Just had this idea. Measured my crock pot on high. Just below boiling. I'm going to measure filled with water on warm and low and see where it falls. Maybe chart it for a few hours to see swings.

Question. If I can find a setting that equals +/-5° 130° , can I use it for that? Any reason I shouldn't?

You will want to read this article for limitations to be alert for.

Link

I use a temperature controller with our old style crock pot that doesn’t have the electronic timer, etc.
It’s simple to use. Turn the crock pot on, suspend the controller sensor in the water, plug the controller in an electrical outlet, set the desired temperature and let the controller power the crock pot. When the water temp settles, the controller will keep the water temp. within 1 degree of the desired temperature.

Link

So far:

High = 211°F
Low = 189°F

Doesn't look promising, only setting left is warm. Will try it tomorrow or some other time soon. Guessing it's going to be way to high.

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:
I use a temperature controller with our old style crock pot that doesn’t have the electronic timer, etc.
It’s simple to use. Turn the crock pot on, suspend the controller sensor in the water, plug the controller in an electrical outlet, set the desired temperature and let the controller power the crock pot. When the water temp settles, the controller will keep the water temp. within 1 degree of the desired temperature.

Link

Mine is electronic, so this won't work. Maybe go hit the yard sale circuit to find really old school one?

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:
I use a temperature controller with our old style crock pot that doesn’t have the electronic timer, etc.
It’s simple to use. Turn the crock pot on, suspend the controller sensor in the water, plug the controller in an electrical outlet, set the desired temperature and let the controller power the crock pot. When the water temp settles, the controller will keep the water temp. within 1 degree of the desired temperature.

Link

Mine is electronic, so this won't work. Maybe go hit the yard sale circuit to find really old school one?

Walmart has them for like $20. I have a SSR controlled outlet that works with my heatermeter, but only used it to make sure it works. Wife bought me an Anova that is less fiddly to use & has the circulator.

Anova has their Bluetooth unit on sale for $99 today. I have one and it works well.

quote:

Wife bought me an Anova that is less fiddly to use & has the circulator.

Circulation might be a problem with a larger resivoir, but the crockpot’s heating element seems to be designed well enough for even heating.

At the time, my controller was half the price of the very cheapest Sous-Vide heater.

Plus, fiddling is what I live for. YMMV

quote:

Originally posted by dgshooter:
Anova has their Bluetooth unit on sale for $99 today. I have one and it works well.

I snagged one from Amazon warehouse last week for 85. Giving it a try soon. Too many Tgiving leftovers to work through first!

I made soup vide fried chicken two nights ago. It was very good.

Carry on.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
I made soup vide fried chicken two nights ago. It was very good.

Carry on.

How did you do that?

Season the chicken parts, vacuum seal them up, and bring the water bath up to 155-160 degrees. I used 155, but the dark meat still had pink near the bone. It was fully cooked through, texture-wise, but I noticed at least one of my guests avoiding the pink meat. I'll try again at 160 to see if that sorts it out.

2 hours in the bath for dark meat to break down the cartilage and whatnot near the bones. 1 hour in the bath for white meat to maintain a firm texture.

Bring the chicken out of the bath, blot dry, dredge in flower, dip in buttermilk (I actually just used egg whites, since I didn't have buttermilk on hand), and then dredge in flour again as per usual. The dredge-dip-dredge improves cragginess of the skin. Just a dip-dredge is acceptable if you like less crunchy chicken. I usually season my flower with chili powder, paprika, pepper, garlic powder, and salt.

Then into some hot oil. I use an enamel coated dutch oven (Le Creuset) with about 3 inches of oil so I don't really have to turn the chicken. I keep the oil at 350 degrees using an infared thermometer. Fry until golden brown--about 3-5 minutes.

Normally, frying chicken is a 12-15 minute ordeal per piece--and you are struggling to get the meat fully cooked through without over-browning the skin. The sous-vide method means that the chicken is fully cooked through to the proper temperature, is cooked gently to retain juiciness, and is held at a cooking temperature longer to break down the meat into better texture.

