Re: Sous vide
 

I've done this with other cuts but never bottom round (or at least i don't recall using bottom round).

Do you happen to remember what the weight was?

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It was in the 3 - 4lb range. Probably closer to 3 than 4.

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Cool. I decided to try one yesterday, same time and temp, but just shy of 3lbs (probably about 2.5 after I removed the fat cap). Didn't open the bag, just straight to the refrigerator, will open and sear it today when it's cold, that way I don't change the internal cooking doneness as much.

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After looking at this thread for a long time I went shopping. An Anova and a beef tenderloin came home with me. so excited. I love beef extremely rare.
Thanks for the push down the sous vide slope brothers.:adam

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We're only too glad to help, Jeff :D

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Well, got an Anova for christmas. Went bluetooth instead of Wifi.

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Did a 39oz Porterhouse steak the other night.
I haven't purchased a steak less than 2 inches thick in close to a year.
I love how the thicker steaks come out with the Anova. The worst part is having to share. :)

http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/a...pshv12nskz.jpg

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That's not a steak, that's a roast for a small family. :lr

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Wow Dom that's gorgeous. Can you share temp and time please? My mind is running wild with thoughts of how the inside came out. Got any pics of that?
Thanks so much.:dr

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Looks good, Dom! I think I need to visit New Jersey soon :D

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First cook in in process. Pork loin at 140 for 1.5 hours, and carrots at 185 for 1 hour.

Started after work, so it's going to be late. Thoughts on ice bath and then reheat and sear tomorrow?

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My wife got me a FoodSaver for Christmas. The next logical step is an Anova. :)

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It'll be fine. Reheat everything together at 140.

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I did my first Sous Vide cook over the weekend. It was a Eye of Round roast cooked 24 hours at 131*. This is a pretty tough cut but it came out very tender, but not all that juicy. I guess that is the case with longer cooks on this cut. The juices were mostly left in the bag and for a nice reduction sauce. The meat is very good though. The leftovers will be great for sandwiches. Luckily one of the other gifts I picked up for myself was an 8" Victorinox Fibrox Chef Knife. It makes cutting thin slices easy!!!

I need to try this on some NY Strips of Rib-eyes next.

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Did you use any salt on your roast? I find that salt dries out meat on the longer cooks, and for those cooks where i have either reduced or left out the salt, the roasts come out very juicy and tender.

Using salt on the shorter cooks for steaks and the like does not cause any problems.

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I did use a little salt with it but not as much as I normally would have. I will keep that in mind next time I make a roast with a longer cook time. Thanks for the tip.

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Just tossed in a small bottom round roast. Plan is 132 for about 12 hours.

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Dom: That's Some Delicious Looking Food, Brother!:dr You Need To Change Occupations!:D:tu

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Did my first cook yesterday. A whole tenderloin lightly seared, immersed than seared again. It was perfect medium rare. 125F for one hour seared in cast iron. Yummy for sure.

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This maybe a dumb question but how do you know when a steak or roast is cooked to med rare without taking its internal temp?

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Sitting in the water bath for 1-4 hours pretty much guarantees your internal temp will be what you've set the device at.

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Second cook today. Grape tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic, basil and s&p. 130F for 30 minutes. Chilled for later.
7 or 8 fingerling potatoes sliced lengthwise with olive oil, garlic, vidalia onions, fresh parsley, big nugget of unsalted butter and s&p. 190F for one hour. Chilled as well.
Have a chicken roasting now. Just before it's done I'll reheat veg. and serve.
Gotta say it smells wicked good in here. (As we :mh say!)

Re: Sous vide
 

Did regular old chicken breasts today, 145 for 2.5 hours (from frozen) and they were very good, just salt and pepper on them for salads throughout the week.

Right now I'm doing Serious Eats glazed carrots and some green beans. 185 for 1 hour.

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Tomatoes were awesome, potatoes grossly under cooked. Darn internet recipes.:confused:

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With such a varied time frame is safe to say you can't over cook a steak use this method?

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Correct, as it'll reach equilibrium and stay there. However, the longer it goes, the more the texture will change, usually not for the better.

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I just pulled the trigger on the wifi/Bluetooth model. Should be here Thursday.

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I did my second cook on New Years Eve . This was a top sirloin steak that I used to make Steak au Poivre. The steak was cooked for 2 hours at 131 and came out as tender as a fillet. Moist and very tender. There were not a lot of juices left in the bag, but it was enough to make the sauce. I served it with a loaded baked potato. Then some Tres Lehes Cake followed buy a CAO American Torpedo to take me up to Midnight!!!!

Now I need to decide what to make next!!!

