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Thanks, SubG and others. I've only tried cooking lobster a couple times and didn't end up with great results so I'm hoping the sous vide method might be a bit more idiot proof. If not, at least it'll give this idiot incentive to try cooking lobster again. About steaks, what is the goon consensus on pre-searing? Should I do that? Or just post-sear? Or both? Ultimately I'll have to experiment and see what works for me, but for the first few steaks I'd like to start off with whatever people think works best
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Oct 17, 2013 01:42
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Keller talks about the whole lobster thing in his sous vide book, Under Pressure.it makes sense that really the benefit is in the controlled butter temperature rather than really needing the bag. I went to Coi in San Francisco in August, and they to a 63(?) degree smoked egg yolk in a similar manner. They first make a container of smoked oil (put a container of oil in a makeshift smoker burning some locally foraged combustibles), then they nest a container of that oil with the IC so that the water heats the container of oil. Then they just out egg yolks in the smoked oil and let them hang there until service. At home I actually had to get a rolling cart so I could move around my VP112 and all of my modernist accoutrements. Even got one of the heat capable cream chargers so I can do modernist hollandaise and cooked egg foams. When will we be able to buy a combi oven for home use already?
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Oct 17, 2013 02:24
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Choadmaster posted:About steaks, what is the goon consensus on pre-searing? Should I do that? Or just post-sear? Or both? Ultimately I'll have to experiment and see what works for me, but for the first few steaks I'd like to start off with whatever people think works best The texture of the crust will be different, though, particularly if you're aggressive about searing---the crust of meat seared before going in the bag won't be as crisp as the crust on meat seared afterward. Well, maybe `crisp' isn't quite the right word---you're not making it crunchy, but you know what I mean---the crust you get from a sear has a distinctive texture, and it gets softened when you sous vide it after. It's not really a big deal either way, but I decide on whether to sear before or after based on the overall mouthfeel and texture of the meat. So something like a steak or a pork chop or whatever I'll sear after, but short ribs I'll sear beforehand. I could just be letting my prejudices about how I'd approach the meat `traditionally' affect my decision here---you have to sear before doing a braise or stew, so I tend to sear first with things that I'd braise or stew if I wasn't doing them sous vide...but that's kinda a bullshit rationalisation. Searing beforehand is basically just searing beforehand. Searing afterward you want to be sure to pat that motherfucking piece of meat dry. Like seriously, it's loving soaking wet from sitting in that bag and if you just throw it on a lava loving hot skillet you're just going to steam it. Just patting it dry works fine if you're careful, but I'll sometimes throw something just out of the puddle machine in a toaster oven on the lowest setting---the Cuisinart model I have has a convection setting, and it's pretty drat good at surface drying and keeping meat ~*danger zone warm*~ while I'm juggling something else.
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Oct 17, 2013 03:06
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Blow torch is great to dry off the surface in a hurry before throwing the steak in a pan. Overkill if you don't already own one though.
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Oct 17, 2013 03:55
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First try, gonna sous vide a peruvian sea bass with my Nomiko. Can't promise in-progress pics, but I'll try to get some and an after-action pic. It's marinating right now in olive oil, some garlic, some herbs de Provence, salt + pepper, and also a bit of Momofuku. Rest of the fam is going to make some roasted fingerling potatos and I don't know what other side. Looking to do it at around 137 for 30-ish minutes, and then maybe do a light sear on the outside for some color. Anything sound wrong with this?
