This is awesome. I'm trying it right now. I just hope that the weather will stay good long enough so that we can sear it off on the BBQ.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/cook-your-meat-in-a-beer-cooler-the-worlds-best-sous-vide-hack.html
That's cool!
Too bad you can't still buy those submersible beverage heaters. That and a thermostat would make it perfect.
I can't find it but I'm positive that ECH did a thread about cooking like this at these low temperatures.
I don't know, I know it's done, but I can't get past not adding enough heat to kill certain germs and such.
Quote from: Khara on April 29, 2010, 08:28:09 PM
I can't find it but I'm positive that ECH did a thread about cooking like this at these low temperatures.
I don't know, I know it's done, but I can't get past not adding enough heat to kill certain germs and such.
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=16400.0
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on April 29, 2010, 08:31:32 PM
Quote from: Khara on April 29, 2010, 08:28:09 PM
I can't find it but I'm positive that ECH did a thread about cooking like this at these low temperatures.
I don't know, I know it's done, but I can't get past not adding enough heat to kill certain germs and such.
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=16400.0
Thanks, I could not remember what it was called.
I like that is started right out as a slapfight, and degenerated from there. Now, THAT's a thread!
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on April 29, 2010, 08:44:16 PM
I like that is started right out as a slapfight, and degenerated from there. Now, THAT's a thread!
Oh I didn't mean it that way. Just that I'm of the opinion it might not be the healthiest way to cook yanno?
Mesquite smoking is BORING. :sad:
Quote from: Professor Freeky on April 29, 2010, 08:51:17 PM
Mesquite smoking is BORING. :sad:
I agree. But then again anything can get boring after a while. I like to try different woods and spices, even teas. Applewood and tea smoke salmon is delicious.
Quote from: Khara on April 29, 2010, 08:57:19 PM
Quote from: Professor Freeky on April 29, 2010, 08:51:17 PM
Mesquite smoking is BORING. :sad:
I agree. But then again anything can get boring after a while. I like to try different woods and spices, even teas. Applewood and tea smoke salmon is delicious.
Well, yeah, I agree with that. But mesquite is doubly boring here because it's free, it grows all over the place. :sad:
ETA: And thus my parents only use that to smoke with, or to make fires with.
Quote from: Khara on April 29, 2010, 08:46:04 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on April 29, 2010, 08:44:16 PM
I like that is started right out as a slapfight, and degenerated from there. Now, THAT's a thread!
Oh I didn't mean it that way. Just that I'm of the opinion it might not be the healthiest way to cook yanno?
I didn't mean that you meant it that way, I meant that I like that thread. :) Also, yeah, sous vide sounds like an open-arm invitation to food poisoning, but hell, maybe not.
p sure it works through the magic of pasteurization
At 124 fahrenheit?
Well I just finished my first homemade sous-vide steak, and it was DE FUCKING LICIOUS
Cooked it at about 59C (138F), which was slightly too much, but we were erring on the safe side indeed for bacteria as well as we aimed higher because the beer-cooler would lose temperature (but it didn't so much).
This ended up as a medium steak. Next time we will use 55C (131F) for medium-rare.
Basic procedure, rub the raw steaks with some salt, pepper and uhm, chicken spices (main ingredients paprika powder and thyme powder, no salt fortunately--the kitchen we were at didnt leave much choice), put in airtight ziploc bags, immerse in water of the correct temperature (yay meat thermometer).
Then you wait an hour, take the meat out which is now cooked. The recipe says clarified butter, but we used hot oil, just 30 seconds on either side to make a browning, remember that it's the grey bit between the browning and the cooked meat that is tough, so you want ot have that as thin as possible.
AND YUM.
Just tried the second batch which was from--much cheaper--frozen steaks (which we thawed first). They turned out a bit more on the rare side of medium, which was good. But the quality of the meat was very obvious. I guess it only makes sense that freezing deteriorates the quality of meat. So if you're gonna try this experiment, get some good quality steaks, it's worth it.
These are gonna make wonderful sandwich filling tomorrow though :)
Hey, that's cool that it worked out :thumb:
Yeah I'm kind of impressed how easy it was :) The only fancy thing you need is a meat thermometer.
QuoteHow do I know how long to cook a steak/fish/basselope sous-vide?
