Ha ha. He has a binder of recipes he’s acquired from Google. He runs some by me and says “It has 5 stars” and I will have to remind him about his constant mantra that half of the population is below average…
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Earworm!
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Plus one on the reverse sear; another way to get different doneness on multiple steaks. I still like SV for some things.
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Man. Many of you have SV. I didn’t know it is this popular among HungryOnion and or Chowhound
I actually have 2; an immersion circulator and a “water oven”. The SousVide Supreme water oven was a breakthrough thing for home cooks, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it should probably be #1 on my ditch list. It’s only advantage is that water doesn’t evaporate during a 72 hour cook, but it is really a space hog and I haven’t used it in years.
Thanks. I wasn’t thinking about the abbreviation more carefully. For some reasons, I translated the SV to Searz-All, and I was like… I didn’t know Searz-All is this popular. Of course, Sous Vide has gotten much attention 10+ years ago, but they were expensive back then. Now, the price has gone down a lot.
Ah! Well I was daydreaming about a searzall.
SV was mainly a fad, IMO, as in what to get for a Holiday, registry or other gift.
I only bought one to see what all the fuss was about. That didn’t stop me from buying an accordion rack and modifying two coolers to save energy and slow evaporation. I even bought a SV cookbook!
They should be showing up at thrift stores for very little money if you want to try SV.
I bought a bunch of orange ping pong balls to use in the cambro. Never used them. I’ve been totally underwhelmed by SV. Don’t like the texture of the beef at all.
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Really? I remember a lot of people was talking about it when we were at Chowhound. It was all these talks about it is the best way to preserve meat flavor and also cook it to perfection without over heating. I guess I had too many things at the time distracting me from getting one. It also wasn’t cheap in the early day… wasn’t it like $500-750 for one unit?
Yeah, that’s my opinion–mostly a fad for home cooks.
Of course I also think Instant Pots were mostly faddish, too. Yes, there are people who never had a pressure or slow cooker, and people who make yogurt, Those uses are good. .
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I concede that with SV you can get the interior temp right where you want it, and there will be no grey ring between the (subpar IMHO) crust and the center. If you leave it long enough to get a well developed crust, you will probably pick up a bit of grey ring.
IME, there’s always a grey band with SV’d steaks; the only question is how wide it is. But you’re on to something about a good crust causing wider grey bands. This is because there’s always some carryover–if the bath is 125F for rare, and all the meat cooks to that temperature, when you sear the outsides at multiples of that, the meat just below the surface will get further done than 125,F, and there will be carryover further into the steak.
There are SV freaks who resort to “magic browning powder” to make steaks appear to have a crust, just to congratulate themselves about no band. There are others who resort to SV’ing, then freezing, THEN searing, too.
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And said SV freaks are not people whose food I want to eat. Frankly, not cooking for restaurant customers, I really do not care what food looks like. The experience in my mouth is all that matters. It actually grates on me when cooking shows get so wrapped up in artful plating. I make plates that look homey and inviting, but that’s about it. A bite of steak may be a bite through a deep, well developed, buttery crust, a ring of grey, and a thick, cool, increasingly blue center, but the totality of that bite is perfection.
My brother is a big proponent of sous vide. He made a venison that bordered on raw and had no meaningful crust and sear. I could enjoy venison if I got to cook it, but that just did not ring chimes. Sear and seasoning is “where it’s at.”
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The beef cheek bourgignonne I dished up in an hour flat the other night would like a word…
I love braising beef cheeks. All that connective tissue makes an absolutely decadent silky sauce.
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I will cook steaks SV if someone asks. I’ve learned some tricks that help me keep my sanity:
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Unless the steaks are cut at least 2" thick, I set the bath temperature at least 5F lower than prescribed.
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The steaks are tempered before going in the bags/bath.
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If the steaks are <2", they get an icebath afterward, then are unbagged and half frozen before the sear.
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Sear is high and fast, no real rest or finishing. If they’re thin, they might go on a thick aluminum sheet to draw out some carryover heat.
Personally, these gyrations are all a giant PITA. Just cook the damn steak, and like you said, if the totality of the bite is right, who cares?
At what temp did you bro bathe his venison?
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Like you said, maybe it is just something you can do once or twice a year.
You/they have the floor…
I’m not understanding. Are you saying that a 60-minute SV (or SV-assisted) braise pleases you more than just braising? If so, to what do you attribute the betterment? Why would connective tissue break down better/faster? Do the cheeks know they’re in a bag?
My BIL and SIL use the pingpong ball trick. I think they got the idea from Kenjii–not one of his greatest moments. A sheet of bubble wrap probably provides more insulation, and cleaning 50 pingpong balls every time a bag leaks? WTF? Plus, you can’t watch what’s happening beneath.
What I did was modify two coolers, a small and medium. The small one got a holesaw through the hinged lid. The bigger one got a sheet of clear Lexan cut to sit on a step inside, and THAT got the holesaw.
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No idea what temp but the center was quite cool.
