Having a "crack" at sous-vide

[Mick0s]

[Pun absolutely intended]

Having sold the idea of an STC-1000 to myself with the fact that I could use I to cook things sous-vide style, and after motivating a colleague who has no interest in homebrew enough that he bought a pre-wired unit and a rice cooker and tried it out before I got ever got around to it, I thought it was about time gave it a shot.

Having planned to put down a brew on Sunday, meaning that the controller would be out of action for a few weeks, this weekend was my chance.

So, out came the rice cooker, and I had a quick play on Saturday with just water to see how it'd handle the temperatures (not great. but not terrible), set the temp to 63 degrees, with a .02 degree differential, and was happy enough with the results. It would initially jump up to about 68, but after that would cycle between about 62.6 and 64.8.

Sunday morning, I got pushed out of bed an hour before the missus was going to be hungry in order to get it sorted in time, leaving her with a stirring 4 month old to look after (dodged a bullet there).



Hooked it all up, chucked 5 eggs in (one to test, and then two each) and left it alone for the best part of an hour. Stuck some bacon between two pans (to keep it flat) in the oven about halfway through, and before long, it was time for the moment of truth.

Cracking the eggs revealed a bit of white watery stuff, making me thing that it had all gone pear shaped, but upending the egg into my hand filled my palm with a satisfying blob. SUCCESS!!

Onto plates, and into mouths it went. A damn tasty success all round, and I urge anyone with a temp controller and a wayward rice cooker to give it a shot.



Next up maybe I'll try some salmon fillets, but I've got a few weeks to think about it.

 

[Truman42]

Sounds nice. So I assume the yolks were still runny?

 

[benno1973]

Nice one! Always good to get something in there to circulate the water as well, like an aquarium air pump.

If you have a vacuum sealing machine, try a steak in there and you'll never look back. Some tips though - don't add salt to the steak before sous-vide'ing it. Don't add butter or oil, just herbs, garlic and other flavouring components. You want the flavour components to meld into the steak rather than into the butter/oil that's outside the steak.

I had a sous-vide nightmare the other day. Had some good friends over who we hadn't seen in a long time, wanted to cook them something special so bought a really nice piece of scotch fillet. Set the sous-vide up for an 8-hour session. Apparently somewhere along the way, my temp controller shat itself so when I went to the laundry and grabbed the beautiful steaks, the water was boiling. So the steaks had been boiled for a few hours, which makes them practically inedible.

 

[Truman42]

Nice one! Always good to get something in there to circulate the water as well, like an aquarium air pump.

If you have a vacuum sealing machine, try a steak in there and you'll never look back. Some tips though - don't add salt to the steak before sous-vide'ing it. Don't add butter or oil, just herbs, garlic and other flavouring components. You want the flavour components to meld into the steak rather than into the butter/oil that's outside the steak.

I had a sous-vide nightmare the other day. Had some good friends over who we hadn't seen in a long time, wanted to cook them something special so bought a really nice piece of scotch fillet. Set the sous-vide up for an 8-hour session. Apparently somewhere along the way, my temp controller shat itself so when I went to the laundry and grabbed the beautiful steaks, the water was boiling. So the steaks had been boiled for a few hours, which makes them practically inedible.

How long and at what temp would you do steaks for Kaiser? Ive got an urn that I might hook up to my STC1000 and give it a crack.

 

[Tex083]

I recently did a eye fillet in my PID HERMS. 54.4 for 4 hrs. Amazing. Get the ploy science app for $6 it's a timer and recipe thing.

 

[NewtownClown]

Been doing this for a while. I use my rice cooker or crock pot, (today bought an element and I have a pump to make a dedicated sous-vide cooker)
Recently I started to invert a saucer on top of the vac sealed steak and the temp is a lot more stable, rarely drifting more than .2 c and it ensures the meat stays immersed.

How long and at what temp would you do steaks for Kaiser? Ive got an urn that I might hook up to my STC1000 and give it a crack.

