Sous Vide Newbie

Been into this for a while. Tired of burning perfectly good food on the grill. Edit to add tips.

I found that trying to sear steaks on a hot pan in the kitchen got the missus all upset about the smoke and smell, so I take mine outdoors and sear on the grill grate with a searsall, (https://www.amazon.com/Searzall-Tor...pID=51mXRh0YA7L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch) ,or Iwatani torch ( https://www.amazon.com/Iwatani-Corp...41BQ%2B%2BJFZVL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch). Haven't tried it yet but you can also use one of those flame thrower weed burners, and even a heat gun to sear. You just need to find the one that works for you.

The other thing that was a problem was the trying to cook meat to different doneness. The missus likes her steak with no pink showing (145F) and I like mine medium rare (135F). Finally learned to cook hers first and then lower the temp for mine, while leaving hers in the pot. Works great, but takes longer.


Join Facebook group 'Sous Vide Dummies'. Great recipes and pictures. I do a quick search on this group whenever I need help with something. Hasn't let me down yet.

Lots of help on YouTube. Here are some of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpFuaxD-0PKLolFR3gWhrMw/videos
https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-101
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Table_4.1
 
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We have a Joule and love it! Also have a vacuum packer but quite honestly don't use it often - zip top bags using the displacement method are fast and easy!

I love chicken breast with a little olive oil and pick a seasoning mix or make your own.
 
My favorite is a ribeye steak. A little rub of your choice, I tend to do a home made montreal steak seasoning with a little crushed red pepper. I put that on it, put it in a bag, and let it go for a couple hours at about 130.

When the rest of the meal is ready, pull the steak out, slap it on a rocket hot cast iron skillet, or super heated grill for a minute or so per side just to char it up a bit.

Turns out great.
 
Thanks guys, that should get me off to a good start. :thumb:

Brent, I was wondering about a searing on hot gas grill instead of a cast iron skillet. LOML is real picky about me cooking things that make the house smell like cooking. (She loves bacon, for example, but I have to cook it outside on the grill to keep her from opening every window in the house and turning on every fan she can find to get rid of the smell of bacon.) :rolleyes: My Weber gas grill gets up to 600º - 700º pretty quickly. It's connected to the house's natural gas line, so I don't have to worry about refilling propane bottles. I also have a propane weed burner, so I'll have to give that a try, too.

I'll also check out the FB and other online suggestions.

I have a chicken breast thawed and waiting to be my first test piece, but have been too busy today with other stuff to give it a try. Hopefully some evening this week I can give it a spin. :thumb:
 
A hot gas grill should work fine. The thing about the sous vide is that you can cook it in the sous vide as long as you want and it wont get anymore done. So pick your preferred doneness, I tend to like mine on the rare side, and let her rip in the sous vide. It will be perfectly done all the way through.

Once it's on the grill, you just want to get the outsides charred up and you don't want to cook the inside anymore.

Could always put a cast iron pan on the grill and preheat it for a while too.
 
A hot gas grill should work fine. The thing about the sous vide is that you can cook it in the sous vide as long as you want and it wont get anymore done. So pick your preferred doneness, I tend to like mine on the rare side, and let her rip in the sous vide. It will be perfectly done all the way through.

Once it's on the grill, you just want to get the outsides charred up and you don't want to cook the inside anymore.

Could always put a cast iron pan on the grill and preheat it for a while too.

:thumb: Good, because the grill is very handy and relatively quick. Gonna have to keep my eyes open for a cast iron skillet at yard sales and such so I can try that method, too.
 
Wanted to post an update, late as it may be...

Last week I did my first sous vide cook...a simple lemon pepper chicken breast. After a couple of false starts, I Googled more information about the Gourmia cooker and learned a few key points that the documentation didn't bother to mention. (You have to wait for the water to get up to temp before pressing the Start button. And there's no obvious indication to tell you when it has reached temp...only a beep that you may or may not hear, depending on how close you are to the cooker when it happens. Very non-intuitive, but now that I know that little piece of info, not a problem.)

