5046

The beauty of the technique is that you can technically let it go indefinitely.

The temperature you are setting, is the temperature it is. So it will never get beyond the cooking done-ness, ever. It’s great, because it’s effectively fool proof. It’s why they are so useful in restaurants, as you can basically put a bunch of steaks in different temperatures, and be able to pull out a steak and sear it within a few minutes.

The only real requirement is that it requires something like an hour at these temperatures to pasteurize the meat and kill any stuff that could make you sick. With steak it’s not really an issue, but it comes into play with poultry and pork and stuff, since it lets you have then rare without danger.

As I said though, after a while, the meat will get more tender, which is fine to a point, but it gets a different mouth feel. For things like ribs, some folks cook them sous vide for 48 hours.

I recommend the serious eats sous vide articles for good info:

Specifically, this article covers all aspects of steak.

Note the part about time, near the end. You can see that at really long periods, over 4 hours, you get this kind of weakening of the muscle fibers. I think I generally cook most things around 2-4 hours.

5047

I’d say there had been a bunch of restaurant-quality pics of food the last couple of weeks, but that would be a lie. There have been a bunch of pics that look like they came out of gourmet food magazines.

5048

What Misguided said. You folks are killing it lately. I’m so happy this thread is in my life.

In other news, I still am not getting sous vide. 2-3 hours in a water bath, and then a sear after that? A couple of hours to get a steak that I can do in five minutes of cooking time in my cast iron skillet, and then a five minute rest. That’s 15 minutes of pre-heat. Five minutes of cooking. Five for rest. Versus 2+ hours?

I trust you folks, and I like that Skipper is trying this out, and I realize I’ve questioned this before…but I just don’t see it.

I have to go with RichVR on this one, Skipper. You’ve got to get that thing ripping hot. I start mine in my oven at 500 degrees, since I’ll be finishing the steak in there anyway. You gotta go super hot for the sear. Smoke is gonna happen.

-xtien

5049

I got really lucky with this as a Christmas gift this year. Well…sort of.

The first time around the package arrived damaged. A couple of the meat packs had broken vacuum seals. I kind of thought this wouldn’t matter, but I emailed them anyway. After a few rounds with customer service they sent me out a new set of meat.

All of the stuff in the gift (it was from my mom) has been really good. To my surprise. My filet cuts were small, as you describe, but there was no fat and no gristle whatsoever. And the sirloins, though again small, turned out great too.

Most surprising were the burgers. Their regular burgers are fine. Tasty enough. I like how convenient they are in that I can take a couple out and let them thaw in the fridge in their packaging for dinner the next night. Since my kid will eat burgers, it makes planning dinner for the next day easy.

But my mom included these Ground Beef Brisket Burgers in the shipment and man, are they freaking delicious! They’re thicker and just…I don’t know…meatier. They turn out super juicy and my kid will eat them too, very happily. As long as I melt the cheese just right and cut a lot of pickles.

Omaha Steaks can be hit or miss, but this shipment, minus the packaging glitch, has worked out nicely.

The last box in the gift is these Beef Tenderloin Steak Tips. I have no idea what to do with those. Any ideas would be welcome.

-xtien

5050

But you can’t do it with any other cooking technique.

Check out Skipper’s picture of his steak. See the middle of it, how it is basically perfectly uniform throughout the entire piece of meat? That’s what sous vide lets you do. What’s better, is that it’s impossible to screw up. You can cook a hundred steaks, and they will all be cooked exactly the same as each other. The level of doneness is determined entirely by dialing in the temperature.

With normal cooking methods, you need to apply high heat to the outside, until it penetrates to achieve the appropriate temperature in the middle. This results in a gradient where it is well done on the outside and rare in the middle.

5051

I definitely see that Timex. And I find that impressive. For his first go 'round to get that beautiful a steak is very impressive. And as I re-read what you folks have said, I understand the other positives. Breaking down the collagen and tenderizing the meat. I get that.

I’m just not sure I get the time differential for what you actually get out of it. I’m not trying to be a jerk about this or anything, I’m just having a hard time with that aspect of it.

I’m sure I’ll come around eventually.

Thank you for taking my question seriously.

-xtien

5052

Ya, it definitely requires time. The upside, is that it’s time with no maintenance. And since it can’t be over done, it doesn’t really impact your schedule at all if you can plan ahead. Like, throw steaks into pot and then go do whatever you gotta do, for as many hours as you want, then you have the steaks when you are ready for dinner.

