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Kinda funny I just watched that video today. I really need to order a searzall. So far steaks, chuck roast, pork butt, chicken breasts, Italian sausage, and chicken tacos. Very solid cooking choice for that on-the-go lifestyle. Lots of food, no time spent actually cooking.

I think as usual my go to is chicken, cheap and easy.

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Nice to see you're enjoying it, Bill.

I did a 8-9lb Rib roast yesterday. 10 hours @ 132°. Finished in the broiler for 5 min a side.
Came out fantastic.

I haven't been experimenting much with the Anova of late. Lot's of the same old, same old going in, and the same old, same old perfect results coming out.
I really wan't to do burgers, and give sausage a try. Every time I make either, I forget I want to sous vide them, throw them on the grill, then kick myself for forgetting.

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Was worth it. I need to get a bigger water bath and try some longer cooks. Really wanting to do a ham and beef tenderloin.

The sausage and burgers are quite fantastic. Did another 5 pounds of chicken yesterday

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Need advice 12 quart rubbermade
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000R8JOUC?psc=1

Or

26 quart
https://www.amazon.com/LIPAVI-Contai...P34HKXZ5T961PZ

Or both I guess?

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I would say both Bill, if you can afford them. No sense heating all the water in the larger tub if you're doing smaller cooks.

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I have the second -- the LIPAVI. I also purchased the lid (https://www.amazon.com/C20L-AP-LIPAV...EC5XZWR4BA3QJE), which is cut to fit the Annova. It has worked out well and it is the only sous vide container I use now. I am very happy with it.

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I would go with the Lipavi as well. The larger container will give you the ability to do larger cuts and more capacity, which is never a bad in my eyes

I have the 4.75 qt Cambro here.
I modified the lid myself. Modifying the lid was truly one of the hardest things I've ever had to accomplish in life.
Had there been a brand available with a pre-cut lid at the time, I would've ordered it.
I do have a Lipavi sous vide rack which I love.

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Get a cooler, cut a whole in the lid. Not pretty, but very effective. You can go way over the rated 20 quart capacity if you charge with pre-heated water, the insulation makes it very easy for the machine to keep up with the larger bath size.

20+ lbs of tri-tip in a 56 (? 60?) quart cooler:
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showth...11#post2084911

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Genius idea Adam.

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Just curious, anyone here getting hit by the random temperature increase bug?

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Had my first Sous vide steak, a filet, thanks to Vin. Wow! :dr

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Sous vide steak is phenomenal. I finally bought a vacuum sealer, ziplock bags were way too much of a PITA.

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Oh wow this thread is fantastic! My first post and this is right up my alley.

So a few suggestions for everyone!

Typically you put olive oil in a bag with your meat to help the meat keep it's shape. It helps prevent those wrinkles from the bags. Also if you put something like rosemary in it it should help that flavor infuse with the meat.

My second suggestion for you to is to pre-sear your raw meat before tossing it into your vacuum bag. You may think this bizarre but take a moment to think it through with me here. When you sear first you are causing the outside of the meat to go through the maillard reaction, which is the browning and the tastyness that you get when you finish it on a hot pan. When you sear first, you are letting the meat marinate in the maillard flavor for the entire duration of the cook, and since it is in a vacuum that flavor is also drawn deeper into the meat as well. Try it out next time!

Third suggestion is, if you are like me you are cooking this way a lot! and that means that you'll be going through a ton of vacuum sealer bags. I found a discount buyer's club for bags and rolls, you may want to sign up and stock up like I do when I get sale notifications. The site is here. I found out about it when I was reading about different vacuum sealers when trying to figure out which one to buy.

Jo, all your pictures made me flood my house with drool. Damn you! All that food looks so good.

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Largely thanks to this thread, I got myself an Anova yesterday and tried it out for the first time last night. I did four pretty thick ribeyes at 129 for a little under an hour (two with some rosemary and garlic sealed up in there) and then seared them on cast iron with a little oil and garlic butter. Turned out great. Nice crust and medium-rare throughout. I'm really looking forward to playing around with this thing. Planning on doing some turkey breast in there for Thanksgiving.

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That's how I did Thanksgiving last year. Came out super good!

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I did NY Strip steaks yesterday with the Anova. I rarely order a strip steak when we go out because they are a bit on the tough side, but 5 hours in the sous vide @ 130 and they were almost cut-with-a-fork tender (and a beautiful medium rare)

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Annova is having a Black Friday sale: $99 -- a very good price...

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Yes, but that is the Bluetooth model and not the Wifi model. There is a difference in wattage and range. Just a consideration to make sure its the right one for your needs.