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I made the best pork tenderloin I've ever had last night. Cooked two of them (one peppercorn pre-seasoned and one au natural that I did with salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, and butter) at 136 for an hour and a half or so and then seared in cast iron. It was the most tender pork I've ever eaten. I served the medium-rare pork to two people who normally only eat well-done steaks and they both loved it. I don't think I'll ever do a pork tenderloin any other way again.

Also, while the pork was in the bath, I threw in some asparagus with salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes, and butter. Let it sit with the pork for half an hour or so, then when I took the pork out, I added some boiling water and bumped the temp up to 170ish for another 10-15 minutes. Came out great. I don't normally even like asparagus, but this way it had good flavor and didn't have any of that nastiness that I usually associate with the stuff.

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Actually, I have one of those pre-seasoned peppercorn tenderloins I was thinking of putting on when I get home. But I may just wait until the weekend. I have that same pork fear a lot of people have. My Mom was so afraid of getting sick from it that it was always well done and stringy or else I fear I am going to end up with trichinosis. Hopefully the Sous Vide will help me get over that fear.

Re: Sous vide
 

Tried a stepped temperature cook a few days ago, actually quite pleased with the results.

Took about a 1" thick sirloin steak. 1.3 hours at 103F, then 1.3 hours at 120F, then 2.5 hours at 127F.

Somewhat impressed with the flavor and tenderness developed in what was a not-so-special select grade cut from Safeway. Going to have to try this again with a better steak.

I've never really been happy with the bark on a sous vide steak. Yeah, it's not the worst out there, but it just doesn't hold a candle to what I can get on any one of my grills (other than the pellet grill). To get a good bark, I was basically wrecking all the work I had done for the SV cook. So I played around with a heavy pre-sear, then a cook, then a normal post sear. Making sure to dry the steak with a few paper towels before each sear. This actually kind of worked, the pre-cook sear could be heavier/longer since the meat is still cold and not going to be as affected by it, the post-cook sear was basically just re-crisping the work from the onset. Not to mention the flavor that was infused into the meat during the cook from all the little burnt bits. Need to try that again, but this time, with a frozen steak. That way I can sear the crap out of it yet only have that part of the cook penetrating a few mm.

I still prefer stuff grilled, but I'm starting to find a usable alternative with this process.

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Oh, and I did a 52 hour cook, not really intended to be, but just how things worked out, at 127F and it didn't fvck the meat up like it had in the past at 131+. So I guess temps need to go down a bit for the longer cooks. Not my preference, but nice to know.

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I haven't had enough coffee to remember what they are, but aren't there risks to longer cooks below 130°?
I've never been a fan of how long cooks come out, and would love to try them at a lower temp.

Adam, the solution to your searing problems is to cook thicker steaks! :D
I don't remember the last time I had a steak in the bath that was less than 2" thick.
And before you ask, the answer is yes, even when I'm eating alone. :r
Seriously though, even going to 1.5" will be more forgiving and allow you to get a great sear on the grill without undoing all the good work of the sous vide.
The best part is there are plenty of great things to do with the leftovers! :dr

I did a bottom round roast beef for 12 hrs @131° the other day.
I was upset to find out that the Anova doesn't have a delayed start.
I needed to get the roast in by 5am.
So, my choices were to either bring the water to temp the night before and hold it there, or hope I got it to temp in the morning before I had to leave for work
It just doesn't make sense.
Roast came out great. Went in the bag with fresh garlic, thyme, a touch of salt and pepper, and some chopped onion.

http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/a...sr0terycm.jpeg

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Dom, you could just use a plug-in outlet timer for a delayed start. I've done that.

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^^^ some good French Dip making there.

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That won't work with the Anova PC. When the power is cut and then restored to the Anova PC, it only remembers the temp, not the cook state. It would still have to be started manually.

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Yeah, I haven't been a fan of the longer cooks either, hence why I started looking into just how low I could drop the temp. The risks are in cooking at too low a temp or for too short a time, or both. In regards to what is safe: at 131F, bugs die in less than 2 hours. At 126.1F they die in many hours to days. Below 126F, they stop reproducing. So, in short, at 127F, or even 126.5F, a few days or more and you should be safe, but a shorter cook would be where you could run into problems.

Please note, this is only for whole muscle cuts of beef. I have not looked into this for ground beef, poultry, pork or any other hoof animal (lamb, etc).

I like how you think, brother.

Dom, supposedly this 3rd party app can do delayed starts.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ph.anovaremote
I've never used it though. Heck, I don't even use the app from the manufacturer. Such being the case for me, I'd go with heating the water the night before, since these things don't really use that much electricity once they get up to temp.

