I got my Anova today!

[effowe]

Did the lamb tonight, turned out great, with a couple of caveats. I needed to sear the fat more on the lamb to give it a better crust, I think my pan wasn't hot enough. I was worried about leaving it in the pan too long and overcooking it. Here are the pics..

In the water bath, total time was 5 hours or so which is overkill, the recipe said 45 minutes would have done it.

Into the pan fat side down.

Flipped over, you can see the fat isn't as rendered as it should be..

Shot of a single chop, medium rare.

Finally the plated presentation.

So, Lamb Chops with a Mint Pesto. On the side is an Asparagus and Green Pea Cous Cous.

 

[agent00f]

Did the lamb tonight, turned out great, with a couple of caveats. I needed to sear the fat more on the lamb to give it a better crust, I think my pan wasn't hot enough. I was worried about leaving it in the pan too long and overcooking it. Here are the pics..

In the water bath, total time was 5 hours or so which is overkill, the recipe said 45 minutes would have done it.

Into the pan fat side down.

Flipped over, you can see the fat isn't as rendered as it should be..

Shot of a single chop, medium rare.

Finally the plated presentation.

So, Lamb Chops with a Mint Pesto. On the side is an Asparagus and Green Pea Cous Cous.

Using a blowtorch with some oil in the pan provides a great presentation.

 

[effowe]

Using a blowtorch with some oil in the pan provides a great presentation.

Yeah we have a little butane torch but I'm thinking about upgrading to the blowtorch for a proper crust. I've watched multiple videos (on steak mostly) that uses that method exactly.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah we have a little butane torch but I'm thinking about upgrading to the blowtorch for a proper crust. I've watched multiple videos (on steak mostly) that uses that method exactly.

I love my Searzall setup. It's not effective for large quantities of food, but if you're just doing a rack or a couple steaks, it's a nice tool to have because you can control the Maillard reaction yourself. Sometimes I do a combination of broiling & Searzall, using the Searzall to touch up areas that need it. Pricey setup tho, you need a good torch ($80 iirc) & the Searzall ($75), plus fuel. Tanks last awhile tho, I think I'm only on my second one after like a year or so.

 

[slag]

If it's good enough for restaurant use it should be fine at home, the metal build on those look decent.

If you want high heat, just turn it up to high. The temp hold/control isn't terribly stable at those temps anyway.



A roast chicken is barely over an hour at 350-400. The broil element is full high.

I used low broil plus the rack at a middle position. I also wanted to warm up the bird a bit in addition to crisping the skin. Loved it so much I'm doing another today and its just about done. I will take pics this time.

 

[Ns1]

Who wants to try this at home? Evidently stripsteak sous vide's their steaks in clarified butter before searing the mother fuckers.

 

[Imported]

Who wants to try this at home? Evidently stripsteak sous vide's their steaks in clarified butter before searing the mother fuckers.

Uhhh.. I think I'm overdue for a trip to Vegas.

 

[Kaido]

Who wants to try this at home? Evidently stripsteak sous vide's their steaks in clarified butter before searing

Wow...I wonder how bad that would tear up the Anova...

So they don't bag them, they just...heat up the butter & cook for awhile? That's gotta taste insane!

 

[ponyo]

Wait, what am I missing? What's so special about sticking butter inside the bag along with the steak when cooking via sous vide?

 

[Kaido]

Wait, what am I missing? What's so special about sticking butter inside the bag along with the steak when cooking via sous vide?

No no...instead of water...they use liquid butter...no bag on the steak...

 

[ponyo]

No no...instead of water...they use liquid butter...no bag on the steak...

There is such thing as too much butter. Too much butter is not good. One of the worst steak I had was at Ruth Chris when I asked for extra butter on the steak. Bad move as the excess butter overpowered the steak.

When you stick butter in the vacuum sealed bag along with the steak, it will amplify the butter flavor. Any spice you add in the bag will be amplified. So if you want extreme butter flavor, add lot of butter inside the bag. So why poach the steak in butter bath when you have sous vide?

 

[Ns1]

So why poach the steak in butter bath when you have sous vide?

