Considering a Sous Vide machine
I have a sous vide and an instant pot and love them both. Gave my air fryer to Goodwill.
I have a vacuum sealer and use it when I buy large packages of chicken thighs or large pork roasts and want to split them up. The chx thighs can go directly into the IP and cook in less than 30 min. I know you didn’t ask about IP - just throwing it out there.
You don’t HAVE to use a vacuum sealer with a sous vide. Use a baggie and lower into the water to displace all the air and then seal it when the water is at the top. If your meat still floats a bit just put a bowl filled with water on top of it to weight it down.
Initially I used a roasting pan and covered it with cling wrap to prevent evaporation until I was sure I liked the sous vide and was going to keep it. It wasn’t long before I bought a square plastic tub with the cutout in the lid for the sous vice and glad I did. So much easier.
That’s all I’ve cooked in for three years now, virtually every night. Sometimes I hit it perfectly, and other times I overcook, even after all this time. A lot of our cuts (pork chops, pork steaks), are too thin to use a meat thermometer.
I’ve been offline for a while, but thought I’d jump in on this.
I have a Sous Vide set up (and vacuum sealer), and an Instant Pot, but no air fryer (yet). I have to say, I probably use the Sous Vide at least 3 times per week. Yes, I buy the bags, but they are not too expensive, and come in packages of 100, so one per day is pretty affordable, especially considering the savings from less expensive cuts of meat. Unlike in a pan or broiler/grill, I like the consistent results that I get cooking a steak or a hamburger in the sous vide (129 degrees F for 1 hour for medium), then remove from the bag, pat dry with paper towels, and sear in a blazing hot cast iron pan for about 1 minute per side. Result: evenly pink edge to edge, with a wonderful crust! And after years of overcooked, dry, tasteless boneless, skinless chicken breasts, as someone mentioned above, to sous vide a chicken breast is life changing. 1 breast side per bag, seasoned with salt and pepper, maybe some garlic powder. Add a sprig of thyme or rosemary, or other seasonings of your choice, and a pat of butter or olive oil (just under a Tablespoon). Seal bag on moist setting, and into the bath at 146 degrees F for 2 hours. Amazing.
More often, though, I use my sous vide to re-heat leftovers. I live alone, and so find it useful to cook a wholed recipe, and then portion it out over several days. With sous vide, timing is much less critical because the food never gets over its ideal temperature. so you can reheat a piece of salmon without overcooking it; ditto a chicken breast.
My instant pot, on the other hand, is the opposite. Where the Sous Vide cooks low and slow, the instant pot cooks hot and fast. Because it is a pressure cooker, it allows water (or other braising liquid) to reach above 212 degrees. So you can cook a stew in an hour or a chicken curry in 20 minutes and get all the benefits of long cooking in terms of tenderizing meat in much less time. Great for winter braises and Stews, not so good for lighter summer dishes, although it would not heat up your kitchen, which could be a plus. as an electronic device, it can be used as a slow cooker (unlike a conventional pressure cooker), but its temperature controls are not precise enough to use as a Sous Vide cooker.
Having used both for several years now, I consider them vital tools in my kitchen now, more so than the microwave.
I love both my sous vide and instant pot for the reasons you mentioned.
I took my air fryer to Goodwill. I know some people love theirs but I never could get anything to turn out that was worth the cleanup. If I want to fry something I still have my deepfryer, only filled with lard now instead of canola oil.
We’re having sous vide lamb chops tonight. Got them from Costco, put them in bags with salt, pepper, thyme, and sage (only herbs we had). My wife will put them in for 3 hours (recipe calls for 2, but we won’t be home), we’ll sear them, make a sauce, done. She puts them in, then does a ton of driving kids everywhere, including dance. I pick up from dance, come home, help prepare the last part of dinner.
Ugh, for whatever reason, I am so intimidated by a Sous Vide machine!!! I just can’t bring myself to get one. This style of cooking seems so foreign to me. I have to do more reading, however, because sometimes the things I cook in my cast iron skillet come out and other times they are dry. It challenging to get a good sear without overcooking, especially when the meat comes out of the fridge and goes into the pan (cold). Despite having a scorching pan, that brings the temp. down quickly, and a lot of times I am concerned about having a grease fire, the pan smokes so much. I use my cast iron skillet every night. Other than a roast every maybe once a month, that’s all I use. I know sous vide is pretty foolproof.
They are the cheapest around Thanksgiving and Christmas, in the US. I believe we got ours from Amazon, though I could be wrong.
I’ve had the set-up in my cart many times, but just can’t pull the trigger!
I HIGHLY recommend getting something like this made for a sous vide:
I didn’t have that at first and was a real pain covering my pan with plastic wrap to slow the water evaporation. This works great.
I have something similar, although yours is nicer because the sous vide is in the corner. Mine is in the middle of one side, and it can make it tougher sometimes to fit things in there. My plastic top is also only one piece.
I realized I only linked up the lid. Had to buy it separate from the tub. Maybe you could find a lid like that one to fit your tub. That one is only $10 so may be worth it as much as you use your sous vide.
Here is the tub that goes with it