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Oct 17, 2013 22:31
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Where'd you get your Nomiku? Their website says they're still taking preorders
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Oct 17, 2013 23:01
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Kickstarter. They shipped the first batch of 500 in mid September. I guess I was in the high 300's as it looks like the order numbers are chronological. -e- Timeline: Sept. 15 posted:Lisa Q. Fetterman says: Sept. 16 posted:Dear Wonderful Backers, I emailed them back the same day updating my address. Sept. 19 got a message that it was at the warehouse. Then Sept. 23, same email (warehouse) with the following addendum: "NOTE: This may be the second confirmation email you've received. We noticed a shipping bug in our system that listed the wrong destination countries in some addresses. That bug should be squashed and we wanted to resend a correct confirmation." Sept. 24th got my shipping notification. I think it arrived around the 30th or so. Got a delivery confirmation email on Oct. 2. I didn't play with it until today as I've been super busy. Leif. fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Oct 17, 2013 |
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Oct 17, 2013 23:15
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So sea bass trial run was successful. The Nomiku comes pretty good and wedged into its packaging, with the device, power cable, warranty card, very short manual, and then a longer flipbook with recipes, info on pasteurization and potential contaminants/bacteria, and some operating tips.  The device clips onto a pot or something, and necessitates you use a fairly large container; most of my normal pots that I use for things like pasta or such are not quite deep enough. Nomiku recommends an eight-liter capacity. I'd recommend not using a metal pot if you can, because it definitely seems to radiate heat away causing it to heat more slowly. However, you can't go TOO thick due to the clip only extending out so far, so your best bet would probably be something like the plastic tub that the Side KIC is using in the OP (the picture right above the Nomiku in the OP).  You fill it up with water up to the "min" line on the device, then plug it in and turn it on (tap the screen), set your temp, and go. The temp wheel seems a bit finicky and unresponsive, and took some play to actually get my selected temp. It does, however, go in .1 Farenheit increments. Tap the screen to switch between Farenheit and Celsius. Hold it for about 5 seconds to turn off, and it gives you some little chef's aphorism.  I made the mistake of not using hot water when filling up the freaking massive pot, not realizing how long it would take to heat up the whole thing from 80 Farenheit. Holy poo poo. It took forever. It creeps up at about 1 degree per minute on average, occasionally going up in spurts of .3-.5 over 5-6 seconds, and then stalling out, even decreasing by .1 or .2, then recovering and going again. Granted, in my case it was a massive amount of water that it was heating up by nearly 60 degrees, but I was kind of expecting a more powerful heating element. If you started with water from an insta-hot, or start with near-boiling water and then add cool water to bring it down, you might be better off. Looking for ways to speed the time up, I started scooping water out down to the "min" line with a cup, and replacing it back up to my desired level with water from the insta-hot; as one might expect, both actions (lowering the amount of water in the pot and adding hot water to it) raised the temperature fairly quickly. This cut the time down to around 25 minutes to heat it up from 80 degrees. Again, next time, I'll just use already hot water and not have to wait. I had selected 137 as my temp of choice, as this was a fairly thick cut( 2 bigass filets that were enough for 4 people) -- most of the recipes I saw were calling for 135 for 20-25 minutes, so I thought my extra time would be warranted.  The results were pretty awesome. The fish was super flaky and smelled amazing when I opened the bag. My marinade was olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs de Provence, chopped garlic, and some Momofuku braising sauce, and you could definitely taste it permeating throughout the fish. After taking it out of the bag, I briefly seared it off for some color, but stupidly forgot to pat it dry before doing so, and it wasn't that great of a sear, and some of the fish stuck to the pan. On the other hand, it didn't even really need it. It would have been delicious just as it was. Served with garlic roasted fingerling potatos, and a small salad. Overall, I can see this being an extremely easy way to add some variety into my meals. Now that I've had a trial run, I'd expect the next time to be crockpot levels of "effort-free". You basically just toss your poo poo in the bag, seal it, start it up, and forget it until your timer goes off. Gonna probably do a veal chop next week and see how that goes.
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Oct 18, 2013 04:55
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For those of you who own Keller's Under Pressure, is this the kind of book that would be helpful to the home cook who owns an Anova and wants to use his puddle machine for mostly simple weekday preparations, or would it be cozying up on my bookshelf next to the Alinea cookbooks? If so, any other recommendations?
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Oct 18, 2013 19:16
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Mikey Purp posted:For those of you who own Keller's Under Pressure, is this the kind of book that would be helpful to the home cook who owns an Anova and wants to use his puddle machine for mostly simple weekday preparations, or would it be cozying up on my bookshelf next to the Alinea cookbooks? If so, any other recommendations?
