Save some $ and get or make an insulated SV container. I converted one medium-small cooler by hole-sawing through the lid, and made a plexi insert for a medium-large one. You hve to mind the Min and Max water levels is all.
Resist the temptation to buy large numbers of pingpong balls…
Save some $ and get or make an insulated SV container
On electricity? How much will I save?
I use one of those plastic cambros, and it has a fitted cover. I haven’t cut the cover to fit yet; as you can see in the picture, I added a bit of plastic wrap. It has an alarm when it gets to min; added water after about 22 hours.
I’m not sure, but it’s pretty obvious that a pot or your Cambro bleeds a lot of heat that would be contained by an insulated vessel. If you try it both ways, you’ll see how more often the circulator powers on.
I’m sort of chilly, so I don’t think it’s heating the house, but I have reams of this stuff I might be able to use. They are from various fresh and frozen food deliveries
I think the author’s methodolovy and calcs are off, but the general points are valid.
If you have surplus bubble wrap, that’s a good use for it. Using it for a cover can be a drippy, leaky mess, tho.
An unstated advantage of going the cooler route is that it shortens the time needed to preheat the bath. And depending on what you’re using for a rack or weights, more surrounding space for better circulation.
Done! Texture, chew is perfect, but I may not soak this brand as long next time. It was only about 5 hours with one water change, but I’d have like more saltiness.
It’s a little bland. Not that that’s kept me from almost finishing the whole thing solo!
Maybe I’ll sous vide the other piece with the rub, maybe a longer smoke, maybe no parchment ( which I removed for tue last 30 minutes of a 90 minute smoke).
The sous vide stick comes in handy when I don’t wan’t to heat up the house cooking a roast with the electric oven. It is the weekend when our electrical rates don’t charge the ‘peak demand’ kwh, so that’s when I’ll get my major electrical needs done. Sous vide-ing the chicken boobintons for chicken salad this week or the larger items, run the washer loads (the dryer is gas and we have drying racks inside and a line outside, weather permitting), vacuum the house and run the dishwasher. Every little of conservation bit helps and we try to spread the electrical use during off peak demand times (7-10 am & 5-8pm are peak) and keep the bill down. We are not in the PG&E (“Pacific Graft and Extortion” as our dad would write out on the checks to them) service area, we have a co-op in NW Montana. No natural gas peak demand hours. We have daily watering restrictions prohibiting outdoor watering between 9 am and 5pm. That doesn’t stop the neighbors from their twice-a-week, at home car and truck washing.
OK, related to my OP on slow-extraction chicken stock, it occurs to me that stock could be made this way SV. While very impractical, it might be a viable way to experiment with different constant temperatures.
I haven’t, though chicken and katsuo/kombucha broths made with sous vide are high on my list. The way I’ve heard for avoiding a chamber sealer is to add liquid to the bag and freeze it, then seal it with a standard vac once solid. No idea if freezing will impact the quality of the stock – if you’re concerned, you could add ice cubes to the chicken and then seal + prep…
I can try that, thanks. I haven’t had much luck getting good seals if there’s ANY liquid present when the unit melts the bag to seal. Even when the seal looks good, most bags ultimately leak.
Have you tried that maneuver where you support the bag as it hangs over the edge of the sealer, taking advantage of gravity against the rise of liquid, and the pulse mechanism until it pulls up a little fluid?
I’m sure someone can explain that better.
It won’t help with melting, nor a bag full of stock, but it helps me when there’s some liquid in a bag of solid. There’s some finesse and clean up involved and it doesn’t always work, but usually,
I’m not completely sure, but it pulses instead of continuously pumping air out. The result is about the same–there might be a little air left in sous-vide mode, but the bag stays submerged.
If I have a bag I want to seal that has any liquid in it, I freeze it first. Otherwise the seal usually fails, in spite of me carefully following instructions.