Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: Gattopardo on 08 January, 2019, 12:57:32 pm
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So have a 18 quart massage stone heater so was thinking of making it in to a sous vide. The food will be bagged in sealed freezer bags.
Any one tried making their own sous vide. More importantly is there any point to a sous vide?
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No expert. Pesumably you intend to use this method for preservation? What I have seen involves vacuum sealed bags, so how you would go on in ziploc bags I don't know.
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I've not got one, but a couple of mates have Anovas; they're great for meat, fish, and eggs - basically you set the target temperature and leave stuff there for a couple of hours and you'll have perfectly cooked proteins, which you can then dear in a hot pan if you want the caramelisation. Depending on what you want to do with them, decent temperature control is important, so it may not be worth trying to homebrew something if you can get one cheap; I think Anovas were about £65 in the sales? AFAIK Ziploc bags work fine as long as you suck (most of) the air out.
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Note that it's very important to consistently maintain the required minimum temperature, or you've basically created your own bacterial incubator.
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That's what I was worried about...
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Note that it's very important to consistently maintain the required minimum temperature, or you've basically created your own bacterial incubator.
Was thinking of using a pi to record the temperature. But the temps are around 50c was thinking of starting with boiled water with salt and maybe bi carb.
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A coworker made one from a restaurant rice cooker. He wired in an off the self PID controller and thermocouple for temperature control, and now has a large machine.
Another chemical engineer.
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leave stuff there for a couple of hours and you'll have perfectly cooked proteins
That's a matter of opinion. I don't like fish cooked sous vide - it gives it a strange flabby texture.
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leave stuff there for a couple of hours and you'll have perfectly cooked proteins
That's a matter of opinion. I don't like fish cooked sous vide - it gives it a strange flabby texture.
Technically they are perfectly cooked, just not very appetising. A bit like microwaving sausages.
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microwaving sausages.
:sick:
Actually, if we're doing a barbecue, I tend to pre-cook sausages by boiling them, which helps avoid the risk of them being charcoal on the outside while still raw in the middle. I expect cooking them sous vide or even microwaving would also work just as well.
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leave stuff there for a couple of hours and you'll have perfectly cooked proteins
That's a matter of opinion. I don't like fish cooked sous vide - it gives it a strange flabby texture.
I've never tried sous-vide-cooked fish, so I couldn't comment. Perhaps I should have said 'reliably cooked exactly to the degree which you want with no over-cooking'. I've had steak cooked which was amazing, but I can't imagine it would be very nice had it not had the outside seared. Soft-boiled eggs are amazing though.
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I've failed to understand the modern need to undercook fish, it often comes out semi-translucent and well, a bit chewy. It should be moist and flaky. Seems to be a thing these days. I didn't ask for sashimi.
I quite like sausages in the slow cooker, gives them a completely different texture, more like a stuffing or a black pudding.
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I've failed to understand the modern need to undercook fish, it often comes out semi-translucent and well, a bit chewy. It should be moist and flaky. Seems to be a thing these days. I didn't ask for sashimi.
I quite like sausages in the slow cooker, gives them a completely different texture, more like a stuffing or a black pudding.
Depends on the fish, but overcooked fish....
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I haven't coked with a sous vide, but in our school chemistry labs, we occasionally wanted to use thermostatic water baths. With a lack of space to store them, and the expense of proper science water baths, we came up with the idea of using sous vide wands in plastic storage boxes. We bought them from Aldi for about £40 each (https://www.aldi.co.uk/ambiano-sous-vide-wand/p/078153165697500) and they work brilliantly. You do need appropriate depth of water, but there is a circulating paddle/fan and a thermostatic heater in them.
There are similar ones on sale for a bit more: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=sous+vide+wand&index=aps&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_56fdjyf58v_e&adgrpid=56876859007&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=259004217990&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14607357109543705734&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045880&hvtargid=kwd-317531722021
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I've failed to understand the modern need to undercook fish, it often comes out semi-translucent and well, a bit chewy. It should be moist and flaky. Seems to be a thing these days. I didn't ask for sashimi.
I quite like sausages in the slow cooker, gives them a completely different texture, more like a stuffing or a black pudding.
Depends on the fish, but overcooked fish....
Honestly, I'd rather have slightly overcooked than undercooked, there's an obsession with fish served as though its still teetering on the edge of its mortal coil, as though that's supposed to impress me. They should know that I'm not that easily impressed. I'd be more impressed if they'd cook all the way through and then stop because that's what professional cooking is all about, the entire knowing-how-long-to-cook-things-business. That's what cooking used to be called in ye olden times.
Back to sous-vide, honestly I wouldn't bother unless you're planning to make large quantities of baby food. It has an occasional novelty value – you can make an incredibly tender steak but by the last mouthful you'd find yourself on your knees screaming for the Maillard reaction, hence they still have to sear it. Otherwise, that would be pretty embarrassing in the middle of a busy restaurant, for sure. I'm reminded that Jay Rayner once wrote that steak should retain enough structure to remind you it was once part of an animal you'd notice if it sat on you. I suspect he described it more elegantly, but he's a professional food critic, and I'm, erm, me.