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Oct 18, 2013 19:51
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Mikey Purp posted:For those of you who own Keller's Under Pressure, is this the kind of book that would be helpful to the home cook who owns an Anova and wants to use his puddle machine for mostly simple weekday preparations, or would it be cozying up on my bookshelf next to the Alinea cookbooks? If so, any other recommendations? It's nice to flip through and put on a coffee table, but I wouldn't recommend it for recipes, especially not for weekday preparations. Douglas Baldwin's book is not bad if you can get it on the cheap (otherwise just stick to his web site). For weekday stuff, just learn how to cook each meat properly (time and temp) and then make whatever sauces/toppings you would have before. Most stuff comes down to reducing the cooking liquid into a pan sauce.
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Oct 18, 2013 19:56
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Do you really need any books on sous vide?
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Oct 18, 2013 20:18
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Steve Yun posted:Do you really need any books on sous vide? No, but Under Pressure and Modernist Cuisine are pretty awesome. If there is one thing that I am thankful for its the PolyScience Sous Vide Toolbox app. Easier than looking up a lot of reference charts, and its pretty easy to use. I'm sure there is a web app that will do this for free somewhere...
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Oct 18, 2013 20:28
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Mikey Purp posted:For those of you who own Keller's Under Pressure, is this the kind of book that would be helpful to the home cook who owns an Anova and wants to use his puddle machine for mostly simple weekday preparations, or would it be cozying up on my bookshelf next to the Alinea cookbooks? If so, any other recommendations? I've only made 1 complete dish out of the book. It took me the whole weekend and in the end, it didn't feel like a good investment of my time. I just thumb through the book for flavor, time and temperature ideas. Good explanations of why certain things are done a specific way.
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Oct 18, 2013 20:32
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Genewiz posted:I've only made 1 complete dish out of the book. It took me the whole weekend and in the end, it didn't feel like a good investment of my time. I just thumb through the book for flavor, time and temperature ideas. Good explanations of why certain things are done a specific way. The explanations make the book worth it in my opinion. A lot of the little tips are good though, like putting herbs wrapped in plastic with the ends snipped to avoid the herbs touching the protein directly and over-flavoring the place where they touch. Under Pressure and Ad Hoc At Home are really an interesting pair, gives a broad view of Kellar and how to actually make use of it. But yeah, under pressure recipes seem like too much work in general.
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Oct 18, 2013 21:19
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Whats the best place to get one of these new devices if you're in England?
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Oct 18, 2013 21:27
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Ultimate Mango posted:No, but Under Pressure and Modernist Cuisine are pretty awesome. iOS only 
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Oct 18, 2013 21:29
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Scott Bakula posted:Whats the best place to get one of these new devices if you're in England? Sansaire will ship to the UK when it launches Nov 18 edit: It looks like you subjects of the Queen have other options as well http://www.amazon.co.uk/SousVide-Wa...words=sous+vide http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lakeland-El...words=sous+vide edit: it would also seem that some items such as PID controllers have the option of shipping from Amazon.com to the UK Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 23:53
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This is what I have - it's branded as a Sunbeam here (Australia). Choices here at the moment are limited to that or the Sous Vide Supreme (branded Breville), which retails for eight hundred loving dollars here. Hence why I went with the Sunbeam (~$170). It works pretty well. I pretty much got it just for steaks, but have since cooked chicken, salmon and hamburgers (holy poo poo delicious) in it as well. Also my stove burners are terribly weak, so I got a blow torch (Bernzomatic Quickfire, with MAPP gas) to sear my steaks at the end, which works great. After maybe four months of Sous Vide Sundays, I've perfected the eye fillet and porterhouse, and a number of sides/toppings (blue & goats cheese with chives, holy poo poo holy poo poo). I'd like to try cheaper cuts next, as well as longer cooking times for fattier cuts. Duck? Pork? Who knows. I've successfully cooked five FAT porterhouses simultaneously in the Sumbeam water oven, but that was really pushing it in terms of capacity.
