Sous Vide

[sgtraven]

So,

just bought one of these nifty little buggers
http://www.sousvideathome.com.au/
I am currently in the process of reviewing it using 3 different scenarios.

- small rice cooker
- small crock pot
- 7.5L large slow cooker

all will be tried with lid on/lid off.

I will be testing the accuracy of the probe (using the thermapen) as well as testing for hot/cold spots (this will likely be an issue of the pot not the SV controller)

once done, ill be doing a nice ribeye 400g steak in the winner

this is my first time trying sousvide so wish me luck

[Amfibius]

That's great! I have one of those as well. In fact my thermo sensor just died, and I bought two replacement probes from them. I'm using it as I type

[sgtraven]

Originally Posted by Amfibius

That's great! I have one of those as well. In fact my thermo sensor just died, and I bought two replacement probes from them. I'm using it as I type

interestingly they dint have a detachable type any more, the one i was shipped had a permenant cable.....
i dont know how i feel about this but time will tell

currently playing with it in a rice cooker, ill try the crock pot next

[cowsword]

Hmmmm, I use DeltaT cooking function on my Convotherm oven. Did a 1.8kg tomahawk steak at a 20'c delta.

Took almost 3 hours from drying in the fridge, collected 20ml of juice in the tray.......undoubtedly the juiciest of the juicy.

[sgtraven]

Originally Posted by cowsword

Hmmmm, I use DeltaT cooking function on my Convotherm oven. Did a 1.8kg tomahawk steak at a 20'c delta.

Took almost 3 hours from drying in the fridge, collected 20ml of juice in the tray.......undoubtedly the juiciest of the juicy.

yummo!
this at home or you own a commercial kitchen?

[sgtraven]

so, i have got the slow cooker and rice cooker's diled in using auto tune and noted down their PID settings.

Steaks are defrosting and ill go for a 7 hour cook at 55c
hopefully come out medium rare after searing it

[bl4ck32]

for future reference http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=718

is the same thing

[sgtraven]

Originally Posted by bl4ck32

for future reference http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=718

is the same thing

yea, i also toyed with the idea of turning the stoker into a sous vide controller

instead of fan, use a 240v relay

[Cererus]

Originally Posted by bl4ck32

for future reference http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=718

is the same thing

You can pick up a similar thing from ebay for $20,
I'm using one for homebrew, the probe it comes with survives mash temps (60~70c) and a replacement 10k thermistor costs $2 from Jaycar
(must be wired up by a qualified electrician, which the craft brew one needs as well)
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Temperature-...pos=2000&gbr=1

[Stone2x]

Originally Posted by bl4ck32

for future reference http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=718

is the same thing

I bought one of those then boxed it up and added power cords so it looks like a bought one, then found I needed another one as the one above only controls up to 70c. I found these ones for $20 on eBay. It was about $35 total for the jiffy box to house it and all the little extras.

The thermometer probe isn't metal like this one but the temperatures are accurate compared to a couple of other thermometers.

What sort of steak are you doing for 7 hours? For tender meats you only need to get the heat through them. I did a decent chunk of eye fillet for 4 hours at 55c and it's texture turned to pretty much mush

[edit]
I also bought a mini water pump to ensure I have no cold or hot spots.

[sgtraven]

Originally Posted by Stone2x

I bought one of those then boxed it up and added power cords so it looks like a bought one, then found I needed another one as the one above only controls up to 70c. I found these ones for $20 on eBay. It was about $35 total for the jiffy box to house it and all the little extras.

The thermometer probe isn't metal like this one but the temperatures are accurate compared to a couple of other thermometers.

What sort of steak are you doing for 7 hours? For tender meats you only need to get the heat through them. I did a decent chunk of eye fillet for 4 hours at 55c and it's texture turned to pretty much mush

mine is an eye fillet, you think 7 hours is too long....damn, well i only just put it on, ill take it off and do it for 3 hours

[Stone2x]

Originally Posted by sgtraven

mine is an eye fillet, you think 7 hours is too long....damn, well i only just put it on, ill take it off and do it for 3 hours

It really depends on the size of the meat... There's quite a bit of information online about thickness vs time for sous vide.

