Do you Sous Vide?
 

Love to cook and am always interested in new (to me) cooking methods. Tell me about it if you have ever tried it.

How about a pressure cooker for any Chili, ribs etc. But I love baking bread! It comes in streaks. I have a sour dough going right now and the baking will take place at about three this afternoon. Smoking just about anything. Grow your own vegetables and can your own food. Make my own pasta and top it with home grown and made
pesto.

All the time. Did rack of lamb last night, have 72 hr short ribs going now. Ideal for thick steaks, duck breast, etc. Pretty much anything you want done perfectly to temp edge to edge. Finish with a rub of something (used dijon and ground chili's for the lamb, with fresh mint) and a quick sear. Delightful.

Awesome for changing the texture of tough meat as well, see the aforementioned short ribs.

We are serious cooks. I worked as a Sous chef in my youth. Just finishing a kitchen remodel. Spent almost a year without a vent and a crappy stove. Viking cook top is in place with Wolf hood above, Miele oven and fridge. We're loving it.

There's a meat market that opened some steak houses many years back in Houston named Perry's. One of their signature dishes is a monster pork chop that has about 3 ribs worth of meat on it. I always assumed they slow cooked it, then waited until you ordered it and threw it on the grill to warm it up when you ordered it.

It appears that's not at all what they do. It looks like they grill it to sear it and give it some color and then vacuum bag it and cook it in water (sous vide style). Then when you order it they cook it in a microwave in the bag. They sell them in the vacuum sealed bags at their meat market now and you can microwave them at home. I know many would think this would taste crappy but no, just the opposite, it's one of the best pieces of pork you'll ever eat. Even my super foodie and great cook girlfriend was really impressed.

I do something similar with ribs. Slice an onion and throw it in a baking bag. Coat the ribs with the rub of choice and throw them in the bag with a cup or either apple or orange juice. The last batch I made I put in 1/4 cup of molassas mixed with a cup of water. Bake at 150 for 10 hours, take it out and sear it on the grill to but some bark on it. It's fall off the bone tender and very tasty. It gets raves.

Yes!

Wonderful cooking method--certain types of food benefit more than others, obviously.

Here's the kitchen in my soon-to-open new place.....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1405337684.jpg

I've done all of those except canned food. Have watched my aunt do it & plan to try.

Greg- Does the meat have to be vacuum packed or will a ziplock with little air suffice?

wdfifteen - that sounds yummy! Think I will try that real soon.

Kevin - Looks like a nice "workshop". What kind of food do you specialize in?

Jeff-it depends on what you're after. For "traditional" sous vide, the pressure is part of the process in keeping juices in, supposedly, but folks have good luck for short cook times with ziplock-google the technique using water displacement to get the air out. For long cook times I only use a foodsaver or other vac device. You can do salmon "sous vide" in 130 degree tap water and a ziplock, and its awesome. The big thing is that if you don't vacuum pack you need to make sure the item stays submerged, somehow.

Rumors abound of steaks done "sous vide" in hotel pans of butter with an immersion circulator and no bag. Really, that's low temp cooking, like the wd's ribs upthread, with no sous vide element. I really like low temp ribs, now that I'm without a smoker...its got all of the texture, just minus the hickory.

The Annova makes sous vide for the general public affordable. Also check out the Searzall, a Kickstarter project, which will bring much of the power of a salamander to the home cook.

i want to do an egg. hit that perfect temp where the yolk turns custardy by itself..then i'm out.

HOWEVER, there are cool ass ideas on converting a slow cooker into one. that has DIY cool to it.

A racing buddy put this together:

http://thedamntrueexperiment.blogspot.com/2011/03/beyond-french-laundry-sous-vide-for.html

I want to try it some day, I have an oven that goes low enough.

Greg - Thanks. Currently looking at the Annova. Amazon has them for around $200. The Searzall just looks fun!
Next camping trip I think I'll try pre=cooking using Sous Vide & finishing on a camp fire.

Vash - That's a graet idea!!!
Currently I use the Alton Brown method for eggs which if done right makes an outstanding boiled egg. But sometimes I miss the mark. Sous Vide would pretty much make it fool proof.

Anova has a new model due out in October, called the Anova Precision Cooker, retail of 179 and it has some upgrades.

Love this!!! I hope my oven can maintain a temp that low.



Thanks for the heads up Greg

Here's a similar recipe a cook friend of mine came up with. And yes, it is a full cup of paprika to give it the "smoke". Easy to do when you're having people over and need to do the majority of cooking indoors. Everybody loves these ribs and he's working on a Korean version. It's a secret recipe but he gave me permission last time to post it on Pelican, so I guess he won't mind.

Rick’s Super Secret Famous Ribs

2 racks baby back ribs (cut racks in half)

RUB
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup paprika
3 tblsp onion powder
3 tblsp garlic powder
1 tblsp powdered oregano
3 tblsp kosher salt
2 tblsp pepper

Mix ingredients and rub well into ribs, packing and coating well.
Place ribs side by side in Reynolds large baking bag and seal end with ties provided. Place in glass baking dish and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place dish with ribs in oven for 1 hour 45 minutes. Meat should be shrinking away from bone ends.
Remove ribs from bag and save juices for basting. Place ribs on preheated grill, indirect heat. Baste with juices and grill for 10 minutes turning once.

SAUCE
1 ½ cup plain BBQ sauce
¾ cup Sweet Chili sauce (Asian section of market)
4 oz Whiskey or Bourbon

Mix ingredients together and baste ribs for 10 minutes on grill or until sauce has “carmelized”. Cut up ribs and enjoy!!

I'll have to try Sous Vide, looks like another method to add to the cooking arsenal. I tried canning for the first time and my Jamaican jerk pickles were a hit, great in Bloody Marys (or by themselves).

canning is badass.

vintage cooking.

I've been nosing around in the Modern Cooking movement....

Prepared a Bruschetta with spericalized mozzarella, balsamic pearls, and basil foam...

I am a cheap bastard... and noticed this Instructable awhile back ...

Sous vide cooker for less than $40

However in downsizing kitchen crap I Goodwilled both my crock pot, and rice cooker...

I suppose I could go and buy one of them back...

Then one day the alternate bizzaro me woke up and I bought a micro controller based temperature controller for my BBQ

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1405473406.jpg

Maintained a 225 temp on one chimney of lump...

oops...[/hijack]

Going to build that Instructable.... maybe add a pump for more uniform water temps in a small pot....:rolleyes:

Same guy with the turkey recipe? Alotta work, but I was a god on the other side!

It's a good one Jim! I'm all for low and slow, but if you find yourself pinched for time and have to play bartender, honey-do's, keep the kids occupied, etc, it's a great alternative and everyone will rave about them. And this is much easier than that bomb ass turkey. ;)