Depends how you like your meat...
56.5c for the perfect medium rare and 49c for rare. Kept at those temps it will never overcook, however, there is a minimum time, depending on the thickness of the cut, for the core temp to reach the desired heat and to pasteurise. From memory it is 3 hours for a 1 inch thick steak

 

[NewtownClown]

 

[Mick0s]

Steak is definiately on the cards, though with a missus who only eats well done, and my normal medium-rare tastes, thats going to be a difficult one to organise.

I found the tables on this website to follow for the eggs, also gives times and temperatures for all types of means etc.
I'll eventually print it out and laminate it for safe keeping.

http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/en-us/sousvide_cookingtemperatures.htm

 

[Tahoose]

I had first go at this a few weeks ago with great success, the meat was a 500g rib cooked to medium rare.

 

[benno1973]

How long and at what temp would you do steaks for Kaiser? Ive got an urn that I might hook up to my STC1000 and give it a crack.

That's a good table posted by NewtownClown. I generally shoot for 60C - I like mine medium rare, but most people I'm cooking for like it medium, so I'll make that compromise. Generally I cook for around 8-10 hours. The longer you cook for, the more the fibres in the meat break down and the softer the steak. Go for too long and it'll turn to mush I hear, but I haven't gone more than 10 hours so I'm yet to find out.

And my boiled steak certainly wasn't mush.

 

[Tahoose]

Had it with garlic butter... 5cm thick cooked for 1.45 hrs, just used a sandwich bag and used bulldog clips to attach it to the side.

My big w pot lost 0.5 every 15 mins and the kettle element inside turned for 20seconds to get back to temp.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Steak is definiately on the cards, though with a missus who only eats well done.

I would make her an ex-wife...

 

[manticle]

Out of what?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Bacon

 

[billygoat]

Had it with garlic butter... 5cm thick cooked for 1.45 hrs, just used a sandwich bag and used bulldog clips to attach it to the side.

My big w pot lost 0.5 every 15 mins and the kettle element inside turned for 20seconds to get back to temp.

Tahoose,
Did you put the meat in the bag completely raw or was it seared first?

 

[MartinOC]

Seal raw meat in the bag & cook it to your liking, then open the bag & throw it at a SCREAMING hot BBQ/griddle plate for about 15 sec's on each side to get the colour.

Rib-eye's done this way are superb!

 

[manticle]

Bacon

 

[djar007]

This is the app I use for sous vide. The great benefit of this compared to a lot of other apps is that it has different temps and times for how you want the meat cooked. I have done some very nice lamb shanks for three days and they were perfect. I have found that eggs need to be gently placed on the bottom of the sous vide dish or they will crack. Beef short ribs for three days and then on the screaming hot bbq as Martin suggested is the go. Vegetables are also very nice when sous vide. My favourite sous vide dish would have to be a thick steak cooked medium rare and thrown on the hotplate to char. Yummo.
Also be careful of adding raw garlic etc.
Here is a tip on this from this site :

Because the temperatures of some sous vide cooked dishes are low, certain raw seasonings may not develop flavors in the same way they do at higher temperatures.

A good example is raw garlic, which may remain raw at temperatures used to cook medium rare steak, fish, shellfish, or even chicken breast. Thus garlic, added to the sous vide cooking pouch, works better as a powdered spice or already sautéed or roasted.

Another example is alcohol in wine, beer, liqueurs, or distilled spirits. Though often added to marinades for meats, fish, seafood, or poultry, or used to flavor sauces, the alcohol in beer, wine, liqueurs, or distilled spirits will not evaporate in sous vide cooking as it does on the stovetop or in the oven and can develop a harsh, sometimes metallic flavor. If you wish to use alcohol-based liquids to flavor food to be cooked sous vide, heat the wine or spirits first to evaporate the alcohol, then marinate the food, then pour off the marinade and pat the food dry and reseal prior to cooking.


edit: forgot to delete linky.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Has anyone ever used a deep fryer with water for this? Along with a temp controller of course, should give pretty accurate temp control.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Deep fryer,slow cooker,rice cooker, electric fry pan....they are all easly able to be controled via an STC .......BUT....as they tend to draw more current/power/Amps than what an STC is rated for...its not a DIY job.

Further arguments are available on other threads about this...