Another thing sous vide is good for is making hard-boiled, or hard-set, eggs. They never actually boil in a sous vide, or at least they don't need to. I did mine in my rice cooker from room temperature water up to 185' for 45 minutes and they came out about perfect. The yolk was not chalky or sulfurous smelling, like over-cooked, hard-boiled eggs can be.
On the stovetop I've also gotten good results by putting the eggs in cold water and cooking over medium-high heat until the water starts to simmer. Then I turn off the heat and let them set for awhile.
Starting with cold water is supposed to keep the eggs from cracking because they warm up more slowly.
In a Rice cooker (times might vary in another device because it might heat up more slowly)
45 minutes total from room temperature water
185' Target temperature
Delicious!
Showing posts with label sous vide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sous vide. Show all posts
Friday, October 29, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Sous Vide equipment update
The 24-cup Black & Decker rice cooker I bought is very hard to find these days. However, I have been eying a 38-cup Black & Decker rice cooker at Amazon.com. There is a review form someone who is using it in their sous vide setup and they say it works great. It's only slightly more expensive than the 24-cup one was.
38-cup rice cooker link on Amazon.com (Price right now: $55)
38-cup rice cooker link on Amazon.com (Price right now: $55)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Home Sous Vide Resources
Just compiling a list of resources for folks interested in coming up with their own setup.
My equipment:
My equipment:
- A very large rice cooker (24 cup Black and Decker) ($40)
- A Foodsaver vacuum sealer ($95 at Walmart)
- The PID controller from Auberins ($139)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
More Sous Vide Shortcuts
Since I made a batch of nose-searing mustard I decided it was time to eat a bunch of sausages. I bought some Italian sausages and packaged them up with my food saver. Threw some in the freezer and some in the Sous Vide at 165'. Then they're all cooked and ready to be popped into the microwave for a fast reheat and doused in my lovely mustard. So easy!
Another shortcut to mention is in fermenting things. I keep the house around 68 degrees in the winter which is kind of cool if you're trying to make a batch of Creme Fraiche or kefir. So I put whatever I'm cultivating into a jar and set it in the Sous Vide at 80-86 degrees and it goes much faster than letting it happen at 68 degrees.
Right now I'm trying to resurrect some kefir grains I had dried from several years ago. I'm not sure it's going to work but I got a quart of milk and I'm going to give it a try. My hope is to use it to make some sour dough starter using coconut flour. This is a project I only give a small chance of success, on many levels.
If I were eating yogurt then the SV would be absolutely awesome. Heating the milk to 85c (185f) according to this article about yogurt observed under an electron microscope puts more nubbies (lack of scientific term entirely my fault) on casein molecules which means your yogurt will be thicker and nicer. So, if you're doing Sous Vide, give it a shot! The recommended temperature is 185-194 degrees for 10 minutes. Let it cool, of course, before adding in your starter. Then you could stick it back in the SV for 12 hours or however long you like to culture it, but at 80 degrees or thereabouts.
How to Make Creme Fraiche
I suppose it's cruel of me to mention making creme fraiche and not tell you how I do it. I don't know exactly how authentic this method is but it is what I do, or did rather, I don't use dairy products much any longer. I take about a cup or two of heavy cream and add about 1 Tbl of sour cream, or cultured buttermilk, per cup of cream. Mix well and let it sit until it becomes very thick. This ordinarily takes a few days but in the SV at 80-86 degrees it doesn't take so long. Maybe 24 hours. Refrigerate after it thickens up. It gets even thicker.
Another shortcut to mention is in fermenting things. I keep the house around 68 degrees in the winter which is kind of cool if you're trying to make a batch of Creme Fraiche or kefir. So I put whatever I'm cultivating into a jar and set it in the Sous Vide at 80-86 degrees and it goes much faster than letting it happen at 68 degrees.
Right now I'm trying to resurrect some kefir grains I had dried from several years ago. I'm not sure it's going to work but I got a quart of milk and I'm going to give it a try. My hope is to use it to make some sour dough starter using coconut flour. This is a project I only give a small chance of success, on many levels.
If I were eating yogurt then the SV would be absolutely awesome. Heating the milk to 85c (185f) according to this article about yogurt observed under an electron microscope puts more nubbies (lack of scientific term entirely my fault) on casein molecules which means your yogurt will be thicker and nicer. So, if you're doing Sous Vide, give it a shot! The recommended temperature is 185-194 degrees for 10 minutes. Let it cool, of course, before adding in your starter. Then you could stick it back in the SV for 12 hours or however long you like to culture it, but at 80 degrees or thereabouts.
