Anova is $69 for the WiFi version on amazon.
Fascinating debate here guys, thanks for the insights.
Sous vide does seem to be a thing that divides the crowd.
I have issues with the texture on duck (especially) but most game and all red meat. I don’t like the lack of bite and find the texture a little mushy. I am also not sold on fatty cuts as i can’t see how the fat can be rendered properly. Rendering fat after releasing all the collagen just results in toughness as far as i can tell. You can ditch the fat after the water bath and essentially end up with pulled meat off beef ribs but again i want some texture. Lean cuts of pork and veal work well in my opinion and it is killer for chicken oysters when you need to prepare a load of them. I haven’t tried but reckon it could be a good to prepare certain bits of offal, in particular sweetbreads and duck hearts.
It’s great for veg, especially fresh greens and eggs, which frankly are a massive pain in the ass to get right.
I am happy poking and looking for most fish dishes and the few attempts i have made sous vide have resulted in, once again, a slightly mushy result. Prawns are interesting and i am intrigued to hear about doing scallops this way. Mussels are worth exploring although more for speeded up marinating. Anybody sous vided crab in any way?
I have done some cool stuff with fruit too, although this is very much work in progress and more experimentation is needed. I wonder if it would be possible to infuse drinks in the water bath i.e. flavour neutral spirits etc. Anybody tried?
I am really intrigued by the sous vide machine although i think that like coravin it is useful while not really fulfilling the apparent purpose.
I am bemused by the flat earth theories put forward here that seem to position those who don’t dig sous vide as backward, unskilled or whatever. It seems to me that for people who can really cook the machine is kind of irrelevant.
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Interest posts, thanks Kevin.
Apologies, maybe a little late night hyperbole there. Perhaps rum and wine boards don’t mix.
I understood that the benefits to restaurants of sous vide are more to do with consistency and less wastage, two noble goals but more functional than qualitative. it sounds like you have experience here, is this not your take?
Martin
I think scallops at 122 are quite amazing. Really great cold with a texture I don’t think you can get otherwise. If you want them seared just sear one side hot and fast and your done. Easy to change a dish if someone doesn’t want to eat a “raw” scallop.
Undoubtedly the sous vide offers advantages of consistency and convenience. I have maybe a different take than yours re: “flat earth”.
I think the advantages of convenience and consistency are available to almost all who use sous vide, regardless of overall kitchen skill level. But as others have mentioned, sous vide is but one tool. The tool has its strengths and weaknesses.
In terms of weaknesses it seems there’s consistency that sous vide can provide a weird texture for animal proteins if one is not careful re: time. And there’s whole spectrum of outcomes available on animal proteins based on the time/temperature combination. Again some of those outcomes are far more desirable than others, and some of them resemble outcomes typical of coneventional techniques. But it takes an advanced understanding not just of sous vide, but of food science in general, to understand what may work and why.
In that regard, for example, I don’t think throwing a ribeye into the sous vide for six hours and the using the result to refute the capabilities of sous vide. Even properly seasoned and given a sear that’s just not the optimal technique.
Plenty of others have weighed in uses for the sous vide to produce a product that can be more challenging to achieve with conventional techniques. I’m also interested in the intersection of that and the combination of convenience.
For example I’ve mentioned previously that I’ll combine sous vide with other techniques - in particular smoking. Some of my favorites are thick cut pork chops, hangar steak, and tougher cuts of meat that one might traditionally braise.
Could I get the desired result with conventional techniques? Probably. But I’ve found that cold smoking for 1-2 hours, appropriate time in the sous vide, and then a nice sear, combined with appropariafe seasoning, produces fantastic results.
As I’ve mentioned before what I’ve found is that cold smoke + sous vide allows the smoke to distribute more evenly throughout the meat than one would expect given the amount of smoking time. It also allows for more subtle smoke characteristics. But I’m able to get the texture I’m going for - whether it’s the “snap” that others have mentioned in red meat, or something with more give, like a braised meat. And I’m also able to control degree of doneness- close to medium rare on the hangar steaks and pork chops, and anywhere from medium rare to medium or higher as need be.
And I’m able to do it on a timeline much more conducive to my schedule. Season meat and place in fridge for 1+ days to dry out. Cold smoke for a bit, vaccuum seal and sous vide based on my timeline for serving the meal.
Interesting thoughts, especially on smoking. thanks Jason.
Does the sous vide post cold smoking intensify the smokiness? Is the idea to avoid oversmoking?
I certainly take your point about schedule. The sous vide machine is clearly a great help to a busy but passionate home cook. I don’t doubt the convenience of it. I just question whether the sous vide machine has make cooking simply easier or better.
Cheers,
Martin
Well, I’ll answer that by saying that I went out of my way to buy one of the early SV machines (the SV Supreme which I managed to break after a few years) because of a chicken dish I had at EMP. There was something about the flavor and the texture that I just loved. Chicken is still one of my favorite things there. Oddly, while Arnold loves duck from the SV I really don’t like it.
Martin, I’ve found that cold smoke + sous vide mellows the smoke a bit, at least with the technique that I’ve used - where I’m only smoking for 1-2 hours before putting in the sous vide.
What I’ve noticed is that if I just got smoke something like a steak for 1-2 hours (assuming I’m doing so in a way that gives me desired doneness such that I don’t need to use any other techniques) the smoke flavor on the outside of the meet is prominent but lacking further inside.
But a short cold smoke followed by sous vide has the effect of allowing the smoke to distribute more evenly throughout the meat. What I end up with is just a lightly smoky flavor that is consistent throughout.
As mentioned above this has worked really well for me on thick-cut pork chops, as well hangar steaks. I’ve found hangar steaks in particular retain their snap a bit better than other meats.
This goes more to the “consistency/convenience” side of things but I didn’t try sous vide chicken until about year 5, and only then after reading Kenji’s article about how I didn’t need to be cooking chicken to 160. My mind was blown by how great that texture was, and how juicy the meat remained, when I cooked breasts to about 140-145 and then finished with a quick sear.
I could probably replicate that on the stove but it’s just so damn convenient to throw a couple breasts in the sous vide on a week night. I just don’t cook enough breasts on the stove to consistently nail them. Roasted whole chicken on the other hand… much easier to get where I want from a temp and texture perspective.
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Thank you for verifying my thoughts. I like to stick with basics. Good ingredients, knives, pans, and fire. I leave soaking in hot water for the laundry room. If it involves plastic, I feel uneasy. I just don’t like plastic around my food during the cooking stage. I’m not afraid of plasticizers. It’s something more basic than that.
woah! cool. My daughter loves mac and cheese. will def do this! I was reading a reddit tip instead of using Sodium Citrate, just drop a square of processed american cheese into it.
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Is anyone concerned about BPA, BPS, or other phthalates when cooking in plastic?
Choose your bags carefully
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we make this recipe all the time! changing up the blend of cheeses most times given what we have in the fridge.