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Oct 20, 2013 10:34
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So my Anova came on Friday, and I immediately went overboard with cooking more than I had any need to eat. I tried steak, lobster, and shrimp the first night. Steak: Great. But I already could cook a steak, so this would have been hard to gently caress up. Lobster & shrimp: I cooked these both for 30 minutes at the same 135 degree temp as the steaks out of necessity, though that seemed to be a reasonable target temp anyway. The lobster came out the way all my other (non-sous-vide) lobster attempts came out, which is to say the texture just wasn't right. Not tender at all, closer to rubbery (did I overcook, or undercook, or cook too long? I'll have to experiment). Shrimp were a little off too; they almost seemed underdone, though the recipe I was looking at recommended 136 degrees and I don't see a single degree having any major effect. We decided to sauté the leftover shrimp for a little while and that improved them considerably IMO. Anyway, I dropped some short ribs in for a 48-hour cook at the same time (again, 135 degrees), so they should be done tonight. Problem: Gas has appeared in the bag. It's not a leak, since until the gas appeared the bag was fully submerged. After 24 hours there was enough gas in the bag to cause one edge to surface. The only possible source I can imagine for this gas is bacteria, so we're not going to be eating these short ribs after all. I am going to let them finish cooking just to feel the texture at 48 hours, and then maybe I'll buy another set of short ribs and try again. Why did this happen and how the gently caress do I stop it so I don't go wasting all my money? I'm thinking I'll pre-sear the short ribs just to kill off surface bacteria.
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Oct 20, 2013 17:58
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Are you sure it's gas? As things get soft in the bath they tend to move around and the air that was already in there shows up. Usually not a huge deal, I just readjust to make sure the bag top is up, this usually leaves everything else in the bag still submerged.
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Oct 20, 2013 18:03
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MrEnigma posted:Are you sure it's gas? As things get soft in the bath they tend to move around and the air that was already in there shows up. Usually not a huge deal, I just readjust to make sure the bag top is up, this usually leaves everything else in the bag still submerged. I'd go with probably not gas also, wait the 48 hours, if the bag is not ballooned then it's probably not gas. Pre-searing (or even blanching the bag after sealing) and doing very clean prep is helpful for really long cooks.
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Oct 20, 2013 18:38
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I think there is significantly more gas in the bag now than when I first put the bag in there, but I'll give it a sniff when I open it up. If it's a product of bacteria it should be easy to tell
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Oct 20, 2013 19:44
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Have to say it again but sous vizzle poached eggs are the best eggs. Dropping them in simmering water to set the whites really makes a world of difference.
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Oct 20, 2013 20:09
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Choadmaster posted:Anyway, I dropped some short ribs in for a 48-hour cook at the same time (again, 135 degrees), so they should be done tonight. Problem: Gas has appeared in the bag. It's not a leak, since until the gas appeared the bag was fully submerged. After 24 hours there was enough gas in the bag to cause one edge to surface. The only possible source I can imagine for this gas is bacteria, so we're not going to be eating these short ribs after all. Did you use a vacuum sealer or just the baggy method? When I use baggies, I always end up with a bit of air at the end of cooking. Usually it's more prevalent in cuts that were injected with water or saline, air bubbles and such in the meat. Follow your nose.
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Oct 20, 2013 20:30
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BraveUlysses posted:iOS only Speaking of apps for sous vide: http://www.sousvidedash.com/ is a really helpful app to calculate pasteurization times for various foods. Also iOS only though, sorry! They might release an android version though.
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Oct 20, 2013 21:06
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granpa yum posted:Speaking of apps for sous vide: http://www.sousvidedash.com/ is a really helpful app to calculate pasteurization times for various foods. Also iOS only though, sorry! They might release an android version though. They haven't updated the iOS one in over a year, I wouldn't hold my breath.
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Oct 20, 2013 21:48
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MrEnigma posted:They haven't updated the iOS one in over a year, I wouldn't hold my breath. This looks like a complete clone of the PolyScience app. I wonder who ripped off whom?
