Sous Vide Sous vide clueless need help.

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Deckhand

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
1,763
Reaction score
2
Last edited by a moderator:
You will need a chamber vacuum sealer to be able to seal liquids and other neat things. This model is basically where they start and you can go all the way up to $5k easy if you want.

If you have to take up counter space with the chamber sealer, then save some space by getting the circulator, which you can put away and store easily. Not to mention that they actually circulate the water, unlike the water oven which is basically a steam table with more precise thermostat.
 
You will need a chamber vacuum sealer to be able to seal liquids and other neat things. This model is basically where they start and you can go all the way up to $5k easy if you want.

If you have to take up counter space with the chamber sealer, then save some space by getting the circulator, which you can put away and store easily. Not to mention that they actually circulate the water, unlike the water oven which is basically a steam table with more precise thermostat.

Thanks for the link looks good. Found this one on amazon but don't know how good it is, but a little cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/VacMaster-Por...dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

The circulator that you can put away when you aren't using makes sense and from your statement seems to be a better quality way to sous vide. I appreciate your comments. This is uncharted territory for me and definitely something I want to do.
 
Ok clueless here too. So I can't just get a walmart vac. sealer and go from there? (I am very cheap.) Or does the chamber needed to do a more though job sealing/pressurizing the food?
 
Ok clueless here too. So I can't just get a walmart vac. sealer and go from there? (I am very cheap.) Or does the chamber needed to do a more though job sealing/pressurizing the food?

With my very limited research it appears cheaper sealers you need to make marinades etc into ice cubes to put in the bag for sealing. The better vacuum sealers will seal with liquids. Brought the topic up hear because there is a vast resource of knowledge here on something I really want to start doing.
 
Last time I was at wally world they had quite a few out. I just thought about it then. I also saw a site that was talking about using a crock pot for the cooking. But I don't think it will be very accurate.
 
Last time I was at wally world they had quite a few out. I just thought about it then. I also saw a site that was talking about using a crock pot for the cooking. But I don't think it will be very accurate.

Yep read about people doing it that way. I don't want to go too low tech. I want something nice, but not sky is the limit nice:biggrin:
 
There are plenty of budget ways to go about it and you can get similar results. A pump sealer is way cheaper and also doesn't take up a ton of counter space, but you are limited in some of the things you can seal. You can also get thermostat controllers that you can use on crock pots, slow cookers or steam tables.
 
There are plenty of budget ways to go about it and you can get similar results. A pump sealer is way cheaper and also doesn't take up a ton of counter space, but you are limited in some of the things you can seal. You can also get thermostat controllers that you can use on crock pots, slow cookers or steam tables.

The sealer you linked to looks good guess I will debate between that an the amazon one and I can get a circulator like the one I linked to. I don't mind spending somewhere under $2000, obviously a little cheaper is even better,between sealer and sous vide I just don't want to buy something that turns out to be junk. I am sure there are a lot of home cooks doing sous vide on the forum. Just wondering what they are happy with. I hate being a guinea pig when I can learn from the collective wisdom.
 
Michael Ruhlman said on his blog a little while back his bag of choice is a ziploc.

This
 
Michael Ruhlman said on his blog a little while back his bag of choice is a ziploc.

This

I have actually seen that mentioned on a few forums/blogs. Guess I don't have to bite the bullet all at once. I will focus on the two sous vides previously mentioned. Still unsure but the polyscience circulator seems better. Hopefully others will chime in.
 
Dave Arnold at FCI has had good luck with ziplocks.

Let me find the link.

-AJ
 
I'm a home amateur - but I use sous vide fairly often - here are some observations which I hope answer your questions.

I have the Polyscience Pro Chef - same as you linked from WS. I find it accurate and reliable. I use the large open poly carbonate tub from Poly Sci instead of that big stockpot from WS. It's easier to work with but one caution: The pro chef model has a hard time keeping up to temp with a large/full water bath at the higher temp ranges..eg 85C or so typically used for fruit and veg. I fixed this by making a cover - since I bought mine Polyscience now makes a cover for the plastic tub. With a cover it has no problem maintaining even higher temps.

I experiemented with all sorts of foods in the beginning, but over time I found my favorite use of sous vide is parcooking proteins at a perfect temp for finishing later, and for eggs (you cold do a whole thread on the many different ways to do sous vide eggs!). The reason I bring this up is that, although I bought an expensive chamber sealer, I don't use that many marinades any more. I primarily seal meats with aromatics, and use whatever might have been the marinade in the final cook. Great examples are scallops or beef/veal tenderloin. Take beef...I vac seal just with salt/pepper thyme and sous vide at 59/60. It's evenly cooked throughout - then when you serve you can sear briefly on high heat with butter, thyme, shallots, garlic etc, and create a crust with the flavors in the pan. Long story short - I wouldn't make the ability to handle wet marinades the key factor in your vac sealer decision.

