Merry Christmas - can you guess what one of my kids gave me for Christmas? I actually experienced a filet cooked sous vid at a nice restaurant in Dallas in November and found out a lot of the restaurants I like cook this way and are not actually grilling or roasting my meat as I had assumed. Anyone have any home experience with cooking this way?
My husband sous vide at home. Steaks in particular come out perfect every time.
Chicken and fish are good too, don’t dry out and have nice texture. You have to experiment a bit to find the temperature that gives you your preferred degree of doneness. I found the guides on seriouseats.com to be very helpful.
Yes, and it’s very reliable but I rarely take the time to go through the steps to cook this way any more.
Many high end restaurants do use sous vide for the initial cooking of the filet, but then they all will be briefly grilling the steak right before it’s served. Sous vide is great for getting things to the perfect, uniform temperature but it doesn’t put that nice sear or crust on the outside - you have to grill that after you pull it out of the sous vide set up.
Jason Logsdon does a decent email newsletter about sous vide if you’re looking for more online references. Have fun!
I got a sous vide unit for Christmas last year and I like it, but it takes planning and time… For meats, you definitely need to sear before serving. There are lots of cooking times/temps and recipes on the internet to get you started if you want to try…
@spartanswill - I’ve been watching youtube videos to get ideas. It is time consuming. I love that my family wants me to try cooking new things. I’ve lost a fair amount of weight this year on WW eating cleaner…it’s quite like the whole30 thing when you think about where the lower points are (it works btw). I just saw how to sous vide a whole chicken then finish it on the grill. So, this appears to be a Saturday or Sunday event…I think I need to be around while this is cooking (maybe?).
We got one of these thingies for Christmas from my gourmet cook sibling. Didn’t know what it was when I opened the package. But hey, what the heck…we will give it a try.
PS…If it hadn’t been for the gift, I wouldn’t have know what the title of this thread even means…
I don’t think you need to be around while it’s cooking, unless you have a pet who can knock it over.
I bought a relatively inexpensive sous vide immersion cooker (Monoprice) on Amazon so I could pasteurize eggs. I like soft cooked and sunny side up eggs, and for decades I avoided them due to the risk of salmonella. Now I’m enjoying them again.
Time/temperature to make eggs entirely safe: 75 minutes at 135º F. (or 58 minutes at 137º).
source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2672.1997.00253.x
So far I have not used the sous vide for anything else. I think I’d need to get a Food Saver type vacuum system and am not sure I want to be bothered…one more thing to store…
I use sous vide quite a bit, but only for a few things. First, for steak it’s hard to beat. You can have consistent results at your desired temp (medium rare). You do need to sear it at the end, but that only takes 30 secs a side on a blazing grill. An added benefit is that you can hold off on searing until the rest of you meal is ready. Another is fried chicken. You can cook the chicken to perfection sous vide then bread and fry until GBD. Another thing we like is sous vide desserts in jars - cheese cake, pots de creme, flan…all very nice.
Sous vide is amazing. We had a pork tenderloin yesterday that melted in your mouth.
Ahi Tuna, steaks and pork are the main proteins we use. H does it all and it has truly made him more interested in cooking. The tenderness and perfect temperature is predictable. We use the outdoor grill most of the time for the searing. It takes minutes and it really is for appearance but necessary.
There are only a few good cookbooks out all carried by Amazon. H uses the internet for instructions and recipes mainly.
Sous Vide cooking was started in the 80’s and used in restaurants.
I have one, rarely use it. I think for many people it is the typical shiny new toy they use a few times and then it just gathers space in the drawer (that’s what it turned out being for me)
I got one for my birthday in October, and I love it. We’ve only used it 4-5 times so far, mostly cooking Costco steaks (but also had a marinated chicken breast), and I think the steaks taste as good as at Ruth’s Chris!
My son cooks with it a lot as does niece’s husband who is a chef. It is used in a ot in the finest restaurants.
I use it a decent amount. For me, it’s a specialized tool with a few specific uses. But when you need it, it’s definitely the perfect tool for the job. Steaks and chicken breast for sure, blackened salmon is awesome, and it’s really indispensable for lobster. I also use it for soft-boiled eggs, although that’s not technically sous vide and could be done almost as well in a pot of hot water. At the end of the day, it’s all about repeatability for me - perfect results every time in an absolutely predictable and foolproof manner.
it is like anything new to learn–you hang in there and get over the top of the bell (learning) curve or you decide to leave before the tip of knowledge.
If anyone reading is curious about steaks Sous vide, but doesn’t want to buy and store the equipment, you can do the same thing minus the equipment. https://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/alton-brown/reverse-sear-ribeye-steak-5458694
We have been cooking steaks this way for about a year. I never liked steak before. I do now.
I have been cooking sous vide for a couple of years. I love cooking and this has really been a fun way to expand my skills. We did burgers last night (perfect!) and I have coffee going now for fast "faux cold brew’.
As others have said, there is a learning curve. Douglas Baldwin explains pasteurization and has handy charts that helped me. As mentioned upthread, Serious Eats and Jason Logsdon are both great sources of reliable information. I have a sous vide notebook and Pinterest page to help me organize my information.
I love the consistent results but lately appreciate my ability to cook ahead for busy days. On a day that I have time, I will cook different proteins, shocking in cold water after cooking and then into the fridge. Since they are pasteurized, they will keep in the fridge much longer than fresh or traditionally cooked foods. I can pull out a chicken breast or steak and gently re-therm in a water bath a couple of degrees below original cooking temp and after a quick sear, dinner is ready.
I confess to being a kitchen gadget “enthusiast” but I have gifted my sister and both my kids with sous vide devices and after some hesitation, all three are having fun experimenting. Enjoy!
Any recommendations for a particilar brand of sous vid or are they all pretty much the same? H is a foodie and accomplished home cook and this is one kitchen appliance he doesn’t have. Might get him one for anupcoming bday!
My choice came down to the Anova or the Joule brands. Both have great tech specs. I chose the Anova because it can be controlled via wifi OR by buttons on the unit itself. The Joule can only be controlled via wifi using an app. To me this represented a single point of failure so I went with Anova. Works great.
I also use it to pasteurize eggs for safer use in sauces…