Because of water bath is at the target temperature, it is difficult to overcook meat--the internal temperature of the meat never exceeds the target temperature, and you have a ton of leeway before you ruin the meat texture by leaving it too long. The benefit is that you can leave the chicken cooking up until your guests arrive. Then you simply fry to a golden brown to finish the chicken.

The result is a really flavorful chicken (you are cooking the seasonings into the meat), that's juicy and succulent, with a hard crunch on the outside. It's also less greasy because the fats in the dark meat have rendered, and it spends less time in the fryer.

I picked up the 900W Anova Sous Vide over the weekend. Target price matched Amazon and gave me a $10 gift card. I made some NY Strips and bone in chicken breast so far.

The steak was cooked at 129F for about two hours and was very juciy and tender. I seared the steaks in a fry pan for about 1 minute a side. They were good but I think I can do better.

The chicken was the biggest surprise. I seasoned them in the bag with salt, pepper, garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary and few slices of lemon. I cooked them at 145 for 2 hours then seared them skin side down until they were nice and golden brown. They were by far and away the juiciest pieces of chicken I've ever had. The texture was almost like cod or tuna, no stringy meat just incredibly tender chicken through the entire breast.

I was on the fence regarding the whole sous vide thing until I made the chicken. I think to do it right you'd need 1 maybe 2 degrees of control either way.

Sous-vide is a perfect match for chicken boobs.

Well I can't use my crock pot for this. I wanted to give it a try somehow before sinking $100 or more into a kitchen gadget I've never used before. That being said I may have to buy myself one or get the GF to buy me one for Xmas.

I noticed cook times for some of the things you guys listed. I thought the benefit was you could leave it bathing for however long you felt like then sear it when you wanted. Did I understand that wrong or are these minimum times?

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Well I can't use my crock pot for this. I wanted to give it a try somehow before sinking $100 or more into a kitchen gadget I've never used before. That being said I may have to buy myself one or get the GF to buy me one for Xmas.

I noticed cook times for some of the things you guys listed. I thought the benefit was you could leave it bathing for however long you felt like then sear it when you wanted. Did I understand that wrong or are these minimum times?

You can't leave things in there indefinitely.

Tough cuts of meat become softer--connective tissue breaks down, collagen becomes gelatin, etc. For most cuts of meat, this is desirable.

However, for any cut of meat, doing this for too long turns the meat into mush. How long you can hold a piece of meat at a temperature depends on the temperature and the type of meat. Something like a chicken breast will get a nasty texture in as short as 90 minutes, but something tough like a brisket could go many many hours without ill effect.

Conversely, you can take food out much too soon. The food will hit the target temperature pretty quickly--water conducts heat like 30 times faster than air does--but if you don't hold it at that temperature for long enough, the food will come out tough.

That said, the window for the cooking time is usually very wide. You could overcook a chicken breast for like an entire 30-60 minutes before the texture is ruined. That's pretty much forever. Compare that with grilling a steak, and leaving it on the grill for an extra 5 minutes turns your medium rare into shoe leather.

Lastly, you can use this info to your benefit to make crisp, springy vegetables, that are still cooked through. Gentle heat so that the vegetable cell walls don't burst (the water inside doesn't vaporize), and then take it out when it hits the target temp, without letting it linger too long.

Probably the first dozen sous vide cooks I did in a cooler, yes, a plain old igloo cooler. Lots of sous vide hacks on the web

If it'll keep it cold it'll keep it warm, simple thermo dynamics

I heated water on the stove and poured into the cooler to start raising the temp of the insulation. I then used my meat thermometer to get to an approximate temp of the water, after pouring the "warming water" out, I added the temp specific water to the cooler. There ya go, sous vide water bath

A cooler will only drop temp by 1-2deg per hour, if it does, just add more water to it, so your good to go for many of the basic cooks, chicken, steak, fish etc. You'll not be able to get a 30hr rib cook obviously, but a pork tenderloin absolutely

I didn't have a vacuum sealer at the time either, I used a zip lock bag, submerged to force air out, then sealed