On the other hand - I do prefer a sealer with a stong vacuum, coupled with a thicker plastic bag - as compared to the Ruhlman technique. The reason is I want soft foods to hold their shape. Although it may seem counter-intuiitive a weak vacuum seems to 'suck' suck on the bag forever, and eventually deform your food. Think scallops - you want a nice round scallop, not one squeezed out of shape. The stronger sealer I have seems to draw the air out of the bag very quickly, and maintain the shape of the food despite a very stong vacuum. Just my two cents on the subject :rofl2:
 
I'm a home amateur - but I use sous vide fairly often - here are some observations which I hope answer your questions.

I have the Polyscience Pro Chef - same as you linked from WS. I find it accurate and reliable. I use the large open poly carbonate tub from Poly Sci instead of that big stockpot from WS. It's easier to work with but one caution: The pro chef model has a hard time keeping up to temp with a large/full water bath at the higher temp ranges..eg 85C or so typically used for fruit and veg. I fixed this by making a cover - since I bought mine Polyscience now makes a cover for the plastic tub. With a cover it has no problem maintaining even higher temps.

I experiemented with all sorts of foods in the beginning, but over time I found my favorite use of sous vide is parcooking proteins at a perfect temp for finishing later, and for eggs (you cold do a whole thread on the many different ways to do sous vide eggs!). The reason I bring this up is that, although I bought an expensive chamber sealer, I don't use that many marinades any more. I primarily seal meats with aromatics, and use whatever might have been the marinade in the final cook. Great examples are scallops or beef/veal tenderloin. Take beef...I vac seal just with salt/pepper thyme and sous vide at 59/60. It's evenly cooked throughout - then when you serve you can sear briefly on high heat with butter, thyme, shallots, garlic etc, and create a crust with the flavors in the pan. Long story short - I wouldn't make the ability to handle wet marinades the key factor in your vac sealer decision.

On the other hand - I do prefer a sealer with a stong vacuum, coupled with a thicker plastic bag - as compared to the Ruhlman technique. The reason is I want soft foods to hold their shape. Although it may seem counter-intuiitive a weak vacuum seems to 'suck' suck on the bag forever, and eventually deform your food. Think scallops - you want a nice round scallop, not one squeezed out of shape. The stronger sealer I have seems to draw the air out of the bag very quickly, and maintain the shape of the food despite a very stong vacuum. Just my two cents on the subject :rofl2:

Thanks for your input. Guess that's the one to try then. What sealer are you using and are you happy with it or wish you had a different one?
 
Namaxy, I have the same gear and have followed the same food experimentation path and could not agree with you more. One thing that is never talked about is that you can sous vide slow or fast. Fast is shorter cooking times, slow is longer. I also have a jury-rigged crock-pot PID set-up that I use for all the sous vide cooking I do for longer periods (which is about 80% of my SV cooking). As much as I love to see the poly sci in action, its kinda annoying to have the pump circulating water for 50 hours. See my 50hr Chick steak

http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s426/dennismpintoii/chuck.jpg

I use the Vac Master VP--112 and love it. I'm a big fan of over kill end even could be challenged justifying the next level of chamber vac. You can do infused fruit, how much more pressure do you want than that? Most of the time you run these machines between 40 and 60% of their capability.


I'm a home amateur - but I use sous vide fairly often - here are some observations which I hope answer your questions.

I have the Polyscience Pro Chef - same as you linked from WS. I find it accurate and reliable. I use the large open poly carbonate tub from Poly Sci instead of that big stockpot from WS. It's easier to work with but one caution: The pro chef model has a hard time keeping up to temp with a large/full water bath at the higher temp ranges..eg 85C or so typically used for fruit and veg. I fixed this by making a cover - since I bought mine Polyscience now makes a cover for the plastic tub. With a cover it has no problem maintaining even higher temps.

I experiemented with all sorts of foods in the beginning, but over time I found my favorite use of sous vide is parcooking proteins at a perfect temp for finishing later, and for eggs (you cold do a whole thread on the many different ways to do sous vide eggs!). The reason I bring this up is that, although I bought an expensive chamber sealer, I don't use that many marinades any more. I primarily seal meats with aromatics, and use whatever might have been the marinade in the final cook. Great examples are scallops or beef/veal tenderloin. Take beef...I vac seal just with salt/pepper thyme and sous vide at 59/60. It's evenly cooked throughout - then when you serve you can sear briefly on high heat with butter, thyme, shallots, garlic etc, and create a crust with the flavors in the pan. Long story short - I wouldn't make the ability to handle wet marinades the key factor in your vac sealer decision.