However, I’d say that while steaks are great in it, the real per is with very large cuts of meat, like a leg of lamb. Because with that kind of thing, is just impossible to get a uniform level of cooking throughout, due to differences in thickness.

5053

Thing is, the active cooking time is less than for conventional cooking. A minute to bag it and set the controls. Walk away. Come back whenever you want, and three minutes more for heating up the pan and searing… Done.

And that’s for steak, which doesn’t take all that much time normally. for more labour intensive meats, it’s even better.

5054

In addition to reliability, a big appeal of (e: doing steaks) sous vide for me is the flexibility it provides: the time-consuming part happens in the background and requires no attention, and the finish is very quick and can be done at any time.

If I’m cooking a simple meal for two, I usually won’t bother with it. But for larger productions, for four or six or more, with a number of side dishes, it can make the hectic last minute stuff a lot simpler.

5055

Having just done it, I can tell you my fear was that it wouldn’t be a viable technique to add, it would be a gimmick. I’ve been watching videos on it since the unit came in on Friday, an Anova for what it’s worth.

For meats, I typically roast, grill, fry, pressure cook or slow cook. I use the absolute shit out of my cast iron, and my skillet is pretty much my go to for anything day to day that I cook, from eggs for breakfast, right up until a quick grilled snack late at night. I’ve made skillet steak many times: EXTREMELY smoky house, and what typically happened was that I eventually just seared, put it in the oven and hoped I could nail my temp time on it while juggling how hot it was going into the oven, how hot my actual oven was, the variance of the temp IN the oven, and how quickly I could get the steak out after hitting temp and allowing it to rest. Then you had the post cook temp rise while resting to figure too. I found the method clunky and hit or miss on my results. The sear, that always rocked. The steak itself … meh.

So I switched to grilling as my go to for steak. Again, it has its own complications and it is hit or miss. If you make steak a lot, you could probably nail it by your 50th time. I have steak … maybe twice a month that I prepare myself, if that?

Having used sous vide, I equate it to something akin to super precise slow cooking, which it technically is. Prep, put in, set temp/time, walk away. I “cooked” my steak while playing Skyrim. The post-cook sear time was maybe 5 minutes in total, and it went straight to the plate and was served after. I made two, but I could have done 8 or 9, maybe just adding 2-3 times more sear time. Sous vide looks like it can provide the ability to do volume very easily. Even on the grill that isn’t always easy, unless you have a grill with edge to edge even temp. I do not. That sous vide steak was -perfectly- cooked, in a way I don’t think I’ve ever achieved from edge to edge like that.

But what sold me was not so much steak, but the comments here and those I’ve read and watched since on chicken. I make a TON of chicken. It will be so flipping nice to be able to get perfect temp chicken in volume. Not dry and rubbery, just perfectly moist chicken. If it can accomplish that, I’m very much sold. I’ll be making chicken tomorrow I think. I have a full roast that I’m going to part up anyway. It’ll be a good test.

5056

@ChristienMurawski I just wanted to post a quick comment to say that some of the stuff I got in that Omaha Steak pack was awesome. Some was not, but that technically was the much smaller percentage. My burgers were quite tasty. Some meatballs I had were much different. I had two and the dogs got the rest. They loved me that week.

All of my cuts have been small, per person sized. That’s both a plus and a minus. As a plus, they are single serving friendly. But the minus was represented today, it’s very easy to overcook those small servings. I did it with the pork chops. The chicken breasts were so thin I just pounded them down and used them for breaded cutlets. Since it was a gift, I’m not sure if it was a good value overall. It might be, in which case you could sample through and find what you liked, then use it as a delivery timed to keep your freezer stocked.

5057

I don’t think it’s a good value overall, if you know what you like and how to buy it. Your point about the chicken breasts is a perfect example. I don’t want a bunch of flat-frozen chicken breasts when I can get a fresh, plump, chicken breast for a lower food cost if I’m careful. And since I buy it based on my timing, I don’t have to defrost it. And I can nail it every time…in my cast iron skillet.

I used to love their twice-baked potatoes too. That was quite a few years ago. Once I learned how to make my own, and to save the skins from mashed potatoes for making potato skins later in the week, I no longer needed the frozen kind. They were convenient, and fine, but inferior. Again…once I learned to do it myself.

This shipment also came with some arancini. No. No. No. No.

Overall, I would not buy one of their packages for myself. But I found plenty to enjoy from the package as a gift. Those brisket burgers just made the whole thing.

Your point here, as well as your point about the ability to do volume, is well taken. I guess I can see that. The problem for me is that I just don’t cook for that many meat eaters that often.