Do what I do: Take this link, book mark it, love it. Douglas Baldwin, A Practical Guide to Sous-Vide Cooking. In fact, why are you even listening to me? Listen to him. This is the resource that will get you started, and then he's figured out safe cooking times for just about everything.
But how can it be safe to cook at such low temperatures?
Pasteurization, defined heat treating the food to reduce the number of vegetative pathogens to a safe level, is acheived with a balance of both temperature and time. This is where the Baldwin guide really shines - he provides table after table of the cooking times necessary at different temperatures for different foods to achieve pasteurization.
Badge where'd you get that quote from? I've been meaning to look up a table of proper sous-vide temperatures, and that seems like a good place to start.
Also, pictures:
(http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/33/sousvide.jpg)
It's the piece of (cheaper) steak left over the next day, I made it into a sandwich with some slices of cucumber and mustard.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3289713
(you have to be a member to read)
However, the thread lists these
http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?//topic/116617-sous-vide-recipes-techniques-equipment/
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/116617-sous-vide-recipes-techniques-equipment/page__st__1740__p__1555277&#entry1555277
http://www.cookingissues.com/uploads/Low_Temp_Charts.pdf
Also,
Quote- Pasteurizing avocados. Since you can maintain a low enough temperature to denature the enzymes without altering the flavor of the food, you can effectively pasteurize avocadoes to prevent them from browning. Place them in a water bath at 42-43C for at least 1 hour.
:aaa:
Quote from: BADGE OF HONOR on May 02, 2010, 08:57:15 PM
Also,
Quote- Pasteurizing avocados. Since you can maintain a low enough temperature to denature the enzymes without altering the flavor of the food, you can effectively pasteurize avocadoes to prevent them from browning. Place them in a water bath at 42-43C for at least 1 hour.
:aaa:
(http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u346/heinous_simian/08_12_21_HolyFuckingShit.jpg)
I have to try this. I have a big styrofoam cooler that would be perfect.
I've done salmon sous vide in a 2 quart disposable/reusable Glad container. The salmon was already in a vacuum sealed bag. I usually cook it at 125°F for 20 minutes, and it comes out great.
sous vide is still fucking disgusting.
sous vide will always BE fucking disgusting.
all this thread proves is that plenty of people enjoy eating disgusting food.
I mean, there are entire cultures on this planet that enjoy lutefisk.
I still haven't tried it, so the jury's out until I get a proper thermometer.
Quote from: Exit City Hustle on May 03, 2010, 04:23:02 PM
sous vide is still fucking disgusting.
sous vide will always BE fucking disgusting.
Hey Suu, are you letting him get away with this??
:funky:
:lulz:
Quote from: Triple Zero on May 07, 2010, 03:59:07 PM
Quote from: Exit City Hustle on May 03, 2010, 04:23:02 PM
sous vide is still fucking disgusting.
sous vide will always BE fucking disgusting.
Hey Suu, are you letting him get away with this??
:funky:
:lulz: :lulz: :lulz:
:lulz:
I'm going to Pennsic again this year. Hopefully I can get my feet even muddier this time for a new emote.
yesterday we prepared two pieces of quality steaks (aged for nearly a month and all that) at 53C using the beercooler + thermometer + ziplocs method. They were perfect.
Maybe a master chef like ECH can cook his steaks to be slightly-below-medium-rare equally all the way through and with a thin crust using a regular stove, but I have never managed to pull it off myself :)
It was very delicious. Of course I couldn't argue with ECH on the topic of food, so I will just point out that from an objective point of view (ECH's) they were absolutely foul and disgusting. Apart from that, we loved them, though.
No pics, unfortunately.
In case anyone is going to try this, and is tempted to put some spices or herbs or marinade in the ziploc, go for it. But be aware that since the juices and flavours have nowhere to go, you only need a tiny littlebit or the flavours will be too intense. Take special care with coarse ground black pepper, they explode into megahyperpepper. I might actually get myself a can of fine crappy preground black pepper crap just for that.
Tonight, it's tuna steak. It's from the freezer so not top-quality, but I had to get them since they hadn't been available in the supermarkets for a while (guess they're going extinct or something). According to those handy-dandy links I got from Badge, I need to prepare these at the low low temperature of 43.5C. Also I made some quick teriyaki sauce (garilc+soy sauce+rice vinegar+fresh ginger+sugar+salt+black pepper) that went with the tuna into the ziploc.