On the other hand - I do prefer a sealer with a stong vacuum, coupled with a thicker plastic bag - as compared to the Ruhlman technique. The reason is I want soft foods to hold their shape. Although it may seem counter-intuiitive a weak vacuum seems to 'suck' suck on the bag forever, and eventually deform your food. Think scallops - you want a nice round scallop, not one squeezed out of shape. The stronger sealer I have seems to draw the air out of the bag very quickly, and maintain the shape of the food despite a very stong vacuum. Just my two cents on the subject :rofl2:
 
Thanks for your input. Guess that's the one to try then. What sealer are you using and are you happy with it or wish you had a different one?

I use the Vacmaster 210. Very pleased with it, although my only prior experience (ownership wise) was a cheap ish Casco sealer. When i owned the Casco, I had the chance to try high end vacmasters playing around in a local restaurant, and easily saw the quality difference.
 
Thanks for everyone's input it really helps. I feel a lot better purchasing in the near future after hearing these opinions.
 
I aswell have the poly science unit. Find it great for sous at home. Yeah u will have to cover the plastic lexan if you want to get it to max temp.
I just use a stock pot, find it more efficient.

As far as vacuum sealer vs chamber vac. Question is how serious are you about this cooking method. Do you want to invest a lot of money in one?
Yeah theres pro's and con's to both. i use a vacuum sealer at home. I can't sous liquids or compress fruit. But I'm ok with that.

At the restaurant i have a Chamber Vac that can do everything you want. Its nice but it was 3800$ . Yeah theres cheaper ones that are good for home.

I would say just try a vacuum sealer for 100-200$, try it. See how it works, practice your technique. Then if it works well your good. Or sell it and for the chamber Vac.
 
I aswell have the poly science unit. Find it great for sous at home. Yeah u will have to cover the plastic lexan if you want to get it to max temp.
I just use a stock pot, find it more efficient.

As far as vacuum sealer vs chamber vac. Question is how serious are you about this cooking method. Do you want to invest a lot of money in one?
Yeah theres pro's and con's to both. i use a vacuum sealer at home. I can't sous liquids or compress fruit. But I'm ok with that.

At the restaurant i have a Chamber Vac that can do everything you want. Its nice but it was 3800$ . Yeah theres cheaper ones that are good for home.

I would say just try a vacuum sealer for 100-200$, try it. See how it works, practice your technique. Then if it works well your good. Or sell it and for the chamber Vac.

Thanks for your input. Poly science it will be. Guess I will mull over vacuum sealer suggestions and appreciate all of them. I don't want to get carried away more than necessary, but certainly want to get the job done for the least for the highest quality. I take the sous vide technique and cooking in general very seriously. I greatly enjoy my cooking and so do others. If it means investing more within reason to get better quality it is worth it to me. I will mainly be focused on proteins and collagen breakdown, but I am sure as I use it I will want to try more and more techniques. An earlier suggestion mentioned higher quality vacuum sealers have less deformation of scallops, etc. which matters to me.
 
Polyscience has also launched an IPAD app to take the guess work out of cooking sous vide....it is a thermal conductivity application thatt allows you to
put in several parameters lik kind of protein, thickness of the protein, desired temp, etc and gives you a very accurete guidline for cooking proteins. I believe it was $4.99 and worth it if you cook sous vide often.
 
Polyscience has also launched an IPAD app to take the guess work out of cooking sous vide....it is a thermal conductivity application thatt allows you to
put in several parameters lik kind of protein, thickness of the protein, desired temp, etc and gives you a very accurete guidline for cooking proteins. I believe it was $4.99 and worth it if you cook sous vide often.

Wow, that's cool I will get that thanks for the tip.!
 
Deckhand, I would definitely go with the Vac chamber before the poly-sci. Using a crock-pot PID will cost $200 as opposed to $800 for the poly-sci. The chamber is more critical than the water bath.
 
Deckhand, I would definitely go with the Vac chamber before the poly-sci. Using a crock-pot PID will cost $200 as opposed to $800 for the poly-sci. The chamber is more critical than the water bath.

Seems like the vac master has good ratings combined with a poly-sci circulator seems like a good combination from my limited knowledge. Poly sci vs Sous vide supreme seem like only reasonable choices for the sous vide aspect.The vac master you recommended looks good for the vacuum sealer aspect.
 
I have the vacmaster and the sous vide supreme and love both. They work always and get great results. Couldn't recommend more.
 
I have the vacmaster and the sous vide supreme and love both. They work always and get great results. Couldn't recommend more.
Thanks for your comments. I feel a lot more secure in purchases with this thread. It has been very helpful.
 
Decided on vacmaster vp215, and sous vide professional. Anyone use the cambro cut out lid?
 
I have the Cambro lid. Slick as all get out. Good about vac master but not sure why you would choose the 215 over the VP112? You must have a very large kitchen? Remember that you will be less likely to use something that isn't convenient. That is a serious machine though. I went back and fourth on them but decided on the 112 and couldn't be happier. Also remember that you will rarely use max pressure. Most of the time is 60 to 80 % of the maximum available pressure.
 
Back
Top