How to Make Creme Fraiche
I suppose it's cruel of me to mention making creme fraiche and not tell you how I do it. I don't know exactly how authentic this method is but it is what I do, or did rather, I don't use dairy products much any longer. I take about a cup or two of heavy cream and add about 1 Tbl of sour cream, or cultured buttermilk, per cup of cream. Mix well and let it sit until it becomes very thick. This ordinarily takes a few days but in the SV at 80-86 degrees it doesn't take so long. Maybe 24 hours. Refrigerate after it thickens up. It gets even thicker.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sear your nose: Mustard
My sister has a recipe for sweet, hot mustard she shared with me years and years ago. We have it on Thanksgiving and Christmas on what ever meat we're having. It's really sensational on almost any kind of meat. I really like it on sausages too.
I'll give you the original recipe and my changes to make it low carb.
I'll give you the original recipe and my changes to make it low carb.
- 1 - 2oz Can of mustard flour (or powder), Coleman's is one brand.
- Nowadays I buy it in bulk from the health food store, cheaper that way.
- 1 Cup of Malt Vinegar
- I don't use malt vinegar any longer due to my gluten sensitivity. Apple cider, red wine and other vinegars are just as good.
- 3 eggs
- 1 Cup of sugar
- Obviously I don't use sugar any longer. I use a combination of sweeteners or Splenda.
OR
Now you can hate me a bit if you don't have a Sous Vide... put in your Sous Vide bath for 20 minutes or so at 150 degrees. Voila! No whisking like a maniac. I'm definitely going to be eating this hot, sweet mustard a lot more often now that I've seen how easy it is to do by sous vide.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sous Vide Lemon Low Carb Custard
The Sous Vide equipment makes this super easy. Takes me less than 5 minutes to prepare! I love egg custard because it tastes great but it was always a hassle to do it on the stovetop and I never really tried it in the oven. But in my sous vide, it is a dream! I'm going through eggs like mad between this and having my hummus omelet again.
Pour the egg mixture into a heavy duty freezer type bag with a good seal. I then fill up a container with water and put my not-completely-sealed bag in there, that forces the air out. Submerge it just until the egg rises to the seal, then finish sealing the bag.
Edit: One suggestion, put a ceramic bowl on the bottom of your sous vide bath. I think the bottom of the bath gets hotter (if you have a rice maker) and this will keep the eggs from getting too hot should they actually come in contact with the bottom of the SV.
Double check the seal and stick it in the SV bath at 155' for around 30 minutes or when set up nicely.
Slide it into a container and refrigerate or serve hot with raspberries or strawberries.
Edit:
I wanted to add instructions for non-sous vide use. If you don't have a water bath you can make this on the stove top. Use a double boiler, or create one. I always just put a metal bowl on top of my pot of boiling water. Then I pour the mixture into the bowl and stir until it reaches about 160 degrees or starts to leaves trails when you stir. You have to stir the entire time, otherwise you'll end up with scrambled eggs. Another thing to be wary of is to make sure that you don't let it heat too quickly. It should take at least 5 minutes to get up to 160 degrees. Any faster than that and you might end up with scrambled eggs.
Picture of a homemade double boiler
- Crack 6 eggs into a bowl, pick out any shell.
- Pour them into my blender.
- Add to blender sweetener equivalent to 1/3 cup of sugar (to taste). This time I used Lo Han and Splenda.
- Add about 1/3 cup of lemon juice or more if you want more lemon-y goodness.
- Add about 1/2 tsp of vanilla.
- Blend well.
- Taste, adjust as needed.
Pour the egg mixture into a heavy duty freezer type bag with a good seal. I then fill up a container with water and put my not-completely-sealed bag in there, that forces the air out. Submerge it just until the egg rises to the seal, then finish sealing the bag.
Edit: One suggestion, put a ceramic bowl on the bottom of your sous vide bath. I think the bottom of the bath gets hotter (if you have a rice maker) and this will keep the eggs from getting too hot should they actually come in contact with the bottom of the SV.
Double check the seal and stick it in the SV bath at 155' for around 30 minutes or when set up nicely.
Slide it into a container and refrigerate or serve hot with raspberries or strawberries.