I wonder how this'll turn out. There's this horrible overpriced disgusting fusion cooking asian foodhouse in city, and as far as I've been able to tell they can do exactly one thing right (I went there a couple of times cause when they just got here, they were half-price, which I considered just about fair for the junk they serve). This one thing is the tuna steak salad. Actually just the tuna steak, because the salad is just some leaves of curly lettuce, sesame seeds and wasabi-flavoured vinaigrette. But I always wondered how they got their tuna so perfectly equally pink in the middle with only a very thing brown-gray crust around the edges. I asumme they must have used a sous-vide technique also.
I have a very low-tech way of preparing cuts that aren't really tender enough to just pan-sear, like the nice cuts of organic grassfed Bottom Round I can get up the street for $3.99/lb from time to time.
I call this technique "sticking it in the toaster oven". I just put in it a baking pan and roast it at low heat (180-250, depending on how much time I have) for 40 minutes to two hours (depending on what temperature I choose) and then I throw it in a hot, greased skillet on the stove for a second to brown it, slice it up, and serve it. It comes out perfectly tender and evenly cooked, plus I don't have to fuck around with anything in my kitchen that would irritate the living shit out of me, like a beer cooler.
I don't understand why you would cook tuna? Tuna, in my experience, is usually served raw or very nearly raw; just barely seared on the outside.
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 15, 2010, 07:43:55 PM
I don't understand why you would cook tuna? Tuna, in my experience, is usually served raw or very nearly raw; just barely seared on the outside.
Canning also ruins everything nice about it, but that doesn't stop them.
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 15, 2010, 07:41:48 PMI have a very low-tech way of preparing cuts that aren't really tender enough to just pan-sear, like the nice cuts of organic grassfed Bottom Round I can get up the street for $3.99/lb from time to time.
I call this technique "sticking it in the toaster oven". I just put in it a baking pan and roast it at low heat (180-250, depending on how much time I have) for 40 minutes to two hours (depending on what temperature I choose) and then I throw it in a hot, greased skillet on the stove for a second to brown it, slice it up, and serve it. It comes out perfectly tender and evenly cooked, plus I don't have to fuck around with anything in my kitchen that would irritate the living shit out of me, like a beer cooler.
are you being this condescending on purpose? it kind of bugs me, as you could have said the same thing in a nice way, just as easy.
anyway, yes, I know about putting meat in the oven first to get it up to temp. it didn't get me as consistent good results as the couple of times I've tried this.
and the beer cooler is just a rather small plastic box, but a good one, I got it at the Queen's Day flea market two weeks ago for just one or two euro :) but it's small so it doesn't annoy me.
and you might be right about the tuna, too. I'm gonna try an even lower temp next time. It came out pretty good (might upload some pics later) but it needs to be barely raw indeed.
Quote from: Triple Zero on May 15, 2010, 08:34:41 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 15, 2010, 07:41:48 PMI have a very low-tech way of preparing cuts that aren't really tender enough to just pan-sear, like the nice cuts of organic grassfed Bottom Round I can get up the street for $3.99/lb from time to time.
I call this technique "sticking it in the toaster oven". I just put in it a baking pan and roast it at low heat (180-250, depending on how much time I have) for 40 minutes to two hours (depending on what temperature I choose) and then I throw it in a hot, greased skillet on the stove for a second to brown it, slice it up, and serve it. It comes out perfectly tender and evenly cooked, plus I don't have to fuck around with anything in my kitchen that would irritate the living shit out of me, like a beer cooler.
are you being this condescending on purpose? it kind of bugs me, as you could have said the same thing in a nice way, just as easy.
anyway, yes, I know about putting meat in the oven first to get it up to temp. it didn't get me as consistent good results as the couple of times I've tried this.
and the beer cooler is just a rather small plastic box, but a good one, I got it at the Queen's Day flea market two weeks ago for just one or two euro :) but it's small so it doesn't annoy me.
and you might be right about the tuna, too. I'm gonna try an even lower temp next time. It came out pretty good (might upload some pics later) but it needs to be barely raw indeed.
What was condescending about that? :? I do call it "sticking it in the toaster oven". I thought that might be mildly funny because of how literal it is, but not condescending. Not everyone has a toaster oven, and I wouldn't cook one steak in my full-size oven because it would make my kitchen really hot for just a little piece of meat. I use the large oven for full-size roasts. I also feel like the small oven does much better at regulating low temps for small cuts.
