Sous Vide New to Sous Vide

I purchased the dork foods sous vide adapter for a crock pot from amazon and it will be here Friday. Anyone have any suggested reading, websites, recipes, techniques or advise for starting to cook with this method?


Thanks

John

John, Get huge thick well marbled chuck roast. Do nothing to it other than rinse, pat dry and vac bag at highest setting. SV @129 degrees for 72hrs. Remove from warm water and plung into an ice bath until completely chilled (1 hrs or so).

Remove from bag, pat dry with Paper towel, spray with oil, liberally salt the meat all over. Sear in ripping cast iron or carbon steel pan until internal tempature is 125. Remove and rest. I like to brush it with this glaze.

Equal parts:
Soy Sauce
Sweet Soy Sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Mirin

DO NOT SALT MEAT BEFORE LONG COOKING.

Mucho Bocho said:

DO NOT SALT MEAT BEFORE LONG COOKING.

Click to expand...

Why?

Len, This is how I understand it:

http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-thats-the-searing-question/

Nice link MB!

Mucho Bocho said:

Len, This is how I understand it:

http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-thats-the-searing-question/

Click to expand...

Well I have done pork chops, chicken thighs and soft boiled eggs so far and all have turned out well. This is a slick little device.

Go for the ribs...seriously. You'll never think a BBQ restaurant did a good job on ribs again

I've only done it once, but I'm also exploring doing curries in it...esp tough cuts of meat like goat...amazingly tender + juicy.

JMJones said:

Well I have done pork chops, chicken thighs and soft boiled eggs so far and all have turned out well. This is a slick little device.

Click to expand...

Mucho Bocho said:

Len, This is how I understand it:

http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-thats-the-searing-question/

Click to expand...

+1 on it being a great link, thanks for that. So if one were to braise/confit meat in the traditional way (not exactly low-temp to the extent of sous vide, but still low) to chill and serve the next day, it'd actually be better not to salt ahead? That goes against the most basic procedure for duck confit, for example. I may have to do some taste tests with traditional braised meats to see if there is a difference.

Len, Its not that salting the mkeat will make it taste bad, its just that it will give the meat a cured texture as opposed to a fresh one. I've done lots of chicken confit. Its something you must try:

1.) Take cleaned quarters and rub them with salt, garlic and shrimp boil (trust me). I also add some confit lemons and bay leaves but theure not necessary. Cover the birds and pull your highest vac. Put in refrigerator for one day. Remove chicken, rinse lighlt and dust off most of the spices. Dry well with paper towel.

2.) Add to vac bag along with 1 cup of duck fat (olive oil), confit lemons and some garlic. Pull max vac. Put into 140 degree water for 48hrs. remove chill in ice.

3.) remove from bag, wipe off any gelatin, fry in hot skillet until crisp or under broiler until internal tem is 145 degrees.

Good luck.

That sounds delicious. I actually don't have a sous vide set up, so any slow cooking I do is on the stovetop or with my oven. Not super precise, but at least my oven can still get as far down as 100F. The chicken confit I definitely think I can do in a 180 or so oven. I don't think I've ever had sous-vide dishes made with tougher cuts, so I can't compare, but confit made in an oven that low still comes out pretty nice.

Len, I used to do the confit in a crock pot, Prep as above and layer in crock pot, pour fat over to cover, cook overnight on low setting. Then let cool. When I used t make it that way, I'd leave the whole crock in the refrigerator then just pull pieces out as needed.

That did it Mucho, I can't take it. I'm pulling out the Dork Foods adapter you suggested and crock pot. Short Ribs (unsalted) go in tomorrow morning. Guess I'll contact you in a few days for the next step. Thans for all the tips. Let me know when your cook book is released , I want a signed copy!