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Sous Vide

Southern Dad

Presidential Candidate
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Location
Shady Dale, Georgia
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Male
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Very Conservative
I like to cook. Even better I like to eat. Due to adopting a lower carb diet last year, I eat a lot of meat. First, I was using a George Foreman Grill to cook my chicken breasts, steaks, burgers. Then I discovered the Instant Pot. Now I am looking at a different alternative. Sous Vide! I have not decided on which sous vide device I want to purchase, yet. I am still researching the different options. Recently, I found out that many very good restaurants use this method to precook meat that only has to be heated and seared before being served.

Does anyone on the forum have experience with sous vide? From what I understand the reason that so many professional cooks us it, is they can get a very consistent quality level that cannot be had from other means of cooking. The temp is exactly set, as is the cook time.

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What is sous vide cooking?

Once limited to the pros, sous vide (pronounced sue-veed) is a cooking technique that utilizes precise temperature control to deliver consistent, restaurant-quality results. High-end restaurants have been using sous vide cooking for years to cook food to the exact level of doneness desired, every time. The technique recently became popular for home cooks with the availability of affordable and easy-to-use sous vide precision cooking equipment like Anova.

Sous vide, which means “under vacuum” in French, refers to the process of vacuum-sealing food in a bag, then cooking it to a very precise temperature in a water bath. This technique produces results that are impossible to achieve through any other cooking method.

https://anovaculinary.com/what-is-sous-vide/
 
I like to cook. Even better I like to eat. Due to adopting a lower carb diet last year, I eat a lot of meat. First, I was using a George Foreman Grill to cook my chicken breasts, steaks, burgers. Then I discovered the Instant Pot. Now I am looking at a different alternative. Sous Vide! I have not decided on which sous vide device I want to purchase, yet. I am still researching the different options. Recently, I found out that many very good restaurants use this method to precook meat that only has to be heated and seared before being served.

Does anyone on the forum have experience with sous vide? From what I understand the reason that so many professional cooks us it, is they can get a very consistent quality level that cannot be had from other means of cooking. The temp is exactly set, as is the cook time.

Sous-Vide-ENG.jpg

My neighbor does sous vide with all the paraphernalia and has cooked for us a number of times. I must say that i very much enjoyed it giving the food a quite different taste and completely other texture. But I still prefer a raw center and singed outer fat.
 
My neighbor does sous vide with all the paraphernalia and has cooked for us a number of times. I must say that i very much enjoyed it giving the food a quite different taste and completely other texture. But I still prefer a raw center and singed outer fat.

When I cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts using traditional methods like stovetop, oven, or even grill, it dries out the chicken. The Instant Pot retains that juiciness and I love it but I had some chicken breast that was cooked sous vide. It was perfect. A couple weeks later, I had another piece cooked by that same person, again, perfection. Now, this lady is a chef, but the consistency that she gets from sous vide blew my mind.
 
I like to cook. Even better I like to eat. Due to adopting a lower carb diet last year, I eat a lot of meat. First, I was using a George Foreman Grill to cook my chicken breasts, steaks, burgers. Then I discovered the Instant Pot. Now I am looking at a different alternative. Sous Vide! I have not decided on which sous vide device I want to purchase, yet. I am still researching the different options. Recently, I found out that many very good restaurants use this method to precook meat that only has to be heated and seared before being served.

Does anyone on the forum have experience with sous vide? From what I understand the reason that so many professional cooks us it, is they can get a very consistent quality level that cannot be had from other means of cooking. The temp is exactly set, as is the cook time.

Sous-Vide-ENG.jpg

I love my sous vide. All I can say is, go hotter and longer than most recipes call for, because your palate isn't used to the texture of chicken served medium.

And don't use it for good cuts if steak, unless you sous vide it to medium rare - anything more in the water bath will render all of the fat out. Put ribs and roasts in for days, though.
 
When I cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts using traditional methods like stovetop, oven, or even grill, it dries out the chicken. The Instant Pot retains that juiciness and I love it but I had some chicken breast that was cooked sous vide. It was perfect. A couple weeks later, I had another piece cooked by that same person, again, perfection. Now, this lady is a chef, but the consistency that she gets from sous vide blew my mind.

If it's coming out dry, it's because of the cook, not the method. I can grill a chicken breast and have it come off the grill as moist and tender as you could ever imagine. I will grant that sous vide gives a consistent result, but I'll take a properly grilled/roasted/pan fried breast over a sous vided one any day.

The whole Instant Pot thing makes me laugh. We had one when I was growing up, but we called it a pressure cooker (and I still have one). People think that the Instant Pot is something new, but the fact is that it's just a fancy, over-priced pressure cooker. Anything that it can do, I already have the pans in my cupboard for.
 
I love my sous vide. All I can say is, go hotter and longer than most recipes call for, because your palate isn't used to the texture of chicken served medium.