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Same here. Look up the recipe on Serious Eats. That's what I did. Never went over 145°F. Best turkey breast I've had.

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I have the Bluetooth model and have been very happy with it.

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I tried burgers for lunch yesterday (45 minutes at 124, then sear). Sear wasn't the best and I thought they were maybe a little overcooked, but not bad overall. I also didn't season them as heavily as I usually do. Will try again and am once again reminded that I should grind my own meat.

Then did NY strips for dinner and artichokes for appetizers. After over an hour at 183 (recommendation I found online), the artichokes weren't even close to being ready, so those were kind of a fail. The strips, though, were delicious. 126.5 for 50 minutes and then got a good cast iron sear on them. Again felt like they could have been cooked to just a slightly lower temperature, though.

I also tried some carrots with butter, garlic, and brown sugar. 184 for an hour and then finished for a couple minutes over high heat in their juices. I didn't think much about them, but my wife really liked them, so that's something.

I'm definitely digging this thing, but there's just so much to experiment with and learn--it's a fun process.

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I haven't had much luck with veggies either. I can get them cooked well enough, but I don't really see any benefit to doing them sous vide vs other methods. I also find the cook times to be inconsistent. Sometimes they're perfect, sometimes raw, and sometimes overdone using the same time and temp as the last try. So I don't bother anymore. I don't see a reason to crank up the temp to 190 if I'm not satisfied with the results.

The success I've had with vegetables has been doing them in soups.
I've done cream of artichoke, asparagus, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and mushroom soups with great success. I also did a sweet potato and andouille soup that was terrific.

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Time to re-read this entire thread.

Amazon laid waste to my kitchen yesterday. A generous friend sent me an Anova Precision Cooker yesterday along with an accessory. Time to jump in with both feet. :adam

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As soon as I get settled into the new apartment and make sure that I have enough room to have a permanent setup I plan on picking up an Anova, I look forward to re-reading this whole thread as well :dr

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Did a small boneless turkey breast for Thanksgiving. Put some butter, honey and cinnamon in the bag. Set for the recommended 152* for 2 hours, for a traditional roast texture, and seared the outside in a pan. Very juicy, sweet and tender. Only compliant was seeing some light pink in the meat after slicing it up. Kind of freaked me out so I pan fried the pieces. Maybe I'll do a higher temp next time.

Also while eating, the texture made me think something was off. I knew it was cooked, maybe I'm just used to dry, overcooked turkey :confused:

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Very cool, Peter!

I did seven big prime filets with it last night. An hour at 122 with a little garlic and rosemary and then cast iron seared with some oil and butter basting action. They were fantastic (though they should be for what those steaks cost). Raves all around. And I was much happier with the internal done-ness (or lack thereof) than before, so I think I'm finally getting close to finding the cooking temp I want for steaks.

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I did turkey breast last year @ 145F for 4 hours. No trace of pink meat. Perfect soft texture for me too.

Made a lamb top round roast last week. 135F for 5 hours (started frozen). Seared the outside on a hot grill. Perfection.

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So I've been doing a crapload of reading about sous vide. So eager to get started but still have some questions based on my research. Hopefully the "vets" here can help me out.

1) The times stated (here and in recipes) are minimums. Correct? So if a steak calls for 45 minutes at 129, an hour or even two won't make a huge difference?

2) Seriouseats.com is associated with Anova. There is a recipe for steak on their site that states the following: "When the cooking time has elapsed, remove the steaks for finishing. (At this point, you may also quick chill the meat submerged in its pouch in an ice water bath for at least 30 minutes and refrigerate for up to 48 hours or freeze for up to a year.)"
What do you all think? And have you done this? If plausible, would it work for pork as well?

3) I bought a bunch of thick boneless pork loin chops. Put them in Foodsaver bags. Half went in plain and half were seasoned with a dry rub. Thoughts about dry rubs prior to cooking?

4) Most of the stuff shown in this thread is for meat. Anyone done fish - specifically salmon?

I'm sure I'll have more questions once I start cooking.
Thanks in advance for your help.

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I'll answer what I can.

1. Yes, minimum times, at least in my times cooking with it. You can always go longer but it can affect texture if you go really long. A steak/chop that usually goes an hour shouldn't change much if you got two.

2. I've not done that, but I've used my sous vide to reheat finished meats. Nice that if you have a med rare steak, you can take it back to the temp you cooked it and it'll be done just as originally cooked.

3. I haven't done much with seasonings. The one long cook I did use some, it got muddled and lost in the overall flavor. Shorter cooks should let the flavor come thru more. I now add my seasonings after the cook, but before the final sear.

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Thanks, Bob.

