Food / Drink What's for Dinner? (Sous Vide Edition)

Flyn

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I didn't see a sous vide dinner pics thread yet, so...

I have been concerned since I bought my Anova 900w because the ribeye I cooked on it didn't turn out well. It was tough and dry.

I decided to pick up some prime tenderloins and see if better meat makes a difference.

WOW! It definitely does. I cooked these tenderloins at 124* for 45 mins. Took them out of the sous vide cooker and let them cool off while wrapped in paper towels to dry the surfaces.

While the steaks were cooking, I baked some potatoes on the grill and made a mushroom/cream sauce. When the potatoes were ready, I sliced them most of the way through and then put them in my deep fryer to get a "hasselback" style. Fried on the outside and soft in the middle.

Steaks turned out perfect. Rare/med. rare all the way through. I wiped out my steel frying pan that I had used for the sauce and cranked up the heat until it was smoking. Opened some windows, too. LOL Drizzled some oil on the steaks and let them sizzle for a minute or so per side. This higher heat really seared the steaks nicely.

I gotta say, I went out to eat at a steakhouse last week for my birthday and the steaks I made today were better than theirs. Quality, prime meat is the key. Sous viding them made them super tender. I'm happy that my 2nd attempt has turned out a lot better than my first.

Prime tenderloins. I took the worst two out tonight. Better ones are coming Sunday. Salt & pepper and some thyme sprigs.

SZqExQh.jpg


The "setup".

Sauiy5I.jpg


Have a good bath, meat.

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I'm not exaggerating when I say this was one of the better steaks I have ever had. I would have been happy to have it served by a restaurant. Super tender and great tasting with the mushroom/shallot/garlic/broth/cream sauce.

0dBs91G.jpg
 

Flyn

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129* for 2 hours. I think I may just have a bad ribeye. Too bad because I have a dozen more steaks from it. Had a little "off" flavor, too. Maybe grass fed or some other kind of feed? The marble wasn't great. Best one they had but still not close to the prime.

The ribeye is choice and was the usual $3.99 a lb. from the small town market I visit. Usually they're pretty good but this one wasn't so I wanted to test some different meat to see if it was the process or the meat. Looks like it's the meat since tonight's prime steak was great. $10 a lb. (on sale) at Sam's and I got it directly from the butcher. Much better quality IMO.

Sam's has a very small prime steak display. Most of the rest is choice.

I hope I don't have to toss the whole ribeye.
 

Flyn

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BTW, the "Hasselback" (however it's spelled?) potato I made tonight was great. I was wishing I had some sour cream but the fried exterior and soft interior make for a tasty bite.

It's easy, too. Bake a potato, slice slits in it and drop it in a deep fryer for a couple minutes. I think you can do it in an oven as well. I may experiment with melting some good cheese in the cuts as well as butter and sour cream.
 

torquelover

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BTW, the "Hasselback" (however it's spelled?) potato I made tonight was great. I was wishing I had some sour cream but the fried exterior and soft interior make for a tasty bite.

It's easy, too. Bake a potato, slice slits in it and drop it in a deep fryer for a couple minutes. I think you can do it in an oven as well. I may experiment with melting some good cheese in the cuts as well as butter and sour cream.

My aunt makes something similar in the campfire with French onion soup mix, a lot of butter, and foil. It's ridiculously good.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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so maybe it'll give someone else some ideas but i had a setup like this:


Sauiy5I.jpg



and i no longer use it.

i do a large stock pot on the stove top and just send it.

which for 99% of what i'm doing, is plenty big enough.

if i need to get the water temp up quickly i just turn the stove on until the water temp almost hits the cook temp.
 

Pressure Ratio

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so maybe it'll give someone else some ideas but i had a setup like this:




i do a large stock pot on the stove top and just send it.

That is what I have done since day one. I also adjusted my hot water heater to 135 degrees. So when I fill the pot I am pretty close to my target water temp by having the faucet close to full hot. But the large pot works out well for the 3 or 4 pieces I cook at a time.

