I was at 130F actually. I find lower than that more rare than I like (medium rare is my sweet spot). Lamb iirc at 125. It has been a long time since I cooked anything sv, so relearning a bit what my preferences used to be.
Agree on reverse sear, that’s what I almost always do. But this works well for cooking ahead.
One of these days I’ll get some chuck on sale again. I thought that was one of the better outcomes.
Tell me more about what it does for carrots?
The last thing I cooked sous vide, about 4 weeks ago, was several chicken breasts for "white chicken chili ".
I will probably use it for chocolate later this month.
Oh, it’s an oldie from Kenjii. I don’t have a deep rationale for it, but SV carrots taste more… carroty to me. I also think that the method optimizes uniform texture. And, when you’re done, you’re done, unless you want to glaze.
Will try. I like roasted carrots for the char, but maybe also because it intensifies the flavor.
No reason you can’t do both!
Think they’d get over cooked. Let’s see, will experiment.
Well, you’d have to adjust. Steak’s like that already, yeah?
It’d depend on the cross section of the carrot, too. You could get a fat monster Red Chantenay almost done in the bath, and then “sear” the exterior in a roaster or under a salamander.
I mostly use mine for pasteurizing eggs for ice cream, though recently used it to make a turkey leg for thanksgiving as an extra dish and also egg bites in 4oz jars, both with success. I have enjoyed using it to cook frozen salmon.
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)
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.
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.
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 
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.
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.
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”!
