What's new

Experiences with Sous Vide cooking?

murchmb

murchmb

I was poking around on the Small Screen Network for Speakeasy related topics and ran into the video on perfect poached eggs. One thing led to another and I ended up reading through a bunch of websites/blogs/forums on Sous Vide cooking. A couple of links are below. Being somewhat geeky, the DIY cooker looked interesting to be, especially since it's $425 less than the cheapest home unit. Does anyone have any experience with this style of cooking? If it's good enough for Thomas Keller, ...


DIY Immersion Cooker

Sous Vide Meat

Perfect Poached Eggs

Keller's Book on Amazon
 
Scotto

Scotto

You can hack the method with a beer cooler. There are a bunch of articles on Serious Eats by Kenji Alt which go through it.

It works amazingly well. Impossible to overcook anything, and things can be made a long time in advance, just needing a final sear after coming out of their bath. Certain textures and tastes are impossible to create in other methods. Vegetables are unlike anything you have ever tasted, since there is no moisture loss whatsoever during cooking.

Like your steak at precisely 128 degrees with no grey bands around the outside? Trivial. No mysteries about when that piece of chicken are cooked through, and fish becomes a no brainer. It is definitely a restaurant technique that is going to catch on more and more with home cooks as time goes on.
 
davecmu

davecmu

Scotto said:
You can hack the method with a beer cooler. There are a bunch of articles on Serious Eats by Kenji Alt which go through it.

It works amazingly well. Impossible to overcook anything, and things can be made a long time in advance, just needing a final sear after coming out of their bath. Certain textures and tastes are impossible to create in other methods. Vegetables are unlike anything you have ever tasted, since there is no moisture loss whatsoever during cooking.

Like your steak at precisely 128 degrees with no grey bands around the outside? Trivial. No mysteries about when that piece of chicken are cooked through, and fish becomes a no brainer. It is definitely a restaurant technique that is going to catch on more and more with home cooks as time goes on.
Click to expand...


Alright, I just killed 40 minutes reading that site and many of the comments. What an awesome idea, and as a homebrewer, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this earlier. I'm DEFINITELY doing steaks on Sunday with this. Thanks for the link, Scotto!
 
T

TonyH

When I was at CIA, I spent a couple of days playing around with Sous Vide, and had a great time with it. I did a beef tenderloin rubbed with truffle oil. We did eggs. We did fish. I even attempted a rabbit paté, but was too hungover to pull it off. I'd love to be able to do it at home, but it just isn't really practical.
 
Spacegeezer

Spacegeezer

I don't believe I've had the pleasure of trying anything cooked via this method. In general, though, I'm opposed to the massive plastic waste that seems to be part and parcel of the technique - not to mention the idea of chemicals leaching out of the plastics into my food. Other than that, it seems very cool.
 
M

mcandre

I've done something similar with beef tenderloin, just wrap in cling film and cook and keep in an oven at the right temperature until needed. Some folks like to sear it first some leave the searing until it's needed.

There's a diy kit out there for converting a rice/slow cooker into a sous vide cooker.
 
letterk

letterk

One of the most interesting meals I've ever had was at WD-50 in New York, which included food prepared this style.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

danek
First impressions of cooking sous vide and a healthy discount on most popular device.
2
Replies
22
Views
3K
Merle
Merle
Top Bottom