Amazon Just Dropped Its Top-Selling Sous Vide Shoppers Call a 'Bonafide Game- Changer' to Its Lowest Price Ever

[ScoopKona]

Understand a lot of folks in this thread have a bunch more free time than us

It only takes a couple minutes and a decent knife to break down an entire chicken. Someone who has never done this before; watches a youtube video; can break down a chicken into eight parts in a few minutes. Just watch a video and go. (And then there's bones left for making stock.) There's really no excuse anymore. Any task at all is up on youtube -- from changing a tire to dicing an onion. So "I don't have time" doesn't fly. "I'm too lazy" is at least honest.

When people buy the big-plastic-shrink-wrapped-tub-o'-chicken-parts, they are not choosing what they eat. They are letting the supermarket choose. The supermarket chooses chicken they won't put out for sale whole. They have one supply of chickens which is turned into rotisserie birds and packaged parts. And another supply of chickens which are packaged whole. If the consumer-grade birds were sold alongside the better birds, nobody would buy them. They don't look even close to the same.

There are a lot of ugly secrets hiding in plain sight in America's supermarkets. At this point anyone who doesn't know; doesn't want to know. Google "counterfeit olive oil" or "skimpflation" for two glaring examples. That's what happens when the majority of people don't care about what they eat -- the minority who do care are stuck being ever more vigilant.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Under Pressure by Michael Ruhlman and Thomas Keller. Ruhlman writes the best cooking books. (Not cookbooks. Cookbooks full of recipes are absolutely useless. Cooking technique books which include some recipes to go along with the techniques actually teach people useful skills. It's the next best thing to hands-on instruction.)

Thanks for the recommendation - I added that book to my wish list. Eventually (too soon, actually) I’ll have a birthday!

 

[joestein]

LOL! It's the ol' Good-Cheap-Quick paradigm. You can't have all 3. Pick 2.

You pick convenience (time saver = quick) over quality (Good). So be it, but understand the sacrifice. Hey, like me, I believe you are still working. Understand a lot of folks in this thread have a bunch more free time than us

At $2/lb - I think I got all 3.

When I seem to do a capital improvement around the house - it might end up good, but it is neither cheap or quick. Though the contractors all think it's cheap.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Well, we did our first sous vide last night, and it came out pretty well. We used @ScoopKona ‘s suggestion for a pat of butter and a sprig of fresh rosemary with each chicken breast (salt and pepper, too) and cooked two at 140° for 2.5 hours, watching the temperature fluctuations as he suggested. We did make a tactical error in that we got so excited after setting the system up in the morning that we cooked them in the morning, refrigerated them until near dinner time, then browned them in the cast iron skillet, so they definitely weren’t as warm as they would have been had we waited to sous vide them then transfer immediately to the cast iron. Anyway, they were tender and juicy and very nicely flavored.

Tonight is sous vide strip steak night! What are y’all’s suggestions for temperature and time, for medium rare (that’s closer to rare than to medium, if we’re going to err)?

 

[buzglyd]

125-130 for steak in that range.

 

[ScoopKona]

Tonight is sous vide strip steak night! What are y’all’s suggestions for temperature and time, for medium rare (that’s closer to rare than to medium, if we’re going to err)?

5f less than target temperature -- so in this case 125f so that after broiling/grilling/searing it reaches 130f. Mid rare has a wide swing -- 130-140. I much prefer 130 to 140. You can always broil an extra 90 seconds per side and decrease the amount of pink.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Woohoo, two 11 oz strip steaks, 125° for 2 hours, seared in the cast iron skillet. Delicious! Yes, I am proud!

 

[ScoopKona]

Woohoo, two 11 oz strip steaks, 125° for 2 hours, seared in the cast iron skillet.

If you want to replicate a high-end steakhouse, use the chimney starter trick mentioned up thread. (A TEC infrared grill will do the same thing as the chimney starter at a slightly higher price point.)

 

[buzglyd]

I searched and went through this thread again as we get close to Thanksgiving. I also find a time and temp guide. Everyone has their own preferences. Adjust accordingly.

Time & Temp Guide - Sous Vide Ways

This sous vide cooking guide will help you determine the perfect time and temperature to achieve a juicy steak, tender chicken, flawless eggs, and so on.

sousvideways.com

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Any suggestions for Sous Vide containers without the plastic? I love how Sous Vide meat cooks but want to avoid plastic.

@ScoopKona

 

[easyrider]

We use our Avona Sous Vide mostly for Chuck Roast often cooking it at a higher temp for 24 hours or better. It becomes so tender. For steak, I think the searing it on both sides in a cast iron frying pan then baking it in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes is the best.

Bill

 

[buzglyd]

Any suggestions for Sous Vide containers without the plastic? I love how Sous Vide meat cooks but want to avoid plastic.

@ScoopKona

The meat is in plastic. You could use a big spaghetti pot. I just used a small cooler doing a 9 pound pork butt because it was too big for our regular container.

 

[ScoopKona]

Any suggestions for Sous Vide containers without the plastic? I love how Sous Vide meat cooks but want to avoid plastic.

At the steakhouse where I worked, we used immersion circulators bringing steaks to temperature in a metal hotel pan full of melted butter. No plastic. Once they reached rare, they could be fired off on the grill in a matter of seconds and plated. The problem is all the butter needed to accomplish this. Our least-expensive steak, when I left years-and-years ago, was $85. It's probably more like $120 today.

Using the same technique, but with plain water instead of butter, you can soft boil eggs and keep them at temperature all day long.