Edit:
I wanted to add instructions for non-sous vide use. If you don't have a water bath you can make this on the stove top. Use a double boiler, or create one. I always just put a metal bowl on top of my pot of boiling water. Then I pour the mixture into the bowl and stir until it reaches about 160 degrees or starts to leaves trails when you stir. You have to stir the entire time, otherwise you'll end up with scrambled eggs. Another thing to be wary of is to make sure that you don't let it heat too quickly. It should take at least 5 minutes to get up to 160 degrees. Any faster than that and you might end up with scrambled eggs.
Picture of a homemade double boiler
Monday, October 26, 2009
What am I eating now?
A new edition of "What am I eating now?"
I'm still gripped my Sous Vide madness and nearly everything is coming out of my SV contraption. So I'm cooking all my proteins this way except the occasional omelet. Remember awhile back, that amazing omelet with hummus filing? Well, I found guacamole makes a really nice alternative and it's easy to buy it pre-made without any weird additives. Or I might have a little custard I've created in my SVC (sous vide contraption) with some raspberries. Doing custard is fun because I basically blend together the eggs, sweetener and flavors (lemon and vanilla usually) in about 15 seconds and pour it into a ziploc bag. About 20-30 minutes at 155 in the SVC and I have a pretty nice custard.
I get some 80/20 hamburger for 1.99 a pound at Trader Joes and it makes some great hamburgers. I do them SV for about 1-1.5 hours at 135-140. Then generally a quick sear, although lately I'm not bothering. I don't even shape them into circles any longer. Why? I don't put them in a bun! They get shaped into logs, like mini-meat loaf. I top with guacamole or ketchup... sometimes both. Oh yes, raw sweet onions!
I'm also eating a pork roast I did SV for 24 hours. Came out nice, but not my favorite SV thing to date.
And with almost every meat meal I'm eating this wonderful mixture of cooked tomatoes...
A 12-16 oz box of grape tomatoes
1-2 cloves of fresh garlic minced or pressed
Red Pepper Flakes (lots of them because you like it spicey, I just know you do!)
Fresh Marjoram (this is a staple in my garden, can't live without it now)
Olive oil
Optionally, finely minced onion
Combine in reasonable amounts and cook until the skins pop on the tomatoes. It'll taste good but gets better as the flavors hang out together for awhile. This makes a wonderful accompaniament to meat.
One word of caution on using certain herbs and spices in SV... meat doesn't cook at a very high temperature so sometimes the herbs can be a little too strong. I found this was true with rosemary and I've heard with garlic too, I imagine onions could be a problem too. Oh yes, and wine. You need to cook these things before adding them to your protein if you're doing a low temperature cooking.
I'm still gripped my Sous Vide madness and nearly everything is coming out of my SV contraption. So I'm cooking all my proteins this way except the occasional omelet. Remember awhile back, that amazing omelet with hummus filing? Well, I found guacamole makes a really nice alternative and it's easy to buy it pre-made without any weird additives. Or I might have a little custard I've created in my SVC (sous vide contraption) with some raspberries. Doing custard is fun because I basically blend together the eggs, sweetener and flavors (lemon and vanilla usually) in about 15 seconds and pour it into a ziploc bag. About 20-30 minutes at 155 in the SVC and I have a pretty nice custard.
I get some 80/20 hamburger for 1.99 a pound at Trader Joes and it makes some great hamburgers. I do them SV for about 1-1.5 hours at 135-140. Then generally a quick sear, although lately I'm not bothering. I don't even shape them into circles any longer. Why? I don't put them in a bun! They get shaped into logs, like mini-meat loaf. I top with guacamole or ketchup... sometimes both. Oh yes, raw sweet onions!
I'm also eating a pork roast I did SV for 24 hours. Came out nice, but not my favorite SV thing to date.
And with almost every meat meal I'm eating this wonderful mixture of cooked tomatoes...
A 12-16 oz box of grape tomatoes
1-2 cloves of fresh garlic minced or pressed
Red Pepper Flakes (lots of them because you like it spicey, I just know you do!)
Fresh Marjoram (this is a staple in my garden, can't live without it now)
Olive oil
Optionally, finely minced onion
Combine in reasonable amounts and cook until the skins pop on the tomatoes. It'll taste good but gets better as the flavors hang out together for awhile. This makes a wonderful accompaniament to meat.
One word of caution on using certain herbs and spices in SV... meat doesn't cook at a very high temperature so sometimes the herbs can be a little too strong. I found this was true with rosemary and I've heard with garlic too, I imagine onions could be a problem too. Oh yes, and wine. You need to cook these things before adding them to your protein if you're doing a low temperature cooking.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sous Vide! At last I have found you!