Why bother with a bag when you can just poach the steak in butter?

 

[ponyo]

Why bother with a bag when you can just poach the steak in butter?

Because you need crapload of butter? If the result is worth it, then ok. But I have my doubts it improves the taste over just adding butter in the bag.

 

[Ns1]

guess we'll need Imported to go and find out for us.

 

[slag]

Well, its that time. I need to get the turkeys in the fridge tonight so they can thaw and inject them on Wednesday evening. Brisket is going to go in the annova on Tuesday right after I get home from work (around 5 pm), and it will come out Thursday morning and I'll toss it on the smoker for an hour or two. Not sure If I'll do the chickens or not, I think we might have enough food to go around already for 30ish people.

 

[Imported]

I'm forgoing the turkey this year and got myself a prime and Frenched 2.5lb ribeye from Costco. Thing is like 4" thick.

 

[Kaido]

I tried out sous-vide + roasted sweet potatoes - they came out awesome! If you like roasted butternut squash, it's like that but sweeter (and easier to peel, lol). The story:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/11/...potatoes-thanksgiving-sides-the-food-lab.html

The recipe:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...s-thanksgiving-sides-the-food-lab-recipe.html

Basic procedure:

1. Peel & chop the sweet potatoes into chunks. I use a carbon-steel Y-blade peeler for peeling. $12 for a 3-pack on Amazon. So much easier than the old straight-style peelers.
2. Vac-seal (or use the ziploc trick the chunks & sous vide for 1 hour at 150-160F. The sweet potato's starch converts to sugar after 60 minutes of being heated between 135-170F. You can also do this on the stovetop with a thermometer just as easily; the Anova is just nice for convenience.
3. Preheat the oven to 400F. Pour the sweet potato chunks into a bowl & stir in 3 tablespoons of olive oil, plus salt & pepper. Spread on a rimed baking sheet & roast for 30 minutes.
4. Flip the chunks over & roast for another 20 minutes. This part is a pain because you have to carefully flip each chunk so that they get evenly browned. Keep an eye on them so you don't burn them.
5. Pour the chunks back in a bowl & stir in 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the parsley, and the honey.

I didn't have any parsley, but mine still came out great. I did burn mine a little, so adjust the cooking time for your oven as needed. This recipe is nice because you can vac-seal the chunks, sous-vide them, and then freeze them for future use, so all you have to do is throw them in the oven, no peeling or boiling needed!

 

[Kaido]

Interesting sous-vide butternut squash recipe here: (no roasting!)

https://accidentalgastronomist.com/2016/01/13/best-ever-sous-vide-butternut-squash/

 

[slag]

Some brisket photos, prep and 12 hours in. Don't mind the mess, we are cleaning. Just used salt and pepper to flavor. I'll turn them over this afternoon when I get home and keep them immersed with a clothespin. Saran wrap is just there to keep the moisture in the stock pot. I put them in at 6 pm last night and will pull them out 6 am tomorrow morning and wrap them and put them in the cooler to retain heat. Turkey will go on the smoker before my oldest son and I go do the turkey trot 5k, then come home, finish the turkey, and toss this on the smoker right before we eat for an hour or so.

I raised the temp up to 155 after taking these photos. They were at 150 for 12 hours because I forgot to change it from the chicken temp.

 

[SaltyNuts]

How does this thing work? You stick it in a pot with water and some meat and it boils it at the temperature you set? How does it get its power? Thanks.

 

[PJFrylar]

How does this thing work? You stick it in a pot with water and some meat and it boils it at the temperature you set? How does it get its power? Thanks.

You plug it into an AC outlet. It has pumps and heating elements to circulate the water and regulate it at the set temperature. The result is the meat, or other food, is heated uniformly at the set temperature.

 

[Kaido]

How does this thing work? You stick it in a pot with water and some meat and it boils it at the temperature you set? How does it get its power? Thanks.