For example this eye fillet below was on for 3.5hr. IT was cooked through completely but still retained some sort of meat texture





[edit]
From: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

Tender Meat

When cooking tender meats, we just need to get the center up to temperature and, if pasteurizing, hold it there from some length of time. Cooking times depend critically on the thickness of the meat: doubling the thickness of the meat increases the cooking time four fold!

Rare Medium-Rare Medium
Meat 125°F (50°C) 130°F (55°C) 140°F (60°C)
Fish 108°F (42°C) 122°F (50°C) 140°F (60°C)
Table 2.1: Temperatures corresponding to rare, medium-rare and medium in meat and fish.
While there is no consensus as to what temperatures rare, medium-rare and medium correspond to, I use the temperatures in Table 2.1. In general, the tenderness of meat increases from 122°F to 150°F (50°C to 65°C) but then decreases up to 175°F (80°C) (Powell et al., 2000; Tornberg, 2005). The approximate heating times for thawed and frozen meats are given in Tables 2.2 and 2.3. For a complete discussion on how these times were computed, please see Appendix A.

Heating Time from 41°F (5°C) to 1°F (0.5°C) Less Than the Water Bath’s Temperature
Thickness Slab-like Cylinder-like Sphere-like
5 mm 5 min 5 min 4 min
10 mm 19 min 11 min 8 min
15 mm 35 min 18 min 13 min
20 mm 50 min 30 min 20 min
25 mm 1¼ hr 40 min 25 min
30 mm 1½ hr 50 min 35 min
35 mm 2 hr 1 hr 45 min
40 mm 2½ hr 1¼ hr 55 min
45 mm 3 hr 1½ hr 1¼ hr
50 mm 3½ hr 2 hr 1½ hr
55 mm 4 hr 2¼ hr 1½ hr
60 mm 4¾ hr 2½ hr 2 hr
65 mm 5½ hr 3 hr 2¼ hr
70 mm — 3½ hr 2½ hr
75 mm — 3¾ hr 2¾ hr
80 mm — 4¼ hr 3 hr
85 mm — 4¾ hr 3½ hr
90 mm — 5¼ hr 3¾ hr
95 mm — 6 hr 4¼ hr
100 mm — — 4¾ hr
105 mm — — 5 hr
110 mm — — 5½ hr
115 mm — — 6 hr

[Amfibius]

I wouldn't even do 3 hours for your eye fillet. For a tender cut like that, it only needs 1 hour. Your aim is to "set" the meat, NOT to tenderize it. Choose different cuts of meat to tenderize.

SV is a bit weird. If you "overcook" something by SV, it will still be pink, but taste overcooked. I once left a duck breast in SV for 24 hours at 60C. It came out slightly pink but with a liver-like flavour and texture. It was really unpleasant.

[sgtraven]

Originally Posted by Amfibius

I wouldn't even do 3 hours for your eye fillet. For a tender cut like that, it only needs 1 hour. Your aim is to "set" the meat, NOT to tenderize it. Choose different cuts of meat to tenderize.

SV is a bit weird. If you "overcook" something by SV, it will still be pink, but taste overcooked. I once left a duck breast in SV for 24 hours at 60C. It came out slightly pink but with a liver-like flavour and texture. It was really unpleasant.

cheers for the advice, ill go for 1 hour then

[Stone2x]

Originally Posted by Amfibius

I wouldn't even do 3 hours for your eye fillet. For a tender cut like that, it only needs 1 hour. Your aim is to "set" the meat, NOT to tenderize it...

You need to ensure the heat makes it all the way through the meat though and according to Douglas Baldwin's guide my eye fillet that was 65mm at the thinnest point crossing the center required 3 hours to heat all the way through and I added 30 mins to be on the safe side. It turned out just right. I was just following the guidelines.

I assume my failed one at 4 hours was much thinner to the center so over tenderised