First impressions of cooking sous vide and a healthy discount on most popular device.

[danek]

I recently purchased an immersion sous vide device from Chef Steps called Joulle.
These devices aren't new, but I've never cooked this way before, and I think it's FANTASTIC - for certain things.

This thing rocks the protein portion of a meal! Your trimmed and seasoned protein goes in a bag (open Ziplock, vacuum sealed pouch, etc) along with desired flavoring ingredients, and then submerged in a water bath heated and circulated by this little gadget. When the food reaches desired temperature, merely finish by searing in a rocket-hot pan and serve.

Recent meal was a pork chop, salt/pepper, 2 crushed garlic clove, rosemary sprig, and olive oil. It was vacuum sealed, rested a day or two in fridge, and then warmed to 135 degrees F and finished seared with butter. The best chop I ever made!!!

However: 1) this thing does a few things great; don't try to force it to do something that's better done in a traditional manner. People poach eggs with it - easier and better results are done traditionally. Bread - ridiculous. Pasta/Rice - why bother? Just because you CAN cook something this way doesn't mean you should.

2) This particular brand is a little gimmicky. You must use an app to turn it on, set temperature, time, etc. I don't need an app to use my stove or oven, why not just put on on/off and temp setting dial on it?

3) The most popular make of these is currently on sale, almost 40% off; I wish I had seen this earlier. https://anovaculinary.com/store/

It's similar to braising in concept, but at such low and precise temps, that tender or lean cuts are cooked to perfect temp without risk of over-cooking. It also uses almost no liquid touching the food (a tablespoon or two of olive oil), so flavors imparted (garlic, onion, herb, etc) are VREY pronounced.

 

[ouch]

Actually, sous vide is considered the best method for boiled eggs, as you can make repeatable products to a specific degree.

 

[G-Dogg]

No need for gimmicks IMO. I use a vacuum sealer and then put the package in an ordinary saucepan with a simple dial thermometer like those used in a coffee shop. We have an induction hob which is very controllable, so it's easy to keep the temperature at the required level.

It's particularly good way to get meat to your preferred degree of cooking and then you can sear it very quickly to give it a crust.

 

[jjking54]

The gadget nerd and foodie in me wants to order this, though I've never even thought of using one of these.

BTW ... at the link posted above, I got a pop up chat that said something like "Chat me for even more off the price" ... and I got a code for an extra $10 off ... making the price for the Bluetooth one $99

 

[natenaaron]

This just might get me to order one. Been really wanting to try it and not heating the houseup with a stovein the summer is my idea of a good thing.

 

[BSAGuy]

Sounds interesting. I have never heard of this technique.

 

[Shave_Rat]

I have a few friends that have jumped on the sous vide bandwagon, and they really like it. There was an Alton Brown episode of Good Eats way back where he used an electric frying pan to poach fish, the idea being the same as the sous vide... since the temp of the pan never went above the temp that would over cook the fish, it would come out perfect every time. I've often wondered if that could be used to rig up the same sort of cooking environment as the sous vide without buying the gadgety sort of setup.

 

[G-Dogg]

It's also a really good way of cooking tougher (but really flavoursome) cuts of meat that need longer and slower cooking to break down the connective tissue, but which can dry out in a conventional oven. And for doing a confit of duck legs, there's nothing better: it's usually a very messy process, but a cinch in a sous-vide.

 

[Hoka Hey]

I have a few friends that have jumped on the sous vide bandwagon, and they really like it. There was an Alton Brown episode of Good Eats way back where he used an electric frying pan to poach fish, the idea being the same as the sous vide... since the temp of the pan never went above the temp that would over cook the fish, it would come out perfect every time. I've often wondered if that could be used to rig up the same sort of cooking environment as the sous vide without buying the gadgety sort of setup.

You could get pretty close with a precision thermometer, pot of water. Would just be fiddley to get stovetop to exact temp you want.

 

[jjking54]

So this may be getting off into the weeds a bit ... but a question.

When your protein reaches the desired temp, and you take it out of the bag and then go to sear it ... searing it doesn't elevate the "doneness" beyond what you already set it at, does it?

 

[jjking54]

Well ... resistance is/was futile.

The kicker was being able to pay with Amazon Pay. I also played with the app a bit and I like it, the interface, the ability to just search for a protein type and basically set it and forget it.

 

[ouch]

Sounds interesting. I have never heard of this technique.

Hmmm. I concur.

 

[takeshi]

Steak seem to be a very popular sous vide topic but any meat that can easily be dried out/overcooked does really well and is easy and convenient with sous vide: pork (even really thick chops), chicken, fish, etc. I've never had problems overcooking my salmon but it's even better sous vide. I generally don't care for white meat on a chicken but I like it sous vide.

