Monoprice is showing $69.99, free shipping, for their 800 watt, no-frills unit: no bluetooth, no wifi, just a plain vanilla sous vide unit. I might need to give this a try.

I do have one question for those of you who have used sous vide: I see references to putting the food in a vacuum sealed bag. Is it really necessary to buy a vacuum seal device for this? Is vacuum sealed actually a requirement? Or can you use a plain old zip-lock bag?

I used regular zip locks to cook the filets I posted. Air is an excellent insulator. I suspect it won’t cook properly if you have a bag full of air.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Monoprice is showing $69.99, free shipping, for their 800 watt, no-frills unit: no bluetooth, no wifi, just a plain vanilla sous vide unit. I might need to give this a try.

I do have one question for those of you who have used sous vide: I see references to putting the food in a vacuum sealed bag. Is it really necessary to buy a vacuum seal device for this? Is vacuum sealed actually a requirement? Or can you use a plain old zip-lock bag?

My understanding is that freezer baggies are ok, not so the flimsy sandwich baggies. There is a way to get the air out without an actual vacuum device.

Our unit is arriving today, according to tracking.

quote:

I do have one question for those of you who have used sous vide: I see references to putting the food in a vacuum sealed bag. Is it really necessary to buy a vacuum seal device for this? Is vacuum sealed actually a requirement? Or can you use a plain old zip-lock bag?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrZPLF0ezw8

It's easy as hell.

I also highly recommend Serious Eats as a fantastic educational resource on Sous vide techinques and recipes. Eventually you'll focus less on "how to cook sous vide" and start focusing on "how do I get a good sear!"

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
I used regular zip locks to cook the filets I posted. Air is an excellent insulator. I suspect it won’t cook properly if you have a bag full of air.

Not only that but the bag won’t sink in the water.

quote:

I love techie stuff but don't need to use an app or timer for something so simple. I like to keep my meats and poultry refrigerated so I really don't even know how I'd put my chicken breast in the pot before work and use the app to remotely fire things up because I can't figure out how to keep chicken refrigerated until cooking time if I'm not personally involved.

I think some people fill the water bath with ice so the meat stays cool until time to cook. Never tried this myself.
Also you can sous vide cook the meat the night before, water bath cool and refrigerate. The next day after work grab the meat and sear, bon appetit.

Our Anova arrived today from Amazon, so I had to give it a try.

I decided to start with chuck steak imitation short ribs. I never have heard of such cuts, but they were cheaper.

Anyway, into some freezer bags they went with salt and pepper, I figured out the button mashing after a little initial muttering, no cursing involved. A bit over an hour later at 130F, I took them out, and popped them in a cast irom pan to sear. That went pretty smoothly.

The meat was beautifully done, that medium rare pink most of us like all throughout, but we’re not talking alchemy here. Sous vide did not turn these lower quality cuts into prime rib no knife needed tender, but these were flavorful. OTOH, I normally would not buy meat like this otherwise.

I’m encouraged to try a sirloin tip next, and maybe a really good cut eventually. So far, so good!

I tried my Anova out today with a couple of Ribeye's. Came out very well. Just followed one of the ribeye recipes from the Anova site. water bath 3 hours at 130 then sear. Nice MR steaks.

Used the ziplock freezer bags. Put the meat in them and slowly submerged them in a bowl of water to push the air out. Stopped when the water got close to the zipper. Worked well, not a complete vacuum pack but close enough.

quote:

The meat was beautifully done, that medium rare pink most of us like all throughout, but we’re not talking alchemy here. Sous vide did not turn these lower quality cuts into prime rib no knife needed tender, but these were flavorful.

Yep, that's not a strong point for sous vide. It cooks to temperature so you don't over or under cook and you get an even doneness throughout. I guess if you left it in their for an extended time like maybe 12 - 18 hours it might break down some of the connective tissue and render it more tender. Thats where slow cooker, smokers and ceramic cookers shine. Green Egg et al.

quote:

Originally posted by NavyGuy:

quote:

The meat was beautifully done, that medium rare pink most of us like all throughout, but we’re not talking alchemy here. Sous vide did not turn these lower quality cuts into prime rib no knife needed tender, but these were flavorful.