I feel like one of those musicals from the 1940's where I just want to break out in song and sing my love.... to a water bath held at a very precise temperature, coddling a steak in vacuum packed bag. *sigh* Ok, I have finally lost it.
I first heard about this when I stumbled on this article: Under Pressure in the NY Times back in February of 2009. I'd also been gently introduced to the notion of very controlled temperature cooking from an episode of Good Eats and it was rather exciting! I looked into what it would take to do Sous Vide at home and I didn't really see a way to do it that I could afford.
Just in case you didn't press the link and read Under Pressure in a nutshell sous vide is cooking food which is packaged into vacuum sealed bags at very precise temperatures. Why? Well, you won't over cook and dry out food if the temperature doesn't get too high. It also keeps all the flavor inside the food, instead of allowing it to vaporize or leach out. The flavors become very concentrated, the meat stays moist and perfectly cooked. The only thing that doesn't happen is the Malliard reaction, which we are all fond of, which causes food to brown. However, you can do a quick sear afterwards.
At some point I stumbled upon a lower cost solution for at home sous vide. You can buy a PID controller, such as this one, and use it to control a crockpot, rice cooker or other device with a manual switch. It will cycle the power on and off to maintain a very steady, accurate temperature. After thinking it over for awhile I decided this would be a really neat birthday gift to myself (a few months late) so I bought the equipment I needed:
Descriptions and general articles:
First Experiments
My first experiments were with steak. I bought some relatively inexpensive sirloin steak which usually comes out rather tough in my typical sear and finish in the oven method. But this time I seasoned the steak, vacuum sealed it, and consulted this wonderful document that shows cooking times for pasteurizing various foods (i.e. how long and what temperature is needed to kill the bacteria). I only cooked it to achieve pasteurization and while the flavor was amazing it was a little tougher than I'd like. Next attempts I doubled the cooking time (about 2 hours) and it was absolutely perfect. As tender and flavorful as the most expensive cut imaginable. A quick sear is all it needs after coming out of the bath.
I first heard about this when I stumbled on this article: Under Pressure in the NY Times back in February of 2009. I'd also been gently introduced to the notion of very controlled temperature cooking from an episode of Good Eats and it was rather exciting! I looked into what it would take to do Sous Vide at home and I didn't really see a way to do it that I could afford.
Just in case you didn't press the link and read Under Pressure in a nutshell sous vide is cooking food which is packaged into vacuum sealed bags at very precise temperatures. Why? Well, you won't over cook and dry out food if the temperature doesn't get too high. It also keeps all the flavor inside the food, instead of allowing it to vaporize or leach out. The flavors become very concentrated, the meat stays moist and perfectly cooked. The only thing that doesn't happen is the Malliard reaction, which we are all fond of, which causes food to brown. However, you can do a quick sear afterwards.
At some point I stumbled upon a lower cost solution for at home sous vide. You can buy a PID controller, such as this one, and use it to control a crockpot, rice cooker or other device with a manual switch. It will cycle the power on and off to maintain a very steady, accurate temperature. After thinking it over for awhile I decided this would be a really neat birthday gift to myself (a few months late) so I bought the equipment I needed:
- A very large rice cooker (24 cup Black and Decker) ($40)
- A Foodsaver vacuum sealer ($95 at Walmart)
- The PID controller from Auberins ($139)
Descriptions and general articles:
Latest cooking trend is in the bag: sous-vide cooking evolves from practical to progressive while filling a void
Sous Vide Recipes
I will add more as I find more!
First Experiments
My first experiments were with steak. I bought some relatively inexpensive sirloin steak which usually comes out rather tough in my typical sear and finish in the oven method. But this time I seasoned the steak, vacuum sealed it, and consulted this wonderful document that shows cooking times for pasteurizing various foods (i.e. how long and what temperature is needed to kill the bacteria). I only cooked it to achieve pasteurization and while the flavor was amazing it was a little tougher than I'd like. Next attempts I doubled the cooking time (about 2 hours) and it was absolutely perfect. As tender and flavorful as the most expensive cut imaginable. A quick sear is all it needs after coming out of the bath.
I've been using this daily since acquiring the equipment, making turkey, chicken, veggies, custards and using it to pasteurize raw eggs. This has definitely revolutionized my cooking. This method is very easy and the results are usually excellent. It definitely makes eating well daily a much easier task.
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