Sous Vide is saving me

sous-vide
(PJ) #1

I bought a sous vide appliance. It was on sale for like $30 off and it was one of the cheaper ones to begin with (this one).

I have an extra steel insert/pot for my Instant Pot so I’m using that which so far works perfectly.

I have some glass weights for my fermentation stuff and I drop one in the bag if something wants to float.

My vacuum sealer is a noisy paperweight – does not vacuum OR seal, dammit – so I’m just immersing a ziploc in the water up to the corner still-open, to force most the air out of that, and it’s working fine.

The chicken breasts I buy, one organic brand is vacuum sealed individually already.

I made hamburger patties, thick and with spice mixed in, and put them each in a ziploc in the freezer.

I come home from work, change clothes, go drop a FROZEN chicken breast or burger into the sous vide, set it for 90 minutes and walk away. Come back, sear it on high heat in a pan, dip it in homemade blue cheese dressing, and truly it’s the bomb.

I made a NY Strip steak with it. Best steak I have ever made at home by far.

So far I’m still working on dialing in the right temp for my super-thick burgers.

But whatever “level of done-ness” it cooks something to, it really does do it evenly all the way through.

Being able to cook something from frozen – and just drop it in, push a couple buttons and then go do something else for 1-2 hours – makes it so EASY.

And the cleanup? Throw away the ziploc. Oooh, that was hard. Well if I sear it in a pan after, there’s that, but I just use the same pan for several days so I don’t have to wash it until then.

I thought my Instant Pot was my favorite appliance in the universe but the sous vide, though a lot less versatile of course, is giving IP a run for its money. :slight_smile:

PJ

PS I forgot to add it solved my lunch problem. I cook an extra chicken breast or burger, then just cut it up and put it in a storage bowl in the fridge, and a little dressing in another (or wholly guacamole mini cups). Put it in the fridge at work (in my lunch ‘bag’), nuke the meat bites whatever they are at lunch and put it back in the bag, and take it all out to my van across the street where I sit with the windows down at lunch and usually chat on speakerphone with my best friend.

Truly it has made being/staying keto very, very easy. And somewhat more affordable, this thing is going to pay for itself just in getting me to eat burger patties far more often than I would otherwise!

(Jack Bennett) #2

Sous vide is great for steaks and roasts. You get a really uniform temperature throughout the meat and can then sear the outside briefly. Great control and repeatability, and really tender steaks.

(Bob M) #3

I recommend this:

By far the best burgers I’ve had, though you do use a lot of bags if you make many of them.

Also, my wife got me some resealable, heavy duty bags. These really help reduce the waste. They are expensive, though, and you have to work at getting the air out.

If you like chicken breast, by far the best way to cook it is via sous vide. It comes out juicy.

The other thing is to take some of the cheaper cuts of beef and sous vide them for a while, say 6-10 hours (unless it’s chuck, then you can do 24-36 hours) for bottom or top round roasts, and get a large hunk of meat to cut up and eat cold or reheat for he week. I do this all the time.

(PJ) #4

Thanks Bob!

Last night I did 71C for 2H on the monster thick burgers and it came out pretty great.

Homemade blue cheese dressing is the bomb.

Today I took one I cooked last night to work (in a new ziploc). Cut in 4 strips. Nuked it for 1m at work and tossed it back in my soft lunchbox to take to my truck where I eat. Tossed 2 wholly guacamole mini cups in there. Just stabbed it with my fork and dipped in the cups. It’s so simple (I sometimes do that with chicken breast instead) but so good.

PJ

#5

Make sure they’re the the steam / microwave safe ones!