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Oct 20, 2013 21:55
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YEAH DOG posted:Did you use a vacuum sealer or just the baggy method? When I use baggies, I always end up with a bit of air at the end of cooking. Usually it's more prevalent in cuts that were injected with water or saline, air bubbles and such in the meat. Follow your nose. Vacuum sealer. Foodsaver 48zillion or whatever Costco is selling. I've only used it a few times now but I've noticed it seems to let a little (very little, but any at all seemed somewhat counterproductive) air back into the bag when it stops sucking and starts sealing. It really seems to me like there's more air in the bag than could possibly have been there at the start but perhaps all the little bubbles really do add up. I'll know in a few hours I suppose.
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Oct 20, 2013 23:14
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Ultimate Mango posted:This looks like a complete clone of the PolyScience app. I wonder who ripped off whom? I think poly science paid them to rebrand/white label it. People download the poly science one and complain it doesn't match the data in their books that it comes with.
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Oct 20, 2013 23:50
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Choadmaster posted:Vacuum sealer. Foodsaver 48zillion or whatever Costco is selling. I've only used it a few times now but I've noticed it seems to let a little (very little, but any at all seemed somewhat counterproductive) air back into the bag when it stops sucking and starts sealing. It really seems to me like there's more air in the bag than could possibly have been there at the start but perhaps all the little bubbles really do add up. I'll know in a few hours I suppose.
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Oct 21, 2013 00:48
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I've had bags fill up with air, but it turned out that I didn't seal them well, like a corner was crumpled or something and probably let in some air while it sealed. I've also had bags micropunctured by sawed off bone edges
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Oct 21, 2013 02:54
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It can also be expanding water vapor, although 135F seems a bit cool to generate vapor. When I do immersion sealed veggies at 182F, the bags inevitably balloon.
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Oct 21, 2013 12:24
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I did a 72 hour thing. Boneless short ribs with a bit of oil, habanero hot sauce, salt, and pepper seared off on super high cast iron. Served with sauteed spinach and a pan sauce (drippings from the bag + butter, wine, S&P). 
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Oct 21, 2013 14:15
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Alright. This thread convinced me to try out the Anova. I was seriously interested when the price of entry was in the 300+ range; now that its only $200 I jumped on board. Any suggested first run through steak recipes? Something easy and with relatively quick gratification?
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Oct 22, 2013 00:37
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Eggs are a cheap way to see the most dramatic differences in cooking temperatures
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Oct 22, 2013 00:43
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Walked posted:Alright. This thread convinced me to try out the Anova. I was seriously interested when the price of entry was in the 300+ range; now that its only $200 I jumped on board. It's pretty simple, really. Take a steak, any steak. Season with salt/pepper/garlic powder. Seal it in a bag. Get the water temp to 130F, throw bag in. Let sit for at least 45 minutes up to 10-12 hours. Longer isn't better in this case unless it's a really tough piece of meat. Take meat out of bag, PAT DRY. Take cast iron pan, put a bit of oil in pan, get the oil smoking. Throw steak in for 30-45 seconds per side to get a nice sear. No need to rest-just eat it.
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Oct 22, 2013 00:44
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Steve Yun posted:I've had bags fill up with air, but it turned out that I didn't seal them well, like a corner was crumpled or something and probably let in some air while it sealed.
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Oct 22, 2013 01:50
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Genewiz posted:I've only made 1 complete dish out of the book. It took me the whole weekend and in the end, it didn't feel like a good investment of my time. I just thumb through the book for flavor, time and temperature ideas. Good explanations of why certain things are done a specific way. I view it the same way as the French Laundry book; you might make a handful of the dishes in their entirety (and it will take 3 or 4 days), but you will definitely end up taking some of the components and using them in other dishes. Either way, make the carrot cake. at least once. It's delicious, and impressive as hell. Plus it's pretty to look at, interesting to read, and Thomas is the best. BrosephofArimathea fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Oct 22, 2013 |
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Oct 22, 2013 04:34
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BrosephofArimathea posted:you will definitely end up taking some of the components and using them in other dishes. I use his butter poached lobster technique the most. Thanks for the carrot cake tip. Maybe there should be a site where regular cooks try out his recipe and rate it based on doability. 
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Oct 22, 2013 05:14
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