Again, I am limited in kitchen space and storage. Using the large pot I already had just made sense. I did buy one of the silicone toppers that helps with efficiency and evaporation. Like these
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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That is what I have done since day one. I also adjusted my hot water heater to 135 degrees. So when I fill the pot I am pretty close to my target water temp by having the faucet close to full hot. But the large pot works out well for the 3 or 4 pieces I cook at a time.

Again, I am limited in kitchen space and storage. Using the large pot I already had just made sense. I did buy one of the rubber toppers that helps with efficiency and evaporation.

my old house was setup that way

it was interesting when guests would shower and not take into account me telling them that we had REALLY HOT WATER

current house water heater is from 1989 and it's more of a game now to me to see how long i can make it last... so i dont want to touch it :rofl:
 

crooks

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My water comes out at 133* So when you guys just send it what do you use to monitor water temp? How long of cooks are you doing? I can see this working well for cooking an hour but what about longer? For meat over an inch I like to cook for an hour and half to two hours.
 

Thirdgen89GTA

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My water comes out at 133* So when you guys just send it what do you use to monitor water temp? How long of cooks are you doing? I can see this working well for cooking an hour but what about longer? For meat over an inch I like to cook for an hour and half to two hours.

Not much "sending" with Sous Vide though. Pretty easy and forgiving. If not sure err on the side of longer. The cookers have temp gauges built in and monitor it in like .01° increments.

Almost every one of them now comes with time/temp calc apps.

And even if meat is frozen you pretty much just have to add 30m to the cook time for anything that isn't super thick.
 

Flyn

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My water comes out around 115* so it doesn't take long to heat up the rest of the way. That's why I have the reservoir on that counter. It's right next to my sink and an electric outlet.

I'm planning on getting a double sized reservoir so I can do briskets and other large items that take days to cook. I will probably need to place a larger reservoir somewhere else so Amy doesn't get mad about a multi day cook in her kitchen. LOL
 

Fish

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all of a sudden im shopping deep fryers.

i think i want an outdoor one. if that's a thing.

Id probably only would want to do a turkey for an out door one. I actually have an air fryer, and surprisingly it is pretty good. Ive done fries, cheese sticks, onion rings, and have done a couple steaks in it. VERY surprised at the taste and ease of cooking.

I made a sous vide sirloin tip which is basically part of the tri tip. Cheap cut of meat and it ended up very tender. 22 hours at 135*. The au jus wasn't as good as I wanted. Might make some au jus on its own next time.

I made some caramelized onions and put some mozzarella cheese on sandwiches.

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That looks good. I know there is like a super thread for sous vide, and I should probably read it. Im assuming its just slow cooking?
 

Flyn

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Slow cooking with a temp. that is what you want the meat to end at. Instead of smoking/grilling at 225*, it's cooking at temps more like 135*.

I'm still learning about time and temp. From the tenderness of this roast, I think a long time cooking definitely tenderizes the meat. Steaks and burgers would take a lot less time since they are already tender. Maybe 45 mins to a couple hours instead of almost a day.

The internet is full of misinformation on sous vide so I thought we could do better here. In this case, 22 hours at 135* was a great time/temp combo for lesser quality meat.

Main issue I am running into with sous vide is the seasoning. Still need to work on understanding that better since the seasonings cook on the meat in a bag for a long time. Changes the parameters a bit.
 

Flyn

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I tried some prime grade sirloin tonight. It's good. Not as good as the tenderloin but $6 compared to $11 a steak. Might be worth the extra $5 if you are having guests. The tenderloin is more flavorful and more tender. The sirloin is well worth eating but not as good.

Seasoned with Lawry's and freshly ground pepper. I reseasoned with Lawry's after I took it out of the bath. 2 hours at 129*.

Lots of real butter for the baked Hasselback potato. Didn't have time to melt in the pic.

Edit: Sorry about the huge pic but I like the way it shows the meat. Man, this Note 9 takes great pics.

Seared in butter in a cast iron pan. I should have pressed it down and seared it a bit longer.

xNe1Ej6.jpg
 
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