Also, it's your kitchen, and if a beer cooler doesn't annoy you, go for it. It would bug the piss out of me, partially due to the layout of my kitchen and partly due to having a need for everything in my kitchen to have a very specific place, and to stay there always. That's one of the reasons my housemate bugs the piss out of me, is that she has utterly cluttered up my kitchen storage and layout.
Quote from: Suu on May 12, 2010, 03:23:01 AM
I'm going to Pennsic again this year. Hopefully I can get my feet even muddier this time for a new emote.
That didn't bother you, did it? I didn't mean to offend you.
Quote from: Triple Zero on May 15, 2010, 08:34:41 PM
are you being this condescending on purpose?
Pot calling kettle, says my "objective master chef opinion".
Quote from: Sigmatic on May 15, 2010, 07:45:07 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 15, 2010, 07:43:55 PM
I don't understand why you would cook tuna? Tuna, in my experience, is usually served raw or very nearly raw; just barely seared on the outside.
Canning also ruins everything nice about it, but that doesn't stop them.
God, I know! So sad. It's fine in sandwiches and sauces, but I'd rather use salmon for that.
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 16, 2010, 05:39:10 PM
Quote from: Sigmatic on May 15, 2010, 07:45:07 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 15, 2010, 07:43:55 PM
I don't understand why you would cook tuna? Tuna, in my experience, is usually served raw or very nearly raw; just barely seared on the outside.
Canning also ruins everything nice about it, but that doesn't stop them.
God, I know! So sad. It's fine in sandwiches and sauces, but I'd rather use salmon for that.
hell yeah. I don't mind picking out the bones either, a can of what started as good pacific salmon is WAY better than a can of scraps of albacore tuna.
That said, there are some imported brands of tuna that come canned or jarred and use yellowfin tuna that are pretty friggin' good for "canned" tuna. We use an italian brand that comes in a foil pouch for our nicoise salad and it's one of our most popular menu items. I still prefer salmon though.
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 15, 2010, 11:42:06 PM
What was condescending about that? :?
yeah, sorry, it wasn't. I was very tired and I interpreted it the wrong way.
Recently I had something that was truly incredible.
An entree, it was a cube of pork belly that had been sous-viding for 24 hours. Probably brined or marinated, too. It was absolutely soft like butter, even the white fat layers, everything just melted (sort of) in your mouth, really delicious. When I asked, the chef cook confirmed it was sous-vide, although when I later asked another kitchen cook (restaurant with an open kitchen) he said it was submerged in a wire mesh or something, which I think it's kind of weird cause it would have been in contact with the liquid, and I bet all the flavours would have been gone after 24h, maybe it was both in a vacuum bag and wire mesh to keep it submerged.
I guess, however, that the real secret is in the brine or marinade or other flavourings, but I'm still going to try and have a stab at recreating this.
As soon as I either find a way to automatically keep the water at the right temp, or feel like spending a day replacing the water with hot water every hour. I guess if I keep notes of temp measurements I could figure out exactly what amount of boiling water I need to add every hour, to keep it at a reasonably constant 50-55 degrees Celsius.
For doing it automatically, I'm not good with electronics, but who knows maybe the guys at the Young Researchers Centre can help me. Building a simple thermostat shouldn't be too hard, would it? Though I'm not really sure whether putting a heating element in my plastic beer cooler is a good idea, but if I make sure it doesn't touch the sides it should be fine, no? I bet I could salvage one from an old coffee maker.
Quote from: Triple Zero on November 12, 2011, 04:53:47 PM
Recently I had something that was truly incredible.
An entree, it was a cube of pork belly that had been sous-viding for 24 hours. Probably brined or marinated, too. It was absolutely soft like butter, even the white fat layers, everything just melted (sort of) in your mouth, really delicious. When I asked, the chef cook confirmed it was sous-vide, although when I later asked another kitchen cook (restaurant with an open kitchen) he said it was submerged in a wire mesh or something, which I think it's kind of weird cause it would have been in contact with the liquid, and I bet all the flavours would have been gone after 24h, maybe it was both in a vacuum bag and wire mesh to keep it submerged.
I guess, however, that the real secret is in the brine or marinade or other flavourings, but I'm still going to try and have a stab at recreating this.