Yep, that's not a strong point for sous vide. It cooks to temperature so you don't over or under cook and you get an even doneness throughout. I guess if you left it in their for an extended time like maybe 12 - 18 hours it might break down some of the connective tissue and render it more tender. Thats where slow cooker, smokers and ceramic cookers shine. Green Egg et al.

Thanks for mentioning that. I used the routine for steak. There is a different regime for chuck, etc, longer times, a bit higher temps. I need to study up on this.

Yup, edge to edge... that is the power of SV


SV-StripF by Wayne Wilson, on Flickr

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Yup, edge to edge... that is the power of SV

Looks great!

Latkes?

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Yup, edge to edge... that is the power of SV

Looks great!

Latkes?

Homemade crab-cakes

Target having a sale on the 800W BT model

$80 after you add a $1 item to bring the cart to 100 and get 20 off



https://slickdeals.net/f/11023...rc=da_si_v2_26598296

quote:

Originally posted by rsbolo:
JALLEN, I have the DorkFood sous vide apparatus. I've been using it for years now and have no reservations regarding its use/simplicity.

check out www.dorkfood.com

The Dorkfood uses your current slow cooker (Crockpot) and turns it into an excellent and inexpensive sous vide cooker. It is quite simple and a good value.

I just thought of one possible caveat. I use a traditional (non-electronic) slow cooker Mine has an old fashioned low/medium/high selector knob and nothing else. A friend of mine said his fancy electronic slow cooker was not compatible with the DorkFoods adapter.

You mean like a dutch oven?

quote:

Originally posted by Chance:

quote:

Originally posted by rsbolo:
JALLEN, I have the DorkFood sous vide apparatus. I've been using it for years now and have no reservations regarding its use/simplicity.

check out www.dorkfood.com

The Dorkfood uses your current slow cooker (Crockpot) and turns it into an excellent and inexpensive sous vide cooker. It is quite simple and a good value.

I just thought of one possible caveat. I use a traditional (non-electronic) slow cooker Mine has an old fashioned low/medium/high selector knob and nothing else. A friend of mine said his fancy electronic slow cooker was not compatible with the DorkFoods adapter.

You mean like a dutch oven?

No, it’s a thermostat that keeps the water at a specific temperature. You can’t use it to cook an Igloo full of steaks, but it’ll turn out a medium sized stack of steaks ready to be seared to perfection.

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by Chance:

quote:

Originally posted by rsbolo:
JALLEN, I have the DorkFood sous vide apparatus. I've been using it for years now and have no reservations regarding its use/simplicity.

check out www.dorkfood.com

The Dorkfood uses your current slow cooker (Crockpot) and turns it into an excellent and inexpensive sous vide cooker. It is quite simple and a good value.

I just thought of one possible caveat. I use a traditional (non-electronic) slow cooker Mine has an old fashioned low/medium/high selector knob and nothing else. A friend of mine said his fancy electronic slow cooker was not compatible with the DorkFoods adapter.

You mean like a dutch oven?

No, it’s a thermostat that keeps the water at a specific temperature. You can’t use it to cook an Igloo full of steaks, but it’ll turn out a medium sized stack of steaks ready to be seared to perfection.

You wrote that you use a non-electronic slow cooker. Too me that reads that it is not electric.

OK, non-programmable. There, you happy now?

Anova just announced another sale - both devices:

https://us.anovaculinary.com/

Jim, I'd glad your first attempt worked out - I know you skeptical early on (as was I), but I've found that it does work well for some recipes.

quote:

Originally posted by SigSAC:
Anova just announced another sale - both devices:

https://us.anovaculinary.com/

Jim, I'd glad your first attempt worked out - I know you skeptical early on (as was I), but I've found that it does work well for some recipes.

The sale is just as was offered on Amazon.com and several others recently.

I tried shrimp last night. Despite following the directions carefully, it wasn't too good. Maybe the shrimp's fault!

I'm doing a sirloin tonight. I'd like to try carrots one of these days, just to try.