Anyway, now I understand why you guys are so enthused with sous vide cooking. After a couple of hours or so at 138º, the chicken was tasty, juicy, and tender. (Easy to cut with a fork.) I'm looking forward to trying a steak soon...hopefully this week. I just wish my wife shared my love of meat. She's by no means a vegetarian, but she eats very little meat, and doesn't get excited about a good steak or smoked brisket. :rolleyes: Ah well, her loss, lol. :D
 
I made some fried chicken the other day, sous vide the chicken then double bread and flash fry in a pan. So tender, so juicy, so soooooo good!

Does your wife enjoy fish more than beef, etc? Salmon in the sous vide is most wonderful too!
 
I...Does your wife enjoy fish more than beef, etc? Salmon in the sous vide is most wonderful too!

No, she dislikes meat. She hates seafood. :rofl:

And she doesn't like ham or pork loin because pork is too fatty, but she loves bacon. :doh:

But rest assured I'll be trying some salmon for myself. (Although I think it's gonna be hard to beat my smoker for that. I love smoked salmon.)
 
I've used some liquid smoke. It's close but it's not the same. SV wins in the quick and easy category!

My favorite salmon (other than smoked!) that I can do in the SV is juice and grated rind from half a lemon, a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh dill, and a couple nice salmon filets. Ugh, now I'm starving!
 
It's a great technique for tougher cuts of meat too. We just did a 2# "choice chuck steak" @$2.49/lb. SV'd with some steak rub, garlic powder and Red Boat Salt at 135F for 36+/- hours. Came out tender and tasty...almost like prime rib. Temperature = doneness and time = tenderness. Just having things perfectly done is worth the investment in SV gear. You can rig up a cheap cooler as a container and can pick up one of the cookers like the Joule or Anova when they go on sale for a decent price. You don't have to have a vacuum sealer, but it's very helpful.
 
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Started some boneless beef short ribs tonight. You should have seen the look on LOML's face when I told her they were going to cook for 48 hours. She honestly thought I was kidding. I told her to be glad I wasn't going for the 72 hour recipe. Still sort of weird on a Wednesday night to know what I'm going to have for dinner Friday night. :D
 
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Still sort of weird on a Wednesday night to know what I'm going to have for dinner Friday night. :D

Welcome to the slow food revolution. I have some bread baking techniques that aren't that dissimilar (well... bread dough development really the baking only takes an hour or two). Get into fermented foods and your two weeks to several months out :)
 
I made some fried chicken the other day, sous vide the chicken then double bread and flash fry in a pan. So tender, so juicy, so soooooo good!

Does your wife enjoy fish more than beef, etc? Salmon in the sous vide is most wonderful too!

Hmmm, That gives me an idea. I made some Chicken breasts stuff with a jalapeno stuff with cheese wrapped in bacon the other day. Problem I had was that the chicken was done before the bacon, and the jalapeno was pretty crisp. I could see pre cooking the chicken stuffed chicken first, cooling, wrapping in bacon, and then put on the grill at a higher temp to cook the bacon quicker to get it crisp without overdoing the chicken. Hmmm, Ideas, Ideas...
 
They have a FoodSaver FM2000 (Refurbished) for sale today (only) on Meh.com for $24 (+$5 standard shipping)... https://meh.com/

I've bought from them for other things and got some good deals. That FS new is about $78 and has 4 stars on Amazon with about 1200 reviews (https://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-Vacuum-Sealer-FM2000-FFP-Starter/dp/B01D5TMBE0/)

I ordered 3 of them, one sent to my son, the other two for me, one for a backup and one will be a xmas gift probably.

Done. Interesting place, Meh. I must be out of the loop. Hadn't seen it mentioned before, even though I'm on CompuServe and MySpace all the time. :D.
 
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