As soon as I either find a way to automatically keep the water at the right temp, or feel like spending a day replacing the water with hot water every hour. I guess if I keep notes of temp measurements I could figure out exactly what amount of boiling water I need to add every hour, to keep it at a reasonably constant 50-55 degrees Celsius.
For doing it automatically, I'm not good with electronics, but who knows maybe the guys at the Young Researchers Centre can help me. Building a simple thermostat shouldn't be too hard, would it? Though I'm not really sure whether putting a heating element in my plastic beer cooler is a good idea, but if I make sure it doesn't touch the sides it should be fine, no? I bet I could salvage one from an old coffee maker.
I wonder how something like this would work? http://www.amazon.com/NORPRO-559-Immersion-Warming-Liquids/dp/B000I8VE68
Yeah, I could probably find one of those at the "dollar" store equivalent for five bucks or so. They don't usually have a thermostat, though.
I kind of expect to find something similar inside my old coffeemaker if I took it apart. If not, I'll get one of those things. The coffeemaker heating element might not be waterproof either, I just realized. My original idea was to use it in a terracotta clay plant pot to build a sort of smoke chamber, which would also be cool to have.
I hope the electronics guys at the Young Researchers will have some good ideas about the thermostat part. Maybe something like this (http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-K-Type-Thermocouple-Insertion/dp/B005OIZTHM/ref=tag_stp_s2f_edpp_thermo12le) ?
Complete sous-vide systems are, like many fancy "hi tech" kitchen products, ridiculously overpriced starting at $300, so it really pays to see if I can construct something myself. After all, it's just a device that keeps water at a constant temperature! Though I believe those sous-vide devices also got some built-in vacuum sealing gadget, but I don't quite see the point, because if you carefully submerge a ziploc bag with a chunk of meat in it, the water pressure pushes the air out anyway ..
It's also possible that a crock-pot with a "warm" setting would work.
Quote from: Triple Zero on November 12, 2011, 05:22:01 PM
Yeah, I could probably find one of those at the "dollar" store equivalent for five bucks or so. They don't usually have a thermostat, though.
I kind of expect to find something similar inside my old coffeemaker if I took it apart. If not, I'll get one of those things. The coffeemaker heating element might not be waterproof either, I just realized. My original idea was to use it in a terracotta clay plant pot to build a sort of smoke chamber, which would also be cool to have.
I hope the electronics guys at the Young Researchers will have some good ideas about the thermostat part. Maybe something like this (http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-K-Type-Thermocouple-Insertion/dp/B005OIZTHM/ref=tag_stp_s2f_edpp_thermo12le) ?
Complete sous-vide systems are, like many fancy "hi tech" kitchen products, ridiculously overpriced starting at $300, so it really pays to see if I can construct something myself. After all, it's just a device that keeps water at a constant temperature! Though I believe those sous-vide devices also got some built-in vacuum sealing gadget, but I don't quite see the point, because if you carefully submerge a ziploc bag with a chunk of meat in it, the water pressure pushes the air out anyway ..
An analog rheostat and a cooking thermometer should do the trick if you don't mind manually adjusting the setting. Plug the heating device into the rheostat, and fiddle with settings while checking the water temperature every couple of hours until you find a setting that keeps it at the desired temperature. You could do the same with a crock-pot, an analog rheostat, and a cooking thermometer.
The thermocouple is just a sensor and would need to be plugged into a thermometer or controller.
Maybe I also need a crock pot, anyway.
Quote from: Triple Zero on November 12, 2011, 08:58:17 PM
Maybe I also need a crock pot, anyway.
They're pretty cheap, here; I have a vintage one I got for like $3 used, but I was thinking about getting a new one and a pretty big one would only be about $25. A decent analog rheostat can be had for $15, so with just a bit of fiddling there's a sous-vide oven for $40.
Yeah I noticed your cast iron Dutch ovens are also very reasonably priced. I want a really big one (at least 12 inch) which are nearly 100 euro, but in the USA I saw one (in a reasonably nice kitchen store) for only $60 or so (or maybe the biggest one was $70). Unfortunately big ass cast iron pots are difficult to take with you on a plane, nor did the shop feel very much for shipping one overseas :lulz:
Although, given that a good one will last me a lifetime (and longer), maybe I should just suck it and spend the 100E.