I am curious about this:

I can see what you mean, Timex, about uniformity of temperature. What I cannot imagine is getting a very large cut of meat into a water bath. What size pot are you using if you’re doing an Anova with leg-of-lamb? Do you use the sink? I’m not being silly, I’m asking in earnest.

Anyway, I find this fascinating. I just found the idea of a 3-hour steak to be frustrating.

I do see this aspect of it, but I also see differences of opinion within this topic on this point. I’ve read earlier in this thread, I think, that you can leave something cooking for as long as you want, and it’ll just hold that temperature and then you finish it off whenever. But I’ve also read that if you let certain things go on too long, they start to turn to textures you might not like. I get the point though. And I like the slow-cooker aspect as described above.

I am curious about the expenditure of energy from a scientific and practical point of view though. I mean just looking at energy consumption.

Returning to Skipper for a moment…

I really miss grilling. I haven’t done it in a couple of years, for various reasons. And whenever I think of cranking back up to do it again…which I’d love to do…I kind of think along those lines and back off. I love building the fire. I love tending it. I love all the prep. But I get so weirded out about getting it right that I just go back to my skillet.

Which was the other thing you said in your post. I use mine for so many things. Including, as you say, snacks. Tater tots in that thing? Holy cats. One of the best things ever.

Thanks again for all the sous vide responses, folks.

-xtien

5058

Both are true. For most things the window is very wide. Many, many hours. For any ordinary meat like chicken or steak, anything up to four hours is going to be fine. Generally speaking the things you have to worry about are minimum times (to get the interior of the meat up to temperature and hold it long enough to pasteurise — generally an hour is long enough for everything regardless of temperature, unless you’re cooking straight from frozen, or need to break down collagen like with ribs — and maximum, especially if you’re cooking below 130F/54C, because then you’re going to be allowing new germs to breed.

5059

Lots of helpful info here, including an illustration of the impact of different times and temperatures, in this case for chicken.

5060

I’m not a convert. Like Xtien I hear lots of raving about steaks and other pieces that I can cook really well already. But a perfect leg of lamb is starting to be convincing.

5061

I made ribs last night that came out pretty much perfect. I use a homemade rub with paprika, black pepper, brown sugar, salt, celery salt, cayenne, garlic powder, dry mustard, and cumin. Lightly brushed the ribs with honey mustard and then applied the rub. Chilled them for 2 hours. Pre cooked them in the oven at 250 for 3 hours and then sauced them with a homemade sauce and finished them on the grill. The bbq sauce was a “korean” style sauce with soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, rice wine vinegar, gochujang, ginger, sesame oil, and black pepper. Sorry, I didnt get pictures but then by the time I served them, it was like a re-enactment of the movie Piranhas! They were served with roasted garlic/parm potatoes and corn on the cob. I am nowhere near a cook on the level of so many here but I have to say that last night, I nailed it.

5062

Good god you just reminded me. Smashed tater tot hash browns. So flipping good.

To what they are saying, my prep time was around 2 minutes for the steaks, you’re going to have that nearly any way you cook them. My sear time was as mentioned about minutes. Because they are already cooked, you can sear multiple steaks at a time. Then grab them in pairs and even sear the edges, which is what I did. I can see where you are coming from based on the total time. But it is very similar to slow cooking in that you have minimal prep, a longer unattended cook, and final plate prep and plating. You could instead spend that extra time getting extravagant with some sides, a salad, etc, or you could spend it gaming. :)

One tip I saw and read was that you can take frozen, bagged cuts and put them into an ice bath. Then you can remotely turn on the sous vide later and things will be done by the time you’re ready. Before getting this thing I was unsure of the time versus reward. I’ve used it once, but I’m a fan of how well cooked my steak was. If I can do that with more volume and different kinds of meat, I’m sold.

Those two statements don’t go together. Sounds like a fantastic meal. I’m just a home cook, man. We are all just amateurs here (I think.) Cooking is all about making something you and your guests enjoy.

5063

Usually use my stock pot.

5064

We don’t have one yet, but I’ve been thinking about it. In my mind it’s kind of analagous to what I’ve been doing with the smoker. It takes time, but if you follow a few simple rules/steps, you get reliable, fantastic results.

Incidentally, anybody have a Joule?

5065

My dad gave the Omaha Steak thing for the holidays one year. I thought it was okay. My sister and her family said it was the best pork chops they ever had and considered shopping at a different grocery store due to the quality difference. Me… I don’t like pork chops so I didn’t really notice those much. I am fortunate though. I have a butcher shop literally down the street. I have access to quality meat very easily.