I recall not liking the texture of sv fish when I tried it, but admittedly that was a while ago and one and done.
What’s your method?
Cooking vegetables sous-vide in general causes less cell wall breakdown and less leakage from the cells which ultimately leads to more preservation of molecules responsible for their taste (and also more nutrients)
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Thanks. Which vegetables do you like cooking this way? Do you add seasonings to the bag?
As a single, I find SV a bit of a waste of time and money… My first experiment when I got the equipment was to cook 3 soft boiled eggs. After 2 hours in the machine, I was wondering why I just did not boil them in water for 6 minutes as I would usually! I would have worked out much cheaper :o) But I understand the benefits if you pre-cook in batch (like professionals do) and I still use it occasionally for salmon, with nice results. But I use stem much more than SV.
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Kenji and other chefs like cooking carrots before roasting and the carrots turn out well. So sous vide wouldn’t be any different, though considering sous vide gives you more flavor than the preliminary simmering, I probably wouldn’t bother.
Here’s a link about sv carrots.
There’s a nice one on Serious Eats about salmon IIRC, and I think I used it to make salmon rillettes.
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Eggactly!
When the SV fad was at its pinnacle, someone (I think Dave Arnold over st Cook’s Issues) did a nauseatingly detailed guide to doing soft-boiled eggs SV. I forget the time increments, but there were dozens–with photos showing the minute differences in yolk set. What a waste of time.
It’s always amused me how some cooks obsess over the supposed control of SV. The psychology of this becomes a value judgment lickety split (the food of precise control cooks always being better than that of lesser non-SV cooks). The same psychology sells $500 Control Freak PICs for $1500.
The sous vide I received as a gift from my son a few years ago has been used twice. The latest was for venison steak the day after this Thanksgiving.
Thanks to @emglow101 for his expert advice, the result was perfection!
I don’t know when I’ll use it again; it’s just another electrical kitchen gadget, imo.
That’s exactly why I’ve yet to purchase one. The amount of time/planning involved is just not how I roll. But I’ll eat others’ dishes prepared that way any day 
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I feel like people go too hard in both directions. It’s not practical or the best for a lot of things, but it also does things that another tools don’t, so the trashing of it as pointless and only for obsessive people is also unfair.
As I said upthread, something like tongue is perfectly delicious braised or corned, but when I make it sous vide I get a different texture than I would with those methods. The juices from cooking it sous vide also produce an amazing concentrated salsa for tacos since no liquid is added.
It improves homemade vanilla extract singnificantly (I am not a fan of homemade vanilla) by allowing one to actually extract rather than simply infusing.
I can poach lobster in butter or steam it and it’s delicious, but sous vide lobster is still amazing and worth making.
Likewise sous vide can produce a chuck roast that eats like prime rib. Does that mean that a chuck made into pot roast isn’t great? No, they’re just two very different experiences. It doesn’t need to be either/or. If one decides that they have no particular interest in trying these, that’s fine.
As I recently posted in the lunch thread, I was without use of our gas stove for a few days, and the circulator was great to play with. I cooked some great shrimp in lemon butter sauce that tasted extra flavorful cooked in the shell with no water.
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I cook nearly all of my animal proteins sous-vide. Tender beef like ribeye at 128F, tougher cuts like bavette and lamb chops to 132. Chicken breasts and pork chops at 142. I recently increased the temperature for fish (salmon, halibut, black cod) from 116 to 120, and the texture is much better. My dog gets a snack at the end of every working day, 5PM, and at that time the meats go into the sous vide right from the freezer, done in 2 hours. Fish doesn’t take as long, so I hold off.
My fishmonger sells fish trim for $3.00/lb (random chowder chunks), $10.00 (salmon pieces), and $13 (halibut). I’ll get a half pound portion, sous vide it all at once, and have it over ramen or in fish tacos for the next day or two.
Pasteurizing eggs, yes. A friend was surprised that I use them for avgolemono, but best to be safe.
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I have my Anova warming water to 148 for a chicken breast destined for some salad.
I thought briefly about trying a gifted piece of beef tenderloin,
which I rarely if ever cook ( see what I did there? 
) but so far I’ve decided to try a pan sear, maybe like this, without my usual reversing…unless someone says otherwise real soon.
One thing I look for in sous vide and reverse searing is the ability to get different degrees of doneness for husband and me. Husband likes well done, and I like mine run through a hot kitchen.
P.S. In the background I am also working on another battalion of barrels for rainwater harvesting. This is the “under plumbing”!
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SV makes a lot of sense for make-ahead for restaurants, large batches, or where there is no time pressure. My prime example is steaks for a large gathering. You have SV’d the cuts to different degrees of doneness, then the help can fire them all the same.
I have a BIL and SIL that were into SV big time at first. They even had 50 special ping-pong balls to insulate the surface of a big Cambro! Fiddly, fiddly, fiddly. Racks that will separate the envelopes and keep them all in place in good circulation are especially maddening. As are vacuum sealers and bags that leak air in (floats) or good stuff out.
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As with most gadgets, it can do certain features nothing else can do, e.g. unique braises which give very different results not possible with any other method. Or very simple way to make duck confit
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I revived this thread for specific methods and recipes people who are actually using sous vide apply for the results they enjoy.
Whether or not sous vide is worth it, over-hyped, and so on has been discussed plenty before and elsewhere.
What recipes, techniques, and tips make it successful for those who use it, less so.
Would love to hear more about that, ie the OP.
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Do you follow the suggested temp and technique? I’ve not had good experience with seafood doing that. Any tips?
This might have been my favorite dish produced. We liked real prime rib cooked sv less than the chuck! Played with timing a few times — 72h was too long, 56-60 was probably the sweet spot, but we liked 36-48 pretty well too. What’s your preferred timing? The juices made a lovely gravy with cream and cognac.
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I have only done meat (a brisket, an eye of round roast, some pork chops). They looked great. I really, really didn’t like the texture. It creeped me out, honestly.
Yes to this, with a quick pan sear or torching. - I don’t have the capability to grill.
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Interesting. My sibling is the only meat eater in his family, and cooks sous vide extensively for that very reason.
He’ll make a few things and portion off, then pull out a serving to accompany an otherwise vegetarian meal. Much more efficient, after work especially.
I eat much less beef and pork than he does, which is why I think my use has been a lot less, but also I’ll often use the pressure cooker to break down the cuts that benefit significantly from sous vide.
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I wasn’t happy with shrimp at 140° even though it’s what’s widely recommended. I preferred going up to 145°.
For the lobster I’ve followed Kenji’s method and really liked it though it’s a bit fussy.
For chuck roast I like 135-137° for 24-30 hours.
Playing with temperature really helps with sous vide imo. Even chicken thighs which I don’t think are best sous vide come out better going past the temps often recommended. Even at 165° for the recommended time I don’t find they’re tender enough. Once I went up to 175° I was much happier. I made soy sauce chicken that looked like the classic but with thighs more to my liking (I tend to prefer breasts in dishes like soy sauce chicken and white cut chicken because the gentle cooking is better for it than sinewy thighs).
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I was thinking king of this. What temp / how long do you go for breast?
You said 175 for thighs and legs - how long do you like to go for dark meat?
Duck worked well for me sou vide too.
