The Sous VIde Thread

otc said:

The lack of external controls just seems idiotic.

My circulator has the ability to control via app...I haven't used it a single time. All I am doing is setting a temperature, a wheel is sufficient. I never need to vary it during a cook and I have like 5 different timers in my kitchen that I can use.

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I use my connected Anova to schedule cooks to happen while I am at work so I come home to a meal ready to finish in less than 5 minutes and eat

It is really helpful for the days where I have to stay late or on the rare occasion get to leave early, I can adjust when it starts cooking and view the results from anywhere.

Even though I have the Anova I am really interested in the Joule,

What do you do with the vacuum pouches before you start cooking? It's just sitting around in room temperature water all day?

I don't do that for that very reason.

You could put in in a vat of ice water. Or even just fairly cold water if you use a cooler as a cooking vessel, especially if you maybe pre-packed a bunch of bags and froze them.

As long as the item isn't super sensitive to cook time, an extra hour or so should guarantee that the Anova melts the ice and gets up to temp.

But last thing I want to worry about in the morning is getting dinner ready...

The first Joules shipped today, can't wait to get mine and move the Sous Vide Supreme to backup duty.

Btw, putting frozen things into the sous vide totally works. I've put frozen steaks steaks in many times and it works perfectly. I also sous vide up a bunch of duck confit in dinner size portions and toss them into the freezer. Then in the morning I'll toss a frozen bag into the sous vide and set to 160. Perfect when I get home from work.

I find this is one of the more actually useful things these machines can do. Cook the meat sous vide. When it's done, freeze it, still in the vacuum-sealed bag. When you want to eat, chuck it back in a sous vide bath at 120 degrees. The contents will get up to temperature very quickly, especially if it's relatively thin, like a steak. Then brown it as normal.

I used to put way too much thought into what and when to thaw things. Typically, it would have to come out of the freezer the night before. And then it would still be at refrigerator temperature when it went into the pan. Using this method, I can go from decision to dinner in half and hour.

NaTionS said:

What do you do with the vacuum pouches before you start cooking? It's just sitting around in room temperature water all day?

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You definitely don't do that. You put it in an icebath. Or you use forzen food (I also put ice in the bath even if it is frozen to be safe)

I wrote a buyer's guide for connected sous vide cookers as well as vacuum sealers. Check it out here if you want to learn more about the topics.

So I am actually trying the ice bath thing today. Only 3 years after this thread hypothesized about it.

I am at work, but I want to start a 4-hour cook to be ready around 7PM.

Unfortunately, I only have the normal Anova, not the Wi-Fi model or a Joule, and there doesn't seem to be any way to schedule it (the wi-fi has an ice bath option and remote access).

So I have ghetto rigged a setup (inspired by someone on reddit). Left an android tablet plugged in to a charger in my kitchen and installed the TeamViewer host app. Now I can use my phone to remote control the tablet and connect to the Anova over bluetooth.

The ice bath is still sitting around 37F. Top gets colder since the ice floats--so letting it circulate every once and a while evens out the temps. They say 40F is the danger zone and you should start your cook when it comes above that, although I could probably wait another hour (you could leave a roast sitting out for an hour at 70F and be fine...). That's with tap-water plus ice and minor insulation--metal pot with bubble wrap clipped over the top to control evaporation and a single layer of bubble wrap wrapped around it. Could easily start with frozen meat, use cold water from the fridge, freeze some ice blocks instead of cubes, and use a more insulated container to get more time than you would ever need.

god dammit. The tablet went into a deep sleep or something and now I can't reconnect to it (was working earlier, but I never left it alone for more than an hour or two).

Guess I am eating late tonight...

I haven't touched my Anova in years. I always got pretty inconsistent results with it despite what others have experienced. That said, I was using it in a large pot, not a plastic container so there is that.

I use it in a pot--shouldn't really matter as long as the water has room to circulate around the food. Will lose heat faster, but the heating element should be able to keep up.

I will say, this pork loin turned out pretty good. I wasn't a huge fan of the herb stuffing I rolled into it (too much parsley I think), but the meat was perfect in a way that's really hard to manage when roasting. Had an awesome sandwich with leftovers last night!

I had wrapped the roll in prosciutto which I think helped with the "unappetizing" look that meat can have out of the bath. The prosciutto browned up really quick in a pan without feeling like I was going to kill the roast. With steaks, I often struggle to get real crust and good color without cooking the meat, especially on thinner pieces (torch can solve the color, but won't give much crust).

pB, a large pot is just fine if you're not doing a high temp one. High temp needs a cover or the evaporation rate is a PITA.

otc, I don't do think steaks just for that reason. Are you patting them really dry and getting your pan smoking hot prior to dropping in for the sear? Using a knob of butter after the initial sear for both sides? The butter fats help with the crust when you baste.

I have found that steaks coming out of the bags always have this really nauseating smell to them.