Nice roast too.

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Late last year, Serious Eats released a sous vide cooking procedure for thick cut bacon. I just got around to trying it...

O.M.G.

Melt. In. Your. Mouth.

Crispy, melty all at the same time.


Here's the recipe:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...on-recipe.html

Here are my comments/notes:
- I used bacon from the butcher program at the local UC. They've won multiple awards for their bacon. And it's meaty, not the bag o' belly fat you typically get with the cheap store bought stuff. Moral of the story here: Don't skimp. Buy the good stuff.

- The author says you can just put the pack right into the water, I wouldn't do that if it were a commercial pack with cardboard inside. Freeze it, cut it open, hold the cardboard in your hands for a moment, it will warm enough to peel away and then rebag the frozen bacon either with a vacuum sealer or ziplock immersion method.

- All that juice in the bag when you are done, save that. That's liquid gold. Use it to make a sauce, gravy or cook with it, even brush your teeth with it, you'll thank me later.

- I cooked it for 36 hours just because that's how things worked out. You have to handle the bacon gently, it will crack and fall apart before it makes it to the pan. Not sure if a shorter time will change this.

- The bacon cooks very quickly once in the frying pan. Don't get it too hot and heed his time recommendations of 2 minutes on one side, then 30 seconds after the flip.

- I would not try this with thin bacon, it would probably fall apart.

- If you are really slick, since the water is already at the perfect temp, the morning of when you are going to serve this, get a couple of large eggs, pick the shells, drop them into boiling water for one to two minutes max, immediately put them into an ice bath to shock them, then, once cooled, drop them into your sous vide water bath with the bacon, let them cook at the 145F temp for an hour and fifteen minutes to have the ultimate soft boiled egg along with the bacon. Reduce the cook time for smaller eggs, increase for XL & jumbos.

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I'm on that like white on rice. :dr

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Did boneless skinless chicken thighs tonight.
Light salt and pepper, EVOO, and some dried oregano. 160 degrees for 100 minutes. Finished in a cast iron skillet.
Fantastic! Juicy, tender, and very flavorful.

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My first attempt was frozen solid strip steak, about 1.5 thick. I vac sealed them frozen and unseasoned. 130 degrees for 2.5 hours. seasoned and seared in cast iron. I was less than impressed. Although the were super tender the flavor was "off". They had a Steamed/boiled aroma to them. My second attempt was a 3 lb bone in pork loin roast. This was rubbed with smashed garlic, S&P and coated in Penzy's Bavarian spice rub and some fresh rosemary for good measure. 145 degrees for 5hrs.
Finished in cast iron. This time I was very pleased with the results. the flavors penetrated throughout the whole roast.

I'll give the steak another try today, this time I'm going to defrost them and will season as I usually do and hope for the best.

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My second attempt at steaks was another disappointment. I guess I cant get over the fact that the fat doesn't render and the meat flavor is muted. Are others experiencing the same????

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I think what flavor you are missing is the seared flavor or possibly the juxtaposition between salt and the beef flavor. Salt adds a lot to flavors. Technically, a sous vide steak will be the beefiest thing possible.

Question, are you drying your steaks well before you sear them off? The dryer they are the better the sear and the more browning you will get?

Just spit balling here.

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Just tossed some chicken wings in. One bag salt and pepper, one bag some jerk dry rub. 160 for around 3.5 hours.

I'm not expecting them to be "better" from sous vide, but I'm hoping I can get them cooked all the way through leading to a short and hot fry time for the crunch.

Also may try them just under the broiler.

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Please follow up on this as I'm really curious how they turn out.

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Cooked/ate 1/3 of them. I finished these in the oven and they weren't great. I dried them off (there was a ton of fat on the outside) and put them on broil. Didn't really get a great crust. However, the meat was really good!!!

I have one more batch still in a bad that I'm going to deep fry. I think results on those should be great but I'll update.

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Update!

I deep fried the second batch. And my god were they good. Perfectly crispy crust, with no worry about cooking the inside all the way through. Tender and juicy without being greasy. I'd highly recommend this method.

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:tu

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I'm really loving this sous vide machine. Starting the Whole30 diet with some coworkers this week so I'm pre portioning everything I can.

Up for this week, Salmon (first time), Beef Shank (first time), Pork Chops, Chicken Breasts (in the freezer still), and green beans.
http://i.imgur.com/0Jf7mqwl.jpg

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Boneless beef short ribs for 72 hours at 129F. Insane.

Super tender. Super flavorful. Do not serve them without searing, because they look like the paint on an unrestored 1950's Army truck.