I did just that, a few replies up. Most of my animal protein, that is.
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Try radishes some time. The overly bitter notes soften and just more radishy. I use a mix of butter and olive oil. Which is a cooks treat for a toast point to dunk in at the end
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I happen to have a “water oven” from back in the day, but haven’t used it in ages.
Since I already have stuff set up, I’m going to try carrots tonight. Husband loves carrots and it would be great to have some cooked, that just need finishing.
Does anyone know how long you can re-use the water for? I’m pretty sure I have asked in another thread, and got some good answers.
I think one thing that keeps me from doing this more often is my fear of wasting water. For the same reason, when I can, I tend to steam rather than boil. But not preferentially over other cooking methods for most or all of my cooking.
I always use the water in the garden rather than tossing it, but that makes more sense during our dry season. I keep forgetting to take it to Goodwill or similar.
I have a pig or beef cheek I might try too.
Dragging this out for inspiration. The dishes are too fussy for me, but it has some helpful notes about though cuts of meat, fish, seafood, hard root vegetables, other (not green) vegetables, fruits, and a few “non cooking techniques” like compression. I haven’t tried that.
Nice notes on safety too.
I feel like this is a trick question. Nothing’s going into the water and vice versa, so I’d think you could reuse it as many times as you like.
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I think that was at least one of the answers I’ve gotten in the past.
OTOH, I used to do a long cook, maybe 72 hour short ribs, and the smell at least inside the bag gave me pause. I’m going to see if I can find that thread. It may have been on Chowhound.
ETA it was on Chowhound, and I can’t retrieve it, but it went something like this one on ChefSteps…
I read somewhere that adding vinegar to the water helps keep it … “fresh”?
Oh? What was it designed for, specifically?
It’s pretty basic. Commercial premium ice cream makers would use industrial SV if it made better ice cream.
It was? I might prefer making ice cream base with SV over doing it over a campfire, But I’ve yet to hear anyone, here or anywhere, claim with a straight face that they prefer to use SV over any other method whenever they possibly can.
It’s like with induction. People may like to use it, but it hardly produces better food. The state of the art in ice cream making didn’t miraculously improve when people started vacuum-sealing bases in bags and giving them a bath. SV in sealed bags has only been around since around 1991.
They already have specialized equipment that accomplishes things like precise temperature control for ice cream production. That’s the point. Your question continues to make no sense when discussing the validity of sous vide for ice cream production AT HOME. Commercial ice cream production is an entirely different beast than homemade. They already have equipment that predates sous vide.
Sous vide is a tool that has multiple uses and for home cooks provides certain benefits over a pot and stove when it comes to ice cream. As I said, I PREFER it to a pot and stove despite more than a decade of making ice cream bases on stovetop.
And yes, that’s the claim you made in this thread and continue to make even as people have told you that there are things for which they prefer sous vide.
Never mind that as I mentioned, it is a very silly argument that sous vide needs to be given preferential treatment over other cooking methods in order to be of value.
To use your example of induction, it’s at least superior at bringing a pot of water to a boil in a short amount of time than the average stove, isn’t it? Or that it’s safer in many ways to a gas or even electric range. Surely you could admit that it has its advantages? I’m not a fan of induction, but I can accept that it has its perks.
I fully understand you don’t like sous vide. Enjoy not using it and we will continue posting in this thread about ways we like using it.
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I think you can also blanch the meat before a long cook to kill the surface bacteria, if that bothers you. Iirc it also prevents the outer graying.
(I haven’t, but also wasn’t bothered by the smell)
Btw re 72h short ribs — see my comment about the Chuck roast, same idea, we ended up liking it shorter, if you haven’t experimented with that yet (and it’s easy enough to throw back in for a longer cook if you don’t).
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Oh this is a very good thing.
I bet it would make great chawanmushi, but I don’t have a lot of jars of the right size that seal properly.
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I’ve read that Starbucks-like egg bites are particularly good sous vide. I should really try it out sometime, but I don’t have more than a couple of small jars.
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I like eggs, and fusspotty things for no reason don’t particularly appeal, I’d just as soon eat the egg any list of quick-prepared ways 
But maybe in the interest of experimentation sometime…
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Boiling water (slightly) faster isn’t better food, sorry. I have a 180,000 Btu gas wok burner that boils water faster than any home and restaurant induction hob.
It’s the illusion of better that SV, induction and other fads offer–not much more than convenience and self-satisfaction.
The carrots were a success! In the bag was a bit of honey, salt, and butter., I think cooked at 185f . Finished in a pan with the juices. Really liked the texture and flavor.
Thanks all.
Next up is fennel, maybe something like this.
Fresh oranges are a few weeks away, but maybe with a little of the jam I made in February.
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One tip I haven’t seen posted here is the use of a very light coating of mayonnaise when searing after sous vide. It works well and helps reduce the smoke that can be a real issue in small kitchens.
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Mayonnaise is a key to a lot of kitchen hacks.
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Few other vegetables which are really nice with sous vide - green beans (not too al dente, not too soft), brussel sprouts (quick sear afterwards) and beets
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I think you are saying green beans and brussel sprouts are worth doing sous vide. Is that right?
Yes
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I actually reuse my water for gardening, so it does get recycled in my case. I have used the water twice when I’ve needed to sous vide something in succession but that is rare. I haven’t tried to use it more that, just because I don’t have the space to keep it for that long. If my plants don’t need it, I also use the water to soak dirty dishes before dumping.
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SV would have been useful when I went through the very frustrating trials and tribulations of making marrons glacé, but I guess that was pre the SV fad as no one on Chowhound mentioned it.
When I was struggling with the chestnuts breaking up while being cooked, a chocolatier in Montreal (the wonderful “Maitre Chocolatier”) told me that the key to it was to not let the water boil; that was when SV would have been useful. I managed to do that via careful babysitting over usually 2 hours. After that, it was “relatively” easy, but not by any means QED. I gave some to the chocolatier in Montreal and to the late moh from CH, and got positive feedback.
Perhaps I’ll try again next year, using SV, as I really love marrons glacés, but don’t have the deep pockets necessary to get them directly from a store in Geneva that carries some wonderful ones.
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