The other big benefit IMO is that the cooking window is fairly large for many items so it takes a long time to overcook. For example, chicken breasts can cook for 2-3 hours without overcooking even on the long end and would probably be fine even out to 4 hours or more. That means that if dinner is done and my wife is running late I can just let it sit in the bath until she comes home and then sear and serve when ready. It's not unusual for that to happen to me if she's working with a client near the end of her day.

It's also handy to be able to prep dinner with the meat and seasoning/marinade and let it sit in its pouch/bag until ready to throw it in the bath. There are many time that I do this prep on my lunch break while I'm at the house and then drop it in the bath shortly after getting home from work.

However: 1) this thing does a few things great; don't try to force it to do something that's better done in a traditional manner. People poach eggs with it - easier and better results are done traditionally. Bread - ridiculous. Pasta/Rice - why bother? Just because you CAN cook something this way doesn't mean you should.

I enjoy "Will it sous vide?" on Lifehacker. Not saying I'd try everything but if someone gets a kick out of it then what harm does it do to you?

This particular brand is a little gimmicky. You must use an app to turn it on, set temperature, time, etc.

I have the Anova and while it does have an app (which can be handy in some cases) it can be used without the app.

No need for gimmicks IMO.

Not so much gimmick as convenience IMO. I don't prioritize convenience in some of my other fields of interest. Shaving is obviously one of them as I'm on this site. I prefer rowing my own gears while driving. I don't care for pushbutton coffee solutions. However, when it comes to cooking I would rather have the convenience of a sous vide circulator. That said, I might also feel different if we had an induction cooktop instead of a radiant.

When your protein reaches the desired temp, and you take it out of the bag and then go to sear it ... searing it doesn't elevate the "doneness" beyond what you already set it at, does it?

Depends on how you sear it and what you're using to sear. I've never had that problem with a torch. Our grill, however, does have a tendency to overcook because it is underpowered and takes so long to sear. I've used the technique of frequent flipping to try to mitigate but even that doesn't help much. A better grill should be fine. I've had good results with a chimney charcoal starter. I think my cast iron would be fine but I was having problems with I didn't do a great job of re-seasoning. Hopefully I can try it soon.

I'd recommend checking out the "Tested" video on searing a sous vide steak.

 

[jjking54]

I have the "wife working late" thing to deal with too ... so that'll be helpful for sure. And I work from home, so getting something started in the afternoon and letting it do its thing until dinner is very appealing.

As for searing ... I'll either use a cast iron skillet on the stove (though, we have electric elements I'm not terribly fond of ... though I do imagine they get hot enough) ... or I can start a small, but ripping charcoal fire either in the Weber, or as you noted, a charcoal chimney.

Thanks for the info!

 

[djh]

I have the "wife working late" thing to deal with too ... so that'll be helpful for sure. And I work from home, so getting something started in the afternoon and letting it do its thing until dinner is very appealing.

As for searing ... I'll either use a cast iron skillet on the stove (though, we have electric elements I'm not terribly fond of ... though I do imagine they get hot enough) ... or I can start a small, but ripping charcoal fire either in the Weber, or as you noted, a charcoal chimney.

Thanks for the info!

Seeing as the meat is already warm through and cooked the desired degree, your sear is probably a matter of 30 seconds each side. Hardly worth building a fire, but a scorching hot pan would be perfect.

 

[danek]

So this may be getting off into the weeds a bit ... but a question.

When your protein reaches the desired temp, and you take it out of the bag and then go to sear it ... searing it doesn't elevate the "doneness" beyond what you already set it at, does it?

That's exactly the trick: to not elevate the "doneness" during the searing process. The only way to do this is searing as hot and fast as you can manage. Get that skillet as hot as you dare - 800+ if you've got the means and the nerve. Pat dry the food, then sear in a little fat. It'll splatter and smoke, but it only takes a couple of minutes.

I also set the sous vide just a touch more rare than the desired final temp, to buy a little wiggle room during searing.

 

[danek]

I have the "wife working late" thing to deal with too ... so that'll be helpful for sure. And I work from home, so getting something started in the afternoon and letting it do its thing until dinner is very appealing.

You're going to love this thing. Put the main course in the bath at 4:00 and finish when she gets home at 7:43.

As for searing ... I'll either use a cast iron skillet on the stove (though, we have electric elements I'm not terribly fond of ... though I do imagine they get hot enough) ... or I can start a small, but ripping charcoal fire either in the Weber, or as you noted, a charcoal chimney.

While I use cast iron all the time, the charcoal chimney would be fantastic!!

 

[ReapersBlade]

I have the Anova branded sous-vide and I use it a lot. It's great for doing everything from simple pork chops to racks of ribs. I've done ribs that ran for 36 hours in it and I had to keep everyone at bay when they got done.

 

[jjking54]

Thanks gents ... I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about this

 

[Hoka Hey]

I think one of the coolest aspects is that sealing in the herbs, spices, what not, they infuse the meat, instead of being cooked off. I think Thomas Keller did a book on Sous vide cooking.