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My 2-cents

1) As Bob says, to a point it makes little difference if you exceed the cook time. To elaborate, I've found that it depends on what you are cooking and how long. A 2" ribeye cooked an hour over or even two, probably won't hurt it at all, probably won't notice, might even make it better. A 2" ribeye cooked for 24 hours will be destroyed. Just as shrimp cooked an hour, heck even half an hour, will be wrecked.

2) I've done that with boneless skinless chicken breasts. But I didn't reheat them, I just broke them out of the vacuum bags a few days later and sliced them up cold for sandwiches. Logically, to me, if I were reheating, I would aim for a few degrees lower than my final initial cook temp, so as not to cook them more, and only just reheat them.

3) The amount of flavor that herbs and rubs can impart during the long SV cook times is immense. Do not be afraid of this. Remember, that is your only flavor being imparted, there are no flavors from the cooking process itself. It can be phenomenal. I've found that, for the way I do things, no salt in the rubs or bags is best. For short cooks it sometimes doesn't make a difference, but for long ones, it pulls a lot of moisture out, so for me, it's simpler to avoid altogether and just add at the time of searing. Go overboard on the spices, it doesn't matter - I went overboard on tri-tips one time, now, I'm stuck making them that way for that group forever, they freaking loved it.

On a side note, you mention pork chops... I have long struggled with getting grilled pork chops right, often resulting in a dry chop. No more with this process.

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:tu

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I've done salmon, comes out great! Just using the recommended cook times on the anova app. I just usually do S&P some chili flakes, dab of butter and some lemon.

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I like to sprinkle some dry mustard on my salmon -- spices it up just a bit.

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Another question about the process.

If I am doing steaks for a party of say 4 and 2 want their steaks medium and 2 want their steaks rare, what is the best approach for doing this?

I came up with an idea of doing the medium steaks at the higher temp first. Then, in cooler water, cook the rare steaks while at the same time keeping the medium steaks warm but not cooking them further. Finishing with a sear all at once.

Thoughts?

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Peter, I would cook all the steaks rare. Then the two steaks I wanted medium, I would just sear off longer in cast iron or on the grill to bring them up to temp. :2

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Yeah, that's what I've done, too. If someone wants it past medium (why, God, why?) and you're tired of searing and/or your smoke alarms are all going off, you can toss it in the oven for a little bit, as well.

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Get 2 new friends who like steaks and not leather.


J/k. I think Dom's idea is solid, about using a longer sear on the leather, er, medium ones.

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This! Who needs that kind of negativity in their life? :D

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Thanks, fellas.

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Another noob question.

Preheat the water before adding the food? Most recipes I've seen say to do this. But I trust you guys more.

And an observation.
Using the app on the phone to set time, temp, and start the unit seems pointless unless one puts the food in a room temp water bath for an extended period and then wants to start the process without getting up and without preheating. And I've seen no mention of how much time to add for preheating.

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The timer does not start until the water is at the desired temp. I always heat the water before adding my food.

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First cook is done. And I'm quite pleased.

Did a large boneless skinless chicken breast. It was already in the foodsaver bag with no herbs or seasoning. Also had a a 1-1.25" thick boneless pork loin chop that I used a dry rub on.
Cooked both at 145 for 90 minutes. Added salt and pepper to the chicken. Finished in a cast iron skillet.

The pork chop was tender and flavorful. Certainly not dry but not as juicy as I had expected. Maybe dial it down to 135-140 next time.
The chicken was fabulous! Even with just salt and pepper. Can't wait to try different herbs/seasonings for the next effort of chicken.

Going grocery shopping tomorrow. Have to get me some steak for the weekend. :dr
And finish it with a Searzall.

I'm hooked.

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One thing I've noticed with my anova and using the app, is that when the anova beeps I toss my food in the water. But I do have to remember to acknowledge that it's at temp on my phone or else the timer won't start.

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Must say I'm super intrigued by this thread and the concept of this cooking. Can't stay away from it when I see new posts, but I'm also very leery of going down another rabbit hole. I have so many already. Just got a new Big Green Egg keeping me busy, but this food looks incredible. Probably just need to start digging a new hole!

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Did some salmon last night.
Light salt. Small dab of butter. Fresh dill. And slices of lime.
Cooked at 127 for 30 minutes. No finish.
Delicious!

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...pspvegqssw.jpg

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Do you remember what time and temp you used?

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Bueller . . .

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Sorry no pics, but I did a bottom round roast beef this past weekend.
131° for 11hrs.
Absolutely spectacular!

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I got an Anova Blutooth Cooker on Black Friday. I was waiting for them to drop below $100. Still have not used it yet. I guess I could this weekend, but I think I am going to be making Jambalaya on Sunday. So I may wait until Christmas to open it.