ed]

You know, Rob, you posted this just before the Wuhan Flu outbreak.

There are health risks to this technique. I wonder.

BTW ... have not tried it yet. The lazy knows no bounds. That plus there don't seem to be many recipes for sous vide yogurt.