And don't use it for good cuts if steak, unless you sous vide it to medium rare - anything more in the water bath will render all of the fat out. Put ribs and roasts in for days, though.

What model sous vide did you purchase? Are you happy with it and would you recommend it? I am looking at the Anova as my choice, right now. How do you sear the outside of your meat? Really hot frying pan, blow torch? Don't laugh, that is what I have seen done.
 
If it's coming out dry, it's because of the cook, not the method. I can grill a chicken breast and have it come off the grill as moist and tender as you could ever imagine. I will grant that sous vide gives a consistent result, but I'll take a properly grilled/roasted/pan fried breast over a sous vided one any day.

The whole Instant Pot thing makes me laugh. We had one when I was growing up, but we called it a pressure cooker (and I still have one). People think that the Instant Pot is something new, but the fact is that it's just a fancy, over-priced pressure cooker. Anything that it can do, I already have the pans in my cupboard for.

I know that I am a novice in the kitchen. I also have no misconception that pressure cooking is new. I am a gadget person. Instant Pot is the brand of two of my pressure cookers (one is a 6 quart Duo, the other is a 6 quart Smart), my third is a Cook's Essentials. All three have their purposes. I have several slow cookers, as well. We love to put things on and enjoy our day out. Another important thing to us, is to be able to include the family. I wouldn't let an 8-year-old use an old school pressure cooker on the stove but have no issues with her using the Instant Pot.

I found that too often we get into a rotation of 8 - 10 meals that just got made over and over again. Since getting into using a pressure cooker and slow cookers we experiment more. My girlfriend and I both use the Hot Logic Mini to cook our lunches. The office microwave never sees any action. The kids all get excellent lunches each day. No more sandwich, chips, and a cookie.

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What model sous vide did you purchase? Are you happy with it and would you recommend it? I am looking at the Anova as my choice, right now. How do you sear the outside of your meat? Really hot frying pan, blow torch? Don't laugh, that is what I have seen done.

I have the Anova. It's dead-nuts accurate literally every time I check it. It also heats up quickly, it just slows before it gets to temp so it doesn't overshoot.

I sear on a steel pan, a cast iron, or the grill depending on what type of fat I'm using. I also sear after the bath. I'm going to try searing before, as I think it will make the meat prettier.

I also started with a vacuum packager, but I was getting weird flavors. I just do the ziplock-submerge trick and it seems to do a great job.
 
If it's coming out dry, it's because of the cook, not the method. I can grill a chicken breast and have it come off the grill as moist and tender as you could ever imagine. I will grant that sous vide gives a consistent result, but I'll take a properly grilled/roasted/pan fried breast over a sous vided one any day.

The whole Instant Pot thing makes me laugh. We had one when I was growing up, but we called it a pressure cooker (and I still have one). People think that the Instant Pot is something new, but the fact is that it's just a fancy, over-priced pressure cooker. Anything that it can do, I already have the pans in my cupboard for.

I slow grill chicken breasts, high at the start to sear, then lower temp, turning frequently as the juices rise. Turn out juicy and perfect.
 
After looking at all the review and talking to people actually using sous vide devices, I opted to buy the Anova Precision Cooker (Bluetooth). I was torn between the Bluetooth and WiFi + Bluetooth models. I was even using that extra 100 watts as a reason but the truth was that I like gadgets, especially with WiFi but in the end I found the Anova without WiFi on clearance at Target. I snapped it up.

During my research I discovered Chefsteps. They are the makers of Joule. I did consider their model but in the end opted for the Anova for several reasons, one of which was that I can still operate the sous vide device if my iPhone is dead. Not so with the Joule. However, while watching Grant Crilly (founder of Chefsteps) videos he gave the tip that the Chefsteps Joule app was usable by anyone, even those that did not have the Joule cooking device. This app allows you to chose your temp based upon the doneness that you want but you do not have to use the words rare, medium, etc. You simply look at the picture and then choose.

I am eager to make my first meal using it. So many questions to think about... Should my first meal be beef, pork, chicken... How should I sear? Yes, I am now looking at the Searzall and a torch.
 
What to make for my first meal with sous vide? I got an idea from watching Chefsteps YouTube videos and decided to go with Juiciest, Most Tender Pork Chops Ever. I served them with an apple purée, and a small bed of shredded fresh lettuce. I cooked them at 140º F for 3 hours. Sure, they were ready at 1 hour but I had some yard work to do. They came out perfect, not even slightly overdone. I pan seared them on the stove with the pan "ripping hot" and a slight bit of oil. Rather than go get fresh pork chops which was my original intention we have several Smithfield pork chops in the freezer. I have made these already seasoned chops on the grill, and in the Instant Pot. Those methods all seemed good, until today. I'm a believer. Sous vide is the way to go.

The next thing for me to work on is figuring what kind of container(s) I want to buy for cooking. This was a stock pot and I know there is a better plan.

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