"Sous Vide"...?

Anyone have any experience with it?  I'm a little uncomfortable cooking in plastic bags...

I have a friend that is a foody and swears by it. He got tired of paying the price for Boar's Head sliced meats and makes his own now.

Use my sous vide sets multiple times a week for the past 5 years or so.

What's your concern?

I also sous vide regularly, and buy food-grade bags specifically designed for cooking because of concerns about cooking in plastic.

Margie

I jumped in a couple of Christmas's ago.  While I loved it at first it just didn't last for the long term.  To explain more we're meat eaters and it just didn't turn out as good as a nice charcoal grill or a cast iron pan.

In reply to Stampie :

You were finishing it on cast iron or charcoal right?

Chicken has been weird, but pork, beef, duck, all come out better for me. Season and everything the same, but 4+ hour cooks at temp really make a difference to me. 

When I was canoe camping in the 80s, it was called "boil in a bag" 

Haven't tried it. I think I'd miss the Maillard reaction.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

You get your maillard on at the end. Perfectly cooked inside, seared yumminess outside,

As a fan of Babish and his antics, I understand the appeal but that's way too much single use plastic for my taste. That and we're all gone during the day so the timing doesn't work out for sous vide or slow cookers.

I live for sous vide steaks. Perfect temp every. Single. Time. Can cook from frozen to perfection. I even did a pot roast the other day and it was amazing. 

RevRico said:

In reply to Stampie :

You were finishing it on cast iron or charcoal right?

Chicken has been weird, but pork, beef, duck, all come out better for me. Season and everything the same, but 4+ hour cooks at temp really make a difference to me. 

Yes but the texture just wasn't right.

jgrewe said:

I have a friend that is a foody.....

My son and I discuss this term and are convinced we all are.  

In reply to stroker :

For quality bags like ziploc, the temps it gets to are nowhere near any of the breakdown temps of plastic.  You can get reusable silicone bags if you want, though.  Glass jars and such are also a possibility. 

I like it.

It's like upgrading from carbs and points to  programmable fuel injection with spark control. 

Love mine. Haven't over/under cooked anything in years now.

CrustyRedXpress said:

It's like upgrading from carbs and points to  programmable fuel injection with spark control. 

Love mine. Haven't over/under cooked anything in years now.

 

Couldn't have said it better.  Give you the ultimate control.  Coming up on 19 years of marriage and for whatever reason sunday night is london broil night for 18 years now.   about 8 years ago I got a sous vide setup and we've never had an overcooked broil since.  Its the best way to get perfectly temperature controlled cooking.

Lately I've been seeing fancier ovens offering "air sous vide". Still vacuum seal and everything, but the convection controller is supposed to be able to hold the temp. 

Although if the oven can handle the temp I see no need to bag it really, a Dutch oven or covered pan should do just fine. 

I'm a big fan.  Turns average meat - costco strips steaks for instance - into something pretty good.  After the extended water bath I throw them in a really hot cast iron pan to sear.  Done perfectly without the gray well done layer you get from grilling.  The consensus seems to be that good quality freezer bags don't leave plasticizers behind, but there are bag systems specifically for sous vide.

Marjorie Suddard said:

I also sous vide regularly, and buy food-grade bags specifically designed for cooking because of concerns about cooking in plastic.

Margie

Someone else mentioned silicone bags, but are the ones you're referring to something else, or food grade plastic?

I'm partly concerned about health, and partly concerned about the amount of waste. We just started paying for a commercial recycling service for some stuff our metro doesn't do, and the amount of plastic film we accumulate every couple of weeks just from groceries is astonishing.

On the other hand, we'd have to sous vide a lot to meaningfully increase that...

Many Restaurants do it and I know that Panera does the Sous Vide  their chicken. For chicken I think it is great, as it keeps it moist, I have done steaks and Pork, typically I grill or throw it in a pan to brown it. I used vacuum sealed bags that allow for cooking.

Mine are food grade vacuum bags (work with a little hand pump because I hate bulky single-purpose gadgets), and sturdy enough that I wash and reuse them a couple times. Yeah, I'm sure the experts would warn that's probably got a small chance of killing me, but something has to.

Speaking of experts, I did happen to catch an Alton Brown episode on sous vide seafood last night, and he said name-brand freezer bags contain no BPA or other concerning stuff and are perfectly safe to use. 

Oh, and as one other user mentioned, sous vide makes the best deli meat. I season chicken breasts and give 'em a whirl, no searing after. Slices up thin and yummy and moist.

Margie

Mndsm said:

I live for sous vide steaks. Perfect temp every. Single. Time. Can cook from frozen to perfection. I even did a pot roast the other day and it was amazing. 

Try some good brats or sausages. 145 for pork based, at least 2 hours. And make sure you have something scorchy to finish them on. Natural casings in particular get a good crunchy bite to them, but the seasonings and flavors shine through like no other way of cooking.

Datsun310Guy said:

jgrewe said:

I have a friend that is a foody.....

My son and I discuss this term and are convinced we all are.  

It's funny how we have to make up new words to describe old things. Gourmet is what people used to use, now they say Foodie. Of course, most people that consider themselves gourmets are actually gourmands.

Also, you guys are making me hungry. Now I want to try sous vide.

I'm kind of surprised (given all the positive reviews above) nobody mentioned this in the "Favorite Kitchen Appliance" thread a month or to back...  

I may have to invest in one of these.

In reply to stroker :

I could have swore several of us had. There's usually a thread about it once or twice a year. 

I've got two different kinds of sous vide sticks, plus my instant pot has a sous vide mode. I think I like the sticks better, they at least preheat better when filled with hot water. 

Error404 said:

As a fan of Babish and his antics, I understand the appeal but that's way too much single use plastic for my taste. That and we're all gone during the day so the timing doesn't work out for sous vide or slow cookers.

Ok I'm confused here. Slow cookers especially but also sous vide are great for people that aren't home all day, because you don't have to sit around and wait, they just cook in the background.