I agree that plastic is awful. But I still use rolls of plastic sealing material. When possible, I cut it oversize so I can keep using it. With my climate, it's the only way to keep some food fresh. Warm and humid all the time is hell on grains, pasta, nuts, salt and similar. Keeping bugs and moisture out means a lot less food waste. So it's a trade off. When I open a bag of sealed mac nuts, I'll put some protein in that bag for a nut-crusted entree, later.

For me, the advantages more than outweigh the disadvantages. I'm not even particularly concerned about ingesting plastic. Because 1) We're getting a barrage of the stuff from all sides; and 2) I'm not cooking at temperatures high enough to be a concern. Nothing even approaching boiling. Usually temperatures from 120-140f. (It's the only way to cook poultry that's safe and doesn't result in overcooked white meat.)

Sous-vide is one of a tiny handful of gadget solutions which makes a meaningful impact on meal quality. Air-fryers, microwaves, bread machines, insta-pots and similar are either 1) hype; or 2) redundant. In my lifetime, the only inventions I can think of that actually elevate cooking are infrared searing (preferably a broiler); vacuum sealers; immersion circulators; and computer-controlled rice cookers.

 

[buzglyd]

I can’t imagine the butter bill but I might have to try it someday.

 

[ScoopKona]

I can’t imagine the butter bill but I might have to try it someday.

We also fried potatoes in a deep fryer full of duck fat.

This is what happens when the goal is "what is the best, cost be damned" at a restaurant. I worked my way into the butcher position at that restaurant -- breaking down primals into steaks. Besides my salary, I was allowed to take home any trim I wanted -- which was "all of it." So my wife and I lived on real-deal A5 Kobe beef which sold for $40 per OUNCE.

Even the fat trim was amazing. I could buy cheap chuck, grind it with the A5 fat, and make the best burger most people could ever hope to attain in their lives. The trade off is that we were stuck living in Las Vegas, which is my second, third, fourth AND fifth circles of hell all rolled into one.

 

[DrQ]

At the steakhouse where I worked, we used immersion circulators bringing steaks to temperature in a metal hotel pan full of melted butter. No plastic. Once they reached rare, they could be fired off on the grill in a matter of seconds and plated. The problem is all the butter needed to accomplish this. Our least-expensive steak, when I left years-and-years ago, was $85. It's probably more like $120 today.

I can’t imagine the butter bill but I might have to try it someday.

You don't need to have a whole vat of butter, just immerse the meat in it. You could buy pyrex glass containers and buy silicone replacement lids:

https://www.amazon.com/LUVCOSY-Rectangle-Replacement-Container-Dishwasher/dp/B0DTCWMBHT/ref=sr_1_15_sspa?crid=BTW9D23Q1T9R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RnGSNXS3f9aOJXLrX7GTB7koiSLkPdKAxFy0tb2SjTbFtS68V2FINZt7GVUgx5F8i6XatT5IZGNMhOW6dezJs9XvMXAdWA6nihu1dEPyKRFWv2b9EvJ_CgAutYaf9ROsJ6QwohtoUngsiuwOSqFMK285rOwmdCi_yMKnS_TJEYcWivINaXvM1Z571xRehBXF_vxGmBmu-fbXRmv73IayjZ1iTzn5_CYfIxNYwAPjyIDfkGEp29ttOGulrA2ufNB9un8eerKnIjkBwDemDs5pxqOhNuVToLiuZFb0uArw2Us.TZAK7WclvXpftGh5E0l_3fS9a1ghYARKp7NPVC1MMBs&dib_tag=se&keywords=pyrex%2Bsilicone%2Blids&qid=1746047162&sprefix=pyrex%2Bsilicone%2Blids%2Caps%2C145&sr=8-15-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&th=1

Place the meat in the container, fill it with melted butter and put on the top. Then seal the pyrex container in a vacuum bag tototaly seal it. It is now isolated from the plastic, but fully surrounded with butter for flavor and heat transfer.

Now you can immerse in a water bath as usual.

 

[buzglyd]

I’m still dreaming about a vat of butter. Buccees sells 16 lb buckets of bacon fat. I wonder how that would work out?

 

[ScoopKona]

You don't need to have a whole vat of butter, just immerse the meat in it.
Place the meat in the container, fill it with melted butter and put on the top. Then seal the pyrex container in a vacuum bag tototaly seal it. It is now isolated from the plastic, but fully surrounded with butter for flavor and heat transfer.

Now you can immerse in a water bath as usual.

That's rather complicated. My circulator needs four inches of liquid to work. So I'd go with a third pan and immersion cook 4-6 steaks on their side. Doesn't need to be sealed that way. It can also be put into a larger container, and then kept in an immersion bath -- if you don't want to clean butter out of your circulator for instance.

Hotel pans, and the associated third/six/nine pans that fit in them, are a game-changer for the home cook. I'll never understand why they aren't popular. Same with real sheet pans, perforated pans and similar. It's not like there's a law that home cooks must use flimsy equipment.

Circulators and baths are also how I hold hollandaise/gravy/etc. at temperature for service. That way, I can build the sauce whenever. And it's good whenever I need it. And it absolutely will not break because it's at the perfect temperature. I make benedict quite often because I make sourdough discard muffins quite often. (And we have hens and cure our own bacon at the farm.) So other than the butter, the a benedict is basically free. I typically make the sauce for breakfast. And then add tarragon, vinegar and sauteed shallots -- now it's bearnaise. And we have steaks with bearnaise for dinner.

 

[joestein]

I have the Anova 1200 W (Precision Cooker Pro) and an Instant Pot Slim 800W. My Anova died after 4 uses and they replaced it. The Anova 1200 W is definitely more powerful and circulates with more force. But my Instant Pot is really a workhorse too.

I have the instapot and have been using it for years. Works great everytime.