Like PJFrylar said, it's powered by a wall outlet. It's basically a combination of a heater with a fan to circulate the water to make sure the heat stays even. It has a temperature probe & you can control the temperature to something like 142.6F if you want. The concept is that you vacuum-seal your food (meat, veggies, fruit, chocolate, etc.) & it cooks it at a very specific temperature for however long you'd like. The result is that you can turn a basic steak into something super-soft, and then sear it in a pan so you get a nice crust with a fully-cooked pink interior that is as soft as a marshmallow. Chicken breasts come out crazy moist. You can use it for veggies, like I just did to make my sweet potatoes super sweet. Works great for melting chocolate if you're into candy-making or baking. You can either use a vacuum-sealer like a Foodsaver, or use the ziploc bag trick where you use the water pressure to force the air out as you push the food-filled plastic bag down into the water & then seal it at the very end when the rest of the air gets pushed out.

The basic idea is that it lets you do precision cooking. Once you nail down a specific recipe, it comes out the same every single time (assuming say the cuts of meat are of similar thicknesses & so on). You don't lose any flavor or moisture from the heat because everything is locked in the bag, so you end up with really tender & moist steak, burgers, salmon, pork chops, chicken breast, etc. Combined with things like liquid smoke, pan-searing, broiling, etc. for getting a nice crust, you can get phenomenal results at home without a lot of effort. I like mine so much that I just bought a huge deep-freezer & have been vacuum-bagging both raw meat & meat with rubs & stuff on them so I can simply throw them in my Anova bucket and have it auto-cook. I definitely cook at home a lot more now & do more prep work because of the convenience.

It's not super cheap, but if you'd actually use it, then it's worth it. The Anova goes for around $150 ($130 - $180, depending on the model & sales going on), plus you need a heat-friendly bucket. I have this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R8JOUC

From there, either some ziplocs or a Foodsaver & vac-seal bags. I use a combination of both. If you like to experiment with food, it's a pretty fun tool. There's a lot of places we don't go out to eat anymore (like steak houses) because I can make it better & (far) cheaper at home. An $8 steak sous vide is like a $29 steak at any decent chain restaurant you'd go to. I also use mine for prepping food to go into recipes, especially chicken breast...slice into strips for salads, pizza toppings, soups, etc. It's a very convenient tool to use. It does require some planning as most stuff takes at least an hour or two to fully cook, and then for things like steak, you'll want to sear them at the end to get a crust on them, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.

 

[Kaido]

Read a funny article on Kenji's sous-vide smoked brisket:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-the-creator-of-the-sous-vide-smoked-brisket/

Basically a volley of who's being a snob about their food. This part cracks me up:

What Lopez-Alt doesn’t seem to see is that he has aligned himself with a tiny subset of home cooks who own sous-vide equipment. He wants people to be open to his approach even though sous-vide tools can be both costly and intimidating to the uninitiated. He seems to imply that everyone who’s not on board is a rube stuck in the Pleistocene era, relying on an unruly fire that most have no idea how to master. I mean, who’s being the snob?

So a sous vide setup costs maybe $200 for an Anova, a bucket, some tongs, ziplocs, etc. But then the article goes on to say this:

We both disagree as well on why so many traditionally smoked briskets stink. He chalks it up to poor cooking. I believe it’s often because smokehouses have to hold cooked meats for hours, which is difficult at best and nearly impossible for operations without Alto-Shaams or some other device necessary for the job. It’s the nature of the barbecue business that restaurants will have to hold meats or refrigerate them. It naturally affects the quality of the product.

Alto-Shaam commercial smokers start at like $5,000...and even home smokers can cost several hundred dollars & require a big time investment to tend to them if you're using wood or coal for smoking. Yeah, technically a sous-vide brisket with liquid smoke & a sear isn't technically smoked BBQ, but if it tastes good, who cares? Not having to babysit it in the sous vide machine means more free time, too. I appreciate Kenji's approach to cooking because he's not afraid to pick apart decades-old traditions to see if there are better, different, or alternative ways of doing things that give equally good results.

 

[smackababy]

Anyone using their Anova for Thanksgiving?

 

[Kaido]

Anyone using their Anova for Thanksgiving?

I'm smoking my turkey in my Traeger pellet grill, but I'm doing a few things in the Anova like the sweet potatoes above.