Some of my favorite sous vide recipes

(Bob M) #1

I have an Anova sous vide machine. For short cooking, I use a plastic container. We also bought a top specifically made to go around the Anova and fit over the container. For longer times (say 8+ hours, which usually means 24+), I took a whole saw and cut a hole in the top of a cooler and put lines inside to mark the high and low levels.

Here are some of my favorite sous vide recipes:

Burgers. You can cook them at above 130 (say, 132-133) for 2+ hours and ensure you kill the bacteria, but they’re still red:

Duck. Duck is tricky, as the breast and legs cook at different temperatures. If you just want breast:

If you want both, I usually put duck fat in both and cook the legs “confit” style, like this:

What I usually do is cook the legs for 12 hours or so, then cool the water down to the temp required for the breast, and cook both breast and legs at that temp, sear, serve.

Sous vide shrimp:

You can also use these techniques with just shrimp and no herbs or anything else, and they come out great.

Sous vide pork tenderloin is great and easy to do (hmmm…I didn’t realize how many of these recipes are from Serious Eats; my wife usually makes this one and the shrimp):

Rack of lamb (Yikes! Another one from Serious Eats…my wife usually makes this one too):

Finally, sous vide chuck roast from 2 keto dudes:

We usually roast two of them and are lucky to get 36 hours, sometimes only 24. We cut open the bags, take out the liquid, pass through a sieve, add red wine (usually keep some frozen) and a nom nom paleo recipe for mushroom “blocks” you keep frozen and add as umami bombs. We reduce. Sometimes, I have to pass a second time through the sieve, adjust the seasoning, add some thickener (I forget which one we use, we keep it frozen since we only use it for thickening), reheat to activate, maybe add some butter. I’ve added the butter before and after adding the thickener. Timing did not seem to make a difference.

I’ve already posted about the sous vide pulled pork and beef brisket.

Anyone else have some favorite sous vide recipes?

(Bob M) #2

Oops. should say “hole saw” not “whole saw”. A bit early in the morning, I guess.

(Sheri Knauer) #3

Thank you for inspiring me to break out my Sous vide and start using it more.

(Bob M) #4

You won’t be disappointed. My 7 year old daughter compares all burgers (without the bun) to her Dad’s (mine) because the sous vide burgers are her pinnacle of burgers.

I also live in an area where duck is easy to get, so I can get fresh or frozen ducks, whole. I then cut them into parts and sous vide.

Oh, forgot one. There are some sous vide goose recipes. I love goose. Again, the breast and legs cook at two different temps, so I usually cook one for a while, then cool, add the other and cook. Here’s one recipe:

Here’s another:

If a recipe calls for sugar for brining, I usually keep it in, at least the first time, then try it without it to see what the difference is. I also change all seed oils to animal fats.

The main detriment to goose is that it’s really expensive for what you get. I pay $70+ for a single goose and you don’t get a lot of meat. I personally think it’s fantastic meat, but my wife thinks it’s too expensive. And this whole bit about making it for Christmas is in my opinion ridiculous unless you have maybe two people in your family. I can darn near eat 3/4 of a goose myself.

(Bob M) #5

Oh yeah, just wanted to say how great the sous vide chuck roast is. It comes out like a fantastic steak, and this process transforms a tougher meat into a delicate beef. When cooking down the sauce, you might get some strange looking matrix of brown “bubbles”; I’m not sure how to describe it. Continue cooking past that and run it through a sieve again. It makes a wonderful “gravy”.

(TJ Borden) #6

Thanks for that. I use my sous vide all the time, but I haven’t used it for hamburgers. I should, since as a carnivore, mine are usually 16 oz :yum:

(Brian) #7

That’s some burger! :smiley:

I think my normal is maybe half that but I do enjoy a good sous vide burger, sooooooooooooooooo tender, soooooooooooooooooooo juicy… I despise a hockey puck burger. No worries about that with sous vide. And no worries about whether the middle is done or whether it’s reached a high enough temperature to be safe. I enjoy a good Juicy Lucy, too, putting cheese in the center. (Pepper Jack works good for me, or maybe some smoky cheddar.) Haven’t done that for a while.

Not about burgers, but a couple of days ago, I made some chicken parm. I did some sous vide chicken thighs and then made some sauce out of some leftover crushed tomatoes. Put it all in a baking dish and covered it with some freshly grated parm and a little freshly grated smoked gouda, and put it in a 350 deg oven for long enough to get the cheese nice and melted over the top. Talk about some good eats! There really was no recipe, it was just throwed together. But dang, that was some good eatin!

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #8

Kenji’s shrimp are amazing. I find a lot of Serious Eats Sous Vide recipes lacking, but that one delivers.

(Mike W.) #9

Full packer brisket. 155/36 then 4 hours smoked at 225. The point and flat come out the same tenderness. That’s near impossible to do on just smoke.

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I also do pork butts sous vide prior to smoking. 165/24 then 3-4 hours smoked at 225
Ill never go back to 10-12 hours+ of babysitting my smoker…
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(TJ Borden) #10

Oh sweet Jesus!!!

(Luke Haymond) #11

Scallops!

128* for 30 minutes.
Hot cast Iron skillet finish for 5 minutes (total or brown on each side)
in about 1/8 stick of kerry gold, white wine to 1/4" depth and a couple swigs of Knob Creek Bourbon… as is always the case you can sprinkle with some crispy bacon bits (pre fried).

Fantastic with bed of greens - we use collards around these parts - or as a side with a piece of beef.

(Bob M) #12

That sounds outstanding. I’ll give that a try. Scallops is where the sous vide can shine, as if you over cook them, they’re rubber.

(Luke Haymond) #13

EXACTLY - I cook all forms of stuff sous vide… but scallops are the absolute MVP in the sous vide IMO.

(TJ Borden) #14

Definitely trying that. I never cook scallops because I always end up overcooking them, out of fear of undercooking them. Never occurred to me to sous vide them

(Running from stupidity) #15

it is, pretty much, the answer to EVERYTHING

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #16

The only thing about scallops, is they take five minutes a side from raw.

(Luke Haymond) #17

You may have missed this was a sous vide thread? If you haven’t tried I highly recommend - neutralizes any size variation. Cheers

(Bob M) #18

I do think scallops can be cooked and cooked well without sous vide. The sous vide for the home “chef”, though, makes it idiot proof. My brother is a chef and when I see him cook at home, I’m amazed at how well he can balance multiple things being cooked while talking, etc. I can’t even attempt that. When I see people buying 8 burner cook tops, I think to myself, “Why on Earth would you want that?”, as I can’t see having more than at most 3 burners going at the same time. And I (and my family) cook all the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

I still prefer the smokiness of a steak cooked over a charcoal grill, but I sous vide steak 95+% of the time. Why? It always comes out perfectly cooked. On the grill, forget about it for a few minutes, and it’s well done.

An example. We sous vided sword fish. That’s a fish I’ve cooked multiple times in an oven. But you miss the timing, and it gets dry. With the sous vide, it was perfectly cooked and juicy. And you don’t have to worry (much) about the timing. Can’t get to it at the exact time? It’s OK. It will always be the temperature you set it to.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #19

I’m a big sous vide advocate, having been in the sous vide game for about ten years now. I’d be curious to know if, beyond solving " any size variation" there’s an actual benefit to SV processing of scallops if you’re going to sear them anyway.

I know you CAN do them. I have. With butter and sth to infuse them. I do shrimp all the time, and have done lobster tails.

(Luke Haymond) #20

As is the case with all things sous vide… significantly widens window of “perfection”, allows attention to other menu items, and removes error rate - which is particularly punishing if missed. Just my .02