Just found out about Sous Vide today

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #1

And I’m SO stoked to try it out ! :slightly_smiling_face:

Will be getting the equipment here very soon. Already have it in my Amazon basket :wink:
Think I’ve watched about 15 Suos Vide everything, videos… And they all looked great ! I want to do about 8 of them, at least… But will probably have to start with a big, fat Ribeye :wink:
But also flank steak, pork belly, baby back ribs, pork roast, beef roast, tri tip, etc.

Is their anything you think I should know, which you learned shortly after you got started, but has not read about, or saw on YouTube vids ???

(Central Florida Bob ) #2

The single most important thing I learned about sous vide after getting my Anova Nano.

You can do things with sous vide that you can’t do any other way.

I got my sous vide cooker because of conversations on this board. Someone mentioned medium rare barbecue brisket. IIRC it was cooked for days at 135F.

Barbecue is one my favorite hobbies which makes sense since it’s two or three of the four basic food groups. I figure those are barbecue, barbecue, barbecue and vegetablesfruitscoffee. And coffee is kind of a fruit juice.

I have an old thread a little way down in this sous vide group. It’s on sous vide finished in a smoker instead of on a grill or in a pan, but has some of that, too.

Beef short ribs are a steak-like alternative to spare ribs. Bigger and meatier. Check out this thread:

And look toward the bottom. 129F for 72 hours. I know of no other way to hold the temperature of an entire short rib that precisely for that long. On a recommendation from someone else, I did 133 for 72 hours. Nothing else like it.

(Raj Seth) #3

Don’t bother with buying a vacuum sealer. I use ziplock bags and a straw to suck the air out. I used to use water submergence to displace the air, but now, don’t even do that.

If using ziplock bags, try to not submerge the zipped opening in the water.

Get a plastic container, and a metal rack. I used to clip to ziploc bags to the side of a stock pot, and hang the controller on the edge. Now, multiple steaks can stand in the racks, have good water flow around them, and remain submerged by being wedged into the rack, and the zippered opening can remain out of the water.

If using higher temperature and long cook time (eg. 160dF & 48 hours), double bag - standard freezer ziplocs will fail.

Try sous-vide confit - I did Thanksgiving turkey that way. Put turkey legs, breasts, and wings into ziplocs, fill with bacon grease, then sous vide. Finish in Hot (400dF) oven to brown the outside. I did 130 for 24 hours for breasts, and 150 for 24 hours for the dark meat. Best compliment - my son in response to “how’s the white meat?” - “Oh its great - like dark meat, except its white!” high praise!

I have a WiFi/bluetooth Anova, so I can monitor the sous vide settings from anywhere with my phone.

(Brian) #4

Haven’t had that problem. But I did have to think about it a bit. The only higher temp stuff I’ve done has been short times, like 4 to 5 hours. My long cooks are usually at 138 degrees (F) and that would usually be like a chuck roast. I do my chicken breasts at that temp, too, but 4 hours or so. Chicken thighs are usually 165 for about 4 hours.

Have never had a zip-lock freezer bag fail me. It would have to be one of the factory seams, though, because the zip-locking part of the bag is always up over the rim of the pot it’s getting cooked in. What part of the bag fails for you when you have a failure?

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #5

Ahh man, using a straw in a ziplock… And I thought I came up with that idea myself ! :slightly_smiling_face:

Also, I can’t see myself going higher than 145… I haven’t seen Guga go over 145 for anything ? Usually 129 to 135…

Hope to order my machine next week… Now that rent is paid :slightly_smiling_face:

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #6

Oh and BTW, I’m kind of a zip lock freak ! I use them for everything ! Never let myself run out, and keep them in all sizes. And one thing I’ve learned, is that the only brand worth my money is Zip Lock brand. The freezer style are the toughest.

(Central Florida Bob ) #7

I want to second @Rajseth on everything he said - except I never tried the confit. All of my sous vide cooks started going better when I got the plastic tank, cover and metal rack.

I did pulled pork a few months ago and used a large FoodSaver bag. A few hours in, the bag failed on me. Not a zip lock bag, the brand name FoodSaver bag. I was walking by the container and could see it looked like dishwater. When I went to pull the bag out, it failed all the way and dumped the pork butt into the water. I had to do a big cleanup and start over. The second time, I put the foodsaver sealed bag in a big Zip-Lock bag. I’m doing pulled pork for the Fourth, and I’m probably double bagging it again.

(Raj Seth) #8

FIFY :grinning:

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #9

After buying about 6 million of them, one would think I’d know how to spell